A look at the lowest attended NCAA Basketball games this year

Early season NCAA Basketball is strange. You have tournaments with some of the biggest names in the game playing in 3,000 seat gyms that normally host high school basketball, while others play in NBA arenas that are 4-5x the size of their home court.  Anyway, the highlight for November basketball is that it usually has some of the lowest attended games of the year for all of college basketball.

Some of them are in tournament play, some are just normal home games. We’ll split them out and give a top 3 to each:

Tournament lowest attended:

3. North Florida vs St. Francis (NY), Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational. Attendance: 152. With 152 people being the THIRD worst game, you have to wonder how these tournaments make any money, given that very few are, to my knowledge, shown on TV. This one took place in Hartford, which wasn’t too much of a voyage for the St. Francis fans, which probably helped in getting the attendance over the century mark. North Florida won this one, 78-65. Take a look at the crowd (granted, it’s during warmups):

2. Radford vs Prairie View A&M, 2K Sports Classic (Smithfield Subregional). Attendance: 114. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, very few of the Radford faithful made the trek up from Virginia, nor did many from Texas to see the beloved Panthers. Those who were in attendance did get to see a barnburner: Radford won 64-56, which in the era of the 30 second shot clock seems… not too fun for spectators.

1.  Alcorn State vs Oakland, Corpus Christi Coastal Classic. Attendance: 103.  Because when you get the opportunity, you just have to drive 5-6 hours on Black Friday from Mississippi or fly down from Detroit to see your team fight it out with the winner getting to play Abilene Christian for the prestigious Corpus Christi Coastal Classic.  One hundred and three fans. Had they counted the starting lineups, the attendance would’ve been bumped up by nearly 10%! Hell, lots of people have more than 103 people attend their own wedding. For the record, Oakland won, then beat Abilene Christian to take home the prestigious CCCC trophy.

Non-tournament lowest attended:

3. Chicago State vs Trinity International. Attendance: 315. Another Thanksgiving weekend story, this time on Saturday. The Cougars played NAIA Trinity International, based in nearby Deerfield, IL. No reason for people not to come, besides the fact that a D1 school (barely) scheduled an NAIA school.  Embarrassing. Chicago State won by a mere 11 points, 81-70.

2. Delaware State vs Lamar. Attendance: 209. On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the hapless Hornets, who have yet to win a game this year despite going 18-18 last year, hosted the Lamar Cardinals. The Cardinals walked away with a 77-66 victory, sending dozens of fans home disappointed.

1. South Carolina State vs Allen. Attendance: 208. Another D1 vs NAIA (WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO YOUR FANS?) matchup, this one scheduled ON THE WEDNESDAY OF THANKSGIVING WEEKEND. This is by far the dumbest basketball game on the schedule for the year, and 208 miserable people took time from their miserable lives to watch the SCSU Bulldogs get their third win of the year (2 of which have been against NAIA teams) by a measly 12 points, 86-74. This game was so bad that if you go to the ESPN recap article and click on “box score,” nothing is found.  Try it.

And just because I know you’re interested, here’s a list of every game that drew fewer than 1,000 fans (where attendance was reported):