My Sun Belt Tournament Experience

BonfireBrian · March 12, 2009

A friend and I went to Hot Springs for the Sun Belt Tournament this past week, and I just thought I would share my experiences with everyone:

1. The city of Hot Springs did a great job hosting the tournament. Local businesses were in full support with "Welcome Sun Belt Basketball fans" and so forth. All of the locals seemed very nice and welcoming. The local paper had front page coverage of the tournament each day and covered their sports section with analysis from each game and previewed the upcoming games for that day.

2. Summit Arena is very nice and a great size for the Sun Belt. Parking was free and within walking distance of many hotels, restaurants, bars, and other shopping. The conference did a great job with the tournament, with entertainment during time outs and friendly staff. They even sold beer for a reasonable price inside the arena!

3. The PA announcer said during the Men's Championship that the women's tournament set an attendance record of around 18K, and the men had the most since 2003 with about 24K.

4. At least one bar doesn't close until 5 AM. Trust me.

5. I had the experience of talking with many fans from other schools and all the fans were great. I came away impressed with every school's fans that I talked to. I have to say the best were Western Kentucky's (probably because they beat us). They had a lot of great things to say about our team and many said they felt we were the 2nd best team in the Belt, which I agree with.

6. I had the opportunity to speak with Western Kentucky Head Coach Ken McDonald, Director of Basketball Operations Tanner Ogden, and Athletics Director Cameron Selig. They had great things to say about UNT, and Coach Jones and Rick V. in particular. All three were class acts.

7. The Mean Green faithful was strong and loud. I think we probably had the 3rd most fans behind Western Kentucky and UALR. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the turnout. Rick V. and Dr. Bataille were very approachable and sat in the stands with the rest of the fans. Derek and Rob from the Alumni Association were there and extremely personable as well.

Overall, I think the experience was amazing. It is absolutely something that every Mean Green Basketball fan, or just UNT fan, should do at least once. I would suggest starting to plan your vacation and finances now. It's a great experience that you won't regret. I've personally never been as proud to be UNT alum and a member of the Sun Belt Conference then I do right now.

I'd love to hear what others who were there thought as well. Please post your thoughts.

Go Mean Green! Go Sun Belt!

UNTFan23 · March 13, 2009

3. The PA announcer said during the Men's Championship that the women's tournament set an attendance record of around 18K, and the men had the most since 2003 with about 24K.

That must be cumulative attendance.

I liked the arena and you had good sight lines most anywhere you sat.

Based on what we have in the Super Pit, the scoreboards are very basic. I did like the hanging center court board although if you sit on the lower levels, it's not comfortable to look at the board. The vision boards were also temp screens that were brought it.

Overall, I thought the games were well run and I really liked the town. Maybe next time I'll stay for a night or two instead of making just a day trip.

NT80 · March 13, 2009

Thanks for the report. I heard from another fan some of the same...very good experience. I like that most things seemed within walking distance, similar to New Orleans.

I have heard rumors that the league may cut out the play-in game and have all teams start in Hot Springs. I don't know that I would be for that. First, we drew 3000+ fans for the play-in game, I doubt anything close to that in Hot Spings. Would more fans come to follow their 13th seeded team there, no. Second, we had 3 rest days after that game, if played in Hot Springs it would mean 4 games all back-to-back. The bye teams would have a huge advantage.

CMJ · March 13, 2009

I talked to acouple of people who were there and they also felt that we had the 3rd biggest contingent of fans, but MTSU says they did. Oh well, it doesn't really matter. Most of of the reviews I have read/heard were very positive. Hot Springs has at least 2 more years, and might make it longer if these good vibes continue.

CMJ · March 13, 2009

Thanks for the report. I heard from another fan some of the same...very good experience. I like that most things seemed within walking distance, similar to New Orleans.
I have heard rumors that the league may cut out the play-in game and have all teams start in Hot Springs. I don't know that I would be for that. First, we drew 3000+ fans for the play-in game, I doubt anything close to that in Hot Spings. Would more fans come to follow their 13th seeded team there, no. Second, we had 3 rest days after that game, if played in Hot Springs it would mean 4 games all back-to-back. The bye teams would have a huge advantage.

Teams with byes are supposed to have a huge advantage.

That said, I'm not sure I like it either. The tournament would run from....like Thursday to Tuesday?

Edited March 13, 2009 by CMJ

Keith7 · March 13, 2009

My girlfriend and I had a great time while in Hot Springs over the weekend. It would have been nicer if the ducks we rode didn't break down and we had to change into 3 different ducks on our duck tour.

Other than that Hot Springs is really nice and we enjoyed everything about the experience

bstnsportsfan3 · March 13, 2009

MTSU had a lot of fans there...but they were old and quiet for the most part.....we may have had less fans, but we were much more vocal. Hot Springs is nice and the arena was a good venue.

BonfireBrian · March 13, 2009

That must be cumulative attendance.
I liked the arena and you had good sight lines most anywhere you sat.
Based on what we have in the Super Pit, the scoreboards are very basic. I did like the hanging center court board although if you sit on the lower levels, it's not comfortable to look at the board. The vision boards were also temp screens that were brought it.
Overall, I thought the games were well run and I really liked the town. Maybe next time I'll stay for a night or two instead of making just a day trip.

Yes, it was definately cumulative attendance, not for any particular game.

I agree that the scoreboards were pretty bad. That was my only real complaint about the arena. Also, the seats become pretty unconfortable by the 4th game of the day.

Overall, a great experience and arena though.

BonfireBrian · March 13, 2009

MTSU had a lot of fans there...but they were old and quiet for the most part.....we may have had less fans, but we were much more vocal. Hot Springs is nice and the arena was a good venue.

MTSU had quite a few fans there for the women. They seemed to have less for the men's quarterfinals than for the women's semis and championship.

KAjunRaider · March 13, 2009

MTSU had quite a few fans there for the women. They seemed to have less for the men's quarterfinals than for the women's semis and championship.

Not that it matters, but MT had more than UNT during our game in the quarterfinals. I went on the opposite side of the team benches and it wasn't close. North Texas did, however, have a great group of fans.

Our fans were much more vocal for the women. We did not have much to yell about for the men.......never even had the lead against UNT, not for one second.

MT fans set a record for tournament book pre-sells not playing on their home court, according to our upper brass.

bstnsportsfan3 · March 13, 2009

Not that it matters, but MT had more than UNT during our game in the quarterfinals. I went on the opposite side of the team benches and it wasn't close. North Texas did, however, have a great group of fans.
Our fans were much more vocal for the women. We did not have much to yell about for the men.......never even had the lead against UNT, not for one second.
MT fans set a record for tournament book pre-sells not playing on their home court, according to our upper brass.

yall may of had more...but it wasnt much more...and they were not vocal at all but i can understand why!

BonfireBrian · March 13, 2009

Not that it matters, but MT had more than UNT during our game in the quarterfinals. I went on the opposite side of the team benches and it wasn't close. North Texas did, however, have a great group of fans.
Our fans were much more vocal for the women. We did not have much to yell about for the men.......never even had the lead against UNT, not for one second.
MT fans set a record for tournament book pre-sells not playing on their home court, according to our upper brass.

KAjunRaider - I'm sure you are right. I stayed in our section for the whole game. From my view, it looked like we had more.

Overall, I think both teams did a great job of going to see their team play.

KAjunRaider · March 13, 2009

KAjunRaider - I'm sure you are right. I stayed in our section for the whole game. From my view, it looked like we had more.
Overall, I think both teams did a great job of going to see their team play.

True. I did not attend any more of the men's games, so I don't know how many WKU or UALR brought.

That said...... without our women's fans attending the men's game, North Texas would have had many more. I think we just had about 100 "mens only" fans. They left after our men were eliminated.