Keep the ACC tournament in Greensboro

Greensboro is certainly my favorite spot for the tournament, but I have no problem with rotating it to other locations. Geographically, Charlotte is probably the fairest spot because it's not only close for the "Big Four" programs, it's also close to Atlanta & Clemson.

With one exception...Tampa. Ugh. Terrible venue, incredibly inconvenient getting there, and the locals couldn't care less. If you have to have it in Florida, move it to Miami.

It's great in Atlanta (they did an excellent job in 2001) and fine in DC, especially with the addition of Virginia Tech. I can't see them ever holding it in Boston

 

Wherever they have it, just make sure there's plenty of Kleenex around so Dick Vitale has something to towel himself off with during his masturbatory broadcasts. Mike Patrick too.

 

What's hard about getting to Tampa? They have a ton of flights in there on Southwest and Delta. The arena's not bad, and although the hockey press box is way too small they'll have enough press seating for hoops with no problem. The NCAA tourney 1st and 2nd rounder I covered there in 2003 went off with no problems. It's not a bad city, either. Tampa's not a great basketball town, that's true, but the other stuff makes zero sense.

 

Virginia can't host it unless Norfolk finally gets around to building a major league arena, which means they'd have to do more than dicktease with a NBA or NHL team (they won't). Only arena big enough to do it is UVa's, and that ain't happening.

I like G'Boro. They do the tourney right. The Stamey's is right there for good, cheap Q. And there's a naked car wash!

 

Not exactly centrally located though, Rufino.

 

No, but does that mean FSU and Miami are never entitled to have the tourney somewhere convenient for their fans? Again, it's a 1:30 non stop flight from Raleigh on Southwest. That's not too tough.

 

I have sympathy for FSU fans, but it's hard to have sympathy for Miami fans when they have trouble filling up a small arena for ACC games. Last weekend, the baseball team nearly outdrew the men's basketball game.

 

Big 8 Tournament was always held at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. When the Big 12 came along, it stayed put for the moment, but it quickly became impossible to ignore great new arenas -- ones with better atmospheres, too -- in both Dallas and Oklahoma City. Something had to be done, so the tournament began to switch venues, which in part forced the KC area to build Sprint Arena -- they finally realized Kemper wouldn't cut it for any major event anymore.

Argue tradition all you want, but you're wrong. The moment the ACC expanded to 12 teams with BC, Miami and VaTech, there went your home-and-home tradition among all conference schools. You can't invite those schools in and have the tournament remain all things North Carolina. Atlanta, Charlotte, Tampa, D.C. and even Boston seem OK to me, from an outsider's point of view.

 

Oz, you're right. ACC tradition is done as we know it.

And BC in the ACC is ridiculous. Might as well have joined the Big Ten, for crying out loud.

 

Well, if you want to be a literalist, BC and Miami are closer to the Atlantic Ocean than any of the traditional schools.

And we can wring our hands over this supposed loss of ACC tradition all we want (and believe me, having spent all my 32 years deepinahearta, I know where you're coming from), but what if the ACC hadn't gone after Florida State? If the Big East got FSU AND Miami, you don't think there'd be a good chance Georgia Tech and Clemson would follow suit? There's a chance that might have happened had the ACC not gone to 12 teams, too, because if they didn't get there, the Big East would have, and not only would you have no Miami and VT, but FSU, GT and Clemson might be gone too.

A 12-team ACC with Boston College is a damn sight better than a 6-team ACC or no ACC at all.

 

BC belongs in the Big East. Nuff said.

Heck, even Temple would've been a better fit in the ACC, at least geographically.

 

Assuming everyone was able and willing to move to the ACC, the three most logical choices would have been Va. Tech, South Carolina and Kentucky. The latter two weren't happening, and the former required a collective tantrum from every lawmaker in Virginia.

I'm a little surprised there wasn't more consideration for or discussion of UConn, but I'm sure they had their reasons.