I see a lot from my seat at the press table during basketball games.

I see which players quietly sing the National Anthem to themselves and which players crack jokes the whole time.

I see how quickly players calm down when reacting to a call after their coach yells from the sideline.

I see the puzzling amount of wasps who attempt to fly the court during every game.

I see the smiles, the mouthed cuss words, the handshakes and the frustraded furrowed brows.

I see how often crowd reaction affects players and game momentum.  

Therefore, it would be nice to also see a butt in every seat. Players feed off of the crowd and it’s hard to do when there isn’t one.

During Saturday’s loss to Midwestern State University, the men’s team made a couple of runs to put them in position for a comeback. Both runs seemed to find extra fuel in the feet stomping and hand clapping that thundered from the stands.

If those runs amounted into a win, the players would have accounted the excitement of the crowd as part of their motivation in pushing back.

If I was a betting woman, I would bet even with the loss they would partially credit the crowd for those runs.

While there could always be more support, more noise and more faces in the crowd, at least the men’s games attendees could be considered a crowd.

Sometimes I look up at women’s games and wonder how I ever got so lucky as to be invited to such an exclusive event.

Then I remember it isn’t exclusive and I definitely didn’t need an invitation. Most of the other attendees just like to arrive fashionably late in time for the men’s game.

I don’t want to just say this is blatant bias for men’s sports over women’s sports because from what I’ve heard, it seems to be an issue of confusion.

I’ve heard people say women’s games are boring compared to the men’s. That’s when I think the confusion begins.

The women sweat up and down the court for 40 minutes the same as the men do. The game ends with a final buzzer and the team with the most points still wins.

There aren’t a lot of differences that create room for disparities in entertainment levels.

The women are 4-1 right now, junior forward Hannah Wascher is averaging about 16 points per game and multiple other players have averages in double figures.

From where I’m sitting both men’s and women’s games are entertaining for a lot of different reasons, whether it be the physical play, the interaction between players or those wandering wasps.

So, come attempt to decipher those four letter words after a missed layup, stay to enjoy some Division II basketball from both teams.

Just come out, show me the USI student body is above out-dated stereotypes surrounding female sports.