Barclays Center received generally positive reviews for hosting the tournament last yearACC
The ACC Tournament begins today at Barclays Center, and if "one thing is certain, it will leave the joint rocking and generate buzz nationwide," according to Roger Rubin of NEWSDAY. The tourney kicks off with three games, headlined by Syracuse-Wake Forest. Syracuse hopes to "tap into the kind of fan turnout it used to get when it played in the Big East Tournament at the Garden" (NEWSDAY, 3/6). In Greensboro, Ed Hardin writes this is the second straight year the tourney has been in Brooklyn, and Barclays Center last year "hosted a memorable event." However, doing so again will be "the hard part." When the league first announced it was coming to Brooklyn for two ACC Tournaments, the "howling could be heard from the Carolinas to the Commonwealth." It took North Carolina and Duke to "drag people in off the mean streets of Brooklyn last March." It is going to take Virginia and its "legion of long-suffering fans to work the streets this March and buy up all those tickets from Syracuse fans going home" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 3/6). NBC's Jimmy Fallon last night helped promote the event by having several ACC mascots dancing on-stage during his monologue (“The Tonight Show,” NBC, 3/5).
WESTWARD EXPANSION: In St. Louis, Jacob Barker noted the city is "hosting its first" SEC Tournament beginning tomorrow, and with a "resurgent" Missouri program and another "seven SEC teams expected to be good enough to earn a berth in this year's NCAA Tournament, more eyes are likely to be on the conference than in recent past." Not since the Final Four was held in the Edward Jones Dome in '05 has St. Louis "hosted a collegiate tournament with such cachet." Kentucky fans "have a block of rooms downtown" and they plan a "big pep rally at Ballpark Village prior to their first game." Lodging Hospitality Management owns multiple St. Louis hotels, and company Chair & CEO Bob O'Loughlin said, "All our hotels are sold out. I would imagine the whole downtown area is sold out." Barker noted with 21,000 seats to fill, Scottrade Center is "slightly larger" than Bridgestone Arena in Nashville where the tournament "has been held the last three years." An exact number of tickets sold for the tournament at Scottrade Center "wasn’t available, but only about 2,000 were left at the beginning of February." It is a "boost St. Louis should enjoy while it can." It would be "well into next decade before the city ever gets another shot at it." The SEC Tournament will "return to Nashville for six of the next seven years" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 3/5).
BAD TO GOOD: THE RINGER's Mark Titus wrote what was "supposed to be a disaster" -- MSG hosting the Big Ten Tournament -- turned out to be the "most memorable Big Ten tournament in recent memory." However, just because a bad idea works "doesn’t mean that bad idea was actually good." It is "impossible to have a boring college basketball event in Madison Square Garden." Everyone from the players and coaches to the media and fans "raved about the Garden’s atmosphere, to the extent that you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who attended and didn’t think the tourney was an overwhelming success." But having the Big Ten tourney played a week early, in a state with no Big Ten schools, is "still an unbelievably shitty idea that should never be repeated." Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany "already has declared that he won't play the tournament a week early again." However, now the Big Ten execs are "going to need rotator cuff surgery after patting themselves on the back so much." Titus: "I'm terrified that he might change his mind" (THERINGER.com, 3/5). SNY's Jon Hein asked, "Was it awkward that the Big Tenners are playing these games in New York? Of course it is. You think Midwest, you think big colleges. ... But the Garden is the world's most famous arena. Michigan fed off of the crowd, and the crowd certainly fed off of Michigan." Hein: "The Garden is the place for the Big Ten Tournament.” But SNY’s Sal Licata said, “Anywhere but Madison Square Garden. Only the Big East should be allowed to have their tournament in Madison Square Garden” (“Loud Mouths,” SNY, 3/5).
