Delaney: Condensed schedule a mistake, but BTT will go East again
Delaney essentially cops to this being a bad conference schedule, but says the conference tournament will be in the east again,
“I know we will be back out East. Where we will be, I don’t know. It won’t be on a regular basis. I expect that 80 percent will be in legacy territory (Chicago and Indianapolis) and probably 20 percent out East, whether it’s in D.C. or Philadelphia or New York.”
Obviously I'd like to see more rotation within the conference footprint, say to Detroit and possibly Cleveland, Milwaukee or Minneapolis. Going back to NYC without a condensed schedule would seem to rule out MSG, so you're talking Barclay's or the Meadowlands. Also, he explicitly ruled out the Palestra if it was to be held in Philly which seems stupid.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^
No shit sherlock.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:32 PM ^
Delany rarely admits when he screws up. So at least there is that.
I don't mind occasional tournaments in NY, so that is fine with me. I'm glad they are going to fix the schedule.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^
and he's Dilbert.
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:48 PM ^
Dilbert's boss....
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:52 PM ^
We won the whole thing last year at the Verizon Center. Not saying it was Delaney's doing, but it was actually a good result for us in the grand scheme of things
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:18 PM ^
I don't really have an issue with that - we've got a lot of fans on the East Coast, probably more than most B1G schools. I'm OK with playing there now and then.
The schedule change is the much bigger problem IMO.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:44 PM ^
Regardless of the history of the Palestra, there's no way the BTT is going to be held in an arena that only seats 8000 people. In addition, a large percentage of the seats are bleacher style seats, ie - no seat back.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:33 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:45 PM ^
that's funny. i've been to a few of the tournys at the united center. and actually IU gets huge representation. but maybe they just stood out with their silly candy striping outfits.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^
Why would Ill fans go to watch their team lose one and end their season?
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^
Why would Ill fans go to watch their team lose one and end their season?
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:06 PM ^
when IL still was decent under Kruger/Self and they packed the place when they were in the finals in years 2 & 3 and lost to Staee. Not that it is a current concern but not that far from having good teams.
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^
Good one. They've gone the way of the dodo bird and sabre toothed tiger.
Seriously though, there are so many alums from all the B1G schools that it is a really fun, mixed crowd.
I haven't been to Indy and hear it's a good location because the tournament dominates downtown (which certainly doesn't happen in a city like Chicago), but there is not doubt that Chicago is by far the best location to accomodate the most fans.
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:15 PM ^
You know that's not even close to the reason why. It's because Detroit has, to put it kindly, seen better days and it's not a "destination" or other clean, convenient locale, like Chicago and Indy, respectively.
I could get on board with Milwaukee, though.
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:20 PM ^
So Detroit can host a Super Bowl and Final Four but not the BTT? Have you been downtown lately?
February 24th, 2018 at 1:53 PM ^
methinks you're both right.
Sure there's some great spots downtown, but let's not pretend it is Chicago or Indy or even Milwaukee.
Detroit hosted those events because of the pull of the new stadium. Maybe LCA can offer a bit of that pull (we do have NCAA Round 1/2 coming).
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:36 PM ^
Detroit would be a great host city, better than Indy in some ways (more accessible airport thanks to Delta hub, downtown casinos). Indy might be a good host city precisely because it's not a destination and therefore can turn the entire downtown into BTT central, but no reason Detroit couldn't do something very similar.
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:21 PM ^
Indy is not a destination, its a dump surrounded by corn in all directions.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:38 PM ^
Also, he explicitly ruled out the Palestra if it was to be held in Philly which seems stupid.
Using the words "stupid" and "Delaney" in the same paragraph is redundant.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^
Detroit hosts Horizon League. Cleveland hosts MAC. It's not to say it can't work with the B1G, but without facing the same issue that the B1G is facing in NY this year, it's hard to work around those issues (without I assume the B1G paying those tournaments to go elsewhere).
I know there is a ton of B1G representation in Chicago, but Indy really is the best. It's a small big city, and because it doesn't have so much else, they really dedicate the downtown to the tournament. I know I had fun there whenever I've gone
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
This year is March 2-6th. The 6th is Tuesday of the week the BTT is traditionally held. So, in theory the dates aren't the conflict there. It would be tricky w/ forcing the Pistons/Wings to be on the road for 10 days, but Madison Square Garden is presumably doing it this year with BTT, Big East tourney, Knicks/Rangers.
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^
They typically finish a day before the BTT starts.
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
It's not just the BTT, Indy just goddamn loves their big events. GenCon is the same way, the whole downtown and convention center area is super into it. I think it's just the city's atmosphere, combined with really liking the revenue.
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:42 PM ^
there's nothing else going on downtown on weekends and that's the recipe for making it accomodating. The city could transform the entire riverfront and the Woodward Ave. pedestrian areas up to Campus Martius into BTT central.
Detroit would be super into it.
February 26th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
Detroit would be a GREAT destination for the BTT. Indy is far and away the best as it stands now, but Detroit would have a similar feel.
February 24th, 2018 at 7:47 AM ^
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^
This dude beats off to NYC so hard that he pulled Rutgers into the conference just to feel the tip. Of course the tournament is going to be out east.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:58 PM ^
for unnecessary vulgarity.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^
Minneapolis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago. Just rotate it through those four cities. Anything the Big Ten gains from going out east is marginal.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:44 PM ^
Cities in the "B1G footprint" that would likely love to host and have the facilites:
Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh
and just for fun...
Toronto!
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
Can you imagine the tax nightmare for MSU players if they played in Toronto?!
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^
They should be more concerned with probation violations for leaving the country. ZING!
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:52 PM ^
o shit I would love Toronto
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:22 PM ^
Problem is that you need a passport to go there.
February 23rd, 2018 at 8:12 PM ^
Or an Enhanced Driver's License. It's pretty easy.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^
You are indeed right, I believe - those cities would love to host them and probably could do so very easily depending on coordination with other events since I know Detroit gets the Horizon League Tournament usually and I think Cleveland typically hosts the MAC Tournament.
That being said, Delany loves his conference's traditional footprint so much that he opened the door to cities like Secaucus, Weehawken, New Rochelle and Bethesda too.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:47 PM ^
What was the initial rationale to the condensed schedule? Because B1G was tweaked seeding was done before the conference tournament final was over? Avoding that seems like a good idea to me (and may have helped Michigan last year)
Edit: article says it was to secure MSG. Still, it's not good to have the seeding done when B1G teams are playing.
February 23rd, 2018 at 2:48 PM ^
the BIG east plays its tourny in the garden. so we have to play there a week early. hence, 4 games in 8 days for us earlier this year. hell, this week. illinois had a game, day off, game, day off, game. that is stupid.
February 23rd, 2018 at 3:35 PM ^
In Jim Delany's warped mind, the Big Ten is supposed to play second fiddle to another conference. That irks me as much as anything else. The Big East has only been around 40 years... and, despite what they may think, they've only really been relevant for about half of them -- the early to mid 80s with the Hoyas and occasional Syracuse team, and then the late 90s to early 2000s with UConn.
February 23rd, 2018 at 4:49 PM ^
2018 schedule. Moving up the tournament necessitated having two games in December and make teams work their non-conf schedules around that.
The reason we had weeks in which teams played 4 games in 8 days is that we wanted more Monday and Friday games for TV and unnecessarily took weekends off to get those Monday and Friday games.
February 23rd, 2018 at 6:06 PM ^
Yes, they moved two games to December, but it's not like they replaced two OOC games with them. That just contribtued to the schedule being compressed in November and December too.
February 23rd, 2018 at 7:02 PM ^
in my examples, i don't think any of those games were on a mon or fri.