Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
"We've wanted it in Huntsville for a long time for our fans, our student-athletes, our coaches” - Conference USA Basketball Tournament to be held in Huntsville, Ala. in 2024, 2025
4/6/2023 6:54:00 PM | General, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball
This is closest Conference USA Tournament to MTSU since the Blue Raiders joined the conference
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Keith Cromartie is as True Blue as any Blue Raider fan. An alumnus of the MTSU Track and Field Program, Cromartie was one of the last, he estimates, that legendary coach Dean Hayes let play basketball and run track in Murfreesboro.
These days, however, since Cromartie was on campus as a student in the early 1970s, the True Blue Blue Raider makes his home just outside of Huntsville, Alabama, about two hours south of the Murphy Center. And when Director of Athletics Chris Massaro gave him a call that the Conference USA Basketball Tournaments were coming to his neck of the woods, Cromartie couldn't be more excited.
"I was just on cloud nine," Cromartie said, dressed with an MTSU polo while holding his #BLUEnited yard sign. "This is a very friendly basketball area. High school, college, there's three colleges in this town that all have basketball teams."
Massaro hopes that excitement Cromartie has will be the same for many Blue Raider fans, who now are likely to be within driving distance of a Conference USA Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2017, when men's basketball defeated Marshall 83-72 in the Tournament Championship to make their second straight NCAA Tournament.
"We've wanted it in Huntsville for a long time for our fans, our student-athletes, our coaches," Massaro said. "It's just two hours down the road. Let's fill this place."
Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod said that whenever the conference moved on from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, finding a site on eastern or central part of the conference's footprint was a priority, to ensure that the same fan bases were not always bearing the same burdens of travel costs.
Huntsville, who's civic leaders and MacLeod both say were constantly in conversations with the conference office over the years, quickly stuck out as an ideal location for those reasons, in addition to the facility itself that will host both the Men's and Women's Tournaments: Propst Arena, located in downtown Huntsville.
"I couldn't be more excited for fans like those at Middle Tennessee that can now drive," MacLeod said. "I know that fan base is strong, both programs are fantastic. They still have come to Frisco and supported us. And now we're in a spot where they can drive and it's a lot easier."
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said that Conference USA appealed to the city due to its high-level of play sustained across multiple iterations of the league, providing local basketball fans with a tremendous product the week of the tournament. Plus, having three C-USA schools (MTSU, WKU and Jacksonville State) with a fourth one coming soon (Kennesaw State) within a three-hour drive ensured there would be plenty of tourist activity coming to Downtown Huntsville.
"We put out everything that we had to make sure that we could attract them to the City of Huntsville and attract their fans to the City of Huntsville," Battle said. "I think they will have a great time here, I think that it will be a great venue for conference play."
Indeed, the downtown location of the arena, across the street from a gorgeous city park and Art Museum, with a plethora of hotels, bars and restaurants within walking distance, promises to be an exceptional college basketball venue. Home to the Huntsville Havoc, a Southern Professional Hockey League, Propst Arena has a flexible capacity depending on the event, with Mark Russell, Executive Director of the Huntsville Sports Commission, saying the basketball configuration seats anywhere between six and seven thousand.
"Every seat is good," Russell said. "It's the right size for a basketball tournament. It's a beautiful facility. It'll be a lot of fun and a lot of noise. Players love playing here, we always get good reviews from every game we've had."
The basketball specific setup is great news to the plethora of coaches and student-athletes around the conference, who often complained, mostly behind closed doors, but sometimes publicly, about the sightlines and general awkwardness of the setup in Frisco, with two courts playing simultaneously during the opening rounds.
Huntsville signed a two-year contract to host the tournament, with an option to extend the deal once those two years are complete. Battle said he hopes MTSU fans will come to explore the many sights and sounds of Huntsville while they cheer on the Blue Raiders, most notably the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, where NASA built the rockets that sent astronauts to the moon. He left the MTSU media contingent with this nugget, however, as 90,000 Middle Tennessee alumni are within a three-hour drive of the Propst Arena.
"A lot of people will say this is Middle Tennessee's home field because of all the alumni around here," Battle said with a wink.
One of those alumni who will be there? Keith Cromartie.
"I will be at every game," Cromartie said. "Nothing's going to get in the way of this."
These days, however, since Cromartie was on campus as a student in the early 1970s, the True Blue Blue Raider makes his home just outside of Huntsville, Alabama, about two hours south of the Murphy Center. And when Director of Athletics Chris Massaro gave him a call that the Conference USA Basketball Tournaments were coming to his neck of the woods, Cromartie couldn't be more excited.
"I was just on cloud nine," Cromartie said, dressed with an MTSU polo while holding his #BLUEnited yard sign. "This is a very friendly basketball area. High school, college, there's three colleges in this town that all have basketball teams."
Massaro hopes that excitement Cromartie has will be the same for many Blue Raider fans, who now are likely to be within driving distance of a Conference USA Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2017, when men's basketball defeated Marshall 83-72 in the Tournament Championship to make their second straight NCAA Tournament.
"We've wanted it in Huntsville for a long time for our fans, our student-athletes, our coaches," Massaro said. "It's just two hours down the road. Let's fill this place."
Conference USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod said that whenever the conference moved on from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, finding a site on eastern or central part of the conference's footprint was a priority, to ensure that the same fan bases were not always bearing the same burdens of travel costs.
Huntsville, who's civic leaders and MacLeod both say were constantly in conversations with the conference office over the years, quickly stuck out as an ideal location for those reasons, in addition to the facility itself that will host both the Men's and Women's Tournaments: Propst Arena, located in downtown Huntsville.
"I couldn't be more excited for fans like those at Middle Tennessee that can now drive," MacLeod said. "I know that fan base is strong, both programs are fantastic. They still have come to Frisco and supported us. And now we're in a spot where they can drive and it's a lot easier."
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said that Conference USA appealed to the city due to its high-level of play sustained across multiple iterations of the league, providing local basketball fans with a tremendous product the week of the tournament. Plus, having three C-USA schools (MTSU, WKU and Jacksonville State) with a fourth one coming soon (Kennesaw State) within a three-hour drive ensured there would be plenty of tourist activity coming to Downtown Huntsville.
"We put out everything that we had to make sure that we could attract them to the City of Huntsville and attract their fans to the City of Huntsville," Battle said. "I think they will have a great time here, I think that it will be a great venue for conference play."
Indeed, the downtown location of the arena, across the street from a gorgeous city park and Art Museum, with a plethora of hotels, bars and restaurants within walking distance, promises to be an exceptional college basketball venue. Home to the Huntsville Havoc, a Southern Professional Hockey League, Propst Arena has a flexible capacity depending on the event, with Mark Russell, Executive Director of the Huntsville Sports Commission, saying the basketball configuration seats anywhere between six and seven thousand.
"Every seat is good," Russell said. "It's the right size for a basketball tournament. It's a beautiful facility. It'll be a lot of fun and a lot of noise. Players love playing here, we always get good reviews from every game we've had."
The basketball specific setup is great news to the plethora of coaches and student-athletes around the conference, who often complained, mostly behind closed doors, but sometimes publicly, about the sightlines and general awkwardness of the setup in Frisco, with two courts playing simultaneously during the opening rounds.
Huntsville signed a two-year contract to host the tournament, with an option to extend the deal once those two years are complete. Battle said he hopes MTSU fans will come to explore the many sights and sounds of Huntsville while they cheer on the Blue Raiders, most notably the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, where NASA built the rockets that sent astronauts to the moon. He left the MTSU media contingent with this nugget, however, as 90,000 Middle Tennessee alumni are within a three-hour drive of the Propst Arena.
"A lot of people will say this is Middle Tennessee's home field because of all the alumni around here," Battle said with a wink.
One of those alumni who will be there? Keith Cromartie.
"I will be at every game," Cromartie said. "Nothing's going to get in the way of this."
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