In getting excited for this game, I was thinking this should be the best home court atmosphere since Iowa, Maryland (which I attended) or MSU in 2019-20, but I think it takes time to create atmosphere again by getting the fans to buy in. Those games got loud in big moments, but they lacked buzz at times … that nervous quietness of fans afraid we’d blow it. Same problem with other huge crowds like upsetting #1 IU in 2013.
Looking back at the last several years, I tried to find times that (1) we had a sold out crowd, (2) we had a nationally ranked opponent in town and (3) we genuinely had the chance to score a HUGE win for the program’s reputation and our fans actually had hope we could do it. Using that criteria, this might honestly be the biggest home game since Wake Forest in 2005. Yeah, I said it.