Small-time hoops boon for South Point

It was a little past 11 a.m. Wednesday at the South Point Arena and Equestrian Center, which has undergone a name change. Last week, it was the South Point Equestrian Center and Arena.

Last week, the South Point cherry-picked the National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Center by hosting 102 NFR-centric events. So dust still coated the red plastic seats. It still sort of smelled like Man o' War's living room.

But the dirt floor had been bulldozed away, and a hardwood floor was in its place. Trucks were hauling in portable locker rooms. A real cherry picker was hovering, via hydraulics, above the shot clock.

It was less than an hour before a Division II team with a direction or hyphen in its name would be arriving for its shootaround.

A guy wearing a long-sleeve T-shirt with the letters "WWU" on front introduced himself.

"We're just happy to be here," said Tony Dominguez, who claimed to be with Western Washington University.

Direction in the school name? Bookstore T-shirt and Nikes instead of Armani and Bruno Magli? He's legit. Let 'im in.

Dominguez grabbed one of those big mops used to sweep basketball floors and put it to its intended use.

Though he looked youthful enough to be a student manager, Dominguez is an associate head coach at WWU, as well as tournament director of the Great Western Shootout, which tips off at 11 a.m. today.

Over the next three weeks, the South Point will host a shootout, a classic, a high school game, a women's classic, another classic, another classic after that and a high school doubleheader. There will be 42 games and 42 teams, with all three NCAA divisions, men and women, represented. Good thing there's not a Division IV. Or a third gender.

The field isn't a who's who of college basketball, but a where's where. Or a who's that.

Central Washington, Drury, Western Washington, Central Oklahoma, Rollins, Alabama-Huntsville, Indianapolis, Wilmington, Christian Brothers, St. Mary's (the one in Texas), Findlay Prep, Las Vegas High, Illinois, Montana State.

Georgia, Gonzaga, Dayton, South Alabama, San Diego, Concordia, Eureka, DeSales, Carthage, Thomas More, Wisconsin-River Falls, Amherst, Worcester Polytechnic, Ramapo.

Ursinus, Spalding, Hanover, Hardin-Simmons, Gustavus Adolphus, Transylvania, La Verne, Simpson, Skidmore, Merchant Marine, Wesley, Flora Macdonald, Bishop Gorman, Spring Valley.

These are the schools that will be hooping it up, in order of appearance, through Jan. 6. I should note that Illinois, Georgia, Gonzaga and Dayton are sending only their women's teams.

The lone Division I men's game this year is South Alabama vs. San Diego. The ESPN family of networks has Butler and everybody else locked up, with the exception of the Mountain West teams. And it doesn't care about those.

These shootouts and classics are mostly about the little guys, schools with directions in their names, schools whose associate head coaches don't mind mopping the floor or driving the bus. They also are about filling hotel rooms at the South Point, now that the cowboys have returned to the dusty dots on the map from whence they came, and Calgary.

"During one of the slowest times of the year, we've got over 2,500 room nights booked," South Point Arena general manager Steve Stallworth said.

Add in revenues from the blackjack tables, bars and restaurants, and it's no wonder Stallworth calls small-college hoops a slam dunk for the South Point. It has been said you have to forcibly remove a Gustavus Adolphus fan from a Steak 'n Shake.

Though admission costs about the same as a movie ticket, Stallworth admits one mostly hears basketball sneakers squeaking on portable hardwood at most of these games. But last year, Wisconsin-Stevens Point brought more than 1,500 fans, and a source said Dracula was putting together a crew for Transylvania vs. La Verne on Dec. 28.

In truth, this might not be the quintessential exhibition of basketball one will witness in his lifetime, though it's probably closer to the game that Dr. Naismith envisioned when he nailed a couple of peach baskets to the barn walls in Springfield, Mass.

I also can say with some degree of certainty that these are the kind of players who will make their free throws, move their feet on defense and won't punch each other in the face.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.