City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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With 2.5 seconds left in Saturday’s game against Northeastern, Drexel guard Tramaine Isabell stepped to the line with his team down by one.

Isabell knocked down the first free throw to tie the game, and then missed the second. However, he tracked down his own miss and attempted a shot, drawing contact and a whistle as the final buzzer sounded.

As the officials tried to sort out the madness, Troy Harper walked toward Drexel’s student section. Harper raised his arms, encouraging the crowd to get louder and louder. Even as the referees broke their huddle, eventually putting one second on the clock, Harper continued the gesture on his way back down court.

Isabell knocked down a free throw to give the Dragons a 68-67 win against the Huskies, but Harper’s interaction with a loud and engaged crowd at the Daskalakis Athletic Center was a satisfying image from Saturday's game.

“It’s what home court’s supposed to be like,” Drexel coach Zach Spiker said. “It’s what it means. We have some tough, tough venues to play at, that’s why the Colonial conference is so great. Every venue can be like this. Is it like that every day? Maybe not, but the DAC was loud, the DAC Pack was loud, the pep band...There was energy in the building.”

Drexel averaged a little more than 1,000 fans per game last season. There were a few big crowds in 2016-17, including 2,025 people in the home opener against Hartford, 1,788 in a home meeting with Delaware and 1,602 during last season’s homecoming game.

Following a 9-23 season, Drexel (9-14, 3-7 Colonial Athletic Association) has seen a slight dip in attendance despite an increase in performance--with eight games left, the Dragons have already matched last season’s overall and conference win totals.

This season, the Dragons drew 2,500 fans in their opener against Bowling Green. In their following eight home games, they had a crowd of more than 1,000 just once, on Dec. 2 against Rider. The DAC saw an average crowd of about 760 in those eight games.

Saturday’s game, which was homecoming, had 1,526 people in attendance. It was the fifth highest home attendance in the past two seasons. More importantly, the student section was nearly filled.

"When I sat out before, we had some crazy games, but this is definitely the most fans we’ve had since I’ve been here playing,” Isabell said after the game.

Crowds like Saturday’s used to be routine at the DAC.

For three seasons, from 2010-11 to 2012-13, the Dragons averaged more than 2,000 fans per game. During the 2011-12 campaign, an average of 2,185 filled up the DAC each game.

Adam Hermann, a former Drexel student who used to cover the team, mentioned that on Twitter during Saturday’s game in response to a picture of the student section.

“I remember when that would’ve been a sparse DAC Pack crowd,” Hermann tweeted.

Of course, during those seasons, Drexel was winning at a much better rate. In order for the crowds to keep coming out, Drexel will have to win more often. The season with the highest attendance average at the DAC in the past decade was the 2011-12 season, when the Dragons went 29-7.

Drexel has four home games left, and the DAC should have at least one more big crowd when Delaware comes to town on Feb. 22, possibly one or two more if the Dragons can go on some type of run down the stretch.

Hopefully the crowds keep coming because Saturday’s game was a reminder of how great an environment the DAC, which seats about 2,500 people, can be when it starts filling up.

“This is a great venue,” Spiker said. “It’s a great experience for our players, I hope it’s a good experience for our fans. It’s a great experience for all of our recruits here today. Let’s keep it going.”