2020-21 Season

[willie]

1 minute ago, wgstl said:

I have a feeling that the field will eventually be expanded. Having fewer occ  games and harder scheduling issues will be the reason they feel more teams should get in because it’s harder to judge Resumes

I'll argue the opposite. More teams means more games in 1 city. Where and when will they be played. How many gyms does Indianapolis have? Who gets the 6am game? 

[Pistol]

18 minutes ago, willie said:

I'll argue the opposite. More teams means more games in 1 city. Where and when will they be played. How many gyms does Indianapolis have? Who gets the 6am game? 

Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts; has had regionals and Final Fours) - 70,000
Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Pacers) - 17,923
Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler) - 9,100
Indiana Farmers Coliseum (State Fairgrounds; IUPUI's home court) - 6,800
Skillman Court at Nicoson Hall (University of Indianapolis) - 4,000
Marian University PE Center - 3,000

@HoosierPaland others have mentioned before that Indiana has some of the largest HS gyms in the country. I think most are outside of the Indy area, but I'm guessing a few are within or close to the metro.

With limited or no fans, this is definitely doable.

[bauman]

Anybody on here familiar with Indy basketball facilities?  Two, that I know about are wherever the Pacers play and Hinkle, which translates to no fans to me.  Remember on the first Thur/Fri there are 16 games each day.  If those two facilities are the only ones used, that means 8 games at each, with 2 going on at the same time.  This screws up the TV scheduling when during much of the day there are 3 and sometimes 4 games going on at the same time.

Also there would be no way to get fans from 16 schools in and out of each of the two facilities during the course of the day.  Clearly, if Indy has 4 facilities available the problems are more manageable.  I guess another solution would be to stage the first round (32 games) over a 4 day period instead of the current schedule of 2 days.

Anyway, I am encouraged that this seems to confirm the notion that there will be a Tournament. 

Edit, I had not seen Pistol's post as I was writing mine

[philliken]

33 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts; has had regionals and Final Fours) - 70,000
Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Pacers) - 17,923
Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler) - 9,100
Indiana Farmers Coliseum (State Fairgrounds; IUPUI's home court) - 6,800
Skillman Court at Nicoson Hall (University of Indianapolis) - 4,000
Marian University PE Center - 3,000

@HoosierPaland others have mentioned before that Indiana has some of the largest HS gyms in the country. I think most are outside of the Indy area, but I'm guessing a few are within or close to the metro.

With limited or no fans, this is definitely doable.

Not to mention, If the NBA finals can take place on the same courts I played intramural volleyball on, they'd be willing to play NCAA Tournament games in high school gyms.  Great research Pistol.

[brianstl]

38 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts; has had regionals and Final Fours) - 70,000
Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Pacers) - 17,923
Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler) - 9,100
Indiana Farmers Coliseum (State Fairgrounds; IUPUI's home court) - 6,800
Skillman Court at Nicoson Hall (University of Indianapolis) - 4,000
Marian University PE Center - 3,000

@HoosierPaland others have mentioned before that Indiana has some of the largest HS gyms in the country. I think most are outside of the Indy area, but I'm guessing a few are within or close to the metro.

With limited or no fans, this is definitely doable.

Southport High School Fieldhouse sits over 7,000 and is right there.  

[HoosierPal]

3 hours ago, brianstl said:

Southport High School Fieldhouse sits over 7,000 and is right there.  

Yes, Southport HS is maybe 10 to 12 miles south of downtown Indy.  New Castle HS is 45 min away and holds 7800.  (Assembly Hall on the IU campus is 60 min away.)  There are many nice HS gyms in Marion County, which could be used for practice facilities.  Placing them into a bubble would be a challenge, if the HS is active.

They likely would use the Convention Center to house practice courts, or even game courts.  Workout rooms could be set up in the Convention Center.

I know nothing more about what the NCAA will do than anyone else, but the Colts are allowing limited spectators in now about 15% of Lucas Oil.  Butler announced they will start at 25% capacity.

As far as hotels, if that is even relevant, remember that every May Indy hosts 1/4 million people for a little auto race.  Yes, many camp out, but many take hotel rooms.  Hotels as far away as Terre Haute and Richmond, an hour away from Indy, are commonly booked full for race day.  There are a number of hotels in the immediate area of Banker's  Life, Lucas and the Convention Center.  I'd assume those would be for teams and officials, and could easily 'bubblefy'.

Added later:  Indiana has the six biggest high school gyms in the country, and 11 of the top 12, with five of those within a 1½-hour drive (or less) from downtown: gyms in New Castle (capacity 7,829) Muncie (7,635), Marion (7,560), Lafayette (7,200) and Southport (7,124).

[brianstl]

13 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Yes, Southport HS is maybe 10 to 12 miles south of downtown Indy.  New Castle HS is 45 min away and holds 7800.  There are many nice HS gyms in Marion County, which could be used for practice facilities.  Placing them into a bubble would be a challenge, if the HS is active.

They likely would use the Convention Center to house practice courts, or even game courts.  Workout rooms could be set up in the Convention Center.

I know nothing more about what the NCAA will do than anyone else, but the Colts are allowing limited spectators in now about 15% of Lucas Oil.  Butler announced they will start at 25% capacity.

As far as hotels, if that is even relevant, remember that every May Indy hosts 1/4 million people for a little auto race.  Yes, many camp out, but many take hotel rooms.  Hotels as far away as Terre Haute and Richmond, an hour away from Indy, are commonly booked full for race day.  There are a number of hotels in the immediate area of Banker's  Life, Lucas and the Convention Center.  I'd assume those would be for teams and officials, and could easily 'bubblefy'.

If you are willing to spread it out to an hour drive of downtown Indianapolis, you really have a ton of options you could use including Worthen Arena at Ball State.

[Pistol]

To pull this off, you really only need four venues able to host games simultaneously, plus practice spaces. (Practice is honestly the biggest logistical challenge, getting that many teams floor time in a single metro area compressed into a few days' time.) A regular Tournament would have four games going on the first Thursday and again on Friday, and have eight total venues for those. To keep the same game schedule, you could use the same venues on all four days opening weekend. You could move to bigger sites in subsequent rounds, but capacity doesn't matter if fans are either significantly limited or not involved at all.

Butler, IUPUI, and the University of Indianapolis are all NCAA programs/venues. Marian is NAIA, so I'm not sure if there'd be extra red tape there. HoosierPal also makes a great point about school being in session, which may make high school or college venues challenging. However, by March/April, you're mostly talking about moving PE classes and not actual games (volleyball is a fall sport in IN). There's probably a way to make it happen if the NCAA is using gyms for two days at a time at most.

The convention center is also a good point. That could easily be a venue for practice, games, or both.

[Slu let the dogs out?]

3 hours ago, brianstl said:

Southport High School Fieldhouse sits over 7,000 and is right there.  

Jeez Louise that is insane. I heard Indy preschool gyms can hold up to 2,500. Only problem (if they allow spectators) is pissing in a 2 foot tall urinal...

[crymdg2]

Listening to Chris May's podcast, he says Josh Hightower has a 45" vertical!? Either we have the best athletes in school history or these measurements are highly suspect. 

[HoosierPal]

2 hours ago, Pistol said:

To pull this off, you really only need four venues able to host games simultaneously, plus practice spaces. (Practice is honestly the biggest logistical challenge, getting that many teams floor time in a single metro area compressed into a few days' time.) A regular Tournament would have four games going on the first Thursday and again on Friday, and have eight total venues for those. To keep the same game schedule, you could use the same venues on all four days opening weekend. You could move to bigger sites in subsequent rounds, but capacity doesn't matter if fans are either significantly limited or not involved at all.

 

Matt N makes a good point on # venues.  I also read that Lucas Oil shouldn't be used until the final four, as it would give teams that play earlier in Lucas an advantage on site lines, etc.  Indy Health rules today limit attendance to 25%.

 

[Old guy]

12 minutes ago, Slu let the dogs out? said:

Jeez Louise that is insane. I heard Indy preschool gyms can hold up to 2,500. Only problem (if they allow spectators) is pissing in a 2 foot tall urinal...

If that is all that is available that is where you will go. No other choice, right?

[thetorch]

48 minutes ago, crymdg2 said:

Listening to Chris May's podcast, he says Josh Hightower has a 45" vertical!? Either we have the best athletes in school history or these measurements are highly suspect. 

I think his brother fed him that info.

It will be in his next team write-up entitled Josh Hightower - The Greatest Walk On Who Ever Lived." 10,000 words, long form journalism is not dead.

[MichaelC]

5 hours ago, kshoe said:

According to the ESPN article, it's a done deal that the entire tournament will be held in one city. I'd be shocked if it's not Indy at this point.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/30330582/ncaa-talks-hold-entire-men-basketball-tournament-indianapolis

Good news is that if they end up allowing fans, it'll be an easy drive for us. 3 straight weekends we'll have to make the trek!

It will be interesting to see if they allow fans and how those fans will be managed. If a team that makes a Final 4 run has to stay in this "controlled environment" for a month how will they handle fans going in and out?

[wgstl]

I think breaking up from 2 days to 4 days makes sense 

[bauman]

18 minutes ago, wgstl said:

I think breaking up from 2 days to 4 days makes sense 

I'm sure that TV revenue will be what controls.  The NCAA and member schools need $$$.

[Reinert310]

The rookie, Markhi Strickland, putting in some work. Season can’t start soon enough.

[bauman]

2 hours ago, Reinert310 said:

The rookie, Markhi Strickland, putting in some work. Season can’t start soon enough.

I hope that isn't for free throws.

[wgstl]

per Stu - sounds like the SLU v LSU game will be nov 28th, which would mean 3 games in 4 days

[bauman]

Have we ever heard anything about who a 3rd game would be against?  UNI and LSU we know, but who is the other?

[johnbj14]

 

[Cowboy]

9 minutes ago, johnbj14 said:

 

-let's hope this shock is a positive one

[slu72]

Sometimes stressing the negative reinforces the belief you suck at something. This in turn puts more pressure on the individual. FT’s for these guys has to become more instinctive . The more they think about it, ie form, stance etc, the more they’re gonna struggle. French, as many of us have observed, is deadly in warmups and spends a fair amount of pre game time shooting FT’s. He looks relaxed and he makes a good %age of them. But once the game starts it all goes to hell for him. He’s got to find a way to become more comfortable at the line and let his instincts take over. Easier said than done. Hopefully, he has a good game or two from the line that will serve as a confidence booster. Until then he’s gonna struggle I fear, because his problems are mental not physical. 
 

[brianstl]

 

[slu72]

17 minutes ago, brianstl said:

 

Whoa, that’s big news.