2018 Summit League Tournament

[ST_Lawson]

So please explain how this is considered a "neutral site" for a tournament? The Summit League might as well play the game at South Dakota or South Dakota State campus!

If fans don't show up, then the conference won't make any money, nor would the conference get much recognition. So it's got to be played somewhere. Regionally, the location provides the a central location to the ND and SD teams, with Denver and Omaha not really all that far away. Fort Wayne and us are the farthest, along with Oral Roberts now what they're back.

Where else would you have the tourney that could bring the crowd?

Pretty much nowhere else would bring that kind of crowd. It'd be great to have it back in the Quad Cities or something, but for essentially half the conference, it's very centrally located (especially with the addition of UND next year). The state of SD is crazy about basketball and they bring huge crowds. Yes, it essentially makes it a "home game" whenever a SD team, and to a lesser extent, ND teams + Omaha, but you just aren't going to find that combination of a great venue, great attendance, and a city that wants it enough to go out and bid for it. There's nothing preventing another city from bidding...Moline...something in the Chicago area, etc....but at this point, not many places can compete with what Sioux Falls can put together for the conference tournament.

It'd be a different story entirely if they only had like 1k people showing up, but they don't.
We had a total of 9,640 attendance for our home games this season...TOTAL...that's ALL THE HOME GAMES COMBINED and we didn't break 10k. Meanwhile, Sioux Falls...over 1k more than that in one evening...10.7k fans. Are we going to somehow bring in 10k of mostly WIU and...idk...Omaha fans for a tournament in Moline? When the tournament was in Moline we didn't come close to that, and that was when we still had teams like Northeastern Illinois, Valparaiso, and Chicago State in the conference as "local" teams.

At this point, the tournament is pretty much locked into Sioux Falls for the forseeable future...so there's not really any point complaining about that.

[leatherneckcountry]

So please explain how this is considered a "neutral site" for a tournament? The Summit League might as well play the game at South Dakota or South Dakota State campus!

If fans don't show up, then the conference won't make any money, nor would the conference get much recognition. So it's got to be played somewhere. Regionally, the location provides the a central location to the ND and SD teams, with Denver and Omaha not really all that far away. Fort Wayne and us are the farthest, along with Oral Roberts now what they're back.

Where else would you have the tourney that could bring the crowd?

Pretty much nowhere else would bring that kind of crowd. It'd be great to have it back in the Quad Cities or something, but for essentially half the conference, it's very centrally located (especially with the addition of UND next year). The state of SD is crazy about basketball and they bring huge crowds. Yes, it essentially makes it a "home game" whenever a SD team, and to a lesser extent, ND teams + Omaha, but you just aren't going to find that combination of a great venue, great attendance, and a city that wants it enough to go out and bid for it. There's nothing preventing another city from bidding...Moline...something in the Chicago area, etc....but at this point, not many places can compete with what Sioux Falls can put together for the conference tournament.

It'd be a different story entirely if they only had like 1k people showing up, but they don't.
We had a total of 9,640 attendance for our home games this season...TOTAL...that's ALL THE HOME GAMES COMBINED and we didn't break 10k. Meanwhile, Sioux Falls...over 1k more than that in one evening...10.7k fans. Are we going to somehow bring in 10k of mostly WIU and...idk...Omaha fans for a tournament in Moline? When the tournament was in Moline we didn't come close to that, and that was when we still had teams like Northeastern Illinois, Valparaiso, and Chicago State in the conference as "local" teams.

At this point, the tournament is pretty much locked into Sioux Falls for the forseeable future...so there's not really any point complaining about that.

The tourny is locked into Sioux Falls until all Non Dakota schools realize that the league only cares about the Dakotas and ditch the league.

[sealhall74]

If fans don't show up, then the conference won't make any money, nor would the conference get much recognition. So it's got to be played somewhere. Regionally, the location provides the a central location to the ND and SD teams, with Denver and Omaha not really all that far away. Fort Wayne and us are the farthest, along with Oral Roberts now what they're back.

Where else would you have the tourney that could bring the crowd?

Pretty much nowhere else would bring that kind of crowd. It'd be great to have it back in the Quad Cities or something, but for essentially half the conference, it's very centrally located (especially with the addition of UND next year). The state of SD is crazy about basketball and they bring huge crowds. Yes, it essentially makes it a "home game" whenever a SD team, and to a lesser extent, ND teams + Omaha, but you just aren't going to find that combination of a great venue, great attendance, and a city that wants it enough to go out and bid for it. There's nothing preventing another city from bidding...Moline...something in the Chicago area, etc....but at this point, not many places can compete with what Sioux Falls can put together for the conference tournament.

It'd be a different story entirely if they only had like 1k people showing up, but they don't.
We had a total of 9,640 attendance for our home games this season...TOTAL...that's ALL THE HOME GAMES COMBINED and we didn't break 10k. Meanwhile, Sioux Falls...over 1k more than that in one evening...10.7k fans. Are we going to somehow bring in 10k of mostly WIU and...idk...Omaha fans for a tournament in Moline? When the tournament was in Moline we didn't come close to that, and that was when we still had teams like Northeastern Illinois, Valparaiso, and Chicago State in the conference as "local" teams.

At this point, the tournament is pretty much locked into Sioux Falls for the forseeable future...so there's not really any point complaining about that.

The tourny is locked into Sioux Falls until all Non Dakota schools realize that the league only cares about the Dakotas and ditch the league.

All I know is that getting here is becoming more difficult. I booked airline tickets early January and had direct from Dulles into Minneapolis and then the quick hop down to Sioux Falls. For some strange reason, ten days later my flight to Minneapolis was changed to Atlanta and I had to do an OJ to get from one gate to the other in time in Atlanta.

It would be interesting to know how much money the conference gets from Sioux Falls. Is it more than the money the NCAA doles out to the conference via the teams that participate in the big tournament? The problem I see (and I saw it from both of the Webster and Gilbeck interviews this week) is that the players seem to look forward to this and only this one event during the entire season. That is unacceptable and Sioux Falls has absolutely nothing to do with this.

[wiu712]

Neither of the two South Dakota teams are playing today. But there should still be good crowds for both sessions.

Last year's Women's championship game (Western vs IUPUI) did not have a Dakota school playing. But over 2,000 people were there on a Tuesday afternoon.

The Mid-Con/Summit Tournament has been played at Moline, Fort Wayne, Kansas City, and Tulsa over the past 20+ years. And prior to that, the tournament was held at campus sites.

Long-time Western fans will remember that Western Men's BB played a semi-final tournament game at Western Hall in March 1995 vs Buffalo. Western won that game 76-70 and went on to play Valpo (at Valpo) for the conference championship. Valpo won that game 88-85 in three times.

I don't think that any other city is able to match what Sioux Falls is able to offer. Sioux Falls has the support from Sanford Health and Midco Sports Network.

One possible alternative to the current set-up would to have the top 4 seeds host a quarter-final game on their home court. And then have the Semi's and Championship games in Sioux Falls.

Western does have a connection with the Sioux Falls site for the tourney. Former player Tate Stensgaard is the Sales Manager at the Sioux Falls Convention & Visitors Bureau. That agency works with the Summit League in organizing the tournament. Tate's mom Kathy is a volunteer host for one of the teams during the tournament.

[leatherneckcountry]

I honestly think that the highest seed should host the game it's a huge advantage for the south dakota schools when it comes to recruiting as well.

[wiu712]

Oral Roberts beat Denver 76-71 in Sunday's first quarter-final.

[leatherneckcountry]

WIU won 97-57 now on to SDSU.

[wiu712]

Western wins 97-57!

Western will play South Dakota State at 2:30 PM on Monday. South Dakota will play Oral Roberts at Noon.

Emily Clemens led the Western scoring with 36 points. Taylor Higginbotham had 23. Sam Pryor had 12.

Western shot 58% (38 for 66). Western had 56 points in the paint.

Western out-scored Omaha 32-6 in the second quarter.

Attendance for the afternoon session = 2,982.

[westernhall777]

After one round...

Emily Clemens..............Macy Miller
34 Minutes...................25 Minutes
12/13 FG (92%)...........6/13 FG (46%)
3/3 3PT (100%)..........2/6 3PT (33%)
9/10 FT (90%).............5/6 FT (83%)
1 REB...........................3 REB
3 AST...........................5 AST
8 STL............................2 STL
36 PTS (1.05 PTS/MIN)..19 PTS (.76 PTS/MIN)

Emily had a better game than Miller during the first games. I am interested to see how this plays out tomorrow!

[OldHare]

Monday game should have a decent crowd despite the impending stormy weather. It may not be record crowds, but we should expect good crowds and great games. I would hope that the Jackrabbits hold Clemens back a few notches from the Omaha performance which was very nice to watch. Higginbotham was no slouch either. The ESPN3 feed should find your access at 2:30 CST/3:30 EST. It was enjoyable to visit with Sealhall at the game. He is not a fan of South Dakota weather!