By ROBERT CESSNAKANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Texas A&M women's basketball coach Gary Blair wants his players to experience as much of the world as possible. He thinks that's part of his job as an educator. He's taken his team to the East Coast and the West Coast and several places in between.
But when it comes to his favorite place to play, there's no debate. Other than wherever the Final Four is being played, it's Reed Arena.
Blair's built a Top 25 program by protecting his homecourt and winning enough on the road to earn national recognition. The Aggies are 69-7 at home over the last five seasons, which has led to what will be five straight NCAA Tournament appearances. A&M averaged 5,155 fans this season, just under last year's mark which ranked 17th nationally.
Those are impressive numbers, and what concerns Blair is his A&M teams have yet to play host to the NCAA Tournament.
The women's Tournament features 16 on-campus sites for first- and second-round games. The Big 12, the country's best conference, has Iowa State, Texas and Oklahoma hosting this year. Baylor will be a host next year.
Needless to say, getting a chance to play Tournament games at home is a tremendous advantage. ISU, UT and OU will be the highest-ranked seeds at their respective sites. Being the best of the four teams should be enough to get them to the Sweet 16, but if not, there's also those few thousand fans to help if a lower seed brings its A-game looking for an upset.
Also think how comforting it is for ISU, OU and UT to know where they will be next week. Their fans can spend money to attend the Big 12 tournament this week knowing next week will be easy on the pocketbook.
Blair, of course, is happy to be in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament. He loves the town because of its passion for hosting sporting events and Midwest hospitality. He took his team to Gates Barbecue on Wednesday night to soak in the local flavor. I'm sure he passed out a few tickets -- only if they agreed to show up and root for the Aggies.
A&M might be able to recruit enough local fans to become the crowd favorite. Kansas and Missouri should lose first-round games, so the locals will be looking to adopt a team. Blair will do his best to convince them they should root for the Aggies since three of his top players -- Tanisha Smith, Danielle Adams and Tyra White -- are local stars from KC.
Blair also will have to try to find fans next week and he'll have a tough sell because none of his players will have local ties.
There's only a few places the Aggies can go -- sites where a host school isn't going to be a high seed. That leaves Louisville, Seattle, Tempe, Ariz., Pittsburgh, Norfolk, Va., and Berkeley, Calif., as likely destinations. Those aren't cheap places to get to during spring break.
"Travel adds up," Blair said. "I've played less home games than anyone else in the conference."
Blair's certainly paid his dues. A&M has been sent to Trenton, N.J., Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, La., and South Bend, Ind., for NCAA first-round games. Why not Reed Arena?
There's no easy answer.
It's easier for A&M to change presidents than it is to get Reed Arena to host NCAA Tournament games. The Aggies submitted a bid to host in 2011, but Blair said the bid was too costly. A&M also had a tough time finding reasonable hotel prices, so it's more than just the cost and availability of the facility. The bid to host must be a group effort -- if the community wants it.
There's been no outcry for the Aggies to host because it's women's basketball. People in the sport don't like to hear it, but women's basketball takes a back seat to men's. The A&M men's team averaged 9,560 fans per game this season, almost double the women's average.
Yet the A&M women's program might make a Final Four appearance before the men, and hosting NCAA games would help the Aggies do that.
And imagine if the men's basketball programs at Texas, Baylor and Missouri were set to host NCAA Tournament games next week while A&M was facing the prospect of traveling to San Jose, Calif., or Jacksonville, Fla. You can bet Aggies would be complaining.
Why travel if you don't have to?
"To tell you the truth, I'm tired of traveling," Blair said. "I'm waiting for the day when we can play here."
Blair also has a tough time knowing his Aggies have beaten Texas seven consecutive times and nine of the last 10, yet the Longhorns will be sleeping in their own beds next week.
Blair is careful when talking about the subject. He doesn't want to miff those who are on his side in an attempt to get first- and second-round games. He knows firsthand that Reed Arena is vastly improved from when it opened, and everything connected with basketball is better than it's ever been in Aggieland.
He also has faith that A&M will play host to NCAA Tournament games. He'd just like to speed up the process.
"It will happen one day, before I turn Joe Paterno's age [84]," said Blair, who is 64.
It's just not going to be this year or next, which means for now, Blair should hold on to his day job as travel guide.
Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert.cessna@theeagle.com.
A&M WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
No. 12 Texas A&M (21-7, 10-6 in Big 12) vs. Missouri (12-17, 2-14) or No. 15 Texas (21-9, 10-6) at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City.
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