The final buzzer sounds and the cheers of the sparse crowd echo faintly off the concrete walls of the cavernous Carrier Dome. Quentin Hillsman doles out high-fives after another home victory for the Syracuse women's basketball team, then makes a beeline for a courtside radio interview.
Moments later, he takes off the headset and walks over to press row for a quick question-and-answer session with the beat writer who covers the team for a weekly newspaper and then retreats to the locker room.
''It's so important,'' Hillsman said. ''I enjoy the coverage. We go to a lot of places where there is no coverage.''
Hillsman, in his fifth year as coach, has transformed the Orange women into a solid team during his tenure. They handed then-No. 6 Ohio State its first loss of the season in December and were in the national rankings for five straight weeks, matching the program mark first achieved in the 2007-08 season.
Still, few people around here come out to see them play. Jim Boeheim's men rule this town, always have. Either Kentucky or Syracuse has led the nation in home attendance in each of the past 34 seasons. Average attendance for the Orange men with one home game remaining is 21,991 for 17 dates compared to 1,258 for 19 women's games - and the Carrier Dome holds the NCAA record for largest on-campus crowd to see a college basketball game. That mark was set a year ago when 34,616 turned out to see the Orange men beat Villanova.
''Sometimes, when you have a successful men's program, people don't care about what's going on with the women,'' said Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer, the first coach in NCAA history to lead three different women's programs to the Final Four. ''I talked about it with the people when I took the job at Iowa (in 1983). We were talking about the chicken or egg theory. What is it, that you get a good product and then people show up?
''I think what was great was the mentality, maybe, of the people in the Midwest. They were appreciative that this team was really going out and trying. They'd say, 'Gee, those girls are really working hard. Isn't that nice? We're going to come out and support those girls.'''
So far, that hasn't happened at Syracuse. And attendance figures listed in the box scores this season don't often reflect reality. The Orange (21-8), on the cusp of earning a berth in the NCAA tournament for the second time under Hillsman and fifth overall, were lucky to have a couple hundred fans for home games, even when the school piggybacked a women's game with a men's contest.
''I'd like to see this place packed. They give a great game,'' said Shakena Nicholson, a regular with her 6-year-old twin daughters. ''I think they're underappreciated. We get a few new faces, but we kind of know everybody. It's like a family. I think it's so unfair.''
In a 77-61 loss in early February to then-No. 10 DePaul, just the Orange's second setback at home this season, one could almost hear a pin drop despite the courtside cheering of university chancellor Nancy Cantor and athletic director Daryl Gross.
''You can't really let it get into your head because you have to play the game,'' said sophomore guard Elashier Hall, of Washington, D.C. ''It isn't about who's there and who's watching, but it feels good when you have home court support, even when you go away. Just to get those 10 or 20 fans, it's always good to have people in your corner.''
Ah, those 10 or 20 fans. Geno Auriemma remembers those days well. When he took over at Connecticut in 1985, parents and a smattering of fans came to watch his Huskies. Then again, the school wasn't big on promoting women's sports in those days and the team wasn't good.
''My first year there were probably about 250,'' Auriemma said with a laugh. ''There wasn't a whole lot of promotion. As a matter of fact, there wasn't any.
''I think it's frustrating (when attendance is low) in the sense that they don't get to experience an atmosphere that's as exciting as it could be. Absolutely, the kids know when the place is packed and when it's empty. I know when we play at home, they don't have to worry about that, and we get a lot of people that come watch us on the road, so it's a little bit different. But we go to places where it's not like playing at home, and I think they all know that. They appreciate more what we have here.''
What UConn had this season was an average home attendance of just under 10,200, a byproduct of the team's remarkable success under Auriemma. Since he took over, the Huskies have won seven national championships, posted four undefeated seasons and had 15 years with 30 or more wins. They have also set NCAA record winning streaks of 70, and then 90 games.
''Winning helps a lot. Winning consistently helps tremendously,'' said Auriemma, who has the rare luxury of having to accommodate several beat writers from small daily newspapers in Connecticut. ''Promotion and having the kind of kids that people want to watch play, the media getting behind the team and supporting the team - all of those things are connected.
''There isn't one single thing that makes it work, but I would think in a place like Syracuse it does take some time, obviously. They have been consistently better these last couple of years, but they weren't before (Hillsman) got there, so it's a lot to overcome. They spent a whole bunch of years just not being very good.''
Perennial power Tennessee averaged just over 13,000 this season, and when the Lady Vols begin play this week in the SEC tournament in Nashville, their rabid fans won't have far to travel.
''It's all about getting out in the community. That's important - to give back to the community,'' said longtime Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, whose Lady Vols have led the nation in attendance 13 of the past 14 years. ''We just have been so blessed to have the type of fan support night in and night out. I just think this community embraced women's basketball long before it was a popular thing to do. It's just been incredible, and I never, ever want to take that for granted. Even when we were not playing at the level we're playing this year, they were still there. They just show up.''
As for Syracuse, Auriemma isn't helping matters. UConn finished the regular season by trouncing the Orange 82-47 on Monday night before 10,167 fans at Gampel Pavilion. It's little wonder why local star Breanna Stewart, a 6-foot-3, 16-year-old junior at Cicero-North Syracuse High School, has spurned the Orange.
After all, she has the talent to change the face of a program. She can already dunk. And she seemingly has it all. Which is why she's going to UConn.
But Gross and the Orange trudge on, with visions of the day when Syracuse can regularly attract crowds of 5,000.
''It's hard, but we're trying. We're doing everything in marketing, and we're going to keep trying,'' he said. ''It's one of those things - the mindset of people. This is an exciting team. This is the best history we've ever had in the program, so I think eventually it'll build, I really do.''
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AP Sports Writer Beth Rucker in Knoxville, Tenn. contributed to this report.
