Saturday Basketball Bonanza

The boys over at Ballin’ Is a Habit went over 2,500 miles to watch college basketball. I commend them on this incredible journey. Thankfully though I live in New York City, most definitely one of if not the greatest city in the world. It’s also so incredibly densely populated that there are always college basketball games happening during the season. Saturday I’m going to attempt to take advantage of what the city has to offer and attend three games in one day.

The schedule has broken almost perfectly for this to work out. There’s a game at 1 p.m., multiple games at 4/4:30 p.m. around the city and then a big one at 7 p.m. in the Bronx. It looks like I’m going to be using public transportation (ish) to get everywhere, so I might be a few minutes late to Draddy for the classic MAAC revenge title between Iona and Manhattan, but it should be a great day of games. Let’s look at the full slate:

Game 1: Charlotte at Fordham (Rose Hill, Bronx) at 1 p.m.

If you’ve never been to a game at Rose Hill I’d certainly recommend it. Early afternoon games at Fordham are wonderful. The light streams in through that beautiful bank of windows, the crowd is energized (students were oddly awake for the game against GW), and the team is actually playing better this season. Fordham is young, so the Rams have experienced their share of growing pains, including two conference losses by over 40 points, but they also already have to A-10 wins and Charlotte offers a good opportunity at a third. If nothing else this should be a hard fought game with an exciting finish.

After the action finishes up – and hopefully after Tom Pecora, one of the best talkers in the city speaks – it’ll be time to head to Brooklyn for Game 2. The D/B lines will be my friend as I take a straight shot down to the DeKalb stop and LIU Brooklyn.

Game 2: Central Connecticut at LIU Brooklyn (Wellness Center, Brooklyn) at 4:30 p.m.

Depending on what happens on Thursday, this game could be for a share of first place in the NEC (though that’s not likely). What it will definitely be is a great chance to see the best possible front court matchup in the conference between Julian Boyd and Ken Horton. It’ll also be my first chance to get a live look at CCSU’s unconscious freshman gunner Kyle Vinales. The Blue Devils are one of the top contenders to the Blackbirds’ throne and this one should be a good game. I chose it over Hofstra vs. Georgia State and Bryant vs. St. Francis (NY) because this is the one that has two conference title contenders.

Once I get a chance to have a quick chat with some LIU players about the rise of NYC hoops in the NEC it’ll be back onto the subway and back to the Bronx. There’s a real lack of good travel options here. If the game was at 8 p.m. this would be perfect (L to 2 to 1). As it stands right now I may have to jump into a cab in order to make it to the Bronx in any reasonable amount of time. But it’ll be worth it for Game 3.

Game 3: Iona at Manhattan (Draddy Gymnasium, Bronx) at 7 p.m.

It’s back to the Bronx, but now we’re in Riverdale and the stakes are much, much higher. Assuming things go well on Thursday night when Manhattan and Iona host Marist and Canisius respectively this game will be for first place in the MAAC. It’s also Iona’s chance to get revenge for the last-second three that took down the Gaels at the Hynes Athletic Center. Of course the Manhattan crowd has shown it can give the Jaspers a big boost when the stakes warrant it this season (see the Battle of Brooklyn) and my guess is that it’ll be another packed house on this night. It should make for an exciting game and a wonderful capper for a great day of NYC hoops.

Going to any of the games? Drop me a note in the comments!