After her team beat highly ranked Ohio State on Dec. 30 for its first Big Ten win of the season, Lady Lions basketball coach Rene Portland gave her thoughts on how the concept of home-court advantage affected play within the conference.

"In the Big Ten Conference you must win at home and steal on the road," Portland said, "so you have to protect your house."

Anyone who follows the Lady Lions with even a passing interest knows that they certainly have had no problems doing that, what with their sparkling 70-7 record at the Bryce Jordan Center since the beginning of the 1999-2000 season.

But with Portland and her players constantly referring to how much they love playing at the Jordan Center nearly every time they notch another home win, I could not help but wonder what it is that has turned the Lady Lions into such a juggernaut at home.

In Tuesday's press conference, the Lady Lions made a number of references to the difficulties that other teams face when playing in the intimidating environment of the Bryce Jordan Center. As someone who had never attended a Lady Lions game before this season, I will admit that I have been quite impressed by just how loud the Penn State faithful can be with the game on the line.

Yet, as great as the atmosphere in the BJC can be, I think that there would be one simple way to elevate its reputation as a place where opponents hate to play to an even higher level, and that is by getting the student section more involved.

Student presence or not, the Lady Lions certainly know how to fill the Jordan Center.

Penn State was sixth in the country in home attendance last season when the Lady Lions hosted a total of 128,255 people for their 13 home games, an average of 9,866 per. The team even managed to sell out the 15,261-seat arena for games against Michigan and Purdue.

With the graduation of its two biggest draws in Jess Brungo and the nearly deified Kelly Mazzante, and its early season stumbles, Penn State has seen attendance at Lady Lions games slip a bit this season. More than a bit, in fact, because the Lady Lions have yet to reach last year's average attendance in any game this season. They are averaging 7,246 fans per home contest.

Nevertheless, Penn State's attendance numbers are still impressive for a women's basketball program. At most schools in the country, including a number of schools in the Big Ten, crowds of that size would be cause for celebration.

But I am troubled, and the athletic department should be troubled, by the fact that there was almost no drop in attendance for the game that took place over winter break.

At a school with an enrollment of 41,795 students, that does not seem to add up.

What it does add up to, though, is that Penn State students are not a factor at women's basketball games, and how could they be?

Portland and the players are always quick to praise their diehard student fans, and consistently maintain that they play a huge part in the Lady Lions' home-court advantage.

The students they are referring to are of a breed that descends from the same family as David Puddy, the "face painter" of Seinfeld fame. Elaine Benes would likely dub them "chest painters," and they are an ever-present presence at every women's game.

Floor level. Across the court from the visitors bench. Buried in the corner where they can barely be seen.

When you think of college basketball, you think of passionate fans. The Cameron Crazies incessantly bouncing up and down at Duke, The Pit harassing opponents in New Mexico, or the Izzone cheering on their namesake's every explosion on the sideline for Michigan State. Telecasts are dominated by shots of students going crazy.

Lady Lion telecasts are dominated by bored-looking alumni who line the court and the somewhat older patrons that fill the majority of the BJC.

Sure, students only pay $10 for season tickets to the women's games -- but shouldn't the most passionate fans be the ones who line the court where they can have a bigger impact on the game?

Jason Volpe, a senior member of the legion of painted chests, said that he didn't want to be overly critical of how the Athletic Department treats its student fans, but added that it could do better.

"The location of the student section bothers me a little bit," Volpe said. "I know that they have paying alumni down there, but we are the students and it would be nice to be in the middle. Since we are down here in the corner we can only really affect the game at one end of the floor."

Not only is the student section stashed away in the corner, it is also unnecessarily small. Not that it was ever large, but it recently became even smaller after paying customers complained that their views were blocked by students standing up during the game.

The nerve.

It is not as though there is a lack of interest toward the program from the student body. Last year the athletic department managed to fill a number of busses with students who wanted to make the trip to Connecticut to watch the Lady Lions in the NCAA tournament.

The problem is that the athletic department really shows no interest in drawing students to games. Giving away t-shirts or pom-poms or something might be a good idea. Simply giving the students better seats would be better still.