Last Sunday, Wisconsin led Northwestern 16-4 after 3:36 of play. This scenario was similar to the scene three days earlier, when No. 15 Michigan State jumped out to a 22-8 lead and cruised to a 20-point win.
This time would be different.
In front of 1,084 fans, the majority of whom were rooting for the Wildcats, NU clawed its way back into the game and won 58-56.
The atmosphere inside Welsh-Ryan Arena that night was in stark contrast to the one during the Michigan State game, when a subdued crowd of 538 resignedly watched the Cats stumble to defeat.
NU senior forward Ifeoma Okonkwo said the crowd’s support against Wisconsin helped the team in its rally.
“It gets your adrenaline going and everything like that, knowing that we have people supporting us,” she said. “It just helps out as far as confidence.”
Unfortunately for NU (6-16, 2-8 Big Ten), Sunday’s crowd was an exception to the season-long trend.
The Cats average only 550 fans for their home dates, placing them last in the Big Ten. The team with the second lowest draw, Indiana, reels in 1,259 per game.
Michigan State coach Joanne McCallie said she remembers a time when this was different.
McCallie, who played for NU from 1984-87, described an NCAA tournament game when the Cats hosted Kansas State and the fans filled both the lower and upper bowls of Welsh-Ryan Arena.
She said NU coach Beth Combs is moving the team in the right direction, toward a revival.
“She’s just starting out,” McCallie said. “They play hard and they play with a lot of spirit. I would love for more folks to come on out.”
While the lower bowls of the sideline sections are relatively full, the area that lacks fans the most is what should be the most boisterous: the student section.
“I’m open to any way we can get more students in the stands because they are important and vital to our success,” Combs said.
During the Michigan State game, the number of supporters in the bleachers behind the baskets numbered between 35 and 50, not counting the pep band.
George Lucchetti, a 55-year-old NU alum, tries to compensate for the paucity of student support by making some noise of his own.
Lucchetti has been going to women’s basketball games for 27 years. He said he prefers it to men’s basketball because it’s “more of a group game.”
Lucchetti is very vocal in his support of the team, cheering the players up and down the court and employing a tactic he likes to call “the rooster”: a high-pitched yell he uses to distract opposing players when they are shooting free throws.
“It’s kind of a local legacy,” he said.
While Lucchetti has been with the team through its ups and downs, the same cannot be said for the majority of NU fans. The Cats have not won more than 10 games in a season in seven years, and Combs acknowledged that students are usually not willing to invest their time in a losing team.
“We have to figure out how to get students in the stands,” she said. “But I also know that winning takes care of some of that. People on campus have to want to come support women’s basketball because they think we’re going to give them a good show and that we’re doing a good job representing our university. And I think we’re starting to do that.”
The win over Wisconsin helped NU eclipse its win total from last year, with five games still left in the regular season. If the team can continue this improvement, it could see 1,084 fans as a low turnout in the future.
Reach David Morrison at [email protected].
