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Best of Twitter: Feast upon the #AggieTears

With BYU hoops notching a big road victory in Logan, Utah State fans embarked on their annual shedding of the #AggieTears — providing a delicious feast for all to enjoy.

By Steve Pierce
Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Before we dive into our feast, let me provide a brief primer on the the recent history of the BYU-Utah State basketball series for those who may not be familiar:

BYU and Utah State play each other in basketball every year. BYU usually beats Utah State, which makes Aggie fans very sad and causes them to (virtually and perhaps physically) cry what are popularly referred to as #AggieTears. This sadness tends to cause them to lash out and make excuses for their team's poor performance. Most often, these excuses revolve around an alleged imbalance in game locations — they say the Cougars are afraid to play Utah State on its home court at the Spectrum and endlessly taunt BYU with challenges to "Come to Logan."

Of course, this is a mostly ridiculous excuse made up by people grasping at straws, generally after being embarrassed in neutral court matchups. As our own Keith Shirts pointed out earlier, BYU has traveled to Logan just as often as Utah State has traveled to Provo during the Dave Rose era. And while it's certainly true that the Aggies have had great success in games played at the Spectrum (having last lost to the Cougars there in 2000), BYU has owned the series just about everywhere else in recent years. And yet, the misdirected catcalls of "Come to Logan" persisted.

Until Tuesday.

Because, you see, BYU actually did "Come to Logan" (as they have been scheduled to do for several years) — and they left with a convincing 91-81 victory over the home team. So that kind of takes the whole "you can't beat us on the road and you're scared of the Spectrum" page right out of the old #AggieTears playbook, making a flimsy set of excuses even flimsier.

This can't be an easy time for our friends to the far north. Not only did they lose a single game, but they also lost their last remaining rationalization for BYU's hardwood superiority. Let's check in on them and see how they're navigating the five stages of grief — and perhaps feast on some delicious #AggieTears while we're at it.

Stage 1: Denial

When something bad happens, it's easy to deny that the bad thing is, in fact, happening. There's no way BYU is actually beating us in Logan. It must be something else...

Stage 2: Anger

Once it has become clear that the bad thing has actually occurred, it is common for grievers to lash out at others in anger to fill the emptiness in their souls.

Stage 3: Bargaining

Once the anger subsides a bit, the griever may make an attempt to somehow undo or avoid the loss and pain that has been suffered.

Stage 4: Depression

But eventually, the griever begins to fully understand the harsh reality of what has just occurred — and things get a little sad.

Stage 5: Acceptance

But even in the darkest of times, cooler heads ultimately prevail. Acceptance of the loss is achieved and, in this specific case, the supremacy of BYU (both on the court and, it seems, in the romantic realm) is recognized.

We hope you enjoyed your annual helping of #AggieTears. See you next season for yet another delicious feast!

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