To be honest, I'd like the school to do some forensics on this. I only point out the students, because alot of a school's pride is determined first by that, and I think it's easier to get students to show up quickly than the locals. The students create the atmosphere of a rowdy exciting game and get folks fired up. I'd say because of how LSU reconfigured the seating charts, there IS always the FRONT, near court section filled by students, but as you move up the PMAC it tapers off. I wonder if Skip and those who look at this should tinker again with this seating set up. But, I feel that if LSU wants to become the way it was in the 80s, with folks camping out for games and the like, students need to get the passion back. I think the non-student fanbase is an issue too, although I'm not sure what else can be done there. LSU has publicized, done ticket deals, etc. Ah well, we'll look at the final attendance stats and look at season ticket sales after this season...
I agree that there must be a problem! If students arent as passionate about it anymore, maybe they should look at giving more points for attending the games. LSU has now switched to a point system for it students to get football tickets and post season tickets, etc. If most of the basketball games had points to offer, maybe there would be a higher number of students present. I dont know though, I attend as many games as possible as is.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is that perhaps, especially for the non-student fans, some of the fans have made the women's team more of a priority? In a perfect world (from an LSU support standpoint, at least) people would have all the time they wanted to support both teams. In reality, older fans have families and other commitments for their time that force them to make choices. Now, this isn't a zero-sum game; there are almost certainly fans who go to the women's games who would not go to the men's games regardless. You can increase the overall fanbase for the total baseketball program. But I would not be at all surprised to find that a fair number of fans at the women's games have chosen to attend them instead of the men's games.
Actual attendance on the postgame show was announced at just over 11,000. Did not seem like that being at the game. empty seats everywhere.
I'll say that I saw on ESPN, an attendance figure of 12,507 (probably paid), so the 11,000 + number sounds right as actual. Certainly not a packed house, but more than the number that showed up vs. Kentucky, and well above our average (9k+) for the season for a not very good SEC game. So, I'll appreciate the silver lining.... We have next season to look forward to... let's watch how the season ticket sales go after this season. Looks like just more of the same... slow rebuilding of hoops magic in Tigertown, but positive momentum is there.