Los Angeles sports fans love a winner — or at least, they usually do. The Dodgers, the Lakers when they’re going good, the Kings when they are a Stanley Cup contender, the Rams and Chargers, USC football, the list goes on. There are lots of attractions in the City of Angels, so it’s necessary for teams to stand out from the crowd. Be good, be successful, be worth investing money for parking, tickets, and concessions. UCLA women’s basketball is certainly doing everything it should, and can, to make that happen.
Yet, the fans aren’t consistently showing up at Pauley Pavilion.
The USC game always brings the fans to the venerable building, but top-15 Maryland couldn’t sell out the place (under 9,000). UCLA hammered Purdue by 48 points Wednesday night in a typically excellent, dominant performance. Yet, only 3,759 bothered to come.
The Bruins are 18-1, led by Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, and a roster full of high-quality veteran players who know exactly what they need to do when they take the court. This is a talented, smart, tough, experienced team which shares the ball and plays together. It’s really good hoops, and the team is very much on course to get a No. 1 seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament and make back-to-back appearances in the Women’s Final Four.
This is what excellence looks like. This should be what Los Angeles sports fans show up for, especially with USC’s two basketball teams struggling and the UCLA men having a difficult season as well.
Is there a sense that UCLA women’s basketball is so good there won’t be any drama on a given game night? Since when should that prevent fans from attending? That would never be the case for any pro team. The Dodgers beating the Rockies 10-1 isn’t boring; it’s fun as heck. The Lakers steamrolling NBA opponents by 30 wouldn’t be considered boring; that was Showtime (or Shaq and Kobe) back in the day. Fans couldn’t get enough of that.
USC football under Pete Carroll bashing Washington State by 35 in the mid-2000s was a scene at the Coliseum. That wasn’t boring. That was the USC standard.
Why isn’t UCLA women’s basketball getting the same kind of love and admiration? Shouldn’t excellence be supported and rewarded? It’s a marked contrast to the middle-of-the-road mediocrity served up by Mick Cronin. Sure, UCLA got a big win over Purdue — and fans, to their credit, showed up and were vocal in that game — but the season is still well behind schedule and a general failure at this point.
UCLA women’s basketball is succeeding by any measurement other than a national title, and that isn’t something UCLA can win at Pauley Pavilion. The Final Four is in Phoenix this April.
Los Angeles UCLA fans need to show up for this team. There’s no good reason Pauley shouldn’t be packed every night for this elite group which is doing all the right things and has earned robust support.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Los Angeles sports fans are missing out on UCLA women’s hoops
Reporting by Matt Zemek, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
