Jacksonville wants the NCAA basketball tournament back and has made bids for either 2009 or 2010, and it appears that the management of the event this week hasn’t hurt their chances.
No NCAA official wanted to speak about the matter, but Jacksonville University and city officials said they had heard no negative comments. The NCAA has thick procedural manuals covering just about every situation and nothing appeared amiss.
A large volunteer force is present in addition to paid security and extra help from the University of North Florida and Stetson staffs.
“I’m very pleased,” said Florida Coach Billy Donovan after his team’s 76-50 win over South Alabama. “It’s been smooth.”
The local force was headed by Jacksonville University Athletics Director Alan Verlander and the city’s Mike Sullivan, who directs the Sports and Entertainment Board.
• Today’s schedule has practice sessions from noon until 6:15 with the Gators getting the Veterans Memorial Arena court from 3:10-4:40. All are closed to the public.
• The Oklahoma team spent practice time at The Bolles School this week at the invitation of the school’s headmaster, John Trainer. He’s an Oklahoma grad.
• The hardest working man in town Thursday? Had to be AM-690 sportscaster Cole Pepper, who went to his station at 5 a.m. for the morning show, then hustled to the Arena where he was the public address announcer for all four games. His day finally ended about midnight, but he had to be at the station at 5 this morning, so forgive him if he sounded fuzzy during your morning drive.
• Covering for USA Today was erstwhile football writer Kelly Whiteside. She lives here; she’s the wife of T-U sports columnist Mike Freeman.
• Police reported no problems during the first day but that was expected — they didn’t sell beer in the Arena. “Not like the Jaguar night games,” said detective Bill David. By the way, the stadium has something the Arena doesn’t — two holding cells.
• Jacksonville U. is expected to play at least one Arena game next year and you can expect to buy a brewski then. The Dolphins want to attract a crowd and they’ll try anything.
• One thing the Arena has is a laundry room and Jacksonville U. athletic equipment manager Tom Leonard has the duty of washing the towels and uniforms. The winning teams from Thursday’s games turned in their outfits for washing and they’ll drip dry them back at the hotels.
• Coca-Cola and its water, Dasani, have the tournament rights so no other beverage labels are allowed — that’s why Florida, which was the site of the invention of Gatorade, had to hide their favorite drink. Coca-Cola makes Powerade.
• It didn’t take long for the losers to hit the road. Oklahoma, which lost Thursday’s first game to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was in the air for Norman, Okla. at 5 p.m., less than three hours after their game ended.
• The Sooners loss may also explain why plenty of lower-level seats were empty during the Florida game and the night session. Oklahoma fans were not happy with the loss, left quickly and must not have bothered to do anything with their tickets.
• Don’t let the CBS TV camera angle fool you — it may appeared like there were lots of empty seats (see the note above), but the Arena was mostly full.
• Downtown looked like a Jaguar Sunday as the police had traffic cones all along Bay Street to handle the 5:30 p.m. traffic after the Florida game.
• Need a ticket for Saturday’s game? Should be plenty available through the losing teams’s fans and your best bet is to hang around downtown hotels today.
• Best mascot: South Alabama’s “Southpaw,” who did break dances during timeouts.
• The tournament’s only player with a Jacksonville connection is David Huertas of Florida, who attended Arlington Country Day. He played the final minute and missed his only shot.
• The sanctioning body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, demands uniformity and that’s why there’s all the blue carpeting and drapery. Staffers must wear white shirts with blue vests, too. The only Arena ads were NCAA sponsors, too. The big scoreboard ads were covered over.
• The national anthems were played by the Oklahoma band in the afternoon session and the LSU band at night. That’s among the privileges going to the higher-seeded team.
• Florida fans seemed to treat the day as though it was a football game. Instead of watching the opening game, many fans were tailgating in the parking areas and hanging around outside the Arena with beverages from the Amsterdam Sky Cafe.
• One Wisconsin-Milwaukee cheerleader stands out — she’s the one who sunbathed too long at the Radisson pool.
• There are different sets of referees for each game and it’s a treat. “I could be in, say, Philadelphia doing the games there,” said Tom Wood, who did the Louisiana State-Iona game. “I’m from San Diego. Jacksonville is my kind of place.”