UK Hoops finishes top 20 in national attendance for 11th consecutive season

If you’re someone who spends a good chunk of your basketball season sitting inside Memorial Coliseum, what I’m about to say won’t shock you.

For the 11th consecutive season, the Kentucky Women’s Basketball team has finished in the top 20 for national attendance with an average fan attendance of 4,756. It was also the 11th straight year that the ladies drew over 80,000 fans to home games throughout the season, bringing in an estimated 80,853 people.

The ‘Cats officially came in ranked No. 19 after 17 home games (15 at Memorial and two at Rupp Arena), of which Kentucky won 14.

Never an argument…

Big Blue Nation is the best fan base in the world. 😻👏#WeAreUK https://t.co/6PlYdCuloD

— Kentucky WBB (@KentuckyWBB) August 11, 2020

Kentucky’s largest crowd of the season came–unsurprisingly–during the December matchup against a top-ranked Lousiville Cardinals team in Lexington’s downtown Rupp Arena. The Cards came out victorious by a final score of 67-66 after star Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard’s potential game-winning shot just missed at the buzzer. In that game, over 11,000 fans were in attendance, making it the 23rd most attended game of the 2019-20 season.

It wasn’t just home games, either. As the Big Blue Nation often does, they traveled all across the country and into enemy territory. A grand total of 135,443 fans attended Kentucky games throughout the year, 18th best in the country. The SEC as a whole had the highest attendance average among all other conferences.

Matthew Mitchell became the head coach before the 2007-08 season and Kentucky has topped averages of 4,500 fans every year since the 2009-10 season. If you’ve been to Memorial over the last couple of seasons, you know how exciting the atmosphere can be. The supporters that come to women’s games are different from the men’s games in that the majority of the crowd is always on its feet and cheering on the ‘Cats. The game against UL inside Rupp was especially rowdy, with 11,000-plus fans screaming and yelling the entire 40-minute game.

If/when fans are allowed back inside arenas, going to watch Rhyne Howard and company at Memorial should be a bucket list destination.

[UK Athletics]