Last fall, when the football team played their first game, I wondered if other sporting events at FAU would have more fans in attendance, but please realize I didn’t hold my breath.

In other words, would there be more of an interest in sports among students. I went to a Lady Owls basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 12 to find this out. Only 242 people showed up. I don’t want to sound like a male chauvinist, but maybe that’s because it was women’s basketball. I haven’t done any research on that subject, but I think it’s common knowledge that men’s sports get more attention than women’s sports. The game also started at three in the afternoon, a disadvantage I realize, but then again I don’t hear any complaints from the Lady Owls.

This really doesn’t fit in the schedule of the average college student. On a Saturday afternoon they are probably sleeping in, and recovering from Friday night’s hangover. There are other sports at FAU so this doesn’t mean that they don’t attract more fans. Also, maybe more people show up to night games.

The game itself wasn’t that exciting. It’s okay for people to be apathetic about a boring basketball game. That’s like South Florida Pro-Football fans not selling out Pro Player Stadium for that wildcard game between the Dolphins and the Ravens.

Anyways, we beat Troy State by a score of 83-70. However, we didn’t dominate them by any stretch of the imagination. I noticed, especially in the first half, that TSU missed some open shots.

FAU missed a few lay-ups in the first half as well. This was definitely not a technically flawless game. Troy State also didn’t get to the free throw line as much as the Lady Owls did.

TSU matched up a lot better with FAU in the second half, at least in terms of shooting percentage. In the last few minutes of the game, UP Sports editor Ched Chase and I were debating how many points Lady Owl Tamica Pierce would finish the game with.

He said 26 and I said 30. What we forgot was that late in a game, if one team has the game in the bag, that team’s coach might take out the starters.

Pierce left the game with a few minutes to go, and finished with 22 points. I felt kind of stupid for not realizing that the game was almost over, and the starters might be taken out. That should give you some indication of how awe-inspiring this game was for Ched and I.

Neither the FAU Dance team or the cheerleaders attended the game, I am going on the assumption that they were awake seeing tip off was 3 pm.

I don’t know how much cheerleaders can actually pump up a crowd, but they seem to add some type of importance to the game. Having them come onto the court during a timeout is way more exciting than hearing the announcer do advertisements for local restaurants.

The game wasn’t a complete waste of my time, hooray.

Troy State’s head coach was exciting to watch. Excluding the first few minutes of the game, his face was red the whole time. In the press conference after the game his voice was shot.

I’m not making fun of the guy, but I guess he is really committed to what he’s doing. I’m not talking committed like Bobby Knight, but it’s definitely in the same ballpark. Then again, Bobby Knight might be in his own ballpark.

Anyways, when some players came back to the bench he would really yell at them for not doing something right. Even though he was yelling I could not understand what he was saying. A friend of mine, who came to the game with me, thought he heard the coach yell, “Stop looking at the ball!” James, that’s my friends name, thought that was funny. He doesn’t really watch sports, but at the time he thought the coach’s comment was odd. From what little he knows about sports, keeping track of the ball seems to be important.

None of the referees at this game were particularly out of shape, but is it possible for them to wear looser clothing?

I see no need for them to be wearing tight clothing. If anyone in the arena should be wearing tight clothing it should be the cheerleaders.

I’m not done investigating whether or not more people are showing up at sporting events. Like I said before, this was only one game. It was also on a Saturday afternoon. I’ll check out some night games during the week, and also on Friday and Saturday nights.

I’m not trying to say that every student is apathetic except me. I’m pretty apathetic about most things that go on here.

If you don’t want to go to any sporting events then don’t.

This commentary is only my opinion. I wanted to interview some students at that basketball game, but there were almost none there.

I’d like to get your opinions on our sports teams. I did that once before a football game last fall, and I thought it was fun.

If basketball isn’t your thing then wait until the end of January for baseball to start. From what I’ve been hearing, our team will be really good this year. Our softball team isn’t bad either, they are the defending Atlantic-Sun conference champions.

Remember, check this sports section because we’ve got most of the dates and times for upcoming games. Hopefully I’ll not only see you at one of them but be getting your opinions as well.