Six years ago, former Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne and coach Sean Miller decided that the UA would no longer bid to be a host site of the NCAA Tournament.
It was a blow to Tucson’s diminishing sports scene, which has lost spring training baseball, the LGPA Tour, the World Match Play Golf Championships, USA Baseball and Pacific Coast League baseball.
McKale Center had been in the rotation as an NCAA site in 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2005 and 2011. When the UA hosted its last NCAA tournament, only Utah’s Huntsman Center had played host to more games in the West.
Guess which city replaced Tucson? Boise.
Boise State has never been a national power in men’s basketball, but this year’s first- and second-round games at the Taco Bell Arena will be the latest in a string of tournament hostings there. Boise had previously hosted in 1983, 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2009. The NCAA and Boise have also agreed to be a host in 2021.
Byrne said Arizona opted out because it could possibly limit Arizona’s options of staying in the West bracket, and thus make fans travel longer distances to support the Wildcats.
Good decision?