The general population of fans significantly out numbers the students both on campus and at MSG.
In an arena that seats less than 6000, that's pretty sad.
Perhaps frontrunners wasn't the best choice of words. Maybe fair-weather fans, flakes or simply people with low character or pride in their decision to attend SJU. Plenty of schools have put a bad product on the floor and were still shown support by the students. If you don't go to the school, you owe them nothing.
Not everyone who goes to school likes basketball. In fact, believe it or not, a large majority of the school is here to just get an education. Just because they didn't pay to come to see crappy Norm Roberts basketball doesn't mean they have low character. Most students commute to campus and work at the same time. St. John's isn't like many other Big East schools where all the students do is go to school and party. It's hard for commuters who are on campus 2-3 days a week to come to school on an off-day or arrange to come back to school after their classes to see a basketball team that sucks.
Now that we are winning basketball games are starting to be viewed as a fun event. Why can't you just be happy that people are now coming to games? I know being in the student section is a lot more fun when it's full than when it's empty and I'm sure it's more enjoyable for other fans to have a loud arena. Also, any school that is a perennial loser takes a hit at the gate, and when they get back on track they start drawing fans. It happens to all schools and professional teams. People don't like losers. You put 7 years of losing basketball at any school and they will lose their fans.
Also, students don't owe it to the school to go to a basketball game, especially if the school didn't put any commitment to the program by letting Norm stick around for so long. I think the 30000 dollar tuition bill erases any indebtedness a student has to the school.