Basketball 

Once Powerful UCLA Draws Small Crowd for Pac-12 Tourney in Las Vegas

Alan Snel

By ALAN SNEL

LVSportsBiz.com

 

Well, at least UCLA alum Bill Walton is here.

 

But he’s working, calling the UCLA-Stanford game Pac-12 tournament on TV and probably chatting about everything from bicycling in Red Rock Canyon to the virtues of wind and solar power in between his basketball analysis.

 

The once powerful Bruins are playing Wednesday evening in the tourney that sprang to life today at T-Mobile Arena with USC’s win over Arizona and Colorado’s victory over Cal earlier.

 

The Arizona fans are known for their travelling ways to Las Vegas, especially for regular season games against UNLV at nearby Thomas and Mack Center. So, there were groups of red-shirted Arizona fans around the arena today.

 

But just look at the arena and it’s startling to see so few UCLA fans are in the venue to see their Bruins in person five hours away in Las Vegas. The video speaks volumes.

Crowds for UNLV games at Thomas and Mack Center have been sadly small this season.

 

But UCLA is considered one of the blueblood brands of college basketball and there’s fewer Bruins fans here for the Pac-12 tourney than the number of Arizona fans for the Wildcats’ earlier game — or UNLV fans at TMC.

 

UCLA is seventh-seeded in this Pac-12 tournament and have a 16-15 record, barely .500. The Bruins fired coach Steve Alford earlier this season.

 

There were likely several hundred UCLA fans around T-Mobile Arena, in contrast to thousands of Gonzaga Bulldogs fans who made the pilgrimage from Spokane, Washington to Orleans Arena for the West Coast Conference tourney this week. They packed Orleans Arena to the tune of more than 7,770 fans, but the Zags lost the WCC title game to St. Mary’s College Tuesday night.

 

Here’s a photo of the Gonzaga-dominated crowd at Orleans Arena this week.

 

UCLA led 10th-seeded Stanford at the half, 36-22. The Bruins held on to beat Stanford, 79-72, and will advance to the Pac-12 tourney quarterfinals Thursday.

 

*

 

LVSportsBiz.com will be at the UNLV-San Diego State Mountain West Conference game Thursday at 2:30 pm at Thomas and Mack Center.

 

 

 

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.

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