Maine's AJ Lopez Hit a Big Three To Beat NJIT and Then Shushed the Crowd Made Up Entirely of School Children on a Field Trip

Maine's AJ Lopez is one of my new favorite basketball players.

I was actually watching this game — because it was a live sporting event on at 10 a.m. and that rocks — and I was initially stunned to see so many people in the crowd before finding out there were like 20 school groups there on a field trip. I didn't know weekday morning college basketball games two weeks into the spring semester were acceptable field trips, but I guess we just figure the kids are all using AI to cheat on everything anyway, so what's the point.

The kids actually created a great atmosphere, though. NJIT just kept playing songs they knew would get the middle schoolers out of their seats — the arena was rocking when Travis Scott's 'FE!N' came on during a timeout — to create the best building any school could hope for during a Thursday morning basketball game.

But Lopez said fuck those kids and told them to have a nice trip home after he hit a three to put the game away in the final seconds. Do you know how much swag you have to have to turn to a hoard of New Jersey sixth graders and shush them? That's aura.

I am officially rooting for AJ and the Black Bears to win the America East and get into the NCAA Tournament, because these guys have the attitude it takes to make a run as a 15-seed.