by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
The Arena will get a dozen or so more nights of business as Jacksonville University will move most of its home basketball games Downtown.
The announcement was made this morning at the Arena by the school’s athletics director, Alan Verlander.
JU plays in the Atlantic Sun Conference which also includes the University of North Florida and most of the games will be in the league. There will be at least one non-conference game against an unnamed major opponent.
The Dolphins have been playing their home games at the old on-campus facility, Swisher Gymnasium, for the past half-dozen years after getting poor attendance at the old Coliseum.
The entire schedule wasn’t available so it’s unknown how many of the games will be in the evenings. The Atlantic Sun often plays weekend games in the afternoon to pick up television exposure.
It will be a leap of faith for JU’s new leadership which includes its president, Dr. Kerry D. Romesburg, and Verlander. Romesburg promised that the private school in Arlington would regain a position of prominence in the community and Verlander has undertaken a series of athletic department changes.
The JU basketball program has dropped radically since its days of prominence nationally which once included a spot in the NCAA finals. Former coach and athletic director Hugh Durham was moved aside in favor of the Jacksonville-raised Verlander, who quickly hired Georgia Tech assistant coach Cliff Warren to take over the team.
Warren inherited some players with questionable backgrounds and proceeded to clear out most of the roster with the predictable results: the team won only one game last year.
Except for the non-conference game and perhaps the one against rival UNF, JU will have to promote heavily to interest fans in a league that includes teams such as Campbell, Belmont, Lipscomb and Kennesaw State.