There have only been three games so far, and the first two were only pre-season games, so they didn't technically count. BUT, we did win them though! The next one though...was the BYU (or, as USU students like to say...YBU), and it was the first real game of the season!
The USU vs. BYU game was BY FAR the MOST anticipated game of the season! The game was on Friday, 11/11/11. Here's the low down on how things went:
Starting on Wednesday, students began camping out by the Spectrum (the facility where the game is held on campus) for the game. By camping out, I literally mean full on camping out, like with tents and everything. The athletics department anticipated this (the Aggies love their basketball!) and had a plan. So, anyone who camped out, got a wrist band. A blue one. They had to have their camp site registered, and someone from their group had to be there at ALL times to essentially save their spot in line for the game. There were random tent checks 3 or 4 times a day to make sure that someone was always there from the group (that way, it allows for people from the group to go to classes and stuff, but they still have to be there to save their spot in line most of the time, it's just that atleast one person has to be there). Anyway. The blue wrist bands, and registering camp sites were being done up until the night before the game.
I did not take part in that. I guess I'm not a full-flegged Aggie fan if I did do it. Or maybe I just have my priorites set straight and I don't have time to waste camping out for two days for a basketball game. Either way, I didn't do it.
So, there are 4,000 student seats in the Spectrum (all student seats are free, it comes with tuition). They anticipated about 600 people to camp out. Well, as of Thursday morning, 1,200 students had camped out. Crazy, eh?! So, I'm imagining that there were about 2,000 that ended up camping by Thursday evening. Don't quote me on that though. So that means that for Friday line up, there were only 2,000 seats left, and more than 20,000 students left who probably still wanted seats to the game.
I had to be one of those students to get a seat. No questions asked.
From what I had heard, the plan from the athletic dept. was that the remaining students would get in just based on a normal line up. So I had to get in line the next morning. I arranged with my friends from the ward that were going to go with me to get in line with me the next morning that we would meet at 7am and walk over to the Spectrum and wait in line.
So. We did it. We got up bright and early. Just for this game. Thousands of students camping out. And now in line. And it's below freezing outside. See what we do for our basketball team!?
We got there and they were handing out some wrist bands. I was so confused. They were green. The athletics dept said that they came up with a new system the night before and that it would basically prevent people from mobbing into the Spectrum when the doors open (thank goodness!!!). So, anyone who got a green wristband was guaranteed in the Spectrum for the game, and anyone without a wristband wasn't allowed in. Genius! We called all our friends who weren't there with us for the morning shift to wait in line to come get a wrist band, and they came and got one, and then we continued our waiting in line (we still had to wait in line so that we could get good seats!)
So then, it was FREEZING cold. We had our wrist bands, and I couldn't have been happier! I was wearing soooo many layers (multiple thermals, my game day shirt, my big winter coat, gloves, ear muffs, and all the typical winter stuff really, and I was still freezing!) but we continued to wait in line. I'm just glad we didn't camp out. So here are some pics of our early morning wait:
The early morning waiters. For a while we just took pics to keep us entertained :) Ashley, Stephanie, Rachel :), me
Our cold pic
My hobo breakfast of pears in a can. And my ghetto bike in the back behind the fence.
They gave out free Chick-fil-a! We were mostly just sooo happy because it was WARM! me and Ashley
My beloved wristband and my layers
I waited in line until 10:30 and then I had to go to class. Then I had class/work etc. until 3:30, so other people from my group took turns waiting in line.
I got back in line with my group around 3:45 once I had gotten back home and grabbed some food everything that I would need for the evening for the game.
Everyone with green wrist bands had to be in line by 4:30. At 4:30 there was no getting in or out of the line. The doors opened at 5:30. Here are some pics from waiting in line in the afternoon:
Most of the group waiting outside in line
Me and Ashley. We're so anxious for the game to begin!!
At 5:30, the doors to the Spectrum opened. First, for those with blue wrist bands. Then, for those with green wrist bands. Since my group was really really close to the beginning of the green wrist band line, it seriously was as if we were at the back of the blue wrist band line essentially. It was great! We got AWESOME seats!! We sat right behind the pep band, on the curved part of the stadium. Great location. I was so happy! Not only did we get in, we go great seats. And not only did we get great seats, we didn't have to camp out for them!
We had to wait for a while for the game to start (it started at 7), but the crowd was so much fun since we were all there so early, and we couldn't leave our seats or else they would take it away and claim it as "seat saving" (which wasn't allowed). So the crowd was really fun and we did lots of cheers for the team even as they were warming up even. There were two students in the USU student section that wore BYU shits, so we did "go home" cheers to them and stuff like that. The time went by super fast.
Then. The game started.
It was EPIC.
SO
WORTH
THE
WAIT
We were neck in neck the whole first half and the first part of the second half. Then, the last 12 min or so of the second half, we finally started stepping up our game, and BYU started fouling like crazy.
Oh, and the refs were absolutely ridiculous. They were not calling one single thing against BYU, and we were getting every single thing called on us. It was nuts. But, we still stepped it up.
Being in the crowed was AMAZING. Being an Aggie is the best thing ever! And every single student in the Spectrum you know actually wanted to be there, which was awesome. All the players on the team were totally taking it all in and loving all the cheers. It was great.
It got down to the last bit of the game, and we knew we were going to WIN.
Doing the "winning team losing team" cheer never felt so good in my entire life!!!
I was so happy!!! I love USU basketball so much :)
The morning group again, now inside at the game! (plus Brian in the background)
These are our yelling faces (Stephanie, me). We basically lost our voices by the end of the game!!
WE WON! WE WON!! WE WON!!!
