The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bubble-icious
Why Mohegan Sun could be the ideal bubble option for Big East
As dozens of college basketball teams sequester inside Mohegan Sun at the end of November and beginning of December, Val Ackerman will be paying close attention to what unfolds in Uncasville.
Ackerman, the Big East commissioner, has a deep appreciation for what the Eastern Connecticut gaming resort offers — she was WNBA president when the league’s Orlando franchise relocated to Mohegan Sun Arena as the Connecticut Sun in 2002 and her conference has committed to staging its postseason women’s basketball tournament at the site beginning in 2021.
But as the Big East prepares to navigate a basketball season amid the COVID-19 crisis, Ackerman may have a vested interest on how Mohegan Sun manages “bubbleville.”
The arena will host more than 40 teams from across the country for early-season tournaments from Nov. 25 through Dec. 5. Holding multiple games per day while housing players, coaches, and support staff inside the venue’s bubble should give teams an opportunity to play in a safe environment.
That’s been the model used by professional leagues, including the
WNBA in Orlando. For colleges, cost is an issue as schools aim to isolate a traveling party for both men’s and women’s basketball.
The Big East is attempting to play a regular season schedule that requires teams to travel from campus to campus. But given the uncertainty of the virus — Marquette is already quarantining its men’s and women’s teams for 14 days because of positive tests — the league is pondering contingency plans.
Cue Mohegan Sun. “Everyone’s expectation is that there may be and perhaps will be disruption during the year and that games — however thoughtfully laid out — may wind up getting postponed, best case,” Ackerman said. “Worst case, canceled.”
Ackerman and her staff have consulted with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which is running tournaments that will be played at Mohegan. There have also been talks with Mohegan about how and when a bubble could be staged.
In fact, the women’s postseason tournament in March could be played in a bubble environment.
“It’s going to be very instructive for us to see what they come up with, and how this works out, and how the testing on site works, and
all the protocols fit together,” Ackerman said. “I think it can be very helpful in giving us a sense of what a Big East single venue format might look like later on in the season, if we need to go that route.”
Mohegan will host pods of games, with teams representing more than 12 conferences. On Friday, the Hall of Fame announced the addition of nine men’s mid-major programs to the slate of pods, including Iona, Vermont and UMass.
The UConn men are set to participate in the Legends Classic with Southern California, Vanderbilt, and Brigham Young Dec. 2 and 3, and there could be a non-conference game Dec. 5 against North Carolina State. The UConn women also have non-conference games scheduled for Mohegan: Hall of Fame Women’s Challenge games with Quinnipiac on Nov. 28, Mississippi State or Maine on Nov. 29, and Louisville on Dec. 4.
THE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
How has Mohegan Sun become an epicenter for college hoops during the COVID era?
The draw is the one-stop shopping destination. With lots of square footage, lots of hotel rooms and restaurants, an arena that’s big enough to host games and allow for social distancing, Mohegan is uniquely ideal.
Mohegan is also geographically isolated, reducing the chance of the bubble puncturing. And the arena has hosted MMA and boxing events since July,
most recently a Bellator card Thursday night. All without fans, but with TV crews and support staff in place.
“That’s been really successful, when you talk about the number of fighters that have come through,” said Amber Cox, vice president of sports at Mohegan Sun. “We’ve been able to execute that and gather learnings that will obviously translate into bubbleville and then hopefully those can inform our conversations as we start to talk about what the Big East women’s tournament could and would look like.”
Or what a possible Big East regular season “minibubble” could look like. Given Mohegan Sun’s basketball cache — Cox likes to call it “the women’s basketball capital of the world” — the site is a logical option for the conference.
The league announced a set of early-season conference games for December. The remainder of the schedule will be announced later, but there’s an expectation that games can be played safely on campuses during semester break.
When and if students return to campuses for the second semester? That’s when things could be tricky.
“One thing we can’t control is what’s going to happen with the virus and where it’s going to go,” Cox said. “But we can absolutely be ready with all the various scenarios so that when the proverbial lights come back on, we’re ready to hit ‘go’ with whatever scenario makes sense.”
Just nine years ago, Mohegan Sun was viewed as an option for the Big East women’s tournament when the conference’s contract with Hartford’s XL Center was set to expire. But league presidents balked at moving the tournament to an arena located in a casino, even though Mohegan Sun had a long history of hosting college basketball.
UConn eventually landed in the American Athletic Conference, which held its women’s tournament in Uncasville. When UConn announced it was moving back to the Big East, the new version of the conference was open to a women’s postseason in Uncasville.
“As soon as the announcement was made about UConn moving back to the Big East, our phones were ringing off the hook,” Cox said. “From fans asking about buying the tickets, making sure they had their same Sun seats for the Big East Tournament … the excitement level is very, very high.”
Said Ackerman, “It’s a fantastic facility. … And in a part of the country where we know women’s basketball has such a great following. There were so many reasons why it made sense for the Big East to be in Connecticut.”
The decision to hold the women’s tournament at Mohegan was announced in September, although it had been expected for months.
Now, the arena could play an even bigger role in the Big East season.
“Certainly, continuing to look at opportunities for UConn, for other Big East teams, for basketball in general, to be at Mohegan Sun Arena,” Cox said. “We love to see it and always will welcome the opportunity.”