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By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
The Barclays Center took a significant step towards surpassing Madison Square Garden as New York City’s premier destination for college basketball with the announcement of its deals with the Atlantic Coast and Atlantic-10 conferences.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is arguably the nation’s top men’s basketball league, featuring programs such as Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, and Notre Dame, among others. The Barclays Center will host its conference tournament in 2017 and 2018. It will bring famous coaches like Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’ Jim Boehiem, and North Carolina’s Roy Williams to Brooklyn.
It likely won’t be the only time Brooklynites will get to see them and their teams in action.
The home of the Brooklyn Nets will also host double-headers with teams from the Atlantic 10 taking on squads from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Which teams the leagues bring to Brooklyn will determine the dominance the Barclays Center has over college basketball in the area. Games between also-rans will not be must-have tickets.
My gut says the leagues and Barclays are too smart to let that happen.
Across town, Madison Square Garden is locked into a long-term contract to host the Big East tournament. Right now, the league is a shadow of what it once was before teams left last year for greener pastures and greater money for their football programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big Ten. Marquette coach Buzz Williams just left the Big East to coach Virginia Tech in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Big East’s top teams, such as Xavier, Creighton, and Villanova, don’t exactly create the same buzz as Louisville, Syracuse, and UConn used to. The Big East desperately needs St. John’s and Georgetown to be major players, and right now that is just not the case. Until then, the Big East tournament won’t come close to being the event it used to be.
The Barclays Center also remains the home of the Atlantic 10 tournament for the next two years, and it returns when the Atlantic Coast Conference leaves for another venue in 2019. The Atlantic 10 conference is becoming one of the nation’s best, with six teams in this year’s NCAA tournament, and Dayton making the elite. While its teams outside of Fordham don’t have a local appeal, players from across the five boroughs fill Atlantic-10 rosters.
It all adds up to the Barclays Center being in position to become the must-be destination for college hoops fans.