BBN showed up at College Station today !

[runt#69]

Just wanted to give a big shout out to all those that made the trip to the game today and start a thread of its' own to recognize the great crowd support from BBN. Sorry if this had a thread of it's own already and got buried.

Very awesome to hear Go Big Blue chants, as well as the "Blue - White" cheers that I *thought* I heard as well.

Stand up and post if you were at the game, you all deserve a big thank you ! Nobody brings so many fans on the road anywhere. It was the best thing in watching all the college basketball games on TV today, to hear you all and see so many of us down there supporting our Cats' !

Go Big Blue !

 

[fla.cat]

As is frequently the case, the announcers noted that the place had a substantially blue crowd in attendance....this was after one of the chants from BBN.

 

[jackcarlson]

and the weather was awful

 

[Samwise Ganjee]

Agree one thousand percent with runt

It was great to hear "Blue! White!" and "Go Big Blue" on my big screen sound system

Drive safely, travel safely on your way home guys and gals

 

[dezyDeco]

Wonder what % of the crowd = Cat fans? Definitely sounded like a lot when the GBB Chant came through the TV speakers loud and clear.

 

[FFWhite]

Big Blue Mist has set in

 

[fitchslapped]

I was there with my 8 year old daughter, her first UK game. Sat in the lower level behind UK's bench. Most of our immediate 3 rows were blue. And it was great to hear the BBN chanting. Surprised some Aggies.

I'd guess that almost 25% of the crowd was blue. The students are still out on break. I think the Aggies have caught on quickly about the BBN. Look at Stub Hub and most of the tickes on their home schedule start at $7. Today's game tickets on Stub Hub started at $70 plus. I'm guessing the place was at least 95% capacity. Doubt they do that very often this year but maybe after today I'm wrong. My only other game at ATM was to watch them beat Bobby Knight when he was at Texas Tech.

Driving in, I saw a lot of vehicles with Texas license plates sporting UK flags and decals. Did see several with Kentucky plates. Like myself, most of the UK fans I talked with were from Texas, a few from Louisiana.

I've been to SEC tournament games, NCAA tournament games, and games at Ole Miss, Miss St, LSU, and Vandy. The home crowd at ATM was BY FAR the most respectful and polite group of opposing fans I've ever met. I would never have taken my daughter to Starkville or Oxford by myself.

Great day and 25% more game time for the money. We're going back.

 

[nerdcat]

I was in the second level. I think 25% may be pretty conservative. Seemed like at least 35%. I may have had my blue tinted glasses on though. TAMU fans were very friendly.

 

[dezyDeco]

fitchslap and nerdcat---

Cool... thanks for the report.

I'm sure the Cats were happy to have so much support there.

Get a bourbon hot toddy for that hoarse throat!

 

[runt#69]

good to hear the TAMU fans were nice as well !

 

[Ugoff]

It looked and sounded like a neutral game on TV. Great turnout.

 

[howitis]

I was in the upper section, my section and the one next to it were 90% blue. I lost my voice from yelling and scared my son who was at his first UK game with my antics. Lower sections were 20% UK upper was 60% I'm confident of this.

 

[ok-cats-computer]

Major props to all the Cat fans that attended the game. The chants of Go Big Blue sounded great on TV.

 

[sluggercatfan]

Originally posted by fitchslapped:
I was there with my 8 year old daughter, her first UK game. Sat in the lower level behind UK's bench. Most of our immediate 3 rows were blue. And it was great to hear the BBN chanting. Surprised some Aggies.

I'd guess that almost 25% of the crowd was blue. The students are still out on break. I think the Aggies have caught on quickly about the BBN. Look at Stub Hub and most of the tickes on their home schedule start at $7. Today's game tickets on Stub Hub started at $70 plus. I'm guessing the place was at least 95% capacity. Doubt they do that very often this year but maybe after today I'm wrong. My only other game at ATM was to watch them beat Bobby Knight when he was at Texas Tech.

Driving in, I saw a lot of vehicles with Texas license plates sporting UK flags and decals. Did see several with Kentucky plates. Like myself, most of the UK fans I talked with were from Texas, a few from Louisiana.

I've been to SEC tournament games, NCAA tournament games, and games at Ole Miss, Miss St, LSU, and Vandy. The home crowd at ATM was BY FAR the most respectful and polite group of opposing fans I've ever met. I would never have taken my daughter to Starkville or Oxford by myself.

Great day and 25% more game time for the money. We're going back.

Just more concrete evidence that almost all other sec schools except KENTUCKY could give a care less about basketball...About half of the deep south schools care more about baseball than the big round ball...
This post was edited on 1/11 12:34 AM by sluggercatfan

 

[slford00]

We moved to Houston from Lexington this past summer. We were at the game with a group of 8 (me, my wife, our 5 and 3 year old kids, and 4 Houstonian friends that we converted to BBN for the day).

We arrived an hour before tipoff and it was ALL fans of UK at first (>70%), probably because most of us were either traveling from afar, or are used to Rupp Arena where arriving 15 mins before tipoff won't cut it. Seriously, it felt incredibly weird driving right up to the arena, paying $5 to park in a mostly-empty lot, and only having to walk about 30 yards to the entrance.

I agree that by tipoff the crowd was between 1/4 - 1/3 UK. You could tell most of the aTm fans were stunned and bewildered by the UK presence; since they're new to the SEC they didn't yet know how well we travel. To quote the fan behind me at the gate: "I've never seen this much blue in my entire life."

I also agree that the fans were very friendly and hospitable. Will likely return next time UK comes to College Station.

 

[Firewalker_]

We arrived at 10:15 and had planned on going inside and eating lunch before the game. Got to the doors and they were locked. Didn't open up until 11 am. We had to stand out there for 45 minutes. Probably 75-80 people standing waiting and at least 90% were UK fans. Never experienced the doors being locked until an hour before the game before.
Went inside to eat and got a hamburger but no place to sit so we had to go to our seats to eat. That all was kinda bush league BUT......we were in our seats in the upper level and I have to agree 60 to 75% in the upper level were UK fans. Right as the game started the announcer announced that anyone in the upper level were welcome to move down to the lower level. Never experienced that before either. We spotted 4 seats just to the right of the UK bench above the tunnel, around 7-8 rows from the floor and moved down there. All those around us were A&M fans and like someone else stated they were all very nice and we bantered back and forth throughout the game.
One man said to me how jealous he was that his team didn't travel like that and hoped someday that they would. I would think that at least 25% UK fans were in the lower level as well. It was a great atmosphere to watch the game and while it wasn't 50-50 overall it got pretty close. When we flew home the next day there were 3 others on the plane wearing UK, but many of those there were UK fans living in Texas and taking advantage of seeing their Cats play.

 

[kycat1996]

I was there with my husband and our 7 year old daughter, for her very first UK game. We had to wait at the locked doors, too, like the above poster. I couldn't believe they didn't open the doors until an hour before the game.

The arena is very nice and the parking was great. I loved the chants from BBN throughout the game. The game itself was not a "fun" experience, but it was nice to have so many Kentucky fans around to share it.

 

[ZZBlueComet]

We have the best fan base period. All fan bases, in all sports, have unreasonable fans and fans that are passionate - we just have so many more (especially in basketball, where it isn't close with anyone).

No one travels like we do, no one follows it 24-7 / 365 like us, maybe Bama football.

 

[KMKAT]

Great story Firewalker...always good to be able to be able to move down. A good reason to plan a future visit.

I hope the same thing happens in Columbia on the 24th when we take on the Frank Martins.

While I heard all the BBN, I never once heard the Aggies booing back. I just wish our boys hadn't made this one so difficult to pull out.

 

[Firewalker_]

I guess we just haven't played them long enough for them to hate us yet. They were just thrilled that the #1 team in the nation was coming to play lol.

 

[UKGrad93]

I know someone that attended A&M back in the 1970s. He is always talking about how the A&M fans are respectful. That they have male yell leaders that lead the crowd, that A&M gives a cheer for the opponent. Even though he attended there long ago, it is a source of pride that they have are respectful.

 

[Firewalker_]

And they still use 2 male cheerleaders to keep the crowd into it. Every time we would get Go Big Blue started, the two male cheerleaders in front of the student section and band got their fans going and slowly drowned us out. But they were the best and friendliest fans I have encountered.

 

[fitchslapped]

At the end of regulation, my daughter had to stretch and burn some nervous energy so we moved to the aisle and stood at the top of the steps. There were a couple of older A&M fans standing up there discussing the game.

One of them started asking my daughter questions and how she liked the game, where we were from, etc. She of course had on her UK tshirt. Both men were grandfather types to her and very nice.

The man doing most of the talking introduced himself and turns out we were talking to Gary Blair, the A&M women's coach. I asked him to show my daughter his championship ring from 2011 and she was really impressed. He disappeared for a minute and then came back with a poster of the women's team and schedule for her.

They were talking about how well the Aggies were playing and the other man said "We haven't played like this since Gillespie was coach." I said, "We haven't either." He stared at me for a second, and then cracked up.

After the game, they shook hands with us and complimented the Cats. That's pure class.