Pitt plays in the Peterson Events Center, entering its 10th season there. All 161 games played there in its history have been sold out, and there is a waiting list of 9000 names for tickets.
So . . . Pitt plays hurry-up basketball, right? No, they do not. In fact, they are noted for defense. (Sound like anyone else you know?) Last season they averaged 71.8 points/game. Guess what we averaged? 71.5 points/game. Not much difference. Not enough to explain the difference in attendance numbers. (But surely that must be a mistake, right? Fans will only come to see up-tempo basketball, right?)
But Pitt wins big, right? Yes, they have won a lot. But they have been to only one Final Four - back in the 1950's, and at their level that is the definition of "winning big." So they have won, but they have not won "really big" as defined in money conference basketball.
So they have not been to Final Fours, and they play at almost the same pace as we do. So we cannot explain the attendance difference in those terms, can we? Fans who like up-tempo ball like to blame attendance problems on the style. That is easy to say. It is a lot harder to prove.
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