Fireworks on the Court: Troy Basketball on New Year’s

The calendar has flipped. The Trojans are two games into the conference schedule, and after Saturday’s massive road win over Texas State, they have momentum going into January.

How common is a NYE dub though? You know we had to find out.

Here’s the full list of recorded New Years’ Eve and New Years’ Day games in Troy history. It’s a short list.

The first New Year’s Day game was back in 1966 when Troy played Missouri Valley College, not to be confused with the Missouri Valley Conference.

The Red Wave kicked off 1966 with a bang, winning 84-78.

Most games from 1950 to 1980 don’t have a specific date listed next to them. Even as the Trojans moved closer to the Maestri era, the late December/early January game dates are left blank.

On the last day of 1992, Troy hosted Central Methodist, scoring a combined 253 points… more than 11 months after Troy did that all by itself.

The Trojans didn’t play a December 31 game again until it was a full member of the Sun Belt, an 87-71 win at Niagara on the last day of 2005. The next year, Troy hosted the Little Rock Trojans, winning 82-70.

2009 was the first year that Troy played on both the first and last calendar days. The year began with a 76-99 loss against the Hilltoppers, and it ended with an 83-82 win in Monroe.

Troy’s only New Years’ Eve loss came on the road against North Texas in the 2011-2012 season. Still, the Trojans are 6-1 on the last calendar day.

That includes a 68-66 win against Georgia State in 2017, the year after winning the Sun Belt title.

Troy has a little less success on January 1, with a 2-2 record.

The Trojans traveled to App State for the first day of 2021, winning 69-56. Exactly one year later, Coach Scott Cross kicked off 2022 on his old court, except the Mavericks won 57-62.

Saturday, the Trojans made 2022 its second ever bookended year, even copying the 2009 record with a win to end it.

Troy went off in the second half against Texas State, pulling off a 55-52 win in San Marcos. The win gave Troy a 5-3 conference record on New Years’ Eve/Day.

Incidentally, that’s by far the lowest-scoring of the games, beating out the previous three. The 2009 ULM game is the second-highest scoring, and the 2009 WKU game is the highest-scoring New Year’s Day game.

The Trojans have never lost one of these games at home, so I guess the takeaway is… don’t count out the Trojans… even at the very end.