# Best college basketball city



## HONDA (Apr 14, 2004)

Cincinnati fans hate Xavier, and Xavier fans hate UC. There may be just one thing they have in common: a passion for college hoops.

They had much to love in 2004. Xavier finished 26-11 and reached the NCAA Elite Eight. Cincinnati compiled a 25-7 record that included Conference USA regular-season and tournament titles.

North Carolinians will cringe, but there is no better place for a college basketball fan to reside than Cincinnati. Six of the nation's top 25 teams in attendance -- and Xavier isn't even one of them -- are within a 150-mile drive. Off night for the Bearcats and Musketeers? Hop in the car and cruise over to see Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio State, Dayton or Louisville.

Cincinnati is one of the few major league cities where talk about college hoops is as prevalent on call-in shows as the NFL and baseball.

The Bearcats and Musketeers each played to 97 percent capacity. But there were no tickets available for the Crosstown Shootout (February 3), the rivalry game that annually matches Cincinnati and Xavier. The Muskies won by a basket in a tense contest that gave each side one more reason to hate the other -- and love the game. -- Mike DeCourcy 
http://www.sportingnews.com/features/bestsportscities2004/bestof.html


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## Most Ballingest Playa (Jun 9, 2004)

Do you mean city as in city, or city as in any college campus?


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## SmithRocSSU (Jul 30, 2004)

How about Lexington, KY? The Basketball capitol of the world.


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## kansasalumn (Jun 9, 2002)

Kansas City, MO, WHERE THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME will be at. Most Final Fours of any city!, In a five state region (KS, MO, NE, IA, OK)that had some really good basketball traditions and teams

Kansas
Missouri
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas State---yes KSU, up to 1990, they were one of the winnigest teams.


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## Ghost (Jun 21, 2002)

If you are talking about major cities i think it is Kansas City, but if you are talking about college cities only then it could be a lot of choices.


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## kansasalumn (Jun 9, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>#1Stunna</b>!
> If you are talking about major cities i think it is Kansas City, but if you are talking about college cities only then it could be a lot of choices.



there has been talked about bringing in a NBA team to KC, but I do not think it would be good here in town where college ball is big. There is a lot of money in the KC area that goes to KU, MU, and KSU Woman basketball season tickets. 

Best College Basketball Cities (Major)
1-Kansas City (Reasons above)
2-Charlotte (UNC/DUKE/NCState/Wake/ACC Country)
3-Louisville (Louisville/UK)
4-Philly(All the schools in one city like Temple, Penn, and Nova)
5-Cincy(reasons above)

Those are my top 5.


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## flyerfanatic (Nov 15, 2003)

Dayton Ohio. Best fans in the nation. We get 12,000 or more to every game. Also, Why is the play-in game in Dayton every year? People come out to see teams they don't even care about. 

best fans in the nation


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## JuniorNoboa (Jan 27, 2003)

I am not saying Syracuse is better then the other cities but it deserves to be considered amongst the best.


Look at the attendance leaders for the past 20 years - they average over 25K a game. 

Charlotte? Ummm. sorry that would be Raleigh-Durham. And that would be #1 in my IMO.


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## UKfan4Life (Mar 5, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>flyerfanatic</b>!
> Dayton Ohio. Best fans in the nation. We get 12,000 or more to every game. Also, Why is the play-in game in Dayton every year? People come out to see teams they don't even care about.
> 
> best fans in the nation


Like Syracuse, UK gets just over 25,000 fans a game, but Rupp doesn't seat as much as Syracuse's dome. And we usually get around 15,000 or so for just exhibition games even. Obviously, as a UK fan, I believe UK has the best fans in the nation (did anyone know there are loyal UK fans in Russia?) and we have the best travelling fans. UK could have a game in China and we'd get 70 or so people there.  There are a lot of great cities with great fans. It's almost impossible to point out one overall best, IMO.


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## rawzzy (Aug 3, 2004)

Indianapolis easily.
More Final-4s than any city the past 2 decades, and more to come.
The NCAA moved its HQ's here from Kansas City about 8 or so years ago.
Hinkle Fieldhouse is legendary.
There Big-10 tournament is held here every other year. The Wooden Classic is held here. We're within driving distance of Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Illinois, Louisville, Kentucky, Cincinatti.
Indiana is widely considered the basketball capital of the world.
Great fans, great atmosphere.


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## kansasalumn (Jun 9, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>rawzzy</b>!
> Indianapolis easily.
> More Final-4s than any city the past 2 decades, and more to come.
> The NCAA moved its HQ's here from Kansas City about 8 or so years ago.
> ...


well Indiana is NOT getting the college basketball HOF. THE ONLY reasonwhy Indy got NCAA's HQ is b/c of the MONEY Indy offered, and KC did not had the politics then they have now. If KC had the politics now then, I bet Indy would never got the HQ.


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## kansasalumn (Jun 9, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>UKfan4Life</b>!
> 
> 
> Like Syracuse, UK gets just over 25,000 fans a game, but Rupp doesn't seat as much as Syracuse's dome. And we usually get around 15,000 or so for just exhibition games even. Obviously, as a UK fan, I believe UK has the best fans in the nation (did anyone know there are loyal UK fans in Russia?) and we have the best travelling fans. UK could have a game in China and we'd get 70 or so people there.  There are a lot of great cities with great fans. It's almost impossible to point out one overall best, IMO.


so you saying that for reg games, UK sell out Rupp, but they only get 15k for exhibition, At Kansas every game (reg and exhib) is a sold out for the past 17 years at least. 16, 300.


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## UKfan4Life (Mar 5, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>kansasalumn</b>!
> 
> 
> so you saying that for reg games, UK sell out Rupp, but they only get 15k for exhibition, At Kansas every game (reg and exhib) is a sold out for the past 17 years at least. 16, 300.


Good for Kansas. Are you trying to prove something? That was a rough estimation. The exact answer is that last year, UK got 15,238 for our first exhibition game. For our second exhibition game, we got 16,653. When we played Winthrop, we got 21,271. When we played Tennessee Tech, we got 21,918. Do you want me to go on? Here, if you want the stats yourself, go to www.ukathletics.com and look at the 2003-2004 game box scores and look at attendance. If all Phog Allen Fieldhouse seats is 16,300, then UK sold more tickets for one of our two exhibition games than Phog Allen Fieldhouse can even seat. Nice try. Also, it is FACT that UK leads the nation in average crowd attendance year-in and year-out (someone has posted it here before, I'm sure you saw it).

Kansas has some great fans, but if you want to argue that KU's fans are better than UK's fans or UNC's fans or something, then there's no point. Every traditional college basketball team has great fans, and crowd attendance for home games won't speak for how great a fan base truly is alone.


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## FSH (Aug 3, 2002)

Syracuse could probly get 40,000+ if the didnt block off half of the dome...


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## HeinzGuderian (Jun 29, 2004)

> Originally posted by <b>JuniorNoboa</b>
> Charlotte? Ummm. sorry that would be Raleigh-Durham. And that would be #1 in my IMO.


Nuff said. Just today I went scuba diving, I was sporting some carolina shorts and he went to NC State and decided to make a remark. Had an interesting conversation to say the least


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## texan (Jul 10, 2003)

Durham-Chapel Hill-Raleigh

It's absolutely crazy over there.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>texan</b>!
> Durham-Chapel Hill-Raleigh
> 
> It's absolutely crazy over there.


Exactly, it isn't Charlotte. It's the triangle on Tobacco road.


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## vadimivich (Mar 29, 2004)

> Best College Basketball Cities (Major)
> 1-Kansas City (Reasons above)
> 2-Charlotte (UNC/DUKE/NCState/Wake/ACC Country)
> 3-Louisville (Louisville/UK)
> ...


Wow. Let me state that I'm posting this from the KU Library in Lawrence (my wife is a student here) ... several of our friends here in town are in the top campout groups and get the courtside student seats to every KU game, full body paint the whole 9 yards. I went to J.R Giddens breakout performance against Michigan State last year, sitting in that sweatbox that Allen Fieldhouse is. I understand to some extent what KU means to people, and have experienced it.

That being said, your post is WAY off.

Kansas City is *NOT* a college basketball first town. It is an NFL town, the Chiefs are the biggest show going, and that's not changing. Secondly, it doesn't host a single major university (unless you count the Kangaroos of UMKC) and it's an hour to Lawrence and a bit farther to MU. A lot of college basketball history is there due to the tournament, but that doesn't make it the best college basketball town.

Number one is Raleigh/Durham/Triangle region of North Carolina. There is nothing else, no college football, no NBA, no NFL, nothing to compete with the FOUR major college basketball programs. While I admit Lawrence is a great place to live, it's an entirely KU town. In Raleigh, two of the four greatest basketball programs of all time are within 15 miles, and that's totally ignoring N.C State (2 national titles) and Wake Forest. They are the only show in town, and people live and breath the Tobacco road rivalries.

To rank college basketball towns, I'd say -

#1 - Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill (it's all one town now)

#2 - Lexington, KY (I was there last month, Rupp arena is one of the most NBA looking college arenas I've ever seen. A hotel and convention center and mall all combined with it in the same building complex?!)

#3 - Lawrence, KS (KC is mostly Chiefs anyways, and god Columbia, MO sucks)

#4 - Storrs, CT

#5 - Cincinatti

(my wife is making me put Las Vegas during Tark days as honorable mention)

And god, at least know what you are talking about - people in Charlotte don't have a college tradition, they have nothing to really do with Tobacco Road, it's a decent way off.


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## HeinzGuderian (Jun 29, 2004)

> Originally posted by <b>vadimivich</b>
> And god, at least know what you are talking about - people in Charlotte don't have a college tradition, they have nothing to really do with Tobacco Road, it's a decent way off.


They have UNC-Charlotte :laugh: 

Actually I have a friend from charlotte who tried to explain to me why UNC-Charlotte had a better basketball team than UNC-Chapel Hill


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## kansasalumn (Jun 9, 2002)

True KC is a FOOTBALL town. I am not denying that all. 

When it comes to BASKETBALL, Kansas City is a college basketball town. enough said; 

Also if look at my list, it is major cities.

For College towns:

1-Raleigh
2-Lawrence
3-Lexington


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## JuniorNoboa (Jan 27, 2003)

Syracuse is a college basketball town - it is the only show - where's the respect? Syracuse is way ahead of Storrs and Cincinnati IMO.

I would put it at 4, behind Raleigh-Durham, Lexington, Lawrence.


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## HoosierDaddy (Nov 18, 2003)

Indianapolis.


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## MarkPrice25 (Jan 14, 2004)

Cincy!

In Town: 
-Xavier 
-UC

45 Minute drive:
-Miami 
-Dayton 

Under an hour and a half 
-UK (Who plays a game in Cincy every year as the home team against a non-Cincy team)
-L'Ville 
-OSU
-IU
-Butler 

...and I'll even through in Wright State and Ohio U for fun. 

Sporting News got it right!

Cincy #1 college basketball city!

Booyakasha!


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## pdogg84 (Jun 14, 2004)

Winston Salem, North carolina baby!! I may get flamed, but what the hey?


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