Missouri Basketball: Takeaways from heartbreaking loss against No. 1 Auburn

#3: Fan Factor

Missouri has struggled with attendance this season. In the 2019-20 season, Missouri was averaging just over 9,000 fans in the stands. While there are certainly factors of the coronavirus still at play, Mizzou Arena had failed to get anywhere close to that number of fans into the stadium this season.

The athletics department realized this and pulled out everything they could to fill the seats of the student section Tuesday night. With the promise of free Cane’s chicken fingers, Andy’s frozen custard, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, mugs, and a halftime performance from acrobat Red Panda, the students showed out in numbers that haven’t been seen in years.

While the rest of the stadium appeared sparsely populated, the student section was packed. 15 minutes before the match, it was at capacity. By tipoff, the venue had opened up multiple additional overflow sections for students to sit in.

The final attendance clocked in at just over 10,000 fans. Far surpassing their roughly 6,000 fan average for the season.

Missouri played with a certain kind of swagger, now that they had garnered the fans’ support. In turn, emotions were high for the Auburn Tigers, especially Pearl, who was arguing with referees all night and often had to be told to return to his coaching box as he traveled further and further out onto the court. All this to the backdrop of Missouri fans chanting “Bruce, you suck” every chance they got.

While tangibly it’s a hard thing to measure, the fans definitely played a role in how close the game was.

"Martin expressed in the post-game presser that “fans need to understand the impact of being present.”"

While that’s all fine and well, the team has to give fans something to care about. While a bunch of marketing tactics may have worked to get fans into the stadium, only wins (or competitive matches against No. 1 teams) will keep fans coming back to fill those seats.