Storrs - Here's the question posed to Geno Auriemma on the official NCAA podium Tuesday night, all the tape recorders and cameras running:

"Geno … This was the fans' last chance to see Maya play (at Gampel Pavilion) and yet the crowd (5,729) is the smallest anyone can remember here in years. Is there part of you that wonders why the place wasn't full?"

Auriemma took the room service fastball and hit one into the bleachers.

"We probably have to win more games," he said, the Philly sarcasm building. "Everybody loves a winner. I think that will help. Free parking and handouts at the gate might help. … Maybe let the fans participate in coaching the team."

Then Auriemma paused and said, "I am going to recommend that we don't bid on this (the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament) for the next five years. I think we have a real spoiled group of fans. … They assume we're going to the Final Four. … The regular season was great, then we had the (Big East) tournament in Hartford ... we ask them to do a lot. I understand that. But I'm going to recommend to Jeff (athletic director Jeff Hathaway) that we don't bid on this for the next five years."

Auriemma, you figure, was saying some of that for effect. There are worse things than playing the first two NCAA tournament games at home. But the overall message was clearer than a shot of Absolut: Maya Moore deserved better than 4,398 empty seats for her last game on campus. So did her teammates.

This is where we should pause and salute the 5,729 that showed up. They were wonderful, even in a tractor pull of a game. They waited to the end to give Moore a curtain call she'll never forget, chanting her name as she waited to be interviewed for television.

Reasons for declining attendance at UConn women's games have been debated ad nauseum. You can cite the economy, UConn's donor-based seating issues, more people than ever choosing to stay home and watch games in high definition, whatever. But those should be arguments for another day. Not this day. This was the last time Maya Moore, the most elegant kid Auriemma has ever recruited to Storrs, would ever play at Gampel Pavilion.

The next time she plays a game on our soil will be Aug. 16 when the Minnesota Lynx, the team that will draft her, plays the Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena.

This was the last time here for Lorin Dixon, too.

And this was the smallest crowd at Gampel to watch a women's basketball game since March 7, 1994 (a Big East tourney game vs. Seton Hall).

I must ask: If this had been the last time to see Diana or Sue, would more than 5,729 have showed up?

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Meantime, I'd caution UConn fans of all sports as they induldge their favorite pastime: sitting in judgment of other fan bases. Have you checked your backyard lately? I don't see Rentschler Field, the XL Center or Gampel Pavilion full very much anymore. You've all got your reasons. I can't profess to being terribly interested in them.

But it is fascinating, in a perverse sort of way, that the smallest crowd in 17 years shows up to watch one of the program's all-time greats during her last game. For the record: Senior Night wasn't sold out at Gampel either.

Auriemma is probably angrier at this than Moore, who said "I don't think I'll ever forget that scene," alluding to the postgame hosannas from the people who showed up.

Moore would never admit it anyway. That's why she's Maya Moore. When asked about the final moments inside the gym she illuminated for four years, she chose to talk about a teammate. She couldn't stop talking about Lorin Dixon's blocked shot late in the game. Everything she said included the word "Lorin" or "Lorin and I."

She again proved that when you want to know how to act in a certain situation, just look at whatever Maya Moore happens to be doing at the time. And this is the player who was treated to 4,398 empty seats Tuesday night.

It would be a hoot if Auriemma actually suggested to his superiors that UConn fans don't deserve the NCAA tournament on their soil. It's the truth.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.