When Georgia women's basketball coach Andy Landers turned down an offer from the WNBA last summer to remain in Athens, his list of reasons for staying was short:

''We have done everything there is to do in women's basketball but two things,'' he said at the time. ''One, build the attendance. Two, and this was the biggie, win the national championship.''

The second goal is a no-brainer, it's what everyone wants to do. But the attendance, that's interesting. In his 20 years as head coach, Landers has learned that the ''Field of Dreams'' principle does not apply to women's basketball. No matter how strong a program he builds, the people simply don't come.

While the Lady Bulldogs have competed on the highest level both nationally and in the Southeastern Conference for nearly two decades, the program has always suffered at the box office. Only once in UGA history has a home crowd exceeded 10,000 -- that a sellout of 10,523 for a game against Connecticut on Jan. 20, 1997. By comparison, both Tennessee and Connecticut are averaging more than 10,523 fans this season.

The Lady Bulldogs, ranked fourth in the nation on the court and 31st in the bleachers, will host their most important game since that nationally televised loss to the Huskies tonight when the top-ranked Lady Vols visit for a 7:30 p.m. showdown. Tennessee being an extraordinary opponent, Georgia officials are expecting similar attendance figures -- perhaps 7,000 or 8,000 -- but Landers has been on his soapbox for even more than that.

''We've gotta have 10,500,'' he said this week. ''I'm going to be disappointed in Georgia fans if we don't have 10,500 people in here, that's all I've got to stay about it. If you can't get up for this, something's wrong.''

But as Landers has learned, just because people should show up doesn't mean they will. Why do the Lady Bulldogs struggle to even fill Stegeman Coliseum halfway once or twice each season? There are plenty of theories.

The first problem cited by many in the athletic association is sheer demographics. There just isn't a large enough population in the Athens-Clarke County area to build the fan base similar to those surrounding other top schools.

''What really benefits (SEC attendance leaders) Tennessee and Vanderbilt is the large population,'' said Avery McLean, Georgia's assistant athletic director for promotions. ''I think the Clarke-Oconee combo is maybe about 100,000, plus students. So we're working from a smaller population base, and if you compare us to the other schools, the Florida, Alabama, Auburn, we usually finish higher than them.''

The population numbers are accurate. The Athens metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, had an estimated population of 137,204 in July, 1996. That number puts Athens at the bottom end of the SEC cities in population, ahead of only Auburn, Ala., Starkville, Miss., and Oxford, Miss.

The Knoxville metropolitan area was home to 649,277 people in the same government estimate, while Nashville's population was pegged at 1,117,178.

Yes, UGA relies on fans who live an hour away in Atlanta to boost its attendance for all sports, but with so few potential customers living within a 10- or 15-minute drive of the arena, coming to a game can become a hassle rather than relaxation. It's a dilemma that hurts UGA in both season ticket and walk-up sales, which in turn damages overall attendance.

''Let's face it, the only way you can get in the arena are season tickets, group sales and walk-up,'' said McLean. ''If we had 4,000 or 5,000 season tickets, you're working from a good, solid base. Now you try to get some groups in there to supplement the base, and then with the walk-up, you try to get the sellout. If your season-ticket base is what ours is, then you rely quite a bit on the groups and the walk-ups, and it's a lot to make up.''

According to assistant athletic director for ticket operations Freddy Jones, the Lady Bulldogs have sold 478 season tickets for 1998-99 -- not even close to the numbers that would provide McLean and his staff with the built-in attendance edge they would like to have.

Of course, there's nothing McLean or anyone else at Georgia can do about the population, so the question becomes, what can the athletic association do to get a higher percentage of those people out to a women's basketball game?

Landers has already taken care of what most consider the top priority in building attendance: winning. The Lady Bulldogs won 459 games in his first 19 seasons at the helm, an average of 24.2 victories per year, and Georgia is 18-1 this year entering tonight's game with the Lady Vols.

Next on the list is providing a reason for people to come out. This is, after all, the entertainment business, and just like every other firm out to attract attention to its product, Georgia has to target its audience, get the word out, and give the fans a good show when they do come to a game.

Landers said he's always been willing to do everything in his power to get the word out to the community, and he will continue to do so.

"We've got to be more aggressive in everything that we are doing," he said. "And I think we've got to do a better job of targeting people that we know women's basketball has appealed to at Connecticut, Louisiana Tech and Tennessee -- 40- to 45-year-olds with young children, and retirees. Where are they at, how do we contact them, how do we get them involved?

"I'll do anything that promotions wants me to do, as long as it doesn't take away from two things: our basketball program and my family. I've spent enough time away from my family doing basketball things, I've lost time with my kids that I can't get back. But there's a lot of days, a lot of times, where I don't do a heck of a lot, and I could devote myself to it 40 hours a week. I could go to Atlanta, visit people, whatever they want me to do."

What Landers doesn't want, though, is for everything to be left in his hands.

"Now if they want me to find the bone, dig a hole, bury the bone…I do that on some occasions, but this is a big deal," he said. "Promoting women's basketball, it's not about one bone -- you've gotta have the whole skeleton. One person can't do it."

The same could be said about anything involving major college athletics at any program as large and multi-faceted as Georgia's. To get something done, there generally has to be support from higher up that filters down through the promotions and ticket departments, coaching staff and players, and even to ushers and ticket sellers.

Some have questioned whether UGA's top administrators provide that support -- a question that could be answered any number of ways, depending on the lens one uses to view the situation. One person with experience on both ends of the women's basketball attendance spectrum has an idea or two about differences between the way things are done at Georgia and elsewhere.

David Sayler came to Georgia from Connecticut two seasons ago to take over women's basketball promotions. He left after last year to become an assistant athletic director at the University of Hartford.

Sayler said top administrators at UConn approached women's basketball a bit differently than those at Georgia.

"I think overall, (Georgia's administrators) are very supportive," he said. "But maybe they need to look at being a little more proactive than reactive.

"I would say it's important to people at Georgia that the team is successful. They all want it to succeed, there's no question, and they feel comfortable that, with Coach Landers there, it will succeed. But I think at UConn, it's looked at as a revenue-producer. They feel like they're making investments in this, so let's make it work and let's do what we can to generate revenue and see what we can do.

"At Georgia, the goal isn't the revenue, the goal is to just put a good team out there and maybe win the national championship. I don't know that it's as well developed, I guess, in terms of a plan."

And if there's any lesson the have-nots around the country can learn from the haves, it would have to be that planning is everything.

Take Tennessee, rulers of the women's basketball planet in everything from talent to coaching to average attendance to national championships. The Lady Vols are averaging 16,971 fans this year at Thompson-Boling Arena, including two crowds exceeding 20,000 just three days apart.

One of those enormous gatherings was on Jan. 14, when the previously undefeated Lady Bulldogs limped out of Knoxville with a 102-69 loss before 22,635 fans. Those at Thompson-Boling that night witnessed not only an exceptional display of basketball from the Lady Vols, but also a show worthy of any NBA team before the game, during timeouts and at halftime.

With the lights dimmed and lasers flashing around the court, and a rotating Lady Vols logo projected on the playing floor, the UT starters were introduced one-by-one. They charged through smoke at the end of a tunnel to an ear-splitting reception from the crowd, punctuated by fireworks above each basket. Some of Georgia's players, who had been introduced almost reluctantly with all the lights on minutes earlier, stood in awe of the pregame production.

It was a sight not often seen in amateur athletics -- especially on the women's side.

McLean and one of his assistants, Steve Watson, were in the stands in Knoxville for that display, along with the endless stream of timeout games and promotions that followed. Afterward, McLean pronounced himself impressed with the delivery, if not necessarily the product.

"I didn’t see anything I hadn't seen before, they just had a lot of it," he said.

And that, along with some of the best basketball around, is the cornerstone of Tennessee's marketing plan. The emphasis on promotions and attendance has made a difference in Knoxville, according to Lady Vol coach Pat Summitt.

"We have obviously put marketing as a real priority, and I think that has been a tremendous asset for us," she said. "But also having great teams and great players and winning -- winning helps. We haven't always had this level of support, but when you get it, it is a tremendous bonus for us, it's a tremendous selling point for us in recruiting because of the environment.

"You can bring a recruit here, they can see it on national TV, and the kids like that exciting environment; it's electrifying to have them hear it and see it and want to be a part of it. Our fans have been a big part of our family and our ability to recruit nationally."

Not to mention the crowd's ability to provide a little extra incentive to the home team in a big game, a boost Georgia rarely has but desperately wants.

"When you're tired and you've played hard and maybe you've been reasonably effective, that wears on you -- it's just like any other job, you start to tire," said Landers. "Where I see fans playing the greatest role is, then they stand up, and they get you juiced and rejuvenated, and you just kind of forget about being tired, you go on and make another push, an extra push."

With the Lady Vols in town tonight, playing before what will probably be the biggest crowd Georgia draws this season, Landers and his team will need that extra help. But what happens if Tennessee comes in and wins again, and the attendance for Georgia's next home game two weeks from now slides back down to 3,000 or 4,000? Will progress truly have been made?

In the minds of those who have studied the situation, the answer is always changing. It takes time to build a fan base like those at Tennessee and Connecticut, and rightly or wrongly, Georgia is still waiting for its growth spurt.

For the time being, the beneficiaries of the crowd that does show up -- be it1,000 or 10,000 -- are anxious to show off what they can do to a larger audience. They want those big numbers not only for the sake of helping in individual games, but also for women's basketball as an entity.

"I really take pride in this program, and it would make me really happy just to see all those people come out and support us," said Lady Bulldog senior Pam Irwin-Osbolt. "The more the better -- the crowd helps, the players feed off the crowd. It's important."