How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
On a typical Friday night, NYU students can be found all over the city, hanging out in bars, clubs and concerts or kicking back with some friends in their apartments.
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But for some, basketball season in the winter is a different story.
While NYU sports games don't typically turn out huge numbers of fans, Friday night Tear It Up! events at Coles Sports Center often have thousands in attendance, ranging from students and family members to the athletes' friends.
Tonight, NYU will host its third Tear It Up! event this season. The NYU men and women's teams will take on the University of Chicago in a big time UAA matchup. Both teams are pushing to make the NCAA Division III tournament in March.
While some students will come because they understand the significance of the game, most will come for the food and shirts. Regardless, many who attend may not realize the impact they have on the athlete's psyche and the cause they are supporting.
Chase Kressel is the sports director of WNYU 89.1 FM, and has announced NYU basketball games for three years. He believes the fans inspire the NYU basketball players.
"Definitely in the three years that I have been here they play with more energy on Friday nights," said Kressel, a junior majoring in sports management.
Junior Richie Polan, a forward/center, said the big crowds help boost the team on the court.
"It's definitely a lot easier to get involved in the game," Polan said.
The event was started three years ago by Noah Lefevre, associate director of athletics at NYU, as well as the Student-Athlete Advisory Council. Together, they wanted to combat the issue of low attendance at NYU contests. They believed Friday night would be the perfect time because it coincided with UAA conference games as well as a day where most NYU students weren't tied down with work and school.
"Historically, NYU has had low attendance at games, so we just threw around ideas to get kids to come," Lefevre said. "I think everyone that comes has a good time."
The event has averaged around 2,000 people.
Additionally, Lefevre began reading about the Women's Basketball Coaches Association and how they started a program in 2007 called, "Think Pink," an "initiative to raise breast cancer awareness in women's basketball, on campuses and in communities," according to the group's website. Since, Lefevre has infused Tear It Up! with the program's initiative by raising money and handing out pink t-shirts at the event. All proceeds tonight will go to the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation.
This year, Miles of Hope will honor Mary Clay, a former business manager of NYU's athletic department, who passed away in late 2008 from breast cancer after working for 20 years in the department.
"It's just a nice way to tie the event to the department," Lefevre said.
So while NYU students may or may not know the reasons behind the occasion, they can know that they are serving a good cause just by being there: motivating their basketball teams in huge UAA games and pushing awareness for a deadly disease.
And there's never anything wrong with free food and a t-shirt.
