Maybe next time Denver will get some close games.
If the host Mountain West Conference gets its wish, a future NCAA men’s first and second round or regional will return to the Pepsi Center in either 2011, 2012, or 2013.
“Absolutely, we’ll bid every chance we get,” tournament director and MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said.
Sometime within the next year the bid process will begin for a future date.
The games at the Pepsi Center this weekend were sold out months ago and the stands were packed to the rafters, though the basketball at times was far from scintillating.
Thompson couldn’t say enough about the crowds, which should bode well for Denver getting future consideration.
He also said a Denver organizing group is preparing a bid for a future women’s Final Four.
Dear old dad.
After his postgame television interview, Washington State coach Tony Bennett walked across the court alone, then went into the stands and found his family, including his father, Dick, who was seated three rows behind the Cougars’ bench with the WSU fans.
Tony took over the program two seasons ago from his father, who coached the team for three years. In 2006, the Cougars finished in last place in the Pac-10.
“That’s what you want to do in that moment is share it,” Tony said. “I got to go along for the ride with him (as an assistant) in 2000 when he went to the Final Four (with Wisconsin). I remember how special each step of that was.”
The only other time the school was in the Sweet 16 was in 1941.
Beat the ex-boss.
Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk was a lowly ticket manager at Maine when current Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White ran the Maine athletic department.
Sterk took up running to better learn the business from his boss and ended up running the New York City Marathon. “I went to school. The only way for a ticket guy to learn from the AD was out running (with him),” Sterk said.
White said that was hardly the case. “I had a lot of good people and they kept me employed.”
Sterk followed White to Tulane and was elevated to associate AD. He’s been at Washington State for eight years, with a stop at Portland State in between.
The two ADs had dinner Tuesday, wished each other luck and met briefly again before Saturday’s game.
There’s no ill will going forward. “I hope they go deep in the tournament,” White said.
Both men insisted there was no friendly wager on the contest, which Washington State won in a 61-41 rout.
Raising the flag.
Tent poles extending 10 feet are definitely contraband at sports arenas in the age of heightened security.
With the Michigan State-Pittsburgh game over and everyone clearing out of the seats, Andrew Duhaime, a 27-year-old Michigan State student wearing a lime-colored Afro wig, raised a green flag that was at least 10 feet high with the white letter “S” for Spartans.
A Pepsi Center usher was amazed the pole even made it into the building and let Duhaime have a few minutes of fun.
Duhaime, who said he’s old for a college student because he was in the Coast Guard, flew out to Denver on Saturday morning.
Natalie Meisler and David Krause, The Denver Post
