I don't necessarily think we need a smaller venue, although if we were building a new one from scratch I'd probably make it around 10-11K seats. But the main problems with Reed aren't it's actual size.

I think people worry about empty seats too much. 4,000 people is going to be 4,000 people whether the arena holds 10,000 or 30,000. Who cares? But you make a lot more money with 13,000 when it does actually fill up versus 10,000.

"let the mid-pack teams battle for the auto bid during that week between Christmas and New Year's"

This seems like a good idea for interest on the sport but a bad one for March madness. Assuming people want teams that are hot as close as possible to the tournament as possible to make the tournament. The timing would also create weird incentives for teams that auto qualify two months before the season end.

Interesting idea to increase interest though.

Eh, I mean how many teams that weren't going to get a bid really win these things anyway? Like maybe one every couple of years? I don't know if it changes the interest much if they win it in December versus winning it in March, and you'd still need to be "hot" at the end of the year because instead of a conference tournament you're still going to be playing regular season games late in the year.

Again though this would only be for the big multi-bid-every-year leagues. You still want to keep the magic of the one-bid leagues intact at the end of the year, but it seems every year that the larger conference tournaments matter less and less.

bobinator said:

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Again though this would only be for the big multi-bid-every-year leagues. You still want to keep the magic of the one-bid leagues intact at the end of the year, but it seems every year that the larger conference tournaments matter less and less.

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With clarification on one bid leagues I'm on board. Let's start a petition.

t - cam said:

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GrayMatter said:

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t - cam said:

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GrayMatter said:

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AggieCrew44 said:

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I think we needed that adversity before going to Vegas. We absolutely had to perform that half and we did

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Against Oregon or Creighton a la Iowa St last year definitely. At home against Southern, inexcusable and shouldn't of happened. They better feel lucky that Southern couldn't make a shot to save their life.

Not making free throws is a head scratching wtf for me.

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To be fair, them missing shots was not lucky. They could not get good looks for their best players.

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They were making them in the first half.

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Yeah, and they were wide open. This team clearly got ripped at halftime and the open looks disappeared.

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Yes. But they also made some tough shots too. If they had stopped the bleeding in the 2nd half by making one or more shots, the end might have been different but to your point we clearly made a better effort to play D in the 2nd half. My point is that we shouldn't have allowed them to punch us in the mouth for the first half and we were lucky that they went on a drought in the 2nd.

bobinator said:

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I think people worry about empty seats too much. 4,000 people is going to be 4,000 people whether the arena holds 10,000 or 30,000. Who cares? But you make a lot more money with 13,000 when it does actually fill up versus 10,000.

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You could make the argument that there's only a handful of times where we've achieved 13,000 but only because we've had consistent [of at least] 2nd round NCAAT appearances.

Winning does fill the arena but not consistently throughout the season especially during the winter break or if our football is doing well.

It is true that we fill seats when we win, but we traditionally don't see a lot of people in the stands against lower level D1 competition. No one wants to drive to see us play those teams on a Wednesday night.

I'm not arguing with you though (it's just my opinion); we have had this same discussion ad nauseum since the resurrection of A&M basketball circa BCG.

Complete Idiot said:

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I was just thinking about that first half again. What an abomination.

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Reminded me of that 10 point half we had vs OU under Turgeon except that was a competent team.

Our offense is what it is right now but that defense was up there with some of our all time bad performances.

Method Man said:

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Complete Idiot said:

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I was just thinking about that first half again. What an abomination.

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Reminded me of that 10 point half we had vs OU under Turgeon except that was a competent team.

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That was the worst half of basketball I ever saw the Aggies play and I was here for the Watkins era.

t - cam said:

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That was the worst half of basketball I ever saw the Aggies play and I was here for the Watkins era.

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Still the NCAA record for scoring drought. 16 minutes and 8 seconds without A. SINGLE. POINT.

bobinator said:

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t - cam said:

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That was the worst half of basketball I ever saw the Aggies play and I was here for the Watkins era.

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Still the NCAA record for scoring drought. 16 minutes and 8 seconds without A. SINGLE. POINT.

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I had to Google this. Didn't find the record book, but I did stumble across this article:
https://utahstateaggies.com/news/2006/2/17/Men_s_Basketball_Sets_New_NCAA_Record.aspx

Quote:

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Overall, Utah State held Idaho scoreless for 13:53, which is the third-longest scoring drought in NCAA history. According to the NCAA, the longest scoring drought in college basketball history was on Feb. 25, 1979 when Duke held North Carolina scoreless for 20:48, and the second-longest drought was on Dec. 29, 1984 when Massachusetts held Columbus State scoreless for 15:33. USU also held Idaho without a field-goal for 16:01, which is the second-longest stretch in NCAA history behind the Duke-North Carolina game of 1979.

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Yeah that's from 2006 before we set the record. They have separate records for before and after the introduction of the shot clock in 1986.

Here's the NCAA record book.

Consecutive Games Making a Triple-Double Season 2Kevin Roberson, Vermont, Jan. 7-9, 1992; Shaquille O'Neal, LSU, Feb. 19-22, 1992; Anfernee Hardaway, Memphis, Jan. 4-6, 1993; Gerald Lewis, SMU, Mar. 3-6, 1993; David Edwards, Texas A&M, Mar. 5-10, 1994; Tony Lee, Robert Morris, Feb. 9-14, 2008

Deficit Overcome With Less Than one Minute on the Clock to win Game 12Texas A&M (92) vs. UNI (88) (2OT), Mar. 20, 2016 (trailed 57-69 with 34 seconds left in the second half)

Points in one Overtime Period, Both Teams 45VCU (23) vs. Texas A&M (22), Dec. 2, 2000

Margin of Victory
74 Texas A&M (101) vs. Grambling (27)

Fewest Points Scored in a Game Since 1986
27 Grambling vs. Texas A&M (101) Dec. 28, 2006

Blocked Shots
17 New Orleans vs. Texas A&M Dec. 29, 1992

MOST-IMPROVED TEAMS
Season Team W-L Record Previous Yr. W-L Ga
2005 Texas A&M 21-10 7-21 121/2

I always think about the fact that in the 101-27 Grambling game, we actually started the game on a 28-0 run, ie more points than they scored in the rest of the game. Then I think of saying hey to Coach Gillispie at Fox and Hound after the game...unfortunately, then I think of the 2006 Holiday Bowl.