Mike Krzyzewski, the longest tenured of ACC basketball coaches, sounded an alarm about the conference Sunday night after directing No. 5-ranked Duke to a 79-57 defeat of Georgia Tech.
There were thousands of empty seats for some sessions at the ACC tournament last year, and there may be more of the same next month in Greensboro N.C. State , Boston College , Miami
After Duke played a Sunday game – and Krzyzewski despises Sunday games – he wondered aloud whether playing on Saturdays would be better for the ACC’s sagging attendance figures.
“You know, we have three straight games starting at 3:30 [Sunday] in the ACC,” Krzyzewski said. “Those would have been better on Saturday from 3:30 on. That’s when fans want to be out. Then we wonder why attendance is dipping. Have you noticed attendance has been dipping? Everywhere, not so much here, but we’ve got to figure that whole thing out.”
Krzyzewski indicated that decisions at the upcoming ACC spring meetings will be critical for the future of the conference. The ACC will debut a new TV contract with ESPN and partner Raycom in 2011-12, and Krzyzewski wants the structure for basketball studied carefully.
“I think this is a very important spring for our league to really concentrate on basketball and the future of basketball in our league, and just how all these things are positioned,” Krzyzewski said. “We’ve taken for granted the golden goose for a long time. You have to look at the old goose and see if it’s still golden, and if not, how to get it there, because this is still the best conference. It’s a classy, classy conference, and people love basketball in this conference. We just have to make sure it’s done properly.”
The coach’s comments on basketball in the ACC came after he was asked about scheduling. Krzyzewski said Sunday games are bad for everybody.
A prominent Sunday package televised nationally on Fox Sports Net gets ACC teams exposure from coast to coast. But Krzyzewski, playing Sundays creates problems. This week, the Blue Devils will play three games in seven days.
“It’s not a good thing,” Krzyzewski said. “We shouldn’t have ‘em. And it puts us in a position this week to play three games in six days without really a day off. But again, we’re not the only team that goes through it. It’s just our turn. But I’m not complaining. I would not want that for anybody in our league. I don’t think it helps our league.”
Ken Tysiac
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12 comments:
Coach K's the most powerful man in basketball not named Phil Jackson, I'm sure the ACC will listen!
He wants the ACC to excel as we all should...not just for Duke's seeding (obviously), but for the pride of the conference.
There's a lot of exasperation in the fan base of the 'not Duke, not UNC' schools. The product produced at these schools is largely substandard. Why should fans pay to see Coach K's team come in and clobber the home boys? The Big East has it going on, not the ACC.
Expansion has seriously diluted ACC basketball. Even though it was necessary for football, I wish it never happened. One solution would be to go back to round-robin. Another would be to have divisions, so that there be some consistency in who teams play year to year.
I agree, expansion has really hurt ACC Basketball. Not to be disrespectful but, Miami and Boston College basketball does not resonate with traditional ACC basketball fans. I say the voices of some of the more established coaches in the league (K, Roy Williams, Gary W, etc.) should be heard. Right now, the Big East is the most dominate basketball conference in the country with the Big 12 and Big 10 right behind.
Dilution of the college game is nationwide. If you've watched the game recently, you see a lot of poorly-played, low-fundamentals contests (less than 10 points in a half by one team in some DI games-come on). Still, there are some quality games intermixed in the slog. Sadly, poor fundos, selfish play, early NBA departures, etc, has reduced game quality across the board in recent years.
You will bring the fans back with a better quality product. , m
I agree that the league basketball is in trouble, but I really do not see what can be done about Sunday games. There is no way that the conference can have 6 games on Saturdays. This would limit the ability of the TV partners to show the games. Also, by limiting to just Saturdays, there would still be the problem that teams would have to play 3 games in six or seven days. It actually would make this problem even worse, because if teams had games on Thursday night, they have to turn around to play on the mandated Saturday. The league is garbage, but Sunday basketball really is the least of the worries...
"Teams from N.C. State, Boston College, Miami and some other ACC schools should be used to that, because they often play in front of arenas that aren’t close to being full."
Get the hell out of here. Sure, percentage wise it's somewhat similar, but let's stick BC and Miami and a 19k seat arena and see how that looks. State is far, far, far from a problem compared to other schools you could have mentioned instead. (GT? WF? C'mon.)
"Teams from N.C. State, Boston College, Miami and some other ACC schools should be used to that, because they often play in front of arenas that aren’t close to being full."
Get the hell out of here. Sure, percentage wise it's somewhat similar, but let's stick BC and Miami and a 19k seat arena and see how that looks. State is far, far, far from a problem compared to other schools you could have mentioned instead. (GT? WF? C'mon.)
Your attendance problems shouldn't even need to be ignored, State. You have two national championships and dozens and dozens of conference championship banners. Miami has all of one SWEET SIXTEEN appearance, and a single Big East regular season championship. You might not think so, but BC ain't all that much better off in terms of program tradition. They've never gotten past the Elite Eight, and they've got all of seven conference championships ever. Big arena or not, the state of NC State's basketball program is pretty sad. If they can fill up Carter-Finley for 7-9 wins a year, why not RBC?
The coach and no tournament app. in 5 years will do that.
For all of the national hate directed towards the ACC...
Don't forget what conference has won 5 of the last 10 National Championships. Also don't forget what team is ranked #1 and missing their most dynamic player.
"Don't forget what conference has won 5 of the last 10 National Championships. Also don't forget what team is ranked #1 and missing their most dynamic player"
Hopefully duke can make that 6/11 this year.And the way its shaping up atm, we will get atleast one in the next three years if kyrie and everyone stays
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