The crowd of 2,873 in attendance for Saturday's Illinois State-Indiana State game in Redbird Arena was the fourth largest to watch an ISU women's basketball game at Illinois State. Redbird coach Robin Pingeton hoped that the Redbirds could meet the challenge issued earlier in the week by retired ISU coach Jill Hutchison to reach 4,000 in the stands, but Pingeton was thrilled to see so many on hand.
"I thought we could do it (get 4,000), but we are thankful for those who came out," said Pingeton. "It was a great crowd."
The progress in the stands has been erflective of progress on the court for Illinois State, which is one of only 11 women's basketball programs in NCAA Division I to have alrady recorded three more wins this season than last. The Indiaan Stawet game crowd was the largest in six years at Redbird Arena and boosted Illinois State's average attendance to 1,399 for 10 games this season. That average is No. 4 for a Redbird season.
"Every game it seems the crowds have gotten bigger," said Pingeton. "I can't express how much that means to all of us. It speaks volumes about this community and its commitment to basketball."
Pingeton came to Illinois State from an Iowa State program which built women's basketball attendance from much smaller numbers to one of the nation's leaders in attendance.
"I think there are similarities between Ames, Iowa, and Bloomington-Normal," said Pingeton. "When (coach) Bill Fennelly took over at Iowa State, they went from drawing 200 or so to sell-outs."
The commitment Pingeton made to revivie the Redbird tradition and put a product on the court fans could appreciate is probably well ahead of schedule. Not only is ISU winning at a faster rate than in seven years, but the 'Birds already have eclipsed the single-season record for three-point field goals and are scoring at better than 73 points per game while winning 10 of their last 13 games. Katie Donovan, one ofthe nation's top 20 scorers, leads the offense for Illinois State.
"We have very loyal fans who have stuck with this program over the years and a lot of new ones coming on board," said Pingeton. "We're going to keep doing our job (as a team) of winning games and building the excitement for our fans."
The Redbirds, 8-2 at home this season, will try to build on their single-game and season attendance totals with a 7:05 p.m. Feb. 6 game with Creighton and a 2:05 p.m. Feb. 8 game with Drake, both at Redbird Arena.
