The Creighton Bluejays will breathe some new life into the Old Barn Tuesday, March 16. A few days before the NCAA Tournament begins, Dana Altman’s Jays will continue their 2009-2010 season with 15 other teams in the 2nd annual CollegeInsider.com Tournament. And they’ll do so at the Civic Auditorium, where the Bluejays won 432 games and last played in 2003.
The good folks at GoCreighton.com have details (here) about how to buy tickets, how much they’ll cost, and where people will park before filing in to watch the Bluejays host another non-BCS league team. But there are some other questions that need answers, issues only devoted Bluejays fans can address.
What types of teams might the Bluejays host on Tuesday?
Last season’s inaugural CIT included the following teams: Mount St. Mary’s, James Madison, Rider, Liberty, Belmont, The Citadel, Old Dominion (champions), Idaho, Portland, Pacific, Kent State, Oakland, and Austin Peay. Fellow MVC brethren Evansville, Drake, and Bradley (runners up) rounded out last year’s field.
A few of those teams graduated to the Big Dance in 2010: Oakland and Old Dominion have secured their conferences’ automatic bids so far during this year’s Championship Week. But judging by last season’s participants and some of the teams identified as taking part this season (George Mason will host a first-round game in the CIT, but will play any remaining games it advances to on the road because of the Barnum & Bailey Circus), Jays fans can expect to see a quality of team Creighton has regularly scheduled in the past for non-conference contests.
Will the game sell out?
According to Adrian Rider, director of ticket sales operations at Creighton, the Bluejays sold 13,181 season tickets for the 2009-2010 season. With a capacity of 9,300 for this first round game at the Civic, season ticket holders will need to get in line sooner rather than later to ensure picking up seats for the game.
But will it sell out? The largest crowd for a CIT game last season was a little more than 8,100, but Creighton is one of the biggest draws in all of Division I hoops. Still, some of the smallest crowds during Creighton’s tenure at Qwest Center Omaha came during NIT home games. Factor in just a few days notice, a frustrating end to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, and the added expense of purchasing tickets, these are some of the attendance figures for NIT games in the past few years:
Bowling Green (2009): 9,577
Rhode Island (2008): 7,948
Akron (2006): 10,197
Miami (2006): 10,018
Kentucky won’t be coming to Omaha; neither will any other big-name schools having an off year. Still, Jays fans have made a habit of putting close to 10,000 people in QCO for similar postseason home games. With the nostalgia angle, the folks at CU’s athletic marketing department should be able to drum up interest based on the return to the Civic alone.
Who chooses Creighton’s opponent?
The selection committee for the CIT includes some former coaches who know a thing or two about college hoops. Jim Phelan coached for 49 seasons at Mount St. Mary’s, and is one of just a handful of coaches to win more than 800 games. He has coached the most games (regardless of NCAA divisions) in college hoops history (1,354).
Lefty Driesell took four programs to the NCAA Tournament, and he is the only coach to win 100 games at four different schools (Davidson, Georgia State, James Madison, and Maryland). Lou Henson took New Mexico State and Illinois to the Final Four, one of just 11 coaches to do so. The full list is here, but you can rest assured that there are some knowledgeable individuals pulling the strings for who will comprise the field of 16 teams. The committee even has an advisory committee, which includes Gene Keady and Nolan Richardson!
White & Blue Review will have more information as the CIT draws closer and Creighton gets ready to take men’s hoops back to the Civic Auditorium.