Higher-seeded Illini heading to Florida? Blame it on Broadway
Illinois is the higher seed in tonight's NIT contest against Central Florida, but the Illini won't have home-court advantage.
Blame the lullaby of Broadway.
State Farm Center long ago scheduled the musical "42nd Street" for tonight as part of the WCIA 3 Broadway Series, bumping the Illini to Orlando, Fla., for spring break.
Not a bad place to be if you're a college student, but certainly not the team's preference.
If the Illini win, they will head to New York's Madison Square Garden for the NIT version of the Final Four.
Kevin Ullestad, director of State Farm Center, said the Broadway touring show was booked last summer, long before the UI's postseason fate was known.
"Obviously, we would have liked to have the game. It's just a matter of scheduling," he said.
"It's a continual evolution as far as booking. We're a multipurpose facility, that's the thing everybody needs to remember."
State Farm Center is co-managed by athletics and the Student Affairs Office on campus.
Students pay about $212 a year in fees to support the arena, which hosts everything from monster truck shows to rock concerts to commencement ceremonies, in addition to men's and women's basketball.
Ullestad juggles student programming with athletic dates, including football games, so a concert doesn't fall alongside a night game at Memorial Stadium because of the parking crunch. Currently, he's lining up basketball for next fall but has to wait for the final Big Ten schedule to come out in late summer.
"It's a constant whirlwind of when you're grabbing dates to set aside for different events for campus athletics to consider," he said.
The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics knew that the arena was open for the NIT's first two rounds but that hosting a third game would be an issue, said spokesman Kent Brown.
"We knew in advance that this was a possibility if Illinois State were to lose and we were to advance," Brown said.
The ISU Redbirds were a No. 1 seed and would have hosted the Illini tonight if they hadn't lost to Central Florida on Monday night.
"The building we have is a multipurpose facility, so we always know there could be conflicts. When you're playing in the NIT, those are the things you have to deal with," he said.
The NCAA owns and manages the NIT and, working with ESPN, schedules the games around the larger NCAA tournament, Brown said.
The dates are predictable. The first round of the NIT is played on the Tuesday and Wednesday following the NCAA tournament's Selection Sunday (this year, March 12), Brown said. The second-round games are played from Thursday of that week through the following Monday, and the third-round games are Tuesday and Wednesday.
But Brown and Ullestad said State Farm Center has never held open blocks of dates for a potential NIT game. Ullestad said the basketball staff contacted him about a month ago to check available NIT dates.
"Even though we work with the State Farm Center and help manage that and work with them on blocking out dates so it's available for games, the first priority isn't always blocking out for NIT games," Brown said. "In all honesty, our goals aren't to host NIT games every year; our goals are to play in the NCAA tournament.
"It is asking a lot when they're trying to schedule other programming," Brown added.
Moving tonight's third-round game up a day to Tuesday wasn't possible, Brown said, as it would have meant back-to-back games for both teams. And State Farm Center needed time to turn the arena around for "42nd Street."
After defeating Boise State on Monday night, the Illini left for Orlando on Tuesday.
"It would have been easier from a logistics standpoint to not have to travel to Orlando on such a short turnaround," Brown said.
The team has been forced on the road before during the NIT, once when the arena hosted a circus, another year by a concert and more recently because of the massive renovation project there, Brown said.
The Broadway series, which also included "Once" on March 6 and "Pippin" on April 14, is booked months in advance through multiple agencies, Ullestad said.
"Broadway does well for us," he said, adding that it's part of the arena's commitment to a diverse lineup of shows.
Among Big Ten schools, only Illinois, Ohio State and Penn State have athletic facilities that serve as multipurpose arenas, Ullestad said, and that versatility helped the UI land Garth Brooks for four shows next month. The arena has been working on it for two years, keeping multiple dates open until the singer decided on late April.
"You won't see that at Iowa or Purdue," Ullestad said. "We're the smallest market this tour's playing."
Illinois is the higher seed in tonight's NIT contest against Central Florida, but the Illini won't have home-court advantage.
Blame the lullaby of Broadway.
State Farm Center long ago scheduled the musical "42nd Street" for tonight as part of the WCIA 3 Broadway Series, bumping the Illini to Orlando, Fla., for spring break.
Not a bad place to be if you're a college student, but certainly not the team's preference.
If the Illini win, they will head to New York's Madison Square Garden for the NIT version of the Final Four.
Kevin Ullestad, director of State Farm Center, said the Broadway touring show was booked last summer, long before the UI's postseason fate was known.
"Obviously, we would have liked to have the game. It's just a matter of scheduling," he said.
"It's a continual evolution as far as booking. We're a multipurpose facility, that's the thing everybody needs to remember."
State Farm Center is co-managed by athletics and the Student Affairs Office on campus.
Students pay about $212 a year in fees to support the arena, which hosts everything from monster truck shows to rock concerts to commencement ceremonies, in addition to men's and women's basketball.
Ullestad juggles student programming with athletic dates, including football games, so a concert doesn't fall alongside a night game at Memorial Stadium because of the parking crunch. Currently, he's lining up basketball for next fall but has to wait for the final Big Ten schedule to come out in late summer.
"It's a constant whirlwind of when you're grabbing dates to set aside for different events for campus athletics to consider," he said.
The Division of Intercollegiate Athletics knew that the arena was open for the NIT's first two rounds but that hosting a third game would be an issue, said spokesman Kent Brown.
"We knew in advance that this was a possibility if Illinois State were to lose and we were to advance," Brown said.
The ISU Redbirds were a No. 1 seed and would have hosted the Illini tonight if they hadn't lost to Central Florida on Monday night.
"The building we have is a multipurpose facility, so we always know there could be conflicts. When you're playing in the NIT, those are the things you have to deal with," he said.
The NCAA owns and manages the NIT and, working with ESPN, schedules the games around the larger NCAA tournament, Brown said.
The dates are predictable. The first round of the NIT is played on the Tuesday and Wednesday following the NCAA tournament's Selection Sunday (this year, March 12), Brown said. The second-round games are played from Thursday of that week through the following Monday, and the third-round games are Tuesday and Wednesday.
But Brown and Ullestad said State Farm Center has never held open blocks of dates for a potential NIT game. Ullestad said the basketball staff contacted him about a month ago to check available NIT dates.
"Even though we work with the State Farm Center and help manage that and work with them on blocking out dates so it's available for games, the first priority isn't always blocking out for NIT games," Brown said. "In all honesty, our goals aren't to host NIT games every year; our goals are to play in the NCAA tournament.
"It is asking a lot when they're trying to schedule other programming," Brown added.
Moving tonight's third-round game up a day to Tuesday wasn't possible, Brown said, as it would have meant back-to-back games for both teams. And State Farm Center needed time to turn the arena around for "42nd Street."
After defeating Boise State on Monday night, the Illini left for Orlando on Tuesday.
"It would have been easier from a logistics standpoint to not have to travel to Orlando on such a short turnaround," Brown said.
The team has been forced on the road before during the NIT, once when the arena hosted a circus, another year by a concert and more recently because of the massive renovation project there, Brown said.
The Broadway series, which also included "Once" on March 6 and "Pippin" on April 14, is booked months in advance through multiple agencies, Ullestad said.
"Broadway does well for us," he said, adding that it's part of the arena's commitment to a diverse lineup of shows.
Among Big Ten schools, only Illinois, Ohio State and Penn State have athletic facilities that serve as multipurpose arenas, Ullestad said, and that versatility helped the UI land Garth Brooks for four shows next month. The arena has been working on it for two years, keeping multiple dates open until the singer decided on late April.
"You won't see that at Iowa or Purdue," Ullestad said. "We're the smallest market this tour's playing."
