After seeing the 343-person crowd -- if it can even be called a crowd -- at last night's Virginia women's basketball game at Wake Forest, I started thinking about the crowds the women's games draw at University Hall. A few things came to my mind.
First: Where is everyone? And second: Why am I the only person between the ages of 18 and 25 here? My thoughts are slight exaggerations, I admit, but harsh realities nonetheless. While sitting at the press table during women's basketball game at home against North Carolina last week, I was overwhelmed by what I noticed as I scanned the crowd. Aside from the Virginia HOOps band and the always intensely motivated Virginia Pep Band (sans instruments, but armed with powerful singing voices and creative cheers, of course) I saw virtually no students in the audience. The crowd consisted almost entirely of elderly citizens and families with young children.
But don't get me wrong. The crowd (3,538 strong, almost 3200 more fans than showed up for the game at Wake Forest) provided an almost deafening roar at times and helped boost the offensive play of the Cavaliers tremendously during scoring runs. It just would have been nice to see at least a couple hundred students, decked out in orange, covered in body paint, and prepared maybe even to heckle the competition a little.
The Cavalier women have made every NCAA tournament in the past 20 years. While their record is currently at 10-10, sub par, to say the least, when compared to the past, their actual performance has generally been far superior. A loss is a loss no matter how hard a team plays during the game or how close the final score is, but many of Virginia's defeats, especially in ACC play, have been by narrow margins.
Perhaps some of those losses could have been wins, if only some of the wild Wahoos who regularly attend men's games in full force would have at least shown up to cheer at the women's games. As is often seen in college basketball, a crowd's participation and volume can have an uplifting effect on the home team, and a detrimental impact on the opposition. So why then, don't masses of Virginia students flood to U-Hall in a frenzy when the No. 1 Lady Blue Devils of Duke come to town?
It's certainly not a question of effort -- you won't have to pitch a tent to get in first, and you won't have to knock over your friends to get a good seat. The fact is, as I see it, that students have deeply embedded within them a misconception that women's basketball lacks excitement.
The Virginia women's team may not have a powerhouse dunker like Gary Forbes, a freshman as recognizable on Grounds as Jason Cain, or an entertaining coach who could easily be the poster boy for hyperhidrosis. But, they have played in exciting games that go down to the wire. They have been to the NCAA tournament for 20 years straight. And they do have a tremendous amount of talent that deserves to be recognized by their peers.
Only four regular-season home games remain for the Cavaliers before the ACC tournament, and each is critical to the future of the season. Students should make it a point to attend these final three games and support the Virginia women's basketball team as they fight to make their 21st consecutive journey into the sacred territory that is March Madness.
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