 "Photo: Jon Eilts")
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair is to the No. 12 Aggie women's basketball team what Babe Ruth was to Major League Baseball in 1927.
Before Ruth's historic season, attendance and the perception of the national sport was waning in response to the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal. Ruth single-handedly revived the sport when he hit 60 home runs in a season, a record that stood for 34 years.
Though Blair was not dealing with scandals and poor national perception when he joined A&M in 2003, he has boosted the attendance of a sport hurting for fans.
When Blair arrived, the Aggies averaged at the bottom of the Big 12 in attendance, struggling to get more than 1,600 fans per game. The teams were worse, failing to earn a winning record since the 1995-1996 season.
Blair posted a 9-19 record in his first season, going 2-14 in conference play. Attendance, however, was boosted by 1,000 fans per game from the previous season's average of 1,403.
In his second season Blair went 16-15, posting the Aggies' first winning record in nine years, and reached the WNIT Quarterfinals. The success improved attendance by more than 700 fans per game.
From 2005 to 2008, Blair made three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, earning a 77-24 overall record during the span, and won the Big 12 title in 2007 and 2008. The Aggies averaged almost 4,000 fans per game in Blair's previous three seasons.
In 2008-2009, the women's team has been ranked in the national Top 10, is 18-4 overall, 6-3 in conference, led the Big 12 in 3-point defense, steals and turnover margin and are averaging 4,916 fans per game.
But it's not enough.
The Aggies are ranked No. 6 in the Big 12 in attendance. Oklahoma and Baylor, which are averaging 8,511 and 6,328 fans per game respectively, are the only Big 12 teams with better attendance numbers that are also ranked higher than the Aggies in the Associated Press' Top 25.
The other four teams with better attendance, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Texas, are ranked below the Aggies in the Top 25. Tech is not ranked.
Meanwhile, the A&M men's basketball team averages 9,057 fans per game in the 13,000-seat Reed Arena. When the women play at Reed, the second deck is closed. There is no reason to keep it open when fans cannot fill the first deck.
Though Blair has boosted attendance, the women deserve more fans. Reed Arena lacks an intimidation factor when the lower half of the student section is sparingly filled.
Student athletes often say atmosphere was a factor in their decision to go to A&M, but the women's basketball team struggles to get that atmosphere.
The Aggies will take on Colorado at home on Saturday. Though the men's team will be playing at Baylor, a long-time rival, I encourage students to save their money and stick to the game in Aggieland.
The game will be the third-annual Beat the Hell Outta Breast Cancer game. If students do not go for the game, they should go for the cause. The Aggies are hoping to raise $35,000 for the Kay Yow Foundation in honor of the late North Carolina State head coach who passed away on Jan. 24 from the disease.
The meeting will also be the first of five remaining home games for four key seniors: Takia Starks, La Toya Micheaux, Danielle Gant and Kiley Finstad. Starks, Micheaux and Gant have been big factors in Blair's recent success while Finstad has worked her way to the top from being on the men's practice team during her junior season to a scholarship athlete in her senior year.
These women deserve all the support the student body can muster.
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