Where is the Capital of College Basketball?
I started looking through my calendar today, trying to line up some games to go to this season. First I had a look at the Lakers schedule, but then realized Kobe’s contract hadn’t expired yet and quickly moved on to College basketball.
I started with UCLA. I input all of their games into the calendar. Bruins. Check.
Hmm, USC is close. It would be fun to catch a game or two of theirs this season. Cross-reference against UCLA schedule and enter any empty dates into the calendar. Trojans. Check.
Wait a second. Why am I limiting myself to Pac-10 hoops? It would be cool to see some of the other local teams to compare. Well, what else is around here? Off the top of my head I find Loyala Marymount and Pepperdine. Into the calendars they go, the Lions and the Waves. Check and check.
But looking at some of the teams on their schedules, I realize there are even more teams I am forgetting about. Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine, Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, and UC Riverside are all Big West teams within an hour drive. Into the schedule go the Matadors, Anteaters, 49ers, Titans, and Highlanders. Check, check, check, check, and check.
Nine Division I basketball teams covering three conferences within an hour drive of me. That is impressive. That is a lot of games to go to as well, and my calendar is now full through 2012, but that is impressive. Does anyone else know of any area with more Division I teams so close together? The only area that I can think of is Philly and possibly New York, but I’m not sure even Philly has nine. I’m trying to count, but I lose track outside of the Big 5…I know Monmouth is close by and Princeton may be an hour away, but I’m not 100% sure of the proximity outside of that.
Anyone? I need a place to move in 2013 to fill up another 3 more years worth of my winter sports calendar.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
LA has the most teams to choose from, plus a good mix of skill levels. And you’re guaranteed to be able to get a ticket with all the fashionable fairweathers down there.
Boston has BC, UMass, Northeastern, Boston U., Providence (RI), and Rhode Island within an hour. But they are disqualified by the fact that the Boston Globe listed one of the top freshman in the country as “Demar Rosen” in today’s NCAA Preview section. Insert your Fletch joke here. Nothing like taking an African-American kid from Compton and giving him a traditional Jewish last name… for no real reason at all.
What east coast bias?
If you expanded the boundaries to 100 miles, you’d have to include Cincinnati… Cincy, Xavier, Ohio State, Louisville, Dayton, Kentucky, Indiana and “the Purdue” (as Rudy would say).
November 8th, 2008 at 1:21 am
[...] light weekend reading for you from my Basketball.org post of the week brings up a discussion on the capital of college hoops. While some areas may fight [...]
November 8th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
And don’t forget the Bay Area: Stanford, Cal, St. Mary’s*, USF, San Jose St (woo), and Santa Clara… home of the best big man you’ve never heard of, John Bryant.
* St. Mary’s is actually a college that inherited its buildings and grounds from some kind of all-ages agriculture-based summer camp. Yay Gaels.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I spent years scouting colleges, perusing for talent. Since talent was a big factor, one of the real hotspots was the Raleigh-Durham area, not just for the ACC teams there but for other smaller colleges in North Carolina. While Wake, Duke, UNC, N.C. State are well within an hour of each other, there are many others within an easy drive. UNC Charlotte, Davidson, East Carolina, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, Applachian St, UNC Ashville to name a few.
Of course, my favorite area was Las Vegas.
There you had UNLV, and other talent venues like Mandalay Bay, Caesar’s, Bellagio, Harrah’s, Paris, NY NY, MGM Grand, all within walking distance. In fact, it was amazing how often I would see UNLV players at the local venues during the Tark era. Not surprisingly you would see NBA scouts spending many a weekend there. I often wondered if some scouts recruited for UNLV so they had an excuse to go there.
March 5th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Im a driver around gatwick, uk. Love the blog thanks.