Texas A

For many years, Texas A&M Aggies basketball tickets have been nothing more than an afterthought in College Station. Texas A&M was always a football school, and little else mattered much at all. However, the culture in the area is beginning to turn, and the Aggies are providing fans plenty of reasons to go to games against their Big 12 rivals. As hard as it is to believe, local fans are realistically dreaming of a run to the Final Four, and below we'll look at a few reasons why that's the case.

Coaching

Simply put, Billy Gillispie is a coaching star. He was hired to run the program at Texas A&M in 2004, and the team hadn't had a winning season since 1994 before he arrived. To make matters worse, the Aggies were coming off a dismal season in which they posted a record of 7-21 under previous coach Melvin Watkins.

Gillespie immediately restored respect to the program, winning 21 games in his first season and advancing to the quarterfinals of the NIT, which was the first postseason appearance by the Aggies in more than a decade. Gillispie also drummed up interest in Texas A&M Aggies basketball tickets by refusing to make the excuses that had long existed under previous regimes, namely that Texas A&M was a "football school," that they "didn't have the support from the administration" and many other issues that he quickly dismissed.

Talent

Gillispie isn't just a leader and a tremendous game coach, but he can recruit as well. He was one of the first coaches in Aggie Land to aggressively pursue top-flight recruits, and that pursuit paid off several times. He added talented current players such as Joseph Jones, Josh Carter and Donald Sloan, and each of these players turned down "bigger" programs to come and play in College Station.

Gillispie is building a pipeline for recruiting in Texas and beyond, and that's making the folks in Austin and Lubbock very nervous indeed. The more Texas A&M wins, the more credibility Gillispie and his program gain, and the snowball effect will take over from there.

What it all Means

This season is not a one-year wonder. The Aggies have posted three consecutive 20-win seasons, and they're currently ranked in the Top Ten in both major college basketball polls. Their recruiting for next year looks very promising, and their young team is still getting better. What this all means is that folks better get their Texas A&M Aggies basketball tickets now, as they'll become even harder to find in the very near future.