It’s been time.
What is this feeling? This Cougar men’s basketball season just keeps getting more and more special, and the hype and camaraderie in Coug Nation surrounding this team is so unique. The further along we get into the regular season, I feel more and more compelled to slow down, take a second, and truly appreciate what this team is giving us this season.
Given that I first became a Coug in 2019, I loyally attended the basketball games as a student and got rowdy with ZzuCru (as well as got yelled at to sit down by less enthused students under the argument of “this isn’t a football game”), but Cougar men’s basketball continued to come up a bit short each season. I’ve never felt these feelings about WSU MBB before, and I’d be lying if I said this season didn’t feel like a dream— I truly don’t know how to act. See Exhibit A, the collapse of Arizona causing me to also collapse (to my living room floor).
If you’ve had the opportunity to get to Pullman this season for a men’s basketball game, then you’ll agree that the energy that’s been in the air is crazy. Like, beginning of the football season energy. The bars are packed, everyone’s decked out in their crimson, “Back Home” is playing over the speakers, Fireball shots and Boone’s Passes are flowing. When I was sitting at the Coug a couple weekends ago before the Stanford game, I couldn’t stop thinking to myself “This is for basketball. In the best way possible, this is insane.”
For the first time in what absolutely feels like forever, the Coug community is buying back into men’s basketball. Seeing the electric energy, that’s usually seen buzzing during football season, carry into March is something that I only could have dreamed of during this time last year. Folks on Twitter counting down the days until game day and eagerly anticipating their trips back to Pullman to be in Beasley fills me with so much joy. I’m thrilled to see the student section be a little bit more filled up each game, and thrilled to see the sheer, chaotic excitement being evoked from big wins (hide your couches).
So, all of this to say, if for some crazy reason you haven’t bought into this Washington State Cougars Men’s Basketball team yet, do it. Do it now. Get to Pullman for the home stretch— Upper bowl tickets are pretty affordable, hotels don’t typically cost a fortune for basketball weekends, and getting into somewhere for dinner and celebratory drinks after the games isn’t a nightmare like it is on football weekends. Donate to the Cougar Collective’s Match Campaign to keep our guys in Pullman and bring more tournament-level talent to WSU. I want to see Beasley as a sea of crimson, so loud that the roof is practically blown off the place. Painted chests, trash talking signs and pom-pom’s in the student section, with every person standing because no, this isn’t a football game, it’s a men’s basketball game during a historic, record-breaking season. And hell, block out your schedule for March Madness. Because this season is happening RIGHT NOW, and our team needs Coug Nation. LFG.