By David Borges ‘Basketball Capital of the World’: Storrs or Indiana?
INDIANAPOLIS — You’ve heard it during pregame announcements at Gampel Pavilion, seen it on the videoboard and on various other advertisements.
“Welcome to Storrs, Connecticut: The Basketball Capital of the World!”
Dick Vitale once said it and it’s hard to argue, given UConn’s success over the past 30 years: 11 national championships for the women’s team, four for the men. Ray Allen, Rebecca Lobo, Kemba
Walker, Diana Tarausi, Richard Hamilton, Breanna Stewart, James Bouknight, Paige Bueckers. You know the roster.
The good folks of Indiana, however, beg to differ.
“Nice try,” said Bill Benner, former longtime Indianapolis Star sports columnist who now volunteers for the NCAA tournament’s local organizing committee, “but no.”
Dianna Boyce agreed. “Well, basketball was born in Indiana — Crawfordsville, Indiana, to be exact,” said Boyce, who works for Pacers Sports & Entertainment. “We have a saying, ‘We grow basketball in Indiana. In 49 states it’s just basketball, but not in Indiana.’ The roots go back centuries.”
No doubt about that. Long before John Wooden coached UCLA to 10 national championships in 12 years at UCLA, he led Martinsville High to the Indiana high school title inside Hinkle Arena. A statue of Wooden stands in downtown Indianapolis, on the corner of Meriden and Georgia avenues.
Chuck Taylor, whose name may have adorned your basketball shoes at some point in your life, played high school ball in Columbus, about 45 minutes south of Indianapolis.
And you may have heard of these names: Larry Bird, Oscar Robertson (born in Tennessee, moved to Indy at a young age), Kent Bensen, Steve Alford — all great high school, collegiate and/or pro players from the Hoosier State.
Indiana boasts historic hoops landmarks like Hinkle, Indiana’s Assembly Hall and Purdue’s Mackey Arena (where UConn plays Maryland in a first-round game on Saturday at 7:10 p.m.). It features eight of the 10 largest high school basketball arenas in the country, led by New Castle High, where Benson and Alford played.
In normal years, there are 170 high school basketball championships played over a roughly 45-day stretch in the late-winter. A game at the old Hoosier Dome years ago, featuring future Indiana standout Damon Bailey, drew 41,000 fans.
And you’ve probably heard of the movie “Hoosiers.”
“This is part of our cultural DNA,” Benner noted. “Even given the presence of Peyton Manning and the Colts and their run, Indiana always has been and always will be a basketball state. And it’s not just Indianapolis, but out in the hinterlands. It’s what people look forward to. If you’re a high school hero, you’re a high school hero forever.”
And while pro basketball in Indiana may take a back seat to high school and college, imports like Reggie Miller and Tamika Catchings have certainly made their mark.
DIFFERENT STORY FOR COLLEGE
But is Storrs the “College Basketball Capital of the World,” as some have stated? Or at least earned that title more than Indiana
over the past quarter-century?
Indiana University, where Bob Knight won three national titles in an 11-year span and tossed chairs, hasn’t won it all since 1987, hasn’t made the NCAA tournament in five years and just fired head coach Archie Miller after a 12-15 season. Notre Dame has been mediocre for years. Indiana State hasn’t been relevant since Bird graduated in 1979.
Meanwhile, in Connecticut … “They’ve got, what, one team,?” quipped security guard and lifelong Hoosier Ron Sullivan.
Don’t forget the women’s team.
“That’s what I meant — one team.”
It was pointed out to Sullivan that the University of Hartford men’s team is in this year’s Big Dance, as well.
“Wow,” he said in wonderment, “they have a basketball team?”
He was joking, but the reality is that Connecticut has more teams in this year’s men’s tournament than Indiana, which is solely represented by Purdue.
Of course, the NCAA’s headquarters are located in Indianapolis. And there’s a reason why the city was deemed the perfect fit to host the entire NCAA men’s tournament in this most unusual year — including the Final Four for the eighth time.
There is at least one Hoosier State native who agrees that Storrs is more deserving of the “basketball capital” moniker than Indiana. Of course, he’s biased.
Francis Grover was born and raised right next to Purdue in West Lafayette, where his family still lives. He was a Boilermaker fan growing up, but went off to college at — you guessed it — UConn.
A 2014 graduate, he works in Chicago now but will make the two-hour trek back to his hometown on Saturday to watch his Huskies inside Mackey.
“What’s super-funny about Indiana, and most Indiana people would agree, is that Indiana pride in basketball almost comes from high school basketball,” Grover noted. “What Texas is with high school football, Indiana is with high school basketball.”
So, is it wrong for people in Connecticut to proclaim Storrs “The Basketball Capital of the World?”
“I’m not saying they’re wrong,” said Boyce, “because we love the fact that there are other people in this country who love basketball as much as we do.”
Added Grover: “UConn can absolutely be the College Basketball Capital of the World. But I think Indiana fans will say the grassroots of the sport will always be at home in Indiana.”
“I get the best of both worlds,” Grover added. “All my friends in Indiana might take odds with UConn saying that, but I’m like, ‘Hell yeah. UConn is the Basketball Capital of the World!’ ”