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A Tale of two tourneys to be toldLUT WILLIAMS It's the best of times for the CIAA, at least that's what Commissioner Leon Kerry believes. As play began this week in Raleigh, N. C.,
in the conference's 27th Annual Women's Basketball Tournament and 56th Annual Men's
Basketball Tournament enthusiasm is high and
expectations are rampant.
Kerry said Sunday that the extra 6,000 tickets the conference put on sale Feb. 21 to the upper level of the Entertainment and Sports Arena were going fast. The conference needed to sell 442 ticket books (at $95 per) to cover the $40,000 cost of opening the top part of the ESA. One-thousand (1,000) tickets were sold the first day. "There's a lot of love in Raleigh for the CIAA," Kerry said. He said he'll propose next year that the conference begin by putting all 20,000 seats on sale and making more tickets available to the schools. He also announced a two-year $800,000 deal with Bank of America during the women's banquet Sunday which was sponsored by Coca Cola and Food Lion. "This will be the best CIAA Tournament we've ever had, in terms of finances, in attendance, in media coverage, and in the number of events," Kerry said. The play on the court should also be better than it has been in years. Two men's teams come in nationally ranked, Winston-Salem State (19th) and Johnson C. Smith (21st), the top two teams from the Western Division. But at least four others, Virginia State, Shaw, Bowie State and Virginia Union have legitimate shots at the title. That should make for some interesting basketball. On the women's side, Bowie State, who had played in the last four tournament finals, bowed out in Monday's first round opening the door to a host of contenders. Western Division champ North Carolina Central is the favorite. Television coverage begins with Thursday's quarterfinals and continues through the championship games Saturday night. You can follow the tournament on-line at theciaa.com or at blackvoices.com/sports. At Fair Park Arena in Birmingham, Al., on Wednesday, the SIAC tips off its 68th Annual Tournament with opening round play for both the men and women. First-year Commissioner Robert Vowels, who pumped some much needed life into this year's Pioneer Bowl, has begun the task of trying to build his tournament into an event by scheduling several ancillary activities that he hopes will help generate some excitement. His vision is to one day rival the CIAA and he may just be the man to pull it off. Unlike the CIAA, the SIAC men and women will play on the same days throughout their four-day affair in an alternating games structure. What everybody's playing for is an automatic bid to the NCAA Div. II playoffs that go to the tournament winners. © 2001 Azeez Communications, Inc.
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