The 2010 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament begins on Thursday, March 18. Three games will start just after noon, ET, and by midnight on Friday, all the first round games will have been played.
This map includes all 64 teams attendance figures from 2009 (the NCAA won’t release 2010 figures until later in the spring). Again, the Kentucky Wildcats boasted the nation’s highest attendance for college basketball, drawing 22,239 per game. Only this year, the Wildcats qualified for the tournament, and look like a genuine threat to win it all, propelled by stand-out play from the freshman and 2009-10 SEC player of the year John Wall, a 6′ 4″ point guard from Raleigh, NC.
At the bottom of the average attendance list of teams that qualified, again, are the Robert Morris Colonials, from suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Colonials have made it to the tournament 7 times, but have never progressed past the first round.
In terms of the longest gap between tournament appearances, this year it is the Houston Cougars, from the University of Houston in Texas. The Cougars return to the tournament after a 17-year absence.
Speaking of Texas, that state has the most teams in the 2010 tournament, with 7…Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Sam Houston State, Texas, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas-El Paso (aka UTEP). The list of states with representation in the tournament, {here}.
Thanks to the NCAA site, for attendance figures, ’2009 National College Basketball Attendance” [pdf].
CBS Sports.com/College BK, CBS Sports-College Basketball page
