Carnesecca Arena

In Conference USA, when the UC basketball team showed up in town, it was always a big deal. Teams that didn't draw very well saw a spike in their attendance as fans showed up to boo the big, bad Bearcats. Maybe it will be that way someday in the Big East, too. But it certainly isn't that way now.

UC is one of four Big East schools that do not get to play in Madison Square Garden when it comes to New York to take on St. John's. Instead, tonight's game is at Carnesecca Arena on campus. The other three schools who will play St. John's here are DePaul, Providence and Seton Hall. Pittsburgh, Georgetown, Villanova, Marquette and West Virginia all play in The Garden.

This is quite a place. It opened on Dec. 4, 1961. At the time it was the second largest indoor arena in the New York area behind The Garden. But today it looks like an overgrown high school gym. It seats 6,008 and is filled with rickety, old wooden bleachers. The good news is that the building supposedly is in the early stages of a five-year planned renovation.

Need further evidence of how little they care here about UC being on campus? The flip card for the media that lists the rosters of the two teams refers to the Queen City as 'Cincinatti' At least they spelled Bearcats right.