College Basketball Thread 2018

Drop Buffalo and Furman from the ranks of the undefeated. I want to think both will be safe come Selection Sunday as long as they take care of their business in their respective leagues, but the committee has let us down on this before. (cough, Monmouth, cough) Furman is the bigger worry. I think their hopes at an at-large should they fail to win their tournament will hinge entirely on how well Villanova does this season, because that win and the Loyola Chicago wins are the only real strong points on the Paladins' resume. That league does look stronger than in years past, as Wofford and UNC Greensboro are both pretty good. So that may help as well.

 

This may be just me feeling the effects of my advancing age and ever widening ass but I think the days of shoving fans into bleacher seats with no armrests is over in an era when any event of significance is televised. I think arenas of the future are going to get smaller and the experience will start to more closely resemble going to a movie.

 

Wait, what's Bramlage?

Oh, you're talking about Allen Fieldhouse West.

 

Absolutely.
I think we're getting a group to go up to it.

 

Trends in the music industry have as much to do with it as sports. Acts that can fill an arena of 15,00 are more interested in summer stadium and other outdoor venue tours. When big stars do tours with indoor gigs, they want to provide a better experience for fewer folks that get charged way more. Without concerts (and the WWE and arena football and like that, but we're talking colleges here) indoor venues don't generate enough revenue no matter what their size.

 

Moving to Bramlage and hiring Tom Asbury within two years of each other really took the air out of the KU-K-State basketball rivalry.

 

Quick trivia: The first concert at Bramlage was held by.........

 

And PETA killed the circus

 

UCLA got embarrassed by Liberty at home. That game wasn't even close. That'll certainly put a nail in the coffin ...

Fun fact. When Ritchie McKay got fired at New Mexico, Steve Alford replaced him. Now McKay's team was the final straw to end him Alford at UCLA ...