With teams arriving Tuesday in Denver, getting them set up in their digs for the week has been a fun job. It was the process of narrowing the field of hotels that took a lot of work.
Dan Butterly, an associate commissioner for the Mountain West Conference, which is the host of this week’s NCAA Tournament subregional at the Pepsi Center, is in charge of logistics for the event.
“It really is a tremendous process,” Butterly said. “There is a lot that goes into getting the hotels, from the bid process to the follow-up tour to the time the teams get here.”
Butterly and a crew from the NCAA toured a number of Denver hotels in 2004 while putting together the initial bid to get the subregional.
In October last year they narrowed the field to 10. Those were then ranked (with proximity being the tiebreaker), and the top-seeded team gets to stay at the No. 1-ranked hotel, and then down the line. After getting matchups that included the same seedings, the tiebreaker there fell to alphabetical order. There is a separate hotel for game officials and also one serving as the tournament headquarters. Each school gets 75 rooms for its players, school officials, band and cheerleaders, but must find their own rooms if they need more.
“Every one of the eight team hotels has gone through a $10 million to $20 million renovation in the past 10 to 12 months, so they are all quality properties,” Butterly said.
Family reunion.
There’s some mixed emotion in the Glackin household in Westminster over the George Mason-Notre Dame matchup.
Kay Glackin’s younger brother is George Mason coach Jim Larranaga. Husband Jack has a brother who is a priest with an honorary degree from Notre Dame.
Kay Glackin couldn’t be more thrilled. The only time she has seen her brother since the 2006 Final Four was at a funeral.
“I’m hoping they win Thursday so maybe he can come over and see our house,” Kay said Tuesday.
Her favorite story about her brother is how their late father used to ask: “I wonder when Jim is going to get a real job?”
Practice sites.
Most of the teams tried to get in practices on Tuesday after getting to Denver. Notre Dame and Washington State practiced at DU’s Hamilton Gymnasium, Oral Roberts and Winthrop at Regis University and Temple at Manual High.
George Mason practiced at home before flying to Denver later in the day. The teams have 40-minute practices at the Pepsi Center today, but many will have longer sessions around town.
Gus factor.
Denver didn’t draw a first, second or third seed. But wherever CBS announcer Gus Johnson has been assigned, some classic buzzer-beaters have followed. Johnson will be working the Denver games this weekend with Len Elmore.
There’s still a clip on YouTube of Johnson screaming at the end of UCLA’s 2006 comeback against Gonzaga, when ex-Zag Adam Morrison was prone on the floor. Johnson also called Princeton’s 1996 stunner of UCLA, Gonzaga’s upset over Florida in 1999 (with the line “And the slipper still fits”), Vermont’s 2005 upset of Syracuse and two of George Mason’s 2006 wins.
David Krause and Natalie Meisler, The Denver Post
