The Pond Will Be Site of 1998 NCAA Regional

The Pond of Anaheim will be the site of the West Regional of the 1998 men’s basketball tournament, the NCAA has announced.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Dennis Farrell, commissioner of the Big West Conference, which will play host to the event. “You take the excitement of last weekend’s (John R. Wooden Classic) tournament and add the importance of the winner going on to the Final Four, and you can certainly see how big this is.”

Arena spokesman John Nicoletti said officials were excited about the event as they awaited final word “especially given the atmosphere over the weekend” after the inaugural Wooden Classic drew a sell-out crowd of 18,307.

Other 1998 regional sites announced Monday were Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum, the ThunderDome in St. Petersburg, Fla. (Southeast) and the new Kiel Center in St. Louis (Midwest). The 1998 Final Four was previously awarded to the Alamodome in San Antonio, Tex.

Last year, Anaheim was in the running to host a 1997 regional but was edged out by San Jose Arena after failing to secure the recommendation of the basketball committee, partly because the facility hadn’t played host to a basketball game then and was set up for hockey when NCAA officials visited.

“They were a little leery of recommending The Pond until it had hosted basketball,” Farrell said. “But since last year, Long Beach played Memphis there, there have been a couple of Clippers games and you had the great tournament last weekend, after the decision was already rendered.

“This is big. This is one of the great events in America, with all the excitement and hoopla of college sports. We’re just happy we can play a part in helping bring it to Orange County.”