https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/co...e1800488f5

The upper decks of Verizon Center sat empty as Nebraska and Penn State tipped off in the first round of the Big Ten tournament Wednesday. The league’s first postseason step toward expanding its footprint on the East Coast was mostly a quiet one.

The fact that the Huskers and Nittany Lions entered with a combined nine straight losses didn’t stop Lindsey Wagner-Oveson from showing up. She grew up in Doland, S.D., just like Huskers Coach Tim Miles. She once played on a softball team coached by Miles in elementary school, she said, and while she now lives and works in Washington, she was able to return to her roots Wednesday. She wore a red and white T-shirt emblazoned with the name of her home town and was one of the only fans in the arena waving a sign, which read “Coach Miles Fan Club.”

She was part of a demographic that the Big Ten had hoped would show up in droves at Verizon Center this week — a transient fan with Midwest ties who wouldn’t be afraid to experience the league’s experiment.

“It’s unusual that it’s in D.C., but it’s fun,” Wagner-Oveson said. “With D.C., no one is from here, so it’s nice for fans, local fans, to be able to come to this, too.”

Wagner-Oveson, who sat in a lightly filled section, had turned to converse with a few friends at halftime. They laughed about the fact that two of the Big Ten’s football powers were opening the league’s first basketball tournament outside Chicago or Indianapolis.

Penn State outlasted Nebraska, 76-67, in overtime, but the irony of the meeting of conference blue bloods was not lost on just her. A large swath of Ohio State fans — whose largest fan base outside of Cleveland is located in the Washington area, according to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany — began to trickle in during the second half between the Huskers and Nittany Lions. Their arrival helped liven up the crowd before the Buckeyes lost to league doormat Rutgers, 66-57, in the first-round nightcap.

The four teams playing Wednesday certainly illustrated the league’s ambitious plan to exist in two regions. Nebraska is the farthest-flung Big Ten school and is roughly 1,200 miles from Washington, while Penn State is at the epicenter of the East Coast corridor that Delany projects carries just under 1 million alums.

Ohio native Jason Spahlinger didn’t have much trouble getting tickets Tuesday night. He and his 12-year-old twin sons showed up at Verizon Center wearing Buckeyes football jerseys and took a picture together inside the concourse to commemorate their first Big Ten tournament together.

“Ohio State is typically really competitive . . . but I think this is really cool,” said Spahlinger, who lives in Maryland and works in the District. “This gives us a chance to see them play.”

While the Big Ten did not release attendance figures with the official box score, the Nittany Lions players said afterward that they could feel the energy provided by the droves of fans that made the trip. That included a pep band and a small student section, which tried its best to hum to distract Nebraska each time it touched the ball. Their voices seemed to fade in the cavernous arena, although the energy began to pick up by the second half.

“Being so close to home, I felt like we had a little bit of a fan advantage,” Penn State freshman forward Lamar Stevens said.

Even though freshman center Mike Watkins has grown accustomed to travel in the Midwest during his freshman season, his first Big Ten tournament “felt like home.” The Philadelphia native had scores of family show up to watch him finish with 18 points, 11 rebounds and eight blocks in the win, and he could hear their voices as he ran up the floor. He hoped that his team’s performance Wednesday, even in a half-empty arena, would help change the perception of the program.

“Penn State is like a football school, but we came to Penn State to make a change,” Watkins said. “To make it a football and basketball school.”

I'm actually going to tonight's session haha

paid like $20 for lower bowl and with it being that cheap there is no excuse not to go

Gotta start somewhere.

No doubt that many fans of other conferences are rooting for this first DC tournament to be a disaster attendance wise.

(03-09-2017 11:28 AM)TheBasketBallOpinion Wrote:  I'm actually going to tonight's session haha

paid like $20 for lower bowl and with it being that cheap there is no excuse not to go

Same here. It's a fun environment and the area surrounding the Verizon Center is perfect for hitting up bars and restaurants.

In the old days, the ACC Tournament was Fri, Sat, and Sun. Playing hooky to see the basketball tournament on Fri was great. It also helps that teams from Maryland to Georgia Tech could drive to Greensboro/Charlotte to see the games.

With the expanded conferences, who can play hooky on Tue, Wed, Thu, and Fri for a bad team with a low chance of winning? Conference tournaments, I suspect, will have audience challenges in the coming years. Why travel from Lincoln to DC to watch a game when you can watch on television?

(03-09-2017 11:28 AM)TheBasketBallOpinion Wrote:  I'm actually going to tonight's session haha

paid like $20 for lower bowl and with it being that cheap there is no excuse not to go

I can think of an excuse: B1G basketball

The nightcap is brutal for attendance: Northwestern vs. Rutgers

The Big Ten really sucks this year. I am not a B1G hater but I watch a lot of college basketball and what they are desperately trying to spin as parity I would definitely characterize as mediocrity.

It's just not a good league this year. It's normally a pretty good basketball league and I fully expect it to get back to that status next year. However, there's no way to put lipstick on that pig this particular year.

(03-09-2017 10:25 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  The Big Ten really sucks this year. I am not a B1G hater but I watch a lot of college basketball and what they are desperately trying to spin as parity I would definitely characterize as mediocrity.

It's just not a good league this year. It's normally a pretty good basketball league and I fully expect it to get back to that status next year. However, there's no way to put lipstick on that pig this particular year.

Talk, talk, talk.

Yeah, it's just one man's opinion. People are free to disagree – I have no problem with that. However, I'm pretty firm in that opinion.

They'll draw better tomorrow...

DC is a hard sell for the B1G...I fully expect they'll draw better in NYC.

Or EVEN BETTER in:

Chicago
Indianapolis
Cleveland
Detroit
Minneapolis

(03-09-2017 11:27 PM)TexanMark Wrote:  DC is a hard sell for the B1G...I fully expect they'll draw better in NYC.

On the other hand, DC should work very well for the ACC and would be the best permanent site for them, though conference politics probably mandates a rotation.

Those early rounds of the BTT in Chicago or Indy are always empty. Nebraska-Penn State doesn't even get good attendance in State College. And nobody cares about Rutgers basketball.

From what I've read, the session involving Maryland tomorrow has sold well. Obviously attendance will be better if the Terps advance.

(03-10-2017 02:05 AM)moo Wrote:  Those early rounds of the BTT in Chicago or Indy are always empty. Nebraska-Penn State doesn't even get good attendance in State College. And nobody cares about Rutgers basketball.

From what I've read, the session involving Maryland tomorrow has sold well. Obviously attendance will be better if the Terps advance.

I once walked into a #1 ranked OSU vs PSU game in SC for $5, and I had great seats. They weren't on the court, but they were surprisingly close.

Nobody at PSU even begins to care about anything other than football and wrestling (to a lesser extent). WBB and WVB used to be good (and probably still are), but I don't remember anyone caring.

Side comment: WTH happened to OSU? It wasn't that long ago that they were great.

(03-09-2017 10:25 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  The Big Ten really sucks this year. I am not a B1G hater but I watch a lot of college basketball and what they are desperately trying to spin as parity I would definitely characterize as mediocrity.

It's just not a good league this year. It's normally a pretty good basketball league and I fully expect it to get back to that status next year. However, there's no way to put lipstick on that pig this particular year.

You're dead on. I had been looking forward to the tournament being out here for years and it has been anti climatic with as mediocre as the league has been this year.

Went Wednesday and to the night session yesterday, which was a good atmosphere for Iowa-Indiana. May go tomorrow to semis if tickets are reasonable

It has nothing to do with the B1G or DC. Fans are not traveling 1000 miles for game 1 of 5, on a weekday.

(03-10-2017 08:10 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  It has nothing to do with the B1G or DC. Fans are not traveling 1000 miles for game 1 of 5, on a weekday.

That's just it. I think that the working theory was that the B1G was everywhere due to big fan bases, a central location, and emigration from the Midwest. That isn't the case. It's still a midwestern conference.

**I think MSG will do better than DC**

(03-10-2017 08:10 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  It has nothing to do with the B1G or DC. Fans are not traveling 1000 miles for game 1 of 5, on a weekday.

True. The biggest attendance problem is that these tournaments now span five days. And the first and second round games are between the teams in the bottom half of oversized and geographically far flung leagues. Those games will likely always be poorly attended, no matter what venue they are being played at.

Jim delany is a disaster. The big 10 needs a big10 guy running the league and not somebody stalking acc schools.