Warszawski: This Fresno State team should make basketball fans care enough to show up

This is the 13th season of Fresno State basketball at Save Mart Center, and contrary to popular belief the Bulldogs didn’t always play to so many empty seats.

You couldn’t just show up 10 minutes before tipoff and zip right into the parking lot.

The second level wasn’t hidden behind a black curtain large enough to clothe a Goth festival.

I know it seems like things have always been this way, but they haven’t. The paid attendance numbers tell a different story. During each of the first five seasons in their campus arena, the Bulldogs averaged 10,000-plus fans.

The fall-off from five figures to last year’s 6,190 – the lowest average attendance since 1979-80 at pre-expansion Selland Arena – came gradually. It didn’t happen all at once.

Fans stopped buying tickets (or in many cases using them) after being made to endure years and years of losing. Fresno State was always outmanned, even when its roster included a future NBA All-Star.

This year the Bulldogs are 2-0 and aiming to win their first three games for the first time since 2006-07, when SMC attendance averaged 11,713.

Yes, 11,713. In those days, a black curtain draped across the upper level would’ve blocked a lot of eyeballs.

If someone plotted a graph of Fresno State’s year-by-year attendance at SMC, it would look like a black diamond ski run with two bumps.

Since the inaugural season of 2003-04, fan support has declined every year but two: once from 2005-06 to 2006-07 (10,408 to 11,713) and again from 2011-12 to 2012-13 (6,521 to 7,042).

In the 11 other years, average paid attendance was lower than in the season that preceded it (see chart).

What’s a worthy goal for this season and the most talented Bulldogs team since the ’06-07 squad led by Quinton Hosley and Dominic McGuire?

Win 20 games? Sure.

Finish two or three spots ahead of the predicted fifth place in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll? Great.

Reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001, or at least be a bubble team? Wonderful.

But here’s what really needs to happen between now and March: Fill most of the empty seats. Make fans who show up 10 minutes before tipoff get stuck in traffic. Pull back the curtain on nights when Paul George doesn’t buy everyone a ticket.

Make Bulldogs basketball matter again to fans who lost interest from the time the program declined under Steve Cleveland’s final four years to the four it’s taken Rodney Terry to build it back up, and this season will be an overwhelming success.

“We talk all the time about getting the Save Mart Center filled,” senior guard Marvelle Harris said. “This is a hard place to play in when it’s filled.”

The SMC won’t fill Thursday night against San Francisco. Nor will it next week when the Bulldogs host Delaware State. (As an aside, can you believe a November 2007 game against Montana State drew 10,598? Yup, it’s true.)

Just as attendance dwindled over several seasons, it will take time for fans to return. Perhaps not eight years, but at least a few months. Fresno State needs to pile up victories during a home-friendly nonconference schedule, then continue the momentum into MW play. Then maybe we’ll see the Red Wave resemble something more than a ripple on nights when no one wins a free iPad.

Bulldogs teams of the recent past weren’t equipped to put a dent in that fan apathy. They lacked talent, chemistry or both. Something’s different about this group. Fresno State has a senior backcourt of Harris, Cezar Guerrero and Julien Lewis, long and athletic swingmen in juniors Paul Watson and Karachi Edo and a trio of transfers who have blended instantly.

Big man Torren Jones averaged a double-double over the first two games and gives Fresno State a post presence it has sorely lacked. Cullen Russo (also listed at 6-foot-9) is an athletic stretch 4 who can create his own shot and draw fouls. Lionel Ellison, currently averaging more minutes than Guerrero, blends a pass-first mentality with airtight defense.

In addition to talent, these Bulldogs are stocked with engaging personalities, something that matters in basketball more than any other sport because of how close the players are to the fans.

Harris is a playful character, always cheerful and smiling. Edo and Guerrero in particular go out of their way to shake hands and pose for pictures. Terrell Carter may be the only 285-pounder who rides around campus on a skateboard scooter. There isn’t a sourpuss in the bunch.

Fresno State won’t just be a team that wins a lot of games; it’ll be a team that’s fun to watch and easy to root for. And goodness knows Bulldogs fans, with two games left in what’s been a dismal football season, are looking for a reason to cheer.

This team should give them plenty.

The common complaints I hear about SMC (the seats and aisles are too tight; it doesn’t “feel” like a basketball arena) are valid. They’ll also go right out the window as soon as this team starts winning.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Warszawski: This Fresno State team should make basketball fans care enough to show up."