MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The seating capacity at Lucas Oil Stadium is 70,000 and the arena takes up an entire city block in downtown Indianapolis.
Putting a 94-foot basketball court in the middle of it is sort of like hosting poker night with the boys inside the WVU Coliseum.
“I was there in 2015 when the tournament was there and was watching some of the practices,” West Virginia point guard Deuce McBride said. “It is going to be a big difference from playing in the Coliseum.”
The NCAA is allowing 25% capacity at each NCAA tournament game, so a maximum of 17,500 fans will see the third-seeded Mountaineers take on Morehead State on Friday night.
And if it will seem weird playing in the enormous arena to the Mountaineers (18-9), imagine what it will seem like to the Eagles (23-7).
Morehead State’s home court — Ellis T. Johnson Arena — holds just less than half the capacity of the Coliseum.
“They didn’t give us a choice of where to play, but that’s where we wanted to be,” Morehead State head coach Preston Spradlin said of playing at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We wanted on the biggest stage, no matter the backdrop or whatever. We’re thankful for the opportunity.”
Other first-round sites in Indianapolis and the surrounding area include Hinkle Fieldhouse (where the final scene of Hoosiers was filmed), Bankers Life Fieldhouse (home of the Indiana Pacers) and Mackey Arena (home of the Purdue Boilermakers).
The combined max capacity for those three arenas still fall just shy of 27,000 fans short of what Lucas Oil Stadium can hold.
But, Spradlin said there is a plan in place to get his players’ minds off the size of the arena.
“We played up at Syracuse a couple of years ago,” Spradlin said. “We kept hearing how the dome effects opponents in terms of their shooing and nobody shoots well against Syracuse.
“So, we walked onto the court that day for our shoot-around and I grabbed a ball and started making shots. I started talking to our guys, ‘Man, this is a shooter’s gym.’ From that moment on, our guys thought it was a shooter’s gym.”
Rest assured, Spradlin plans on making a few more shots inside Lucas Oil Stadium when his team practiced in the arena for the first time on Wednesday.
“Lucas Oil is a shooter’s gym. I can tell you that right now,” Spradlin said. “It doesn’t matter how many seats it holds or what the backdrop looks like. It’s all going to be mental and we’re going to make sure our guys are mentally ready to go in there and make some shots.”
Life in the bubble
West Virginia arrived in Indianapolis on Monday night and players and coaches were immediately tested for COVID-19 and quarantined to their hotel.
Players and coaches were also tested on Tuesday and the team held it’s first practice late Tuesday night.
“I think that was a good idea, since obviously we’re going to play late,” McBride said.
Wednesday was the first day the Mountaineers could practice at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“Honestly, there’s not much you can do, but watch games or watch film,” McBride said. “We couldn’t leave our room for the first day and a half, because we didn’t have our test results back. I don’t play video games. I started reading a book on John Thompson. Honestly, there’s not much to do but think about basketball for me.”
As for the late start, the first-round games begin at noon Friday, meaning WVU players will have ample time to watch the other games while waiting for their game to begin.
“Probably watch a few of those,” McBride said. “We did have a few late starts during the season, so we’ll be prepared for this.”
Can you avoid an upset?
It was 10 years ago when Morehead State pulled off a 62-61 upset of Louisville, when guard Demonte Harper hit a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left.
Bob Huggins referred to West Virginia’s first-round loss against Stephen F. Austin, in 2016, as one of the worst of his career.
Are that any steps that can be taken to avoid the upset?
“Generally when something like that happens, you have an idea of what you would have liked to have done better,” Huggins said. “I don’t know what we could have changed. We told those guys and we showed them film after film on how good they were and how they ran their offense.
“It didn’t do any good. They felt like they were going to win regardless. But, this is an entirely different group. Every group is different.”
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