A beautiful thing happened last Tuesday at the Convocation Center.

The place was rocking: with constant noise, fans with their shirts off and chests painted. With more than 5,000 fans taunting, chanting and cheering, this was a sight to be seen and something that could turn NIU men’s basketball coach Rob Judson green with envy.

This event was nothing Huskies-related, as Winnebago High School defeated Rock Falls High School to win the Class A Super-Sectional.

The cars were stacked deeper in the parking lot than any NIU game this season. There were buses, trailers, you name it, all clogging the lot that looks all-too-bare on nights when there’s a Huskies home game.

The moral of the story? The game was fun, involving and entertaining – regardless of what happened on the court. Does this mean it’s disappointing that there weren’t fan turnouts like that for any NIU games this season? Not really, but there’s a stipulation.

The NIU men’s basketball team finished the season with its third-worst record since 1988. It was predicted to win the MAC and finish first in the preseason polls. It ended second to last. That is disappointing.

So, no one has any right to be angry at any student for not going to any games this season. NIU is a school not known for its basketball tradition. Students of this generation do not know about the legacy that Billy Harris and the late Jim Bradley helped to build in the early ’70s. And they aren’t ignorant for not knowing because they weren’t even born.

The football team showed in 2003 that if you win, the students at NIU and the people of DeKalb have the capability to come out in record numbers, but that winning product has to be there.

Let’s define winning, though. Winning is above .500. If the two major draws at NIU – football and men’s basketball – are above .500, there should be no excuse to not have fannies in the seats.

This is not DePaul or Loyola where you’ve got the Windy City right in your backyard. This is DeKalb, and there isn’t much to do – especially if you’re under 21. If you’ve been here more than a semester, you know that all too well.

If people from Winnebago and Rock Falls, two schools that are each about an hour away from DeKalb, can do it, then walking 10 minutes or driving five minutes isn’t too much for what could be a good time for NIU students.