The road to the Final Four goes through the NCAA Tournament. And the road to the Big Dance will go through the Garden, Joel Fisher, senior vice president of sports at the world’s most famous arena, told The Post.
“That’s our goal,” Fisher said. “We want to get to a point where teams feel they have to play in the Garden to prove themselves. If you want to get a good seed in the tournament, you have to play top-flight teams at elite neutral sites. That’s what the Garden is all about.”
The Garden released its 2001-2002 college basketball schedule yesterday and teams from across the country will play on the same hardwood as the Knicks. A blockbuster field that has Temple meeting Florida and Arizona facing Maryland tips off the schedule in the Coaches vs. Cancer Ikon Classic.
Arizona lost in the national championship game to Duke. Maryland got eliminated by the Blue Devils in a semifinal game. Long Island’s Billy Donovan brings the Gators, a top five team, to New York to face John Chaney’s Owls in a contrast of styles.
The preseason NIT includes Syracuse, Fordham, Manhattan and DePaul. The inaugural Marty Glickman Classic features a great local doubleheader between perennial MAAC power Iona and former America East champ Hofstra. Fordham and St. John’s meet in the second game. The Rams shocked the Red Storm last season at Nassau Coliseum.
The schedule finishes up with the Big East Conference Tournament March 6-9 and then the postseason NIT. Fisher said the emphasis is to bring in more of the top powers from around the nation and highlight the mid-major schools in the area.
The Holiday Festival Dec. 27-28 has Manhattan squaring off against Fordham, in a MACC-Atlantic showdown followed by a MAAC-Big East showdown between Iona and Seton Hall.
A Fordham-Iona final would conjure up the great battles in the late 70’s and early 80’s between Tom Penders’ Fordham squads and Pat Kennedy’s Iona teams.