Big 12 Tournament, pandemic version: Here’s how it looked and sounded on opening night
Some 40 minutes before the first game of the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament, Kansas State and TCU took the floor and recorded fight songs echoed through an all-but-empty T-Mobile Center.
A few moments later, public address announcer Mark Fitzpatrick reminded the few fans in the building to wear masks and practice social distancing.
The action started with a few hundred in the stands, including West Virginia fan Perry Johnson of St. Albans, West Virginia.
“Different, a lot different Disappointing, sad,” Johnson said. “Hopefully next year it will be a full house again.”
For those who wondered what the Big 12 Tournament looked and felt like in a pandemic, Wednesday presented the scene: Thousands of empty seats, chairs at the team bench so spread apart that the area turned the corner and ran to the back of the baskets.
No more than 20% of T-Mobile Center will be occupied this week, and with the entire building being used, smatterings of fans dotted the seating sections. Fans seated all the way up in the nose bleeds could clearly hear coaches shouting instructions at their players.
Outside the building before the game, fans milled around but there were no interactive events on Grand Boulevard or lines backing up to enter the arena. You couldn’t tell a marquee event was taking place next door.
And the sounds once the game started ... The ball bouncing, shoes squeaking, coaches yelling, the fans’ cheers and jeers amplified.
“It did feel different, I can’t lie,” K-State guard Mike McGuirl said following the Wildcats’ 71-50 victory over TCU. “It felt different out there. Not too many fans. It was rather quiet. But it had that Big 12 Tournament intensity out there and that is what is most important.”
“Go Cats!” from the fan about halfway up in the lower bowl of the end zone wouldn’t have been heard any other year. This time, it filled the building.
Things got louder as the games went on, and it was still a fun experience for those in attendance, even if it was different. One K-State fan sent out a tweet midway through the Wildcats’ game proclaiming that “I haven’t been to a sporting event in 364 days and I’ve lost my voice in one half.”
Iowa State fans also made their presence heard during the Cyclones’ game against Oklahoma. There are four quarterfinal games scheduled for Thursday, including K-State vs. top seed Baylor at 1:30 p.m. and No. 2 seed Kansas vs. Oklahoma at 5:30 p.m.
“We could hear them,” K-State coach Bruce Weber said of the fans. “It was a very limited crowd. We probably had 80% of the fans that were were there, and they got excited when we played good basketball, there’s no doubt. It’s nowhere near what we have had at Bramlage or some of the other places, but I’m just happy to be playing.”
Also startling is what wasn’t heard or seen: Bands, cheerleaders or dance squads. Not this year. It’s only about the games at T-Mobile Center and Municipal Auditorium, where the Big 12 women begin their tournament on Thursday with Kansas playing TCU at 5 p.m. followed by K-State vs. Texas Tech at 8 p.m.
Last March 11, the Big 12 men’s tournament opened with the usual festivities. Fans crowded into the Power & Light District then filed into the arena. The opening night of the event shows Kansas City at its best. Two games among the bottom four teams usually draws 10,000 or more fans. The building swells for the games the rest of the week.
But as COVID-19 concerns grew, an announcement was made that fans wouldn’t be allowed in the building for the remainder of the tournament.
The next morning the tournament was canceled and a few hours later so was the NCAA Tournament, the nation’s first major sports championship impacted by the pandemic.
College basketball made its way back, with some difficulties, and the postseason has arrived.
Wednesday, the teams warmed up for the opener in apparel provided to the players that read, “Just us.”
Never did a hype slogan seem more appropriate.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 9:19 PM.