Michigan Basketball: The Big Ten Tournament Belongs in the Midwest
Michigan basketball won the Big Ten tournament, but the week had a different feel in D.C., then it had when it was in Indianapolis or Chicago.
Michigan basketball won the Big Ten tournament and a had a great time in the nation’s capital, but there are a lot of reasons why it is foolish for the Big Ten basketball tournament to be held outside the Midwest. From a practical manner of thinking, the most obvious is the lack of enthusiasm for the product.
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Washington DC has not traditionally been given a reason to care about Big Ten teams. For decades, the Terrapins have scratched and clawed their way to national prominence against the likes of Duke and North Carolina. It will take time for a game against Michigan basketball or Wisconsin to mean as much. It will take even more time for a game between Minnesota and Wisconsin to appeal to the nation’s capital.
Tickets for the tournament at the Verizon Center were going for as low as six dollars. For many games nearly the entire upper deck sat empty.
Logistically it doesn’t fare any better under scrutiny. Indianapolis is within driving distance of 10 of the 14 member schools. Washington DC and New York, next year’s host site, are close to three. Normally this wouldn’t be a huge issue but March weather can make it one in a hurry.
In the past week the Midwest was hammered by a wind storm that ended up being the worst weather-related outage for Detroit in history. Only the 2003 grid shutdown that stretched from New York through lower Michigan hit DTE’s grid worse. Over a million people lost power. My house lost power for over five days. The inland Mid-Atlantic and Northeast just had two feet of snow dumped on them.
Demanding most of the conference fly to its own tournament as winter violently gives way to spring is asking for trouble.
Michigan Wolverines Basketball
This year it was asking for a plane crash. I had to drive from metro Detroit to Lansing a little over an hour away last Wednesday. I witnessed multiple semi trucks catch a gust of wind and have to work hard to keep their trailers from jack knifing.
When I heard the news of Michigan’s plane aborting its takeoff I was not surprised. Going west I had to maintain two hands on the steering wheel at all times to keep my car on the road. Trying to get a (relatively) small charter plane into the air against those winds from a non-commercial airport was nuts.
If the tournament had been in Indy or Chicago as tradition had held for 19 seasons, Michigan would have taken a charter bus without a second thought.
Not to DC though. Not for Commissioner Delany’s silly experiment. For that, the travel arm of Michigan’s athletic department risked the lives of its players for a tournament that saw attendance fall 20% from last year.
Michigan basketball, which has one of the largest east coast fanbases in the B1G and bolstered by a dramatic run through the top seeds, couldn’t get more than twelve-thousand to turn out for the title game. Imagine something like Purdue and Nebraska.
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It isn’t too late to fix next year. Breaking their contract with MSG can’t be more expensive than lost attendance and the costs to the member institutions. Bring the basketball tournament home.