DETROIT — No one expects a domed football stadium to be transformed into an intimate basketball gym, but watching a game in Ford Field is like watching chess inside an airplane hangar.
Most domed stadiums used during Final Fours put the court against one side of the stadium and set up temporary bleachers on the other side. The roof always seems 100 stories high, but the far seats don’t seem 100 miles away.
In Ford Field, the court is smack-dab in the middle of the stadium. Seats have been moved to each side, but the rest of the seats fan out all the way to the upper deck. Picture the 1968 UCLA-Houston game in the Astrodome, throw in seats around the court and you have tonight’s Final Four venue.
It’s all for the sake of a few more bucks. Tonight’s projected attendance is 70,000.
Also, the players who dive out of bounds for loose balls tonight may wind up doing full gainers with a half pike. The floor is elevated. At my press row seat, the court starts at my chest. Three feet is a long way to fall for 6-foot-9, 250-pound Tyler Hansbrough.
Remarkably, only Connecticut will be a stranger here. Michigan State hosted North Carolina here Dec. 3 and was blown out 98-63; Villanova lost to Kansas here in last year’s Sweet 16, 72-57.
Spartan welcome.
As expected, Friday’s open shootaround looked like a Michigan State pep rally. It’s free, and an estimated 25,000 fans watched the four teams go through the motions. About 24,000 seemed to be wearing green.
The Spartan players had a nice moment. After their 50-minute workout, they stopped and thanked the crowd. Coach Tom Izzo got the idea from Flip Saunders, whom he assisted in the Goodwill Games in Australia.
“I guess I copied it,” Izzo said. “I just told the guys, ‘Spend the moment to do two things: Thank the people that came, thank Detroit and then soak it in, because you’re not going to get to soak it in from here on in. It’s dog-eat-dog.’ ”
Gambling Heels.
It tells you something about a city when its biggest attractions are casinos. Detroit has three of them, and North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson caused a stir by telling the press he won $250 playing craps Thursday night at Greektown Casino.
Coach Roy Williams gave the Tar Heels a 1:30 a.m. curfew. “It’s probably the last time I go there before the games start,” Lawson said.
That’s good. NCAA president Myles Brand wasn’t happy.
“I warn against that slippery slope,” Brand said. “It’s a fair question. . . . When a student- athlete plays bingo at his church, for example, while we discourage that, we would prefer not to regulate that kind of activity.”
Church bingo? If any more players gamble, I won’t report on it. I lived in Las Vegas 10 years. Reading a ZIP-code directory isn’t as boring as gambling.
Lions memories.
If you want a true indication of how far the NFL has come, before you come see the Lions’ home here at Ford Field, go to Tiger Stadium. Across the street from the half-demolished dinosaur is the Lions’ old headquarters. It’s a small, drab, one-story building that’s now the City Cab headquarters.
Then again, considering the Lions’ 0-16 record, it’s obvious that plants and fine paneling at Ford Field really is only window dressing.
