By: Jared Shafran

Saturday afternoon, the men’s basketball team will be centerstage when it competes in the Boston Tip-Off Classic at the TD Garden.

This is the first time NU is playing basketball at the Garden since the 1972-73 season, when the Huskies faced Harvard in the now-defunct Basketball Beanpot Tournament.

The men’s hockey team will also play at the Garden later this year, when they’ll of course be in the annual Beanpot tournament on the first two Mondays in February.

Both of these events are great opportunities for fans to go watch their Huskies on a big stage away from Matthews Arena. I look at it as an opportunity for students to show the Athletic Department that they’re still there and willing to cheer on this new team of guys.

Last year, the realization that the basketball student section was working came when student home attendance increased and the team continued its winning ways. But to me, the most impressive thing about the N-Zone last year was its ability to get fans on the road. For the season opener at Siena College, the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Tournament in Richmond, Va., and the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) Opening Round game against the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., transportation was provided for fans to get to the game. By the time the NIT rolled around in March, there were four busloads of students screaming and yelling at the Gampel Pavilion and the Huskies almost pulled off a shocking upset against the Huskies from Connecticut, but lost 59-57.

Now the team will take on Drexel University this weekend and the home advantage is ours for the taking. The chances that Drexel will bring many fans are slim. Although UMass-Amherst and BC will certainly have good representation for the game later at night, I doubt any of the fans will care about the outcome of the game before their teaam’s (similar to what will happen in February when NU takes on Harvard in the first-round 5 p.m. Beanpot game).

This will leave the rest of the arena pretty open. The Garden will be free for Husky fans to fill it with as many people as they can find.

Athletics has done its job in marketing the game to students. Any student who keeps up with what is going on in athletics should know this game is taking place. Tickets for floor seats were sold at a women’s hockey game Nov. 6, and all remaining tickets to the game are still being sold at Blackman Auditorium.

It is my hope that the students represent the university just like they did last March and annually at the Beanpot every February, with hundreds of screaming fans, cheering for the length of the game.

Head coach Bill Coen has made it known he believes having the students there in full force gives the team a little something extra during the course of a game.

Although the students won’t be able to slap hands with the Huskies at the end of the game to thank them for playing their hardest, they will be able to create a home-court advantage in this game just like they do at Matthews Arena.