ATLANTA -- Iman Shumpert jogged out of the tunnel, stole a quick glimpse of his nearly half-empty home arena and got into his quiet zone, becoming focused on the game at hand.

Without thousands of rabid fans -- namely those right behind the baskets -- shouting to the tops of their lungs during pregame introductions, it was easy to do so.

By the end of the night, with a rare win in hand, the Georgia Tech guard was asked his thoughts about the 5,313 who allegedly witnessed it.

“Just means wins games,” Shumpert said of the small crowd that witnessed Georgia Tech’s 62-53 win over Chattanooga two weeks ago. “That’s what it tells me.”

That was precisely the message the absent were trying to send.

This season, as the Yellow Jackets have compiled an 11-17 overall record, posted just three conference wins and are mired in 11th place in the 12-team ACC, crowds have been thin. They have been so thin that the Yellow Jackets can’t help but notice the abandoned chairbacks and lonely metal bleachers that have been present more this season than at any other point during head coach Paul Hewitt’s 11-year coaching tenure.

More than any other part of Alexander Memorial Coliseum, perhaps the most conspicuous dearth of bodies has been in the places students are supposed to pack: behind the baskets.

“When you go to a basketball game and the team doesn’t score and there’s a 20-0 run (by the other team), then it’s not fun,” Georgia Tech senior mechanical engineering major Corey Black said. “You don’t enjoy it; especially when there’s no one there. When there’s a full stadium, you’re standing up constantly, and that helps the atmosphere. You’re always yelling; you’re always into it.”

Students attending games have done a lot more sitting than standing this season, he contends. And some are sick of it.

“I do think there is a big sentiment -- not that they’re officially together in this -- but there are a bunch of people that think, Paul Hewitt’s been there, he shouldn’t be there now, and you do almost want to boycott it,” Black said.

According to Maja Hansen, Georgia Tech’s director of ticket operations, an average of “approximately 500” students has appeared at games this season. She didn’t have exact data from recent previous seasons, but she acknowledged that the total “is down slightly.”

Even still, some might actually consider that number slightly higher than perceived.

During Georgia Tech’s most recent home game, a loss to Virginia last Wednesday, only 23 students stood on the floor on a set of risers behind the Coliseum’s baskets. The area can only pack in 300 students, but it is devoted to the most die-hard of student spectators nicknamed “The Swarm.” To be in that group, students must only wear school colors and are given identifying wristbands.

While the vast majority of students sit in bleachers off the floor and behind the baskets, the low number of Swarm students can be an indication of the students’ feelings toward the program.

“There’s a lot of things that go into it. Sometimes, it’s the success of the program and the interest level of the students,” Hansen said of the drop in student attendance.

Rumors of unofficial fan boycotts have rumbled around the program all season, with paying alumni and other fans having long threatened to avoid showing up at games until certain changes are made around the team. Students have not staged similar organized boycotts, Black and others said, but the feeling to stay away persists.

“Some of my friends have said before that they won’t go to game as long as Paul Hewitt is the head coach,” freshman civil engineering major Karsten Tufts said. “Some people are just sick and tired of watching the Hewitt coaching style, and they think what he’s doing isn’t really effective and isn’t really working. But most of it is just them in a panic because we’re so bad.”

It could be argued that their “panic” has been fueled in recent months by consistent calls for Hewitt’s ouster that have come from segments of the fan base and some media. Since the middle of last season, Hewitt’s job security has been the focus of message board dialogues and blog post diatribes.

Even after leading the Yellow Jackets last March to within seconds of knocking off eventual national champion Duke in the ACC championship game and a second-round showing in the NCAA tournament, Hewitt’s firing was objective No. 1 in many minds.

“I remember people used to tell me we were known at one time as a basketball school, not a football school,” Tufts said. “Right now, I’m ashamed to be considered a basketball school.”

That said, he has still made all but three home games this season. Black has attended about half of them. In years past, he probably only missed one or two, he said.

Tufts did add that the drop in student attendance cannot be solely blamed on his friends’ perception of poor coaching or poor play. There could be other reasons.

Student ticket policies changed in recent years, but that should have no bearing on the lack of attendance, Hansen said. The student ticket website, ramblinwreck.com/students-tickets outlines the school’s policies in a way they should understand, she said.

But Black doesn’t believe every student has comprehended the changes.

“I’m not sure if the general population of students even knows how to get a ticket to the game,” he said.

All one needs is his or her Buzzcard ID.

Other factors to the low attendance could include a change in student culture.

“When I came to this school, it was awesome. It was full every game,” Black said. “The last few years, the people who came in after me started with teams that weren’t winning, and it never seemed like we were building up our program at all. It seemed like we were stalling a little bit.”

Black is a fifth-year senior from Lilburn who enrolled the fall of 2006. Since his arrival, the Yellow Jackets have had three losing seasons and are headed toward a fourth. Two years before he arrived, Hewitt led the team to the NCAA championship game.

“I’ve found this a lot in Atlanta (with sporting events), and I hate it, but we need a good product to go to games,” Black said. “I’m a huge Thrashers fan so that kills me.”

Tufts believes part of the problem is generational, with some of his fellow underclassmen showing little motivation to leave their dorms when certain campus events occur. Instead, they cling to iPods, video games and computers as methods of enjoyment, he said.

“It goes mainly to the losing,” Tufts said. “But I know bunch of people on my hall alone that will play a computer game for hours straight. We spend more time on the Internet and less getting out and doing stuff. That’s also one of the things that’s hurting attendance, as well.”

Whatever the issue with students, the Yellow Jackets will be interested to see Sunday’s crowd when they host Miami in the Coliseum’s finale. Many around the program are hoping for a fuller crowd than they've been seeing.

Following the game and this season, the 54-year-old building will be demolished ahead of a renovation project that will bring a brand new facility to the north campus locale. All that will remain of the structure will be its roof. Even the name will be changed to the Hank McCamish Pavilion.

“For 11 years, it’s been a tremendous home court for us,” Hewitt said.

When asked earlier this week if he would take a souvenir from the Coliseum on Sunday, Hewitt said succinctly, “Right now, I’ll take a win.”

So, too apparently, will the students.