KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Walking back into Municipal Auditorium on Tuesday brought back some old memories for West Virginia women’s basketball coach Mike Carey.
It was here Carey’s coaching career first reached the national spotlight, as the men’s coach of Salem-Teikyo, where he guided the Tigers to a spot in the 1993 NAIA Sweet 16.
“It’s a very historical building that has that old-time feel to it,” Carey said. “They’ll put down a great floor and when this place gets packed, it really is a great and unique place for college basketball.”
Carey’s moment is joined by so many others in basketball.
John Wooden won the first of his 10 national championships here. Bill Russell won his first NCAA championship with San Francisco here.
The building has hosted nine men’s Final Fours in all.
Carey will return here in five months for the Big 12 women’s tournament, which returns to Kansas City for the first time since 2012.
Big 12 coaches spent most of media day praising the move.
“It’s very real,” Carey said. “In a meeting with the coaches, you could tell there was a lot of enthusiasm in bringing the tournament back to Kansas City.
“Not that the other places we’ve been didn’t do a good job, but you can just tell that the people here really get behind basketball and are ready to support it.”
The Big 12 women’s tournament will begin a day after the start of the men’s tournament, which is held a few blocks away at the Sprint Center. It will mean that a block of men’s quarterfinal games and women’s opening-round games could be played at the same time, but Carey called it a fair trade-off for holding both tournaments in the same city.
Both tournaments are scheduled to be held in Kansas City through the 2024-25 season.
“Having both the men’s and women’s tournament together, I think will create a lot more interest from our fan base,” Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. “You can literally just go from one to the other. No other Power 5 conference has it set up that way.”
The women’s tournament is now a week later than recent years and it will be the final Power 5 conference women’s tournament to be played, meaning Big 12 women’s teams won’t have a usual week off before preparations for the NCAA tournament begin.
“I always love this question, because coaches get so wound up about all of this, but I don’t care,” Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. “I do not care at all. I will play when they tell me to play. I do not have a preference. Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out and be ready to compete.”
Boykin out
Carey confirmed that 6-foot-2 senior forward De’Janae Boykin had ankle surgery and will not be able to play during her senior season.
Boykin sat out last season after transferring from Penn State, where she first had surgery on the ankle.
“The first surgery really didn’t take and she had to have another,” Carey said. “She hurt it again last year while she was sitting out and it became a question of her being able to still walk later in life. I know she’s not thinking about that now, but she will down the road. I really hate it for her.”
On Tynice Martin
During a roundtable discussion at media day, Carey was asked about the status of senior guard Tynice Martin, who is indefinitely suspended for a violation of team rules.
Martin was charged with domestic battery in July.
“The thing about Tynice is she’s a great player, no doubt about it, but she’s also a great person,” Carey said during the discussion. “She’s been with us, this will be her fifth year with us and she’s been a role model on and off the floor.
“She’s going through a situation, quite frankly, that’s out of our hands at this time. Hopefully it works out for Tynice, because she is a great young lady.”
