My birthday is Thursday, Nov. 13, and what I want is a series of no-strings-attached random hookups. Just kidding; that was just to get your attention. What I actually want is Pioneer men’s basketball apparel because I’m fired up about this season. Are you? If not, you should be. Here are five reasons to go watch UW- Platteville men’s basketball.

There’s a special air of determination and destiny to this season. UW-P just beat Bradley 84-79 on Sunday. To fill you in, Bradley is a Division I school that went to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament two years ago, so it’s not an unheralded program. And UW-P didn’t just squeak by with a victory, either.

They held the lead from the middle of the second half and didn’t look back or let Bradley’s home crowd intimidate them. This team is for real, returning a year older and a year wiser with pre-season All-American, center Jeff Skemp.

You can get that bottled-up anger from midterms out by yelling with the best student section in the WIAC, the O-Zone. Contrary to popular belief, D-III hoops are a big deal, even at UW-P. The Pioneers are currently ranked seventh overall in national D-III polls. We have students who wear body paint for every home game, road trip to rivalry games and who look at rankings and box scores just like they were following UW-Madison or Marquette. There are entire Web sites and blogs devoted to it too, like d3hoops.com and wiacbasketball.com.

Watching live basketball is way better than homework. A short diversion to the hardwood of Bo Ryan Court can be a great idea for a study break. Here’s a fun fact: Announcers of televised Badger men’s basketball games will generally mention Platteville at least once because of Bo Ryan’s teams who won four national titles. Pioneer men’s basketball is one of the things that made UW-P regionally and nationally known. Pioneer fans got a taste of what those years were like from the NCAA playoff game we hosted last year, but wouldn’t you like UW-P to be synonymous with championship basketball programs again? We can get there with more student support.

You don’t have to watch from freezing cold bleachers but instead from a nice cozy basketball court with new scoreboards, shot clocks, sound system and 1,000 of your closest friends. It may be cold outside or in your room, but it’s warm inside the William’s Fieldhouse on game nights.

It’s free entertainment that’s better than watching your roommate play Fable 2 or do statistics homework.

Enough reasons? The first home game is at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15. I’ll be there, and you should be too.