2018 Horizon League Basketball Tournament

[Tacitus651]

I assume Kampe has an RSS feed that alerts him whenever a college basketball player is expelled or arrested. I wouldn't be surprised if he called the recently released ND football players.

"Kevin Stepherson? Hi, Greg Kampe calling from the Oakland Goldren Grizzlies. Did you play hoops in High School?"

[Rogobob77]

I would guess 6,200 fans at the LCA for the finals. Not great, not pathetic.

Tony Paul of the Detroit News tweets “I suspect the men will be back in Detroit, albeit under a different, more-condensed format.”

[Rogobob77]

Attendance for the day at the LCA was 7,595. That counts for both the men’s and women’s championship games.

(Monday’s semi-finals round had 5,398 in attendance; the Sunday crowd was 6,772.)

As I previously posted, the championship game in the MVC’s “Arch Madness” in St. Louis drew 8,056, and that had the advantage of being played on a weekend date. It’s unfortunate that Detroit Mercy and Oakland have performed so poorly in the MCM these past three years, a missed opportunity to catch up with or surpass the MVC in attendance for the league playoffs.

I predict going forward the next two years, they’ll jestison the WBB tournament to a separate site and have only the final 8 or 4 for the MBB tournament in Detroit in a shortened (three or two consecutive days) format.

[Rogobob77]

From The Detroit News:

“Horizon League wants to stay in Detroit, but it’s a tough sell”

http://detne.ws/2tuGnrT

[Rogobob77]

Three Horizon League teams play on in the post-season.

Wright State was designated as a 14-seed and will face Tennessee in the NCAA tournament.

Northern Kentucky will play at Louisville as an automatic qualifier for the NIT.

UIC accepted an invitation to the CIT and is matched with St. Francis (PA).

[Rogobob77]

Three Horizon League teams play on in the post-season.

Wright State was designated as a 14-seed and will face Tennessee in the NCAA tournament.

Northern Kentucky will play at Louisville as an automatic qualifier for the NIT.

UIC accepted an invitation to the CIT and is matched with St. Francis (PA).

Statistical model likes the Horizon League's Wright State (and the MAC's Buffalo) as a possible upset pick:

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sport ... /32876457/

[Rogobob77]

Motor City Madness 2018 sets attendance record:

http://www.horizonleague.org/news/2018/ ... -2018.aspx

[Rogobob77]

Detroit News article discusses tournament and other league items:

“Horizon League sees slight attendance bump for conference tournaments”

http://detne.ws/2FwcDQW

[Rogobob77]

Might not radically improve attendance, but I think HL fans across the league would be somewhat more likely to trek to Detroit for a Sunday/Monday/Tuesday formatted tournament. (I'm assuming the HL is locked into a Tuesday championship slot by ESPN considerations.)

The play-in games for the bottom four seeds could be on-campus the previous Sunday afternoon or Monday evening, meaning the 8-team MCM quarterfinal round would be cemented in place about a week earlier than MCM, adequate time for folks to make travel arrangements. If you drive up Sunday morning and leave after the game Tuesday night (doable from some HL member cities), that would only require two hotel night stays. Work out deals with downtown hotels and market a decent-priced package to attract non-Detroit area visitors.

[Rogobob77]

Also, the HL needs to move up the times of the semi-final games (the 9:30 PM tip time for the second game on Monday needs to go). Put together some kind of attractive concert or special events on Monday or Tuesday during the day to encourage league fans to stay for the entire tournament even if their favorite team fizzles out early. (There was a high-cost banquet luncheon offered this year and last, but I think a more informal and inexpensive gathering where fans from different league schools could get together over a beer would be more of a draw.)

I think it might be best to decouple the women's tournament from Detroit LCA altogether, although I wouldn't be adverse to a format that would have campus sites for the front-end of their tournament and then have the WBB semis at the LCA on Monday afternoon and then the finals as a preliminary game before the men's championship game (not a noon tip as was the case this year and last).

[TerryTylerFan]

Also, the HL needs to move up the times of the semi-final games (the 9:30 PM tip time for the second game on Monday needs to go). Put together some kind of attractive concert or special events on Monday or Tuesday during the day to encourage league fans to stay for the entire tournament even if their favorite team fizzles out early. (There was a high-cost banquet luncheon offered this year and last, but I think a more informal and inexpensive gathering where fans from different league schools could get together over a beer would be more of a draw.)

I think it might be best to decouple the women's tournament from Detroit LCA altogether, although I wouldn't be adverse to a format that would have campus sites for the front-end of their tournament and then have the WBB semis at the LCA on Monday afternoon and then the finals as a preliminary game before the men's championship game (not a noon tip as was the case this year and last).

Some good ideas, Bob. Now’s time for the league to start thinking about this ... I suspect that there won’t be any more 5-day blocks reserved for us.

[Rogobob77]

From the Detroit News, story on status of plans for the 2019 Horizon League basketball tournament:

“Horizon League hoops tourneys likely staying in Detroit, with changes”

https://detne.ws/2zU0FOW