That's the downside in being "Chicago's" Big Ten team. Has been and always will be lots of alternatives to watching the Kitties play -- so unless they are putting a quality product on the floor, they simply aren't a relative draw in that marketplace.
The other downside is that many of their B1G peers (Iowa, MI, MSU, Illini) have large Chicago fanbases who, when their respective schools are good, routinely will catch a game in Evanston (or wherever they are playing in the Chicago MSA this year), partially offsetting what should be a home court advantage. As the son of Illini alumni who grew up in the suburbs, I saw my first llini football game in the late 1970s at Dyche stadium. Suffice it to say, it was not an expensive outing, nor a difficult ticket. It's a surprise that I still like college football with that as my first experience.