Seconds tick down on the Pioneer men’s basketball team’s 76-68 victory over Arkansas State Sunday. The Pioneers hold the ball as the last buzzer sounds, they celebrate. The crowd is… well, quiet.

The Pioneers, who battled hard to earn their fifth win of the season, were only supported by just over 600 fans, which barely fills one fourth of DU’s Hamilton Gymnasium capacity of 2,500.

With the exception of our hockey team, who boast a great set of fans we call the ‘crimson creatures,’ this is a common sight for the DU athletic department, which has struggled greatly to get students involved in team’s other than our fifth ranked hockey club.

The question arises through this lack of attendance: Do DU students care about Pioneer athletics?

That question is not an easy one to answer, as it is easy to receive different answers from different people. But, it is a very valid one to ask.

According to the majority of students interviewed for this story, many believe that they would be more inclined to go to Pioneer events if they had a better knowledge of when these events took place.

Pioneer Director of Advertising and Venue Sales Jeremy Decker believes that the issue runs deeper, and that DU students have the available means to find when the games are being played.

“Everything that a student wants to know about Pioneer events is all on pioneerathletics.com,” said Decker. “It is a very easy source for students to find out anything that they need to know about our athletic programs.”

Decker also went on to say that the athletic department hands out pocket schedules, which hold the season schedules for all Pioneer teams, at every athletic event and many areas around campus including the dormitories, the Driscoll Center’s book store, all Pioneer shops and at the health center.

Decker believes that it may not be the lack of knowledge about Pioneer sports that is keeping students out of the stands, but rather the immense amount of options that DU students have in spending their free time.

“I feel that there are a lot of ways to find out when the games are,” Decker said. “Students have the choice to decide what they want to participate in… when there are so many things that students can do, students can go skiing and a bunch of other things, they just have so many opportunities for different things that it may be hard to get them involved.”

From this and from the obvious low attendance rates at Pioneer games, it is clear to see that the majority of students are not getting involved in their school’s athletic programs. But, the question is still ‘why?’

Pioneer woman’s basketball Head Coach Pam Tanner believes that, as far as her team goes, the quarter system plays a big role in the student’s involvement.

“Honestly, I think that our quarter system really hinders us,” said Tanner. “Our first games are when [students] are in finals. Then the student body is gone for six weeks, while we are playing ten to twelve games. Then when [students get back], if we are having a good year, then they might look into it a little bit.”

Though the quarter system does make it harder on students to really get into the flow of winter sport season, Decker states that most schools with Division I athletics have a fairly long winter break and still manage to get students to come to events, reiterating his point that it is still up to the students to decide whether they are going to attend games or not.

“I think that it is a choice. Students have the choice to decide what they want to participate in,” said Decker. “They are a critical factor in our success, to create that home environment, that home court advantage. It can be exciting, it is NCAA division I sports, and if they can come to events and have a good time, its best for our teams and our schools.”

The general consensus of many of the students interviewed, is that they would be more willing to come to events had our teams been performing at a higher level. One student, who wished not to be identified for the story, stated that she felt, “besides hockey, our sports aren’t very good. If we had other good teams, I would go.”

The argument against this thinking is that DU has many athletic teams that are among the elite in the country. The Pioneer gymnastics team is currently ranked number 12 nationally, including one of the top individual gymnasts in Jessica Lopez. The women’s basketball team is currently fourth in the SBC, but at the top of nearly every defensive category. The men’s lacrosse team is pre-season ranked 14 in the country, with three pre-season picks for All-American.

There are many teams at DU who have had extreme amounts of success. So, it is hard to believe that students are not attending simply out of lack of achievement from the teams.

This season, the athletic department made a change that they hoped would get more students out to games. Starting in last fall, all DU students got in free to all athletic events with the exception of hockey. Unfortunately, according to Matt Evans, director of ticketing sales and box office operations for the Pioneers, there has been only a slight overall rise in attendance this school year, falling below what the athletic department had hoped.

All in all, it seems that the consensus around campus is that the majority of students at DU are more interested in pursuing other things in their free time than attending games, a fact that seems to be hurting those who are playing in front of the empty seats.

“It is hard on [my team], because they put a lot of time and effort in and really try to represent DU in a positive manner. I know it gets frustrating for them sometimes,” Tanner said of her team’s lack of support. “There are pockets of really positive and excited fans… it would be great to see the students get involved the way that they do at a Duke or even a lot of schools that are smaller than us.”

For now, however, the Pioneers will have to do without having their sixth man in the stands and continue to play in silence.