Interesting that the N&R’s Ed Hardin (unposted) links the firing of UNCG basketball coach Mike Dement to the decision to play home games at the Greensboro Coliseum:
After years of scheduling local and regional schools to supplement a tough conference schedule, Dement was asked to play games in the Greensboro Coliseum against ACC schools interested in virtually guaranteed wins while testing the environment of the coliseum, where the ACC Tournament is often played.
Suddenly, while trying to rebuild a program, Dement found out he was going to be playing ACC schools in a 23,000-seat coliseum.
We’re not going to back down,” Dement said. This is a great opportunity for the school.
And it was a death sentence for his career at UNCG.
It’s a no-brainer to play ACC school at the coliseum. And the first home game against Stephen Curry and Davidson generated a lot of buzz. But reality soon set in and the Spartans found themselves playing in a mostly empty coliseum, which has to be demoralizing. By contrast, the raucous home crowd in High Point University’s 1,700-seat Millis Gym was cited as a major factor in the Panthers’ tight game against Wake Forest.
Two big thinkers —Chancellor Linda Brady and coliseum director Matt Brown —-collaborated on this big idea. It hasn’t panned out and the coaches and the players are caught in the middle.
