Blake Coleman is one of the lucky few.

The Texas A&M senior and president of the Reed Rowdies was heading to Anaheim, Calif., on Wednesday with two other leaders of the Aggie cheering club. He will be among several hundred Aggie fans making the trip to see the Aggie men's basketball team take on Brigham Young University on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

"We are allotted 550 tickets, and we sold all 550," said A&M basketball spokesman Colin Killian. "I think the success we had at the end of the year and the way we played at the Big 12 tournament has brought some renewed enthusiasm."

The A&M women's team will play its first-round game in Baton Rouge, La. The team enters the tournament as a No. 2 seed -- its best position in program history.

The two games mark the third straight season that both the men's and women's teams have reached the tournament.

The attention being placed on the two teams varies slightly, however.

For the men, fewer eyes -- at least nationally -- are on the Aggies as they head into the first round, Killian said. Two years ago, the team made news because it was making its first appearance in the tournament in more than a decade.

The team drew attention last year because it was expected to go far in the tournament on the shoulders of Acie Law IV, the school's first All-American.

This year, the team is a No. 8 seed that has struggled at times during the regular season.

"We are kind of coming in under the radar this year," Killian said. "We had a couple of bad stretches, and this year we are kind of a middle-of-the-pack seed, and people are looking at us in a kind of wait-and-see situation."

The men's team also fell short of expectations during the regular season, and some fans said they were not as optimistic about the team's tournament chances as they were at the beginning of the year.

"I feel like most fans feel pretty good about the first round against BYU," Coleman said. "They are more nervous about the second round."

If A&M wins Thursday, the Aggies probably will play UCLA, which is a No. 1 seed and one of the favorites to end the season on top.

The women, on the other hand, are leaving College Station in style.

College Station Mayor Ben White and members of the City Council plan to make a presentation to the team at Reed Arena on Thursday before the players depart.

On Wednesday, the women's team had only about 20 tickets left for sale for Saturday's game. Ticket sales will end Thursday in recognition of Good Friday.

The limited number of tickets means a lot of people will be watching the game at home or at sports bars.

Bars expected both games to be a big draw. Buffalo Wild Wings will host a wing-eating contest at halftime of the men's game Thursday.

"We are expecting a big crowd," said Gary Templeton, the bar's manager.

• Matthew Watkins' e-mail address is matthew.watkins@ theeagle.com.

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