Funny. At first I was going to blog about what a shame it was that two of college hoops best players — Patty Mills and Stephen Curry — and their teasm, St. Mary’s and Davidson, respectively, two of the best teams in college basketball all season long, were being forced to play in a “lesser” tournament; the NIT rather than the Big Dance. But, that’s not what’s on my mind any more. In fact, I’m not so sure the NIT is a lesser tournament.
Fact is, there were tons of empty sites at each and every site for the opening round of the NCAA basketball tournament. Many arenas had all the atmosphere and excitement of a bag of hammers. The only fans who really brought it were the entire state of North Dakota, who showed up in Minneapolis to cheer on their Bison. Otherwise, it seemed like people were just looking for quiet places to mess with their iPhones and Blackberies.
Not so at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga tonight. This gym, the St. Mary’s homecourt, is crazier than an RV full of tweakers. Not only is the game great, but it’s being played in atmosphere worthy of the level of competition. While I may be down on the NCAA tournament because I don’t really have a horse left in that race, the crowds, such as they are, haven’t really gotten into any of the games that I saw in four straight days of watching the Big Dance.
Contrast that with the 17,000 who showed up in Omaha Monday night to root on Creighton (and left with their hearts broken, as Bluejays sharpshooter Booker Woodfork missed a game-winning triple and Kentucky escaped with a 65-63 win) or the 10,000+ that showed up to watch Wichita State beat my UB Bulls last Wednesday in the College Basketball Invitational (8800 on Monday for the Shockers loss to Stanford) or the near-capacity crowd at Oregon State’s Gill Coliseum for the Beavers’ 71-70 OT victory over Vermont in the CBI and, well, it’s starting to look like the NCAA Tournament really isn’t the only game in town for college hoops fans during the month of March.
March is just as mad and, this year at least, more exciting away from CBS’s BCS-laden corporate extravaganza.
If you don’t believe me, flip the channel to ESPN2 right now. It’s 51-47 St. Mary’s with about 13:00 left to play and Mills and Curry are guarding each other. The final 13 minutes of this game going to be epic; Big Dance or no Big Dance.
Sphere: Related Content
on Mar 24th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Having watched them all season up close, Davidson was not the same team this year. Curry is a natural #2, and without Richards at the point, they weren’t as good as last year.
It was not a big surprise that they failed to win their conference tournament. College of Charleston beat them 2 out of 3 times this year, including the tournament game.
Last year, they would not have lost to Citadel without Curry in the starting line up, as they did this year when he missed a few games with the sprained ankle.
That’s not to belittle their overall accomplishments, as they had a fine year, but they weren’t as good this year
on Apr 6th, 2009 at 3:16 am
Previously I don’t know about college hoops before seeing this information.If u have any information share with me.
on May 14th, 2009 at 11:57 am
In the end, the NIT is a “lesser” tournament. There are lots of good players playing in it, but the good teams that are full of good players, generally make the Big Dance.