Top Teams and Talent, NY Needs a Tournament

In New York City, basketball is a passion synonymous with religion. The playgrounds are the birthplaces of legends, from Dr. J to Kareem. City basketball defines a sense of style-one of enthusiasm and excitement-where the pressure to win takes priority over everything else.

So which is the best college basketball team in New York City? The problem is, we don't know. Sure, you can try to page through the minutia of the polls, RPI, and Sagarin ratings to try to come up with an answer. But the ethos of city basketball means that that decision should be made on the floor.

Which means the mecca of basketball needs its own tournament.

It's really not that complicated. Every year, bring together the eight best teams in New York-St. John's, Manhattan, Fordham, Long Island University, Columbia, Wagner, Hofstra, and the City College of New York-for a nonconference tournament around Thanksgiving. The eight teams will play knockout-style basketball in a three-round tournament starting the weekend before Thanksgiving. Play the first round of the tournament early in the week, play the final two rounds on Thanksgiving Day, and end on Saturday.

The first round of the tournament could be held at host schools, while the final two rounds would be held at Madison Square Garden. Make the Thanksgiving Day semifinals a special doubleheader, and the attention of the entire city will be squarely on the battle for local supremacy.

Most of these teams have a distinct local flavor. The teams recruit heavily from the city and its surrounding areas. Their players have grown up playing ball in venerable local institutions, from playgrounds where dreams are made to elite basketball factories, from Christ the King to Rice to Lincoln. They've battled through the Amateur Athletic Union circuits-the New York Gauchos, the New Heights, and the Bounce NYCs. For their four years of high school, they compete to win state championships. These players would be incredibly excited to participate in such a tournament. Friends and family would crowd the stands. They'd be playing for more than their universities­-they'd be playing for bragging rights that will last them for decades.

The tournament would also be a huge recruiting tool for local coaches to make sure that city stars stay at home. When Bobby Gonzalez of Manhattan College is trying to recruit Lance Stephenson, it's imperative that the next Stephon Marbury isn't leaving for Georgia Tech. Instead, he's staying in the city he's grown up in and always loved. And it may be easier for him to shun the allure of the ACC if he has a chance to win that city basketball trophy every year.

Fans would love to watch the tournament. City basketball draws particularly large crowds, and if marketed properly, it would bring in a full spectrum of New Yorkers. The tournament, which would essentially be a celebration of local basketball, would bring in fans from across the state and nation who hope to become part of a historic occasion.

Coaches have been talking about such an event for years. More than anyone else, they realize what this would mean for the development and maturation of their programs. There isn't one local coach that's happy with his track record of bringing in local kids. Even St. John's, which not so long ago was a Big East power, has recently struggled to keep players such as Sebastian Telfair and Russell Robinson in the city.

The tournament would also be a huge financial success. The Garden, which nowadays alternates between empty and sparsely populated, would welcome a local attraction. The mainstream media would cover the story in detail, while the MSG network would jump at the opportunity to televise live, meaningful college basketball as opposed to taped fantasy football preview shows. Major sponsors would get involved, and there's no reason the tournament wouldn't be more successful than the existing Eastern College Athletic Conference Holiday Festival.

The tournament could be coupled with some other games to make it a truly rousing success. Play the Saturday final after a matchup between local high school powerhouses. Have the Harlem Globetrotters put on a show between games. And before you know it, from Spike Lee to Michael Bloomberg, they're all going to want to make their presence felt.

The logistics may be complicated, and it's never easy to get eight schools and a major venue to make long-term commitments, but the idea is such a win-win home run for all parties involved that, with some impetus from an organizer and a sponsor, the tournament could soon become a reality.

Someone just needs to step up and take the initiative.