NCAA Tournament to be held entirely in Indiana venues
The NCAA is giving Indiana an exclusive ticket to showcase March Madness and the basketball- crazed state can’t wait to take center stage this spring.
The NCAA announced Monday that its showcase event — the Division I men’s basketball tournament, all 67 games of it — will be played entirely in or near Indianapolis. The hope is to limit the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic cancels the wildly popular and lucrative tournament for a second consecutive season.
“There are a number of world- class facilities in a close location and that was critical because you have to run a large number of games simultaneously that you can manage and control,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said. “There were a number of cities that were very interested in hosting this event, but the immediate opportunity to do this in Indianapolis was pretty self- evident for several reasons. For one, we were already going to be there.”
Indy was already scheduled to host the Final Four and it didn’t take long for the city to emerge as the favorite.
The original plan was for the 67 games to be played at 13 sites across the country, starting with the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. Regional sites were set for Minneapolis, Denver, New York City and Memphis, Tennessee.
Dozens of restaurants of hotels are within walking distance of Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, and Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and WNBA’s Indiana Fever. Many of those businesses and venues are connected by skywalks that allow players, coaches or fans to stay indoors.
Hinkle Fieldhouse, the historic home of the Butler Bulldogs, and the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, where the IUPUI Jaguars play, are just short drives from the downtown area. Mackey Arena at Purdue and Assembly Hall at Indiana also are about an hour’s drive from downtown.
All of those venues are slated to host games.
STANFORD GETS PAST OREGON STATE >> Oscar da Silva had 31 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, Jaiden Delaire added 19 points and nine boards, and Stanford beat Oregon State 81-71 on the road Monday in a rescheduled contest.
Jarod Lucas led Oregon State (5- 4, 1-2) with 22 points.
Stanford games this week with Washington ( Thursday) and Washington State (Saturday) will be played in Santa Cruz at Kaiser Permanente Arena.
COVID CONCERNS
• Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski says he won’t be able to coach the No. 21 Blue Devils when they face Boston College on Wednesday night, but he hopes to be out of quarantine in time to return for their game against Wake Forest on Saturday.
Krzyzewski said he and his wife were placed into quarantine last Friday after a member of his family tested positive for COVID-19. He said he and his wife were both tested Monday, and both were negative.
• No. 3 Villanova’s next three games have been postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the program. The Wildcats (81) were scheduled to play today at DePaul, Friday vs. Marquette, and Jan. 13 at Xavier.
Coach Jay Wright announced last week he had tested positive for COVID-19 and the program paused all activities. BOSTON UNIVERSITY PLAYERS WEAR MASKS >> Players for the Boston University team wore masks during Monday’s 83-76 win over Holy Cross in its season opener in Worcester, Mass.
The two teams will square off once again today at Boston University, this time with both clubs expected to don masks. Boston University mandates that its opponents wear masks in games played on its campus. Monday’s game was at Holy Cross, so the mandate wasn’t in play.
Women
CAL- OREGON STATE POSTPONED >> Cal’s home contest scheduled for Friday has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing protocols within the Oregon State program. STANFORD SCHEDULE UPDATE >> Top-ranked Stanford will face No. 11 Oregon on Friday in Santa Cruz at Kaiser Permanente Arena. Tipoff has been moved to 11:30 a.m.
Additionally, the Cardinal’s Sunday game against Oregon State has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing protocols within the Beavers’ program.