To all seniors, Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game is the biggest game of your GW careers.

Students and alumni used to line up for lengthy amounts of time before Smith Center employees even opened the doors. But that was years ago. This year, that culture, and the support Colonials showed for their teams, may resurface on campus once again. Even if you don’t typically go to basketball games, you don’t want to miss the game Tuesday night.

After a very successful game Saturday, GW enters the week with the opportunity to see its team play in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. Besides being a very close and very exciting game, the win Saturday gave the Colonials their 10th conference win. This is a milestone GW hasn’t reached since winning the conference tournament in 2006-2007. The game was also notable because the student section was full to near capacity.

Clearly, this marks an important time for our most prominent sports team, and for our University as a whole. Over the past 2 years, the Sports Marketing Department has increased its efforts to build up school spirit and communication about the basketball program. Whether you are finding cutouts of Joseph Katuka across campus or know alumni who take advantage of one of the season ticket programs geared toward recent graduates, these programs have made strides in building up support for the team.

But this marketing is not promoting a losing team at this point in the season. By placing fifth in the A-10 standings, the Colonials also negated the predictions that GW would finish 10th in the conference. People predicted the Colonials would not place well even before the team lost preseason all-conference third-team guard Lasan Kromah to a season-ending foot injury. But the team has come back against those odds.

If GW wins Tuesday, we encourage students to kick off their spring breaks by showing support for the Colonials in Atlantic City. You can sign up now for a free bus ride from D.C. to New Jersey, and will gain free admission into the game. This service also has the welcome option of transporting you home after the game, with busses running everywhere from Boston to D.C. If you sign up and the Colonials lose Tuesday, that’s no problem – you can still take advantage of the free bus ride home Friday night.

Even if you are not a basketball fan, this is a notable time on campus. GW’s men’s basketball team is giving our campus a reason to build up community spirit behind a program that has not seen the same success in recent years. This marks the most significant game in the season, and possibly your time at GW so far, and you want to be there.