Aggie Success in The Pan Am
The university’s investment paid quick dividends, as the Aggies won their first ten games in the new building before falling to archrival New Mexico on January 29. The Aggies wouldn’t lose again on the Pan Am’s parquet floor until dropping the 1971-72 season opener to Angelo State, snapping an amazing 34-game home winning streak over the course of three seasons. During the Pan Am’s first three seasons NMSU compiled a gaudy 44-1 record within its friendly confines. The Aggies qualified for their third consecutive NCAA Tournament in the building’s inaugural year and hosted BYU in an opening round matchup at the Pan Am on March 8, 1969 – a 74-62 Aggie victory. The next year saw the most successful season in school history to date as the “Amazin’ Aggies” advanced to the NCAA Final Four before falling to eventual national champion UCLA in the national semifinal. Three days later the Aggies bounced back to defeat St. Bonaventure in the now-defunct Consolation game to finish the season third in the nation.
Although the phenomenal success enjoyed by the Aggies during the arena’s first few seasons would not continue, the Pan Am would continue to establish a reputation as an extremely difficult place to play. To date the Aggies have compiled four undefeated seasons at home, and only twice in 43 seasons has NMSU had a losing home record (1984–85 and 2004–05). NMSU's women's basketball team has also compiled a pair of undefeated home seasons in the building. The Pan Am has seen home winning streaks of more than 25 games on three separate occasions - twice by the men's basketball team (34 games from 1968–71 and 29 games from 1989–91) and once by the women's basketball team (38 games from 1986–88). Among the most memorable games in the Pan Am’s history are NMSU’s heartbreaking 91-89 overtime loss to Larry Bird’s #2-ranked Indiana State squad on February 2, 1979 (the then-undefeated Sycamores' closest call until losing to Michigan State in that year’s legendary national title game); a 72-64 win over New Mexico on December 15, 1990 that saw an all-time record 14,845 fans squeeze into the arena, a nationally televised 83-82 upset of #7-ranked eventual national champion UNLV on January 8, 1990, and the Aggies' thrilling 72-70 defeat of Utah State in the 2007 WAC Tournament Championship Game that clinched the Aggies' seventeenth NCAA Tournament appearance.
During the Aggies' run of success in the early 1990's the Pan Am became known as one of the toughest venues in the nation for visiting teams. The often-raucous crowds led Dick Vitale to nickname the building the "Pandemonium Center" and refer to the student section as the "Panamaniacs." Vitale named the building the Big West Conference's toughest venue in the 1998 and 1999 editions of Dick Vitale's College Basketball Preview.
Read more about this topic: Pan American Center
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