I don't write columns because I'm not a column writer, plus as an employee of McNeese State University and the Sports Information Director in Athletics, it's my job to work amongst all the hard-working folks throughout the department to promote each and every one of our sports programs and student-athletes on a day-to-day basis, day and night, weekdays and weekends, holidays and in the summer time.
 
But this is different. Something that has happened only once before in school history. McNeese basketball is 17-2 on the year, matching the best start in school history with the 1973-74 squad. Fifty years. Two generations.
 
This Will Wade coaches McNeese Cowboys basketball team is good. Damn good. Okay, in my opinion, a great team. Easily the best McNeese team I've had the pleasure to work with, and in my 30-plus years of being a part of men's basketball programs, likely the best-ever for me.
 
There was a team at my first full-time stop that was really good, and then a team at my previous employer that was special, but this one this year has all the makings of the best-ever.
 
Great teams, even if not playing up to par, will find a way to win. That happened on Monday night when the Cowboys fell behind by 18 points to the defending two-time Southland Conference champions. And happened at their place.
 
The win not only matched the best start in program history but also extended the nation's third-longest winning streak to 12. And as of Tuesday morning, the 17 wins is tied as the most this season by any team in the NCAA, matching the likes of No. 1 UConn and No. 2 Purdue.
 
It's not a fluke. Never before has a McNeese team won seven, non-conference Division I games. Until this year. Never before have the Cowboys defeated a Big Ten Conference team. Until this year. Never before has a Cowboys' squad earned a vote in the AP Top 25 poll. Until this year. Currently two weeks in-a-row, by the way.
 
McNeese returns home on Saturday against New Orleans then Monday versus Northwestern State. It's time for Poke Nation to show up and to create a new culture in the Legacy Center, where the Cowboys are 9-0 this season. How about some Legacy Lunatics.
 
Crowds through the first nine games have been the best we've ever seen in the six-year-old arena. We've seen back-to-back sell-outs for the first time in school history, and that's factoring in all previous arenas.
 
McNeese is averaging nearly 2,900 fans per home game, more than 1,200 more than the next conference team. And it's 65% capacity mark is ranked in the top 65 in the nation. In Southland games only, that average rises to almost 4,000 per game. Seating capacity in Legacy is 4,200.
 
Culture change. What does that mean?
 
Be loud. Be vocal. Be a fanatic. Get on your feet when scoring runs are in progress. This team deserves the wildness, the electricity, the shock waves the Legacy Center can create. Hell, YOU deserve this as a McNeese fan.
 
Now's the time to stop seeing the rowdiness that's seen all the time on TV and wish that can happen here. Now's the time to make the Legacy Center the most feared yet most electric arena not only in the Southland, but in also in Louisiana, the region, and why not… the nation.
 
Do this one thing. After reading this, close your eyes for the next 20-30 seconds, put yourself in a packed Legacy Center cheering on the first-place Cowboys. Christian Shumate just throws down one of his highlight-reel ShuSlams and the opponent calls a timeout. The music hits and the fans all around you are bouncing up-and-down or rocking back-and-forth in unison. The place is reaching unimaginable decibels and the roof is about to blow off.
 
That get you excited? That can and should happen at every home game from here on out.
 
It's a new era for McNeese Basketball. It's time for a new era to create some Legacy Lunatics and a new culture.
 
I'll see you Saturday.
 
Geaux Pokes!