Attendance for NCAA Tournament up so far

For the NCAA Tournament first and second rounds, attendance is up:

Steps taken by the NCAA to address the ongoing attendance concern at the women’s NCAA Tournament are working, at least in some places.

Buoyed by two moves in particular — to once again have top teams host first and second-round games and scheduling more weekend games — overall attendance was up. Average attendance for those 48 games was 4,709 fans, nearly 1,000 more than last season and the most since 2008.

Still, it could have been better……

Some arenas where host teams usually have robust fan support had more empty seats than usual, a problem coaches say was created in part by the starting times.

Duke played its two games at noon on Friday and noon on Sunday. The Blue Devils drew 2,000 fans less for each game than they did the rest of the season.

The Blue Devils weren’t alone.

UConn and Stanford also had sparse crowds. The Cardinal had an afternoon game on Monday which drew the lowest home attendance of the season with an announced crowd of 2,532 — more than a thousand fans below the season average of 3,693.

Sweet 16:

ESPN’s Graham Hays previews each region.

South Carolina enters the Sweet 16 with a chip on their shoulder.

Baylor will return to the scene of the 2013 Louisville mugging, hoping for a better outcome.

Player news:

Louisville trusts in “clutch” Jude Schimmel.

Stabresa McDaniel and Tory Jacobs and leaving Minnesota.

Coaching news:

Alcorn State has declined to renew the contract of coach Tonya Edwards.

Dennis Wolff will return as Virginia Tech’s coach.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, wired.

Team news: