Madison Square Garden Should be Good Enough to Host Two Conference Tournaments

Though this post is kind of late, I wanted to get something up before it becomes irrelevant. By now, you’ve probably gathered I love college basketball and this is the penultimate fortnight with all of these conference tournaments as everything gets whittled down to a nice, tidy 68 teams in bracket form. The conference tournaments can be just as fun as the main tournament, especially those where the only way to get in to the dance is by winning your league. The venue is important too and though I enjoy when the home team hosts and a raucous environment ensues (along with a possible court storming), a conference tourney in my opinion should be held at a neutral (or almost neutral) court. Some have it right the way it is now, but others could use some help on where to place their tournament. So below are some thoughts on which arena should be the home for each of the 31 conference tournaments. And if the Ivy had one, I’d put it in MSG.

a

Good the Way it is
Atlantic 10: Atlantic City, NJ – Boardwalk Hall
…….I would rather they not move to Brooklyn and the Barclays next year

Big XII: Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center
…….Perfect spot in a basketball and championship-rich city

Big East: New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
…….Home to St. John’s, but its the Big East and MSG…it needs to be here

Big Ten: Indianapolis, IN – (insert financial organization here) Fieldhouse
…….Basketball’s home state is perfect for a Big conference tournament

Big West: Anaheim, CA – Honda Center
…….The California Bus League features most if it’s members in SoCal, so Anaheim works well

Colonial: Richmond, VA – Richmond Coliseum
…….VCU gets an unfair home advantage, but this tournament always will belong in Virginia’s capital

C-USA: Memphis, TN – FedEx Forum
…….Spaced out conference that I can’t really think of a more improved spot

MAC: Cleveland, OH – Quicken Loans Arena
…….Excellent location and fans travel well here. Too bad they switched to a stupid staggered bracket format

MEAC: Winston-Salem, NC – Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum
…….Good centralized spot in the conference

Missouri Valley: St Louis, MO – Scottrade Center
…….In my opinion, the best conference tournament in the country

Pac-12: Los Angeles, CA – Staples Center
…….It may not have the history like the Big East, but it’s similar in that the tournament just deserves to be here,
…….despite being home to UCLA and USC. Maybe they should follow suit though with MSG and dim the lights for those
…….weekday afternoon games when the arena is 20% full.

Southern: Asheville, NC – Asheville Civic Center
…….Terrific move by the Southern Conference this year to move the tournament to beautiful Western NC

Southland: Katy, TX – Merrill Center
…….Small arena in a Houston suburb became the spot a few years and should be here to stay. Happy with this tourney

SWAC: Garland, TX – Garland Special Events Center
…….I’m indifferent here, but this new spot seems like a good idea

Sun Belt: Hot Springs, AR – Summit Arena
…….Spread out conference, but at least Hot Springs is a destination to spend a few days

Summit: Sioux Falls, SD – Sioux Falls Arena
…….See C-USA

West Coast: Las Vegas, NV – Orleans Arena
…….You can’t beat Vegas and this change in the last few years has paid dividends. Great tourney and site

WAC: Las Vegas, NV – Orleans Arena
…….Another Vegas site that works well with the conference. Not sure how ideal it is next year though with all those
…….Texas teams joining

Could Do Better
Big Sky: move it to Boise, ID and the CenturyLink Center
…….A wide-ranging small conference might do well in a mid-sized, mid-city venue

MAAC: move it to Newark, NJ and the Prudential Center
…….Kudos to the MAAC this season for the first time going to a neutral site in Springfield, MA. But I like America East
…….there, making Newark a good spot for the MAAC

Mountain West: move it to Salt Lake City, UT and the EnergySolutions Arena
…….Las Vegas is great, but let’s get it off UNLV’s home court. I like Salt Lake, but things may get weird with no more
…….Utah or BYU

Ohio Valley: move it to Louisville, KY and the Freedom Hall
…….Nashville and the Auditorium is fine, but Tennessee State is home. How bout Louisville as host? Freedom Hall
…….gets back to the spotlight and the state gets to show us whether it truly is basketball-crazy or just UK/UL-crazy
…….(I’ve always thought the latter)

SEC: move it to Birmingham, AL and the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex
…….I have no problem with New Orleans, but I think of Birmingham with the SEC (not sure why). Atlanta works too

Definitely Change to This
ACC: return it to Greensboro, NC and the Greensboro Coliseum
…….My bias towards tradition comes out. The ACC should always be in Greensboro

America East: move it to Springfield, MA and the MassMutual Center
……Pretty much the geographical center for all schools

Atlantic Sun: move it to Savannah, GA and the Savannah Civic Center
…… A nice destination town within driving distance of most schools. Get rid of having your second-best team host

Big South: move it to Charlotte, NC and the Bojangles Coliseum
…….Time Warner Cable Arena is obviously too big for the “Big South”, but Bojangles and Charlotte is a nice fit

Horizon: move it to Fort Wayne, IN and the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum
…….Midwestern City School league deserves a neutral site

NEC: move it to Bridgeport, CT and the Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard
…….Not ideal as there’s not much to the city and Sacred Heart is close by…might be better options out there

Patriot: move it to Philadelphia, PA and The Palestra
…….Love for this to happen. Make it a nice and tidy Fri-Sat-Sun eight team tournament. Plus I’m sure there are ton of …….alumni in the city to make for decent crowds

I’m ashamed to say the basketball arena at Lafayette College in Easton, PA alluded me the last few years. Not sure why last Saturday was my first appearance there as the drive is relatively short. This was the second straight Patriot League facility and fifth overall visited. The 3,500 seat Allen P. Kirby Sports Center first made its appearance on The List last year, when I lowered the minimum capacity from 4,000 to 3,500. Sitting up on College Hill, the small private school rises well above the city and provides a nice birds-eye view of Easton and the Delaware River as a winding road brings you to the top of the hill. The football stadium parking here was awful and for basketball it wasn’t much better with one small deck available, but luckily that was enough and it was no problem getting to. Speaking of football, it was a very strange walk to the Sports Center as you walk through Fisher Field. Despite the cold and wind, it was great because that gave me the opportunity to walk the stadium and take some pictures that I didn’t get during my first visit there in 2006.

The Kirby Sports Center has a nice, modern exterior and concourse that was aided by renovations. The opening foyer looks more like a student union as opposed to an arena, but once you push in a little further, the hallway before entering the gym is nicely decorated with Lafayette maroon on the walls and complete with several trophy display cases. The gym itself is meh. All wooden bleachers with three sides of seating, while at the other end is a food stand before it opens up to the rest of the “sports center” (indoor track and other training), giving it a less than appealing look and feel. Lafayette-Bucknell was the game I saw and had an interest for, as I am a big fan of the lower-level in college basketball. Both teams were 2-0 coming in, but Bucknell is the prohibitive league favorite and they showed it. Hardly ever trailing they outclassed the Leopards and Mike Muscala was impressive scoring 27 with ease. The Bison won 79-65 with a 9-2 run to start the second half pushing them to the insurmountable lead. It was nice seeing a good crowd on hand (a legit announced attendance of 2,515) and the fans all were reading the free program as they were into the game. They seemed to know a lot about the team and league, too bad Bucknell never really gave them a chance to be more vocal.

For more on the whole arena experience, be sure to check out #112 Kirby Sports Center on the right side of the page

I should go to Alumni Gym more often. Rider University’s tiny arena (or gym) is located in Lawrenceville, NJ and though the 1,650-seat facility is not on The List, I have visited it twice now for a couple basketball games. The first time I made the hour and a half drive from my house was in 2009 to see a great MAAC battle between Rider and Siena (the “Onions, Double Order!” year the Saints beat Ohio State in the tourney). In that game, this happened:

Flash forward to last night, where the Iona Gaels (10-6, 5-1) played Rider (11-6, 4-1) in a big game at the top of the conference. It was another classic:

The Gaels went on to win a thriller, 100-96 in OT. Iona jumped out to a 30-13 as Rider was laughingly sloppy. Then a barrage of 3s brought them back in it and they even went up eight in the second half. From there, it was a see-saw affair that was exciting as these two teams love to push the pace as evidenced by the score. One guy who stuck out during the game was Mike Glover who was an absolute beast with 17 boards. The MAAC tourney this year in Bridgeport should be a fun affair.

Even though Alumni Gym is tiny (the 333rd largest out of 345 Division I teams), it’s cozy and fits the Lawrenceville, NJ campus nicely. In the main entrance is a nice Athletics Hall of Fame for all Rider’s best athletes. After navigating a couple of hallways you enter to the main foyer, where a couple double doors brings you to the gym. They pack it in most  nights and the fans bring passion to the game. The only discernible feature to this gym is the mold on the slanted roof. Otherwise, it suits the need of the program and the Broncs have a good thing going with Alumni Gym. Plus, if they need a bigger facility, they can (and have) play at Sun National Bank Arena in Trenton, about 20 minutes away. There’s nothing like being inside a warm gym on a cold winter’s night. For a full review, head on over to Stadium Journey, where I will be doing a write-up on the arena.