Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim "wants to see the ACC tournament held in the major media centers rather than its traditional home of Greensboro, N.C.," according to Mike Waters of the Syracuse POST-STANDARD. Boeheim, following his team's loss to Miami yesterday, said, "New York City's a great venue for our tournament. I think the big cities are where it should be played. I think it should be played here, Washington, Atlanta." He added, "There's no value in playing in Greensboro. None. It's there because the league's been there and the office is there and they have a 150 people that the ACC needs. That's why it's there. It should not be there.'' The ACC is playing this year's event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and is scheduled to return to the arena next year before heading to Charlotte ('19) and Greensboro ('20). Waters notes the move north "came as a result of the conference's addition of former Big East schools Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh four years ago." Brooklyn is the "Northern-most locale for the ACC tournament ever." The ACC previously "had never gone farther North" than DC. Since the ACC Tournament began in '54, Greensboro has hosted it 26 times since, the "most of any city" (Syracuse POST-STANDARD, 3/9). ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil noted the city of Greensboro, replying to a tweet about Boeheim's comments, "took a pointed yet lighthearted approach, tweeting that Syracuse 'can lose in the first round anywhere.'" Syracuse is 0-3 all-time in the ACC Tournament (ESPN.com, 3/8).
COACHES CHIME IN: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said there has been "great value" having the tourney in Greensboro throughout the years. Krzyzewski: "This is the tournament that everyone copied and if we didn't have the support of an entire city to support us and keep adding to their beautiful coliseum, this tournament and this league would not be where it's at. So if the powers that be want it to eventually go back or stay in Greensboro or visit or whatever, so be it. I think they deserve that" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 3/9). Miami coach Jim Larranaga: "New York City, the New York media, the television exposure in this area, being able to bring back a lot of our guys who are from the northeast, it's a great venue and very, very exciting for our league to be in New York, what I consider the mecca of college basketball" (N.Y. POST, 3/9).
IN A NEW YORK MINUTE: In Greensboro, Ed Hardin writes today could be "one of the most important days in the tournament's history, and it will need Duke and Carolina and Louisville and Virginia to carry momentum now that Syracuse is gone." The future of this event is "out of the hands of the original schools," and the "evolving concept of rotating sites means we're entering a new era in ACC tournament history." Hardin: "This is the first of what will be many new experiments to come." This year's tournament now has to "go on now without the school with the big New York fan base that convinced the ACC this would be a viable site, not just for this year but for next year and beyond." There is "enough curiosity about Brooklyn that the league and the schools assumed the crowds would be large and the excitement familiar to past ACC tournaments." Hardin: "Next year, after the novelty has passed, will be the real test for Brooklyn" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 3/9).
