MAAC happy, but would like to see more local fans at MassMutual Center.
Jimmy Patsos celebrates as his team defeats Fairfield on Monday to win the MAAC Tournament and earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.SPRINGFIELD – For the first time, Division I college basketball teams earned their bids to the NCAA tournament here when the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference crowned the Marist women and the Loyola (Md.) men as champions Monday.
This was the first year of a three-year contract the MAAC has with the city to host its men’s and women’s championships, and the early returns are generally favorable.
There’s no doubt with 10 schools and 20 teams camping out here anywhere from one to six nights that the hotels, restaurants and merchants benefited, and the neighboring cities and towns received an offseason boost with fans of these teams filling rooms, restaurants and bars for the five-day tournament.
Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos, whose Greyhounds claimed the men’s championship and the automatic NCAA bid, was perhaps the biggest proponent of the host city, giving Springfield an A-minus grade only because he believed all it was missing was one five-star restaurant.
“I think Springfield is great and this is only going to get better every year,” said Patsos, who also brought his team to Amherst and Northampton. “We had a super time and it was a great venue.”
More than 16,000 fans came through the turnstiles at the MassMutual Center, an average of better than 3,000 a day.
MAAC commissioner Rich Ensor said for the first year at a new – and neutral – venue, the results were satisfactory.
“Everything we thought coming in held true. It was a good host city, good hotels, the arena stepped up and did nice events for us,” Ensor said. “Our attendance from the MAAC side of things was pretty good, but I think we have to engage locally better. I don’t think it’s the walk-up crowd many thought it would be here.
“I think everyone will walk away from this with some lessons learned, but overall a great first outing here and I’m very pleased with it.”
Marist fans, used to the women’s team winning after the Red Foxes claimed their seventh straight title, certainly came out in force. Fairfield, which had both teams in the final, traveled well, as did Siena, which had its men’s team in the semifinals.
Siena won four of its five titles playing at home in the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y., which has been the primary host for this event since the MAAC moved it out of the Meadowlands in New Jersey after eight years following the 1989 season.
To keep any of the teams from having a homecourt advantage in the postseason, the conference decided to look for a neutral site, and Springfield – which gave up the Division II men’s championship to host the MAAC Championships – was the choice.
“People stopped me during the course of the week to say how everybody was friendly here, and sometimes that’s code for ‘At least we’re not in Albany with all the Siena fans,’” Ensor said. “Our fans wanted a neutral site and our coaches wanted it because it’s way too important to just have one team be able to dominate it.”
And this is how it needs to be if the MAAC is going to get a second team in the NCAA tournament. While the Times Union Center is certainly a wonderful venue, it’s an unfair advantage for Siena, which plays all its home games there.
And having the Championship at the site of the top seed all but guarantees that team the title.
While the chances are low, the MAAC could still get a second team into the NCAAs. Patsos is passionate that Iona, the league’s regular-season champion, deserves an at-large bid.
“They’re 38 in the RPI, they won 25 games and they didn’t back down – they went and played everybody and have two NBA players on their team,” Patsos said. “The Missouri Valley and the CAA got two (teams in the NCAA). It’s time for the MAAC to get two.”
There does appear to be a lot of backlash against the big conferences getting teams into the tournament with losing league records, and the recent success of mid-major teams like VCU, Butler, Davidson and George Mason could play a role when the NCAA releases the field Sunday.