Canzano: A walk around the NCAA Tournament
Eight teams. One court. Come on a walk.
Tara Ann VanDerveer surveyed the chow line on Thursday at Moda Center after Stanford’s off-day practice at the NCAA Tournament Regional in Portland.
The Cardinal coach walked the buffet, arms folded, looking over serving dishes featuring salad, chicken, and steak. Someone eating at one of the nearby tables said: “Try the mac and cheese, coach — it’s good.”
I wish I could have brought you with me on my pre-tournament walkabout on Thursday. Television staffers were setting up banks of cameras and securing electrical and audio-video cords for Friday’s game. Souvenir vendors on the 100-level concourse sorted piles of “Portland NCAA Regional” T-shirts. And the coaches and players were busy completing their off-day media obligations.
When I arrived, Stanford was on the court practicing. Cameron Brink, who played her high school ball in Beaverton, is the team’s best player. She was taking passes from an assistant on one end of the court. Brink caught the ball, pivoted in the post, dribbled baseline, and used her left hand for a layup.
Katy Steding was the assistant feeding the ball to Brink. You may remember Steding from Lake Oswego High. She played at Stanford, too, leading the Cardinal to the 1990 national title and later becoming a WNBA first-round draft pick.
Steding nodded her approval and kept throwing entry passes. I was struck by the sight of two Portland-area basketball products together on the hardwood at Moda Center, trying to make another Final Four run.
Had you been with me on Thursday, you’d have noted that the streets around the arena appear to have been cleaned up by the city. There were no tents, no tarps, and the piles of garbage that occasionally stack up were gone. At least for now. The NCAA takes itself seriously. It’s nice to see the city on board with that, too.
There are NCAA Tournament signs affixed to the walls of the underbelly of Moda Center, designating the various team locker rooms and dressing rooms for bands, cheer teams, and game officials. Oregon State — the host university — doesn’t have a team here, but is manning the command center.
There are tables in one area stacked with press guides for the eight teams that are playing here. Beyond that, a stack of news conference transcripts and game notes. Texas printed a glossy, full-color “Cook Book” featuring guard Madison Booker. It includes stunning game-action photos and statistics for the Big 12 Player of the Year. Also, it has Booker’s favorite recipe for red velvet cake.
Down the way, there’s a room with an elevated stage and TV lighting for the post-game news conferences. And a media work area. Also, a sign hanging near every arena tunnel entrance reminds anyone headed to the court that only “NCAA” labeled cups are allowed on press row. After all, the governing body of college athletics can’t have Pepsi or Aquafina enjoying the glow of non-sanctioned product placement.
The NCAA Tournament means a lot to coaches, fans, and players. It also provides a boost to the host city. Portland has a chance to get a win here, too. The regional event is expected to bring approximately $3 million in economic impact and fill a minimum of 3,500 hotel rooms. Further, the tournament regional has the potential to give the city a badly needed image boost.
Eight teams are here.
You read that right.
The women’s NCAA Tournament has only two regional sites: Portland and Albany, N.Y. It means that two separate four-team pods will play it out and the winner of each will advance to the Final Four in Cleveland.
I can’t decide if I’m more excited to see a potential Texas-Stanford matchup — the No. 1 seed vs. No. 2 — or maybe an Elite Eight game featuring USC vs. UConn on the other side. Or maybe Duke, North Carolina State, Baylor, or Gonzaga crash the party. It’s March Madness. Anything can happen. We saw that on display in the first wave of the men’s Sweet 16 games.
The Albany Regional has the star power of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, South Carolina, LSU, and a nothing-to-lose team in Oregon State. The Beavers were picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12. They were sent to New York by the selection committee because USC and Stanford finished in front of the Beavers in conference play. The NCAA likes to avoid having teams from the same conference meet before regional play. The Pac-12 has five teams in the Sweet 16.
It’s worth noting that there’s been a notable uptick in enthusiasm and interest in the women’s NCAA Tournament games. Ratings are way up. Ticket sales are strong. The women’s game is getting more exposure than ever. And Portland gets to be a part of that from Friday-Monday.
Portland’s NCAA Tournament Regional got Brink, Booker, and USC freshman sensation JuJu Watkins. There are some dynamic and interesting players in town, particularly Watkins who scored 51 points in a win over Stanford earlier this season.
As Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb said during Friday’s news conference: “Nothing really completely surprises me anymore with JuJu. We’re all on this ride and everything is new.”
A few minutes later Watkins joked and complained that she had to ride in the back seat of the car on the ride from the team hotel in downtown Portland to the arena.
Quipped Watkins: “I’m sick of this seniority stuff.”
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Go Beavs! BTW, John do you follow college baseball at all? Beavs #2 in country now & much more.
It's good to see women getting their due...they deserve every moment. 'Bout damn time, eh?