The Sixth Man Award is given to the basketball player that makes the biggest difference coming off the bench, but this season's winner wasn't even on the court--they were in the stands.
"As long as I've been in basketball for 20 years ... I've never heard of the student body actually winning the trophy," said Steve Smith, executive director of basketball. "It's always had a name associated with it. I have never seen it given to the student body."
Coach Tony Barbee announced at Sunday evening's basketball awards banquet that the student body would receive the award for making Auburn Arena one of the toughest places to play for opposing teams.
Charles "Blue Menace" Floyd, a frequent face in the student section known for his blue spandex suit, said Barbee understands the passion that fans brought to each home game.
"I think it shows that he cares about his fans; he cares about other people besides the ones on his bench," Floyd said. "He realizes it's more than people sitting on the sidelines, and if we're not there, they're not going to play their hardest. And he recognizes it."
Floyd said the student section was consistently supportive, even when the Tigers were losing.
"If we were down by 15, we were still giving the other team trouble," Floyd said.
Smith said fans went above and beyond in their support for Tigers basketball.
"It was the faith of the students; the support from them was overwhelming," Smith said. "There's reasons to not come to our games. When you lose five out of six, typical student bodies, like fans, stop coming. This student body kept coming and kept coming. In the South Carolina game the rain was coming down like a monsoon, and they still filled the place."
Carter "The Jungle King" Michaels, sophomore in software engineering, said this year's atmosphere in the arena was completely different at home compared to last year.
"I thought it was really nice of him to acknowledge all the hard work we put in for the games," Michaels said. "I think it's really good because the students have really done a good job this year showing up."
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