Tuesday Morning Math with Panon

This morning, Steve Pivovar wrote an article in the Omaha World-Herald detailing Creighton's waxing and waning student section attendance at men's hoops games. It is here.

The purpose of this post isn't to bash on the students. At the end of the article, Piv points out the overall attendance at The Phonebooth and its place among the other palaces of college hoops. Consider for a moment the top 15 schools in average attendance at this point of the season:

1. Kentucky, 22,655
2. North Carolina, 20,922
3. Tennessee, 20,783
4. Syracuse, 19,650
5. Louisville, 19,337
6. Memphis, 17,562
7. Wisconsin, 17,230
8. Maryland, 16,790
9. Kansas, 16,363
10. Creighton, 16,043
11. Arkansas, 15,593
12. Marquette, 15,431
13. Illinois, 15,305
14. Ohio State, 14,803
15. Indiana, 13,933

That, might friends, is a might fine list to be a part of. But let's not settle for 10th best.

What would it take to pass the fans at The Phog for 9th place?

On Wikipedia the Phog's capacity is 16,300. They're pretty much maxed out.

CU has 13 games in the books at 208,559 (16,043 * 13).

To average 16,364 for the season they'll need to average 17,408 these last four games.

16,364 (average to get) * 17 (# of home games) = 278,188 total attendance

278,188 (total attendance) - 208,599 (people that have already come) = 69,629 (people that must come the rest of the year)

69,629 / 4 (remaining home games) = 17,407.25 so 17,408 per game for the last 4 home tilts.

That's quite a few people, considering capacity is around 17,500. It should't be a problem for BracketBuster and Senior Day (vs. Illinois State, 1 p.m., ESPN2), but we'll see about the others.