NCAA Tourney Thread

I have to say the courts this year are a huge improvement over the awful black-and-blue ones they have used in recent years. The lime green in St. Louis is a little loud for my taste, but tolerable.

TV has changed a lot, and the in game experience has not kept up.

It doesn't seem like that long ago not every game was on tv in every market, so going to games did not mean you were missing out.
Now every game is on, so guys like me last night flipped between games, and with the scores and time left of all games at the top of the screen, I knew where to change and when.

I knew there was no reason to watch Kentucky, so I didn't. But if that was the game you were at, I'd be you were in the atrium watching a tv monitor of Providence or any other game.

The NCAA or Big East or whomever needs to rethink in stadium replays. If you want me to pay top dollar for teams I don't know a year in advance, what are you going to do for me, the in arena viewer, that is better than sitting with my friends at a bar or at home. One thing you can do is let me see the replays. If there is a foul let me see it. If there is a ball out of bounds in the last minute, show me the same angles the people that didn't pay are getting.

First off, I love going to the NCAA tourney. While yes, a conference tourney will be better, that is because you are familiar with every team, you are familiar with all of the players and you are familiar with all of the fan bases.

The NCAA is different. The NCAA tournament is not about the home team crowd, it is much more than that. First off, the base is dependent upon the host school. If MU is the host school when it comes to Milwaukee - you depend on the host school's season ticket holders supporting the event. Marquette has done very well in that respect over the last two decades. Some places do not, example - New Orleans. I remember years ago New Orleans had the 1st & 2nd round because of the Final Four deal. Who is going to support it? Tulane fans? No. They ended up seeding Duke and Notre Dame there just to try and sell tickets. Fail.

Send it to cities where the host school does their job and sells tickets.

Next you have the 8 teams. They need to sell tickets. Now you need some of those teams to be close enough to drive, but you can't have all. You want a balanced crowd. Giving a school a home game does not provide a balanced crowd.

Finally you have the local basketball junkies/fans, and they buy a good number of tickets.

If you have all three categories above, you have a good mix.

When you have a city like New Orleans hosting - the #1 ticket seller is non existent.
When you have a home team like UNC in Raleigh or UW in Milwaukee, # 2 is non existent.
When you have it in Boise, #3 is non existent.

You need a balance. When you have that balance, it creates a great atmosphere. Watch the games - you can tell by the size of the crowd and the electricity of the crowd whether or not you have it in that location.

Games - Some say it is boring because of blowouts - Thank the NCAA and their BS pod system for that. You should always have a good mix...
1-16, 4-13, 5-12 and 8-9
or
2-15, 3-14, 6-13, 7-10

You have a good balance - sure, the 1-16/2-15 will be blowouts, but you get to see the best teams in the nation. 8-9/7-10 should be great games and of course the 6-13/5-12 are the upset specials. Cheer like hell for the underdog.

The pod system changed that. In a desperate move to sell tickets in undeserving markets, the NCAA created the pod system. What was it a couple years ago with the games I went to, TWO 2-15 games and Two 7-10s. Really? You need the freaking mix.

Seed it how you seed it, give preference to those within the seed and go from there.

Beer sales - NCAA has always banned beer sales. Well, now you have a good argument....

I thought the pod system was to minimize travel and let the higher seeds play close to home. I have seen some terrible 2/15 games, but it sure must have been exciting to watch Lehigh knock off Duke.

They say it is to minimize travel but that is BS. It is about getting preferred teams close to home so they can sell tickets.

It's probably both. The NCAA pays for the teams to travel to the sites right?

They pay for travel, but I think it might be more trying to get ticket sales.

The NCAA is flying teams west to east and east to west.

Arizona played in Providence, Southern Cal in North Carolina.

If they wanted to worry about travel, in the 8 v 9 games why not have Providence v. UConn and USC v Colorado.
Instead of St. Joe and Cincy in Spokane, have USC and Colorado playing in Spokane. Easy if you are really worried about travel (because who cares if you are an 8 or 9, play the same team).

Watching Michigan St getting their asses kicked right now. Darnell Harris from Middle Tennessee is the kid from Milwaukee Hamilton if I'm not mistaken. Lost track of where he went, but thought back in his high school days that he was the kind of guy Marquette could use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MUAlphaBangura

Watching Michigan St getting their asses kicked right now. Darnell Harris from Middle Tennessee is the kid from Milwaukee Hamilton if I'm not mistaken. Lost track of where he went, but thought back in his high school days that he was the kind of guy Marquette could use.

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Harris went to UW-Whitewater, than to a Juco in Florida somewhere before transferring to MTSU.

Normally, I don't really listen to the announcers, but Gottlieb is unbearable.