Thanks for posting all this information. I'd heard that the administration was a nightmare for Les at Bradley but I never knew the details. I also remember reading that he had a tremendous amount of fan support and, like you've noted, the Bradley fans were really sorry to see him get fired.

I don't think there's any other coach in the Big West that gets as much from the talent they are able to get as Les does. He has a knack for developing players into overachievers.

seriously. How many games in the Big West does it look like we have more athletes?

Fullerton put up a pretty good fight, but the Gauchos have too much firepower. I hope they get higher than a 15 seed.

I don't understand your question, Mike? Can you elaborate?

Looks like the Player of the Year was correctly called! Wow - what a 2nd half.

sorry; I meant more athletic team

Back from Vegas, we saw 7 games in the 3 and a half days there. Big West, Pac 12, WCC and Mountain West games. Overall it was a fun trip. As for the Ags- not the result we wanted but we did our part cheering them on from right behind the bench.

The Big West should consider moving the tourney back to So Cal. The spot in Henderson is a beautiful new arena but I'm not sure there were even 500 people in the building. Kind of a bummer environment to play or watch a game. I would move the tourney to the Bren Center in Irvine and give every team in the league 500 tickets and then release unsold tickets to the general public. Yes Irvine and the nearby school would have an advantage with more fans but I would imagine most players would prefer playing in front of 4 or 5 thousand fans than a nearly empty arena.

I agree with moving the tournament back to SoCal. Playing in an empty arena is not fun for the teams and isn't a good atmosphere for the few fans who attend also. It's not a good look for the Big West on TV either when the place is empty.

How about rotating sites every year to every campus?

There are a bunch of sad little gyms in the league, so I wouldn't rotate to every campus.

Bren Center is a nice 5,000 arena, it would look great on tv if packed. I haven't been there in 20 years but I remember it as being nice.
Irvine is very close to 3 Big West campuses and I'm guessing 7 schools are 2 hours or less away.
It's near the beach, Disneyland, airport, hotels.
Yes it's very far from Davis and Hawaii but guessing way more Davis and Hawaii fans would show up in Irvine than Henderson, NV.

Not to be cynical…..BUT…..I’d guess the move to Henderson was all about money for the conference (not the schools)

I can't see rotating the venue every year. First, as ucdboyd points out, many of the campuses have pretty small gyms. Second, I don't think the conference wants to expense of flying out to and staying in Hawai`i once every ten years. Third, ten years is a very long cycle. I think Henderson is fine, since no team has a special advantage of being very close and only one team, Hawai`i, is seriously disadvantaged, but that would be the case anywhere in California as well.

Yep you are probably right but seems penny wise dollar foolish to me. I've seen articles reporting the Pac 12 gets $500,000, WCC and Mountain West $300,000 to have their tourneys in Vegas. Maybe I'm wrong but I would guess Big West gets far less than either of those numbers. Is it worth $100,000(total guess) to play tourney games in a nearly empty arena, look terrible on tv, far from any campus?

an article I read stressed the smaller arena as a draw. I don’t think they drew that many folks to the Honda center which is twice the size of Henderson arena, so crowds looked really small.

Yes, Honda Center was a good location but way too big. One of the reasons I like the idea of having it at Irvine's 5000 seat Bren Center. If you can sell that out a few years then try a bigger arena.

Best hope which I read on the Big West Message Boards- maybe Disney builds a nice new 7,500-10,000 seat arena in Anaheim. I think that was just a fan dreaming not any real plans that I know of.

This is an interesting article about the move. Sounds like they didn’t like the size and proximity of the Honda Center. This makes for a more nuetral true-tournament atmosphere. Not sure the attendance of the Friday-Saturday

I'm not seeing a link to an article. A nearly empty arena is about as neutral as you can get so I guess they achieved that. But having been there it was a bummer watching 2 games, and I would imagine it was a bummer for the players. I would much rather watch a game in Irvine with a few hundred Davis fans and a few thousand opposing fans, but maybe other don't agree.

We have a year left on the contract with Henderson. I recommend feeding back to the AD about the situation. Finding an arena of the right size is important.

I have no issues with having the tournament at a school site as long as there isn't preferential treatment for that school's fans.

I'll add that Henderson isn't good for having any of the student bodies enjoy the games. Now UCD students aren't going to rush down to SoCal either - they hardly rush into the Pavilion - but in general we might see more students attending. It's easy to go to SoCal either by car, plane or even train. And there's always Disneyland!

shoot, I can’t find the article I meant to post. This is interesting


https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/sports/2022/03/12/big-west-conference-encouraged-by-debut-of-basketball-championships-at-dollar-loan-center


I think they were/are hoping the city of Henderson would embrace it as their event and drive ticket sales.

I'm definitely one that went down to the Honda Center (for the last 5 years there, or so) and haven't been to Henderson, yet. For me, my son and I could leave early Thursday morning and get to Anaheim by the first tip off of the day (which was usually the Ags). In Henderson, we are looking at either a long drive the day before, or a flight. So more time and higher cost have kept us away. Maybe next year we'll take the whole week and catch some Pac-12, MW, WCC games also.

We really enjoyed the games down in SoCal. Good cycling along the Anaheim River's bike path. It's a LOT of basketball to do both men and women's games but fun. I liked the Honda Center but I'm flexible.

The family and I had a great time, despite most of our teams losing. 7 games in 3 and 1/2 days. Even squeezed in trips to Hover Dam and Red Rock Canyon. The Davis game and the nearly empty arena were the biggest bummers of the trip. But the Pac-12 and Mountain West games were fun. Even with my wife's St Mary's getting blown out, it was a fun atmosphere- a packed 8-9 thousand seat arena.

Let us do campus sites for the student athletes and the students. How fun is it to win a tourney game at home with friends and family? Every tourney game is chance to have that excitement on campus. Everyone in California can get to each other. As for Hawaii they can rent a site or use another schools neutral site.

The money from BB comes from the TV tourney and the gambling of March Madness.

Grow the love of college hoop by having campus sites for the Big West tourney.

I believe the biggest factor to overcome is the athletic departments do NOT want to do the work of hosting. A lot easier to be at Vegas and have that work done for them rather than hosting on campus.

Isn't it often said n Hawaii, that Las Vegas is the 9th island due to a high native Hawaiian population there?

True, yes.

that was a term I saw in one article where they mentioned the Hawaii had the biggest fan base at last year’s tournament.

Any time Hawai`i fans can get to go Las Vegas to gamble AND root for their Rainbow Warriors, they will eagerly take it. A lot of casinos give Hawai`i's travelers big breaks on room rates and air fares. I am not included, because I do not gamble nor would I travel that far to see Hawai`i. Maybe if the Aggies had a real shot at another Big West title, though.