Penn State has the top-ranked women's basketball team in America, but the Lady Lions drew only 4,265 people, a season high, to Friday's game. Yesterday, in a nationally televised game, Rec Hall held a sellout crowd of 7,264 -- a team record.

But when Penn State first became No. 1 two weeks ago, the Lady Lions played at Ohio State and Vanderbilt, where the attendance was 7,368 and 7,865 respectively.

So where have the Happy Valley fans been?

Coach Rene Portland has been trying to help gain women's basketball more respectability nationwide for years. And in the past several years, attendance and media coverage have been growing. But it still pales in comparison to the attention men's basketball gets.

It may be a problem of there not being a plethora of professional women's sports to gain national attention. Or maybe it is because sports fans believe that women "can't play sports." Women have continually proven their worth and ability both on and off the field -- in many cases better than the men. Still, women's sports have lacked fan support on the unfounded myth that they aren't as talented as the men.

And Penn State student fans are no different. Look at the different types of fan behavior at the men's and women's hoops games. For the men, the student section stands throughout the contests. For the women, fans often sit on their hands and are not nearly as vocal.

That shouldn't be a surprise since the average student attendence at a women's game is half that of the men's games. And women's games are free.

If it takes the women's basketball team to be on national television and No. 1 for students to start attending games, so be it. But if you like basketball and don't go to the women's games, you're only cheating yourself.

The women's game is no less basketball just because there is no dunking or hot dogging. Games are just as fast-paced and players are just as talented, if not more so.

So if you've sometimes thought about going to a women's basketball game, or any other Penn State sporting event for that matter, just do it.

The next women's basketball game in Rec Hall is at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20 against Michigan State. "Be there!"