New Big 12 Basketball Coaches Rave About Tournament, Kansas City
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cincinnati men’s basketball coach Wes Miller grew up in Greensboro, N.C. Back then the ACC Tournament called the city home just about every year.
Greensboro Coliseum has hosted more ACC Tournaments (30) than any other venue. The ACC Tournament, which started in 1954, is the template for every conference tournament that has come after it.
Miller sees a lot of Greensboro and the ACC Tournament in Kansas City and the Big 12 Tournament after going through it the first time.
“You get that same sense that we have that old school conference tournament feel right now with the Big 12 Conference in Kansas City,” Miller said.
Miller’s Bearcats were one of four schools to join the Big 12 this athletic year, along with BYU, UCF and Houston.
All will exit this season with winning records overall in their first year and all four should see some form of postseason action. Additionally, the quartet leaves Kansas City with a winning aggregate record in the Big 12 Tournament, even with Houston’s Championship Game loss to Iowa State on Saturday.
Miller, like BYU coach Mark Pope and UCF coach Johnny Dawkins, have raved about their first experience.
“First class,” Miller said about the experience. “Everything in the time that I’ve been associated with the Big 12 has been first class. I’ve been blown away. I told Brett (Big 12 commissioner Yormark) that when I ran into him a couple days ago. This league does it first class and this tournament has been no different.”
During the Big 12 Tournament, Brett Yormark announced that the men’s and women’s tournament contracts have been extended to 2031 and will remain at the T-Mobile Center. The league welcomes four new teams next fall — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah — and all 16 teams will participate in next year’s event.
Pope’s Big 12 Tournament experience ended with a quarterfinal loss to Texas Tech, but the Cougars walked away with a 1-1 record in the event and should get a bid to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
He called T-Mobile an “incredible venue.” BYU played in Las Vegas in the West Coast Conference Tournament last year.
“We’re so grateful to be here,” Pope said. “We’re so grateful to be a part of this league. Even on nights like this, right? We’re still just full of gratitude for the opportunity to be here and excited to learn and be pushed and challenged and grow and this league certainly does that and it certainly gave us the opportunity today.”
Dawkins and his Knights won their first-round game over Oklahoma State and followed that with a second-round loss to BYU. They are most likely heading to the NIT.
Dawkins, like Miller and Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, were in the American Athletic Conference last year, a tournament typically held in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This year’s event was at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
Dawkins said he and his team had everything they needed.
“I think everyone in the tournament that we have interacted with has been amazing,” Dawkins said. “Very hospitable, anything we needed to have handled, they’ve handled it. I have really enjoyed it.”
Sampson is the one coach that has Big 12 experience. He guided Oklahoma from 1994-2006 and coached in the tournament in Kemper Arena. So he knows Kansas City and its fans all too well.
For Miller and the rest, the first time gave their players a glimpse into what they hope is their future.
“I think our guys got to feel what March has been like traditionally and historically,” Miller said. “This town is the right place. Yeah, this is really neat. It brings me back to my childhood, a little bit, in a lot of ways.”
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
