Week Was Jam-Packed

First, the raw numbers. Two conference basketball tournaments. Four games. Two counties. Seven freeways. One day.

It might have been lost amid the hype and complaints about the Pacific 10 tournament, but the Big West Conference hosted its annual get-together last week, as well. That put eight games on the menu in Southern California on Thursday. I figured I’d try the sample platter and try two from each conference.

The Pac-10 tournament had the big-time buzz even before I stepped in the arena. Hot 92 and Fox Sports Radio had tents set up outside, with a deejay from Hot 92 spinning “I Want You Back” as I walked in.

The first college game at Staples Center felt like a hodge-podge of the L.A. basketball scene. The voice coming through the speakers belonged to Lawrence Tanter, the Lakers’ public-address announcer. The court belonged to the Sparks, who use the same three-point distance as the NCAA. The play-by-play in the stats books bore the distinctive stamp of Rich Perelman, who usually handles the duties at UCLA. His descriptions always have flair, such as “Jones steal, drive and breakaway right-hand tomahawk cram” or “Jackson 22 ft. right baseline golden archer.”

I thought the vast Staples Center would swallow up any atmosphere, but it was lively. Close, but not quite matching an NCAA tournament site. For example, tournament crowds usually adopt an underdog, but the Staples folks didn’t really get behind Washington in its bid to upset Oregon. Maybe it’s because people in L.A. are too into their own thing. The loudest cheer during the game came when the Trojans left their seats to head to the locker room and prepare for their matchup with Stanford.

Man, did it get loud for that game. Much better than the Sports Arena. USC had it rolling so well, I even caught a few UCLA fans applauding.

Since USC had the game well in hand, I did the SoCal thing and left early to beat traffic. The 10 to the 5 (with a little detour to the 605 to the 91 to avoid traffic) got me to Anaheim in about an hour. A much easier time parking at the Anaheim Convention Center. Much cheaper, too. Try half of the $20 they were asking at Staples.

Inside the arena, it was hard to believe this game had anything to do with the NCAA tournament. You’d think the winners would get a ribbon, not a ticket to the Big Dance.

There were three rows of NBA scouts sitting in Section 113 at Staples Center. At the Big West, you needed a scout just to find a scout. At the Pac-10 tournament, you know you’re watching six teams that will play in the NCAAs. At the Big West tournament, you know you’ll see only one advance.

About 3,000 people were in the small arena. There were probably as many empty seats at Anaheim as there were at Staples, but here those empty seats constituted half the arena.

The Big West tournament prominently features an important element of college basketball: college students. The UC Irvine contingent was especially noticeable, seated (well, technically, they didn’t actually sit down) on the corner of the court and wearing bright yellow shirts. They brought the noise, filling the arena with sound.

UC Irvine was battling Long Beach State in the second half, and when I walked in, Jerry Green was doing his thing. He was easily the best player on the floor, one who could hold his own with any of the guys in the Pac-10 tournament. The Anteaters held off Long Beach State to win, 72-65. But for the second consecutive year, UC Irvine has had an excellent regular season wiped out by an early elimination from the conference tournament when they lost to UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals Friday.

Irvine Coach Pat Douglass had a prophetic statement Thursday night. “The mid-majors have a problem in that you go for four months at a time, [then] you have to win three games to go to the tournament,” Douglass said. “Are we going to worry about the NCAA bid, or are we going to take into account four months of hard work?”

As unfair as it is, it makes the games more dramatic because each team plays with more desperation. You didn’t see that at Staples on Thursday, when three of four games were blowouts.

With UC Santa Barbara handling Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the second half, I went to catch the end of the UCLA game on TV. This is where the Big West tournament location beats the Pac-10: peripheral entertainment options. For fans coming from out of town, especially families, it’s simply a better place to be. Disney’s California Adventure is across the street. And Downtown Disney is just down the road.

It might be prefabricated, but Downtown Disney beats downtown L.A. You have a House of Blues, ESPNZone and a 12-screen movie multiplex right there. With three hours’ free parking. Try finding any of the above in downtown L.A. They need to get that hotel and entertainment complex around Staples out of the planning stages and start building.

I was in my car for the duration of one song while I zipped over to the SportsZone. Not only did they have the UCLA-Cal game, they even managed to pull in the Big West game off the feed from a Santa Barbara station. UCLA lost, and you could hear the Steve Lavin criticism all the way in Anaheim. (Specifically, from the guy next to me at the bar).

After a long day of hoops, it was simply a matter of taking the 5 to the 91 to the 605 to the 105 to the 405 to the 90 to get home. March Madness, indeed.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.