1. This is not unique to UR. 95% of the schools in the country have this happening. From Texas the other day against VCU, to VCU themselves, to Auburn, to Boston College, to Northwestern, many schools have problems of poor student attendance to certain games.
2. A lot of it is culture of going to the games. Do you think all the students that go to Duke just so happen to be the biggest basketball fans? Of course not. They go the games because there are decades long history of national success, best players in the country, and it being the thing to do. Here's attendance of the Duke senior night football game against Wake where there is no culture of going to football games at Duke.
3. UR is a smaller school. A 20% attendance showing to certain games will look to have more of an effect than if bigger schools only had a 20% showing.
4. Not many students care as much to go to games against Coppin State. Look at the game before against Wake Forest. The student attendance for that was very good in my opinion.
5.We have had a disappointing record the past few years. There will always be students who always go to the games and students who will never go to the games. However, the majority go or don't go based on success. It is more fun to watch a team that is 7-1, top 25, goes to NCAA tournament, then a team who is coming off of a 12-20 season and is currently 4-5. I wish it was packed for every game no matter the circumstances, but unfortunately that isn't the reality. For any school, not just UR.
If Hardt gets a home run hire coach that can help us win more consistently, make the NCAAs, and have bigger name teams coming to the Robins Center because of that, etc. we will build a culture of winning and get bigger/more consistent numbers to greater amount of games.