Maybe More Madness Here in a Not-to-Distant March

When the time comes, Arkansas-Little Rock will be submitting its bid to be a NCAA Tournament first- and second-round site, this time for 2011 or 2012.

Andrea Nunez, who is UALR's assistant athletic director, was the NCAA Tournament director last March when UALR was the host university at Alltel Arena for the eight-team subregional. She said recently that the NCAA was expected to begin its request for bidding this spring but so far has not notified schools. Nunez said the NCAA has changed the years to be bid; in the past the first- and second-rounds were grouped in a three-year interval, but this time it will only be two.

"That will make it even tougher to land the NCAA here. There are a lot of schools that bid for it," Nunez said. "But we do have a lot in our favor, having hosted it before and everyone was pleased with the operation at Alltel Arena last year." The two days at Alltel Arena both sold out. That was not the case at all the opening sites in 2008.

If Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes had a vote, he'd put the NCAA Tournament back in Alltel Arena at the first opportunity, he said in a recent stopover to speak to the Downtown Tip-Off Club.

"It was a great experience for our players and our fans here. It's a great facility and definitely I'd think they would come back here," Barnes said.

Barnes and Texas were the subject of local fan derision mainly due to Arkansas' long-running rivalry with Texas back in the Southwest Conference. Barnes took it all in stride, joking that the locals needed to play nice or the Longhorns might not come back to Arkansas – Texas did come back to Fayetteville earlier this season and suffered an upset to the Hogs.

This year, the NCAA first- and second rounds beginning March 19 will be played at Boise, Idaho; Dayton, Ohio; Greensboro, N.C.; Kansas City, Mo.; Miami, Fla.; Minneapolis; Philadelphia, and Portland, Ore. The regional finals are in Memphis at the FedEx Forum and Indianapolis March 27 and 29 and Boston and Phoenix March 26 and 28. The Final Four is at Ford Field in Detroit April 4 and 6.