PROJECT FULL HOUSE Reed Arena event to tip off campaign to attract local fans By Rusty Burson

It’s probably much too soon be labeled as the "breakfast of champions." But following the lead of nutritionists who claim that a great day needs to start with a great breakfast, Texas A&M will hold a basketball breakfast on Oct. 26 to hopefully tip off a great season for the Aggies.

The breakfast is a focal part of "Project Full House," a community-oriented marketing and awareness campaign to help generate support for the Aggie basketball program.

"We’re targeting fans within 60 miles of campus to help fill up Reed Arena this year," said Kevin Hurley, assistant athletic director for Texas A&M basketball. "The Project Full House committee includes a variety of people in the community who are helping us turn basketball into more than just a game. We want it to be an event, like football and baseball games on this campus.

"We’ve sent out something like 4,400 invitations to this breakfast to hopefully really rally some support and generate season-ticket sales. The breakfast is free; there’s all sorts of trinkets we’re going to give those who attend; and we’ll have the team there for everyone to meet. We’ll also have a video, we’ve got coaches who are going to speak, things like that. But the bottom line is that we want people to get excited about this season and purchase season tickets."

It’s been a while since much excitement has been generated for Texas A&M basketball. The Aggies, who have endured 11 losing seasons in the last 12 years, ranked at the bottom of the Big 12 in average attendance last year at 4,119 per game. The average conference-wide last year was 9,177 per game.

A&M men's basketball coach Melvin Watkins will welcome back his most talented and deep team to date.

But there is certainly a great deal of hope this year that the Aggies can turn thing around – both in terms of the win-loss record and the attendance numbers. For perhaps the first since joining the Big 12, the Aggies appear to have the talent to make a run at the upper half of the league standings.

A&M has star potential in guard Bernard King and forwards Nick Anderson and Jesse King. The Aggies have versatile size with Andy Slocum, Nolan Butterfras, Tomas Ress and Keith Bean. And they may finally have the court general they covet in junior college transfer Michael Gardener.

Now, if they can stay healthy, the Aggies may be one of the real surprises in the league.

"It’s been a process," said head coach Melvin Watkins, who has endured 55 losses in his first three years at A&M. "This process, while we want it to speed up, it takes time. But we hope now to reap some of the benefits of the suffering we’ve gone through.

"Quite honestly, I was thinking last year would be a little bit more of our breakthrough year. Had we not had some of the injuries and some of the other setbacks, I thought we could’ve had a little bit more of a breakout year. But now we’re looking for this to be the season."

The fans could certainly play an important role in that turnaround, Hurley says

"We’ve got to support men’s basketball for this program to get to the next level," Hurley said. "Coach Watkins has said that the kids are going to play their heart out for you. But you have to understand human nature. Our kids probably aren’t going to be at their best if we come out to 2,700 fans. That’s disheartening. So, this is a call to arms. For Bryan-College Station to have a successful college basketball program, we need the community support.

"We were at approximately 1,700 season tickets last year, and if we get to 2,000 season tickets this year, I’d be fired up. We need to start building support, and we feel like this is the year to do it."

The breakfast on Oct. 26 is free to anyone who is interested in supporting the basketball program. One of the featured items during the breakfast will be a highlight video that includes an introduction by none other than Julius Erving.

For more information on the breakfast, contact Hurley at 979-862-2575. For season ticket information, contact the 12th Man Foundation at 979-846-8892.