Basketball
Both the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University have dedicated locker rooms in the arena for use by the schools' basketball teams. Both the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University made their first appearance on December 1, 2010 in the City Game, the first ever basketball game hosted in the venue. A neutral venue, Pitt was designated as the home team for the game, which the Panthers won 80–66. The first points at the arena were made by Duquesne freshman guard T. J. McConnell, with a basket at 27 seconds into the game.
The arena hosted the 2010 SEC/Big East Invitational with Auburn University vs. Rutgers University and University of Pittsburgh men's basketball team vs. Tennessee, Pitt's second appearance at the Consol. The games were televised nationally on ESPN2 and ESPN respectively. Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon stated, "We're going to try to play there as much as possible."
Duquesne University will host 3 home games on December 12 versus West Virginia University, University of Dayton on January 30, 2011, and Xavier University on February 13, 2011. Duquesne University will host first and second round games of the 2012 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament at the arena on March 15 & 17, 2012. It will be the fourth time Duquesne plays host to games in the NCAA Tournament, previously doing so in 1997, 2001 (women's) and 2002 all at Consol's predecessor Civic Arena. "Duquesne University is proud to bring one of the premier sporting events in the nation back to Pittsburgh," said DU Athletics Director Greg Amodio. "We look forward to working with the city of Pittsburgh and the state-of-the-art Consol Energy Center in putting on a first class event."
The arena has been mentioned by National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern as a possible future home for an NBA franchise should one move to Pittsburgh.
Read more about this topic: Consol Energy Center
Famous quotes containing the word basketball:
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)