Woodling: A whole different ball game

No doubt the Anti-Kansas does not exist in men’s college basketball. And yet I may have found the closest thing to the Jayhawks’ exact opposite.

Everything KU boasts in men’s college basketball – tradition, winning, fan support – is missing at the U.S. Military Academy.

Last week, while in New York for my grandson’s fifth birthday, my wife, daughter and I opted for a trip to nearby West Point, N.Y., to watch Army play Holy Cross.

You remember Holy Cross. The Crusaders almost shocked Kansas a few years back in the first round of the NCAA Tournament – a foreshadow, as it turned out, for fellow Patriot League member Bucknell.

Army is also in the Patriot League, but the Cadets are to that loop what Baylor is to Big 12 Conference men’s basketball. Army hasn’t had a winning season in two decades. Last year, the Cadets fashioned a 3-24 record.

After successfully passing through two checkpoints – the USMA has maintained strict security since 9/11 – we drove to Cristl Arena, parked and walked to the ticket window, where I purchased three tickets for a grand total of $14 (two $4 senior tickets and one $6 adult ticket).

If that isn’t on the other end of the KU ticket spectrum in NCAA Division I men’s basketball, I don’t know what is. KU’s men’s tickets go for $40 apiece, and no single-game tickets are available.

Momentarily, I looked at the tickets and noticed they were reserved seats. I figured I had purchased general admission, but the pasteboards had row and seat numbers on them.

“These say Row A,” I told my wife and daughter. “Surely, that can’t be the first row.”

But it was. We sat directly behind press row about halfway between midcourt and the free-throw line. We didn’t have to worry about seeing over the media, either. Press row was virtually empty.

Then again, so were the stands. You just don’t walk up to a ticket window less than half an hour before tipoff and purchase front-row seats if there is any demand.

Army’s 21-year-old basketball facility seats a little more than 5,000 fans, and there were more than 4,500 empty seats that night. That’s right. The listed attendance was a mere 426, and that count probably included all the players, officials and the Army pep band.

As accustomed as I’ve been to watching men’s college basketball in sold-out or nearly SRO arenas over the years, my busman’s holiday evolved into a relatively quiet other-world experience I hadn’t anticipated.

Meanwhile, on the floor, Holy Cross treated us to a three-point shooting exhibition. The Crusaders nailed 15 of 22 treys against Army’s outflanked defense and romped, 84-46.

Four days later, the Crusaders went to Bucknell and bowed, 58-43, proving just how huge a gap exists between the Patriot League’s haves and have-nots.

Army is definitely a have-not. Still, the school does have some men’s basketball tradition. Bob Knight coached there for six years in the ’60s, and Mike Krzyzewski was the Black Knights’ boss for five seasons in the ’70s.

Jim Crews is the Cadets’ coach now. Crews, who spent 16 mostly successful seasons at Evansville before going to West Point four years ago, must be walking through a minefield.

Heck, most high school games draw more than 426 fans.