The boombox-carrying, hip-hop blasting manager for McNeese State is everyone’s new favorite March Madness character.
Later today the McNeese Cowboys will begin their NCAA men’s tournament journey. They’ll leave the locker room at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, make their way down the tunnel to the court, and hope to become the latest No. 12 seed in an NCAA tournament to knock off a No. 5 seed as they take on Clemson.
And leading them out will be one of the best stories of this college basketball season.
That will be team manager Amir “Aura” Khan with a boombox in hand, and vibes off the charts.
Since becoming a team manager Khan had led the Cowboys to the floor, toting a boombox and helping the players get ready for the upcoming contest. But this pre-game routine went viral late last month, before a game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The song choice from the players that night? “In & Out,” from Lud Foe.
A favorite of Khan’s.
“It’s usually a song that I don’t know,” Khan told ESPN. “This time, it was a little different because I knew the song. [The players] didn’t know that.”
Phillip Mitchell Jr., an assistant athletic director for creative media at McNeese, recorded the walkout and shared the video with other members of the McNeese staff. A decision was made to share the video and within hours, Khan was a social media star:
Never felt this much hype before a game—easily one of my all-time favorite filming moments @McNeeseMBB x #BayouBandits pic.twitter.com/NSqphtjFlP
— “Who is PJ?” (@Phil_UpOnMe) February 24, 2025
More videos rolled in of McNeese’s pre-game tradition, propelling Khan to Internet superstardom:
VIBIN AT MCNEESE pic.twitter.com/y6BSCennll
— Reed Vial (@reed_vial3) March 4, 2025
How big has Khan become? On March 11 TickPick, an online ticket retailer, announced their first NIL deal:
We have signed our first college NIL deal.
— TickPick (@TickPick) March 11, 2025
It was not for a player:
https://t.co/wgTVxZsOJi pic.twitter.com/fFIp44telR
— TickPick (@TickPick) March 13, 2025
TickPick is not the only NIL deal that Khan has signed in the weeks since becoming a college basketball sensation. The McNeese team manager has also inked deals with Buffalo Wild Wings, and Insomnia Cookies:
Amir Khan, you are officially a pioneer. In the wildest couple of weeks anyone could have, you’ve stayed so humble & true to yourself. First-ever college student manager to ink a NIL deal… 3 deals… all with global brands… in a week! Keep going. You deserve it all✊@amirk_23 pic.twitter.com/hvEernU05Y
— Reed Vial (@reed_vial3) March 16, 2025
How long might Khan’s run continue? That depends on whether McNeese can make some school history later today. When the Cowboys take on Clemson, they’ll be searching for the first NCAA tournament win in school history.
But the team’s pre-game routine — which has become anything but routine — will stay the same.
“What got us here is just us being us,” said Khan to ESPN. “We’re just going to continue doing us.”
