There are a lot of empty seats at Lloyd Noble Center when the Oklahoma Sooners play basketball, but every major men's college basketball program in the state is playing in front of less fans.
Sooner Nation has recently been divided about the support of OU men's basketball, especially after SEC Network host Dari Nowkhah called out the fan base. The question has been, should a fan base show up to support its team no matter what, or is it the team's responsibility to have a product worth spending time and money to watch?
The answer really doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter how good the Sooners or the Oklahoma State Cowboys, or even the Tulsa Golden Hurricane or Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are, sports fans in Oklahoma aren't going to college basketball games.
The first excuse can't be that the state doesn't care about basketball. The Oklahoma City Thunder this season have an average attendance of 17,895, the 16th-best in the NBA. That's better attendance than markets like Houston, Phoenix, New Orleans, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
But maybe the Thunder could be at fault some, not that the state would ever want to be without a major professional sports team again. But it's likely that almost every one of the nearly 18,000 fans at Paycom Center watching the Thunder also cheer for either the Sooners, Cowboys, Golden Hurricane or Golden Eagles.
Instead, their night off and extra money is being spent on watching the Thunder. But can you blame them, though? Any basketball fan would choose to watch the best team in the NBA with MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander over the struggling Sooners, even with a potential NBA Draft lottery pick in Jeremiah Fears.
When the same venue also hosted Bedlam earlier this season, the attendance was 10,300.
The Thunder started playing in OKC in 2008. That college basketball season, which was Blake Griffin's final run in college, the Sooners' average attendance was 11,490 fans. That's the highest it's been since. That time includes a Final Four team in 2016 and players like Trae Young and Buddy Hield.
Oklahoma State, meanwhile, actually had an increase of over 1,500 from the 2008-09 season to 2009-10. However, Gallagher-Iba Arena hasn't seen that many fans since and OSU has averaged more than 10,000 only once.
This season, OU is averaging an abysmal 6,675 fans in 14 games, while OSU is even worse at 6,311 in 13 games. However, both teams are frankly having terrible seasons while the Thunder are having their greatest ever.
It's not a fun discussion, nor does it solve anything, but as far as OU's attendance problem at basketball games, maybe it is what it is. The Thunder aren't going anywhere. The state's population is not going to explode. College basketball is not going to dramatically gain popularity throughout Oklahoma.
No matter who inevitably replaces Porter Moser and no matter how much success the Sooners have, or no matter how fancy a new arena is, OU, or any college basketball team in the state, still won't accomplish anything in front of sold-out crowds, at least not on a nightly basis.