Moments before Marquette’s basketball game against Providence Jan. 30, Spencer Bonahoom looked behind him, and what he saw from his front row seat was disappointing.

“You just turn around and you see that the lower bowl’s not even full in the student section,” Bonahoom said. “We sort of laugh it off, but it’s kind of frustrating. It’s like, ‘Well, should we even be yelling as loud?’”

Bonahoom, a senior in the College of Business Administration, is the president of SuperFans, a student organization that works “closely with Marquette Athletics to promote awareness, involvement and excitement at Marquette athletic events,” according to its Marquette Involvement Link page. He and a few other students, including Greg Ideran, a senior in the College of Communication, get in line several hours before home games to secure their front row spots.

Both Bonahoom and Ideran notice a significant decrease in enthusiasm for Marquette basketball on campus this year. Bonahoom said that was especially evident against Villanova Jan. 25.

“Villanova was the number four team in the country coming into play at the Bradley Center,” he said. “Last year, same situation, number four team coming into play, the line would’ve been 1,000 students long an hour before the doors were opening. For the Villanova game there was probably 50 people there up until probably a half hour before they started opening the doors.”

Ideran thinks last summer’s Big East Conference realignment has something to do with the sudden lack of support for Marquette basketball.

“Because of the conference switch, we’re not playing those rivalry games like Notre Dame and Louisville and Syracuse that usually draw the big crowds,” Ideran said. “But we’re still playing teams that are ranked.”

Ultimately though, the decline in excitement stems from Marquette’s inconsistent performance on the court this season. In the past two years, the Golden Eagles lost just one game at home, and it came against Vanderbilt while most of the students were home for winter break.

The campus came out in droves Nov. 16 for a game against Ohio State and watched Marquette’s offense stall completely in a 52-35 drubbing. Fans also saw the team stumble through the non-conference schedule with a disappointing 8-5 mark.

Following a 74-59 blowout loss at Madison Square Garden to St. John’s, Marquette opened Big East play at 4-5. Three days later, just 14,479 people attended the home game against Butler. That marked Marquette’s lowest attendance at a conference game this season, including the DePaul game that took place without school in session.

Many people, including Marquette coach Buzz Williams, think the fans and players were spoiled by three straight trips to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 and an Elite 8 trip in 2013.

“There’s been an adjustment in that,” Williams said following Marquette’s win over Xavier Saturday. “Talk about Davante. He’s been to Sweet 16, Sweet 16, Elite 8. He doesn’t even know what fighting is.”

Redshirt senior guard Jake Thomas transfered to Marquette before the 2011-12 season and has never experienced a struggle for an at-large bid. In his first two seasons on campus, Marquette earned a No. 3 seed. He said he feels as if the Golden Eagles turned the corner after early struggles.

“It did feel different a couple of weeks ago, but ever since, it seems like a long time ago, with the Butler game, ever since then, we’re kind of back on the right track,” Thomas said. “We’re getting our confidence back. Right now, it’s starting to feel how it was last year.”

Williams agrees, and made qualifying for another NCAA Tournament his team’s priority.

“I am trying as all I can to help our group play as hard as possible to see if we can fight another day,” Williams said.

Unfortunately, it might not matter as far as the students are concerned. Before Wednesday night’s game against Creighton, hundreds of ticket holders took to the Marquette Ticket Exchange Facebook group posting messages such as “Selling my Creighton ticket. Message me.” While this happens to a certain extent every game, the sheer number of people selling tickets for a vital game against the No. 11/12 team in the country surprised Bonahoom.

“I was on the Facebook page (Monday), and there was like, 70 people trying to sell their tickets for the Creighton game,” he said. “In the past, at least when we’re playing ranked opponents, everyone’s there. The place is packed.”

Marquette plays Georgetown and St. John’s in its final two home games of the year. Georgetown, Marquette’s most bitter rival, should provide a good barometer for student support when it comes to Milwaukee Feb. 27. Unfortunately, Senior Day against the Red Storm takes place March 8, the first day of spring break.

Ideran hopes the Georgetown game will be well-attended despite the break. Regardless of how the team performs, traditional rivalries should put a trip to the BMO Harris Bradley Center at the top of Marquette students’ priority lists.

“I think Georgetown’s going to be big,” Ideran said. “They are one of the teams we’ve played for a while. We beat them at their place, we want to beat them again.”