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Message: [QUOTE="Demo Square, post: 4726396, member: 10861"] HuskyHawk, Agree with you in most cases. But the OLD 50th Street pre-1968 MSG was the venue that put college basketball on the map in 1919. Ned Irish built it to bring together the then-brand new passions of college hoops, big-time gambling & an entertainment venue for things like Barnum & Bailey's Circus & in 1947, the Knicks. It was so smokey in there from the gamblers cigars, sometimes it was tough to see the score or time on the overhead scoreboard. The Old MSG hosted early NCAA tournaments, the famous Christmas ECAC Holiday Festival, & so many big-time rivalries (like Princeton w/ Bill Bradley vs. Michigan & Cazzie Russell) & legendary teams like undeafeated CCNY (1950's NIT & NCAA champions). Thursday night college double headers were the best, every game felt that young, campus spirit, even if it was NYU & Columbia in their heyday's. Affordable for college kids. Now UConn brings that back whenever they go to the new MSG. We're an institution at MSG. It was/is the Mecca of college basketball & should be at least asterisked on any great, vintage colllege hoops venue list, IMO. Father Demo And hoops at MSG inspired many NYC-area youths to play hoops & dominate college rosters for many decades. MSG put college basketball on the map first. As did Pauley Pavilion & the Forum on the West Coast later. [/QUOTE]