College basketball season begins this week, which makes it an appropriate time to add some guides for finding hotels near college basketball arenas to TheRealPlaces.com. We tend to do things alphabetically around here so we’ll start by looking at the Atlantic Coast Conference – ACC.
Since the ACC expanded to 12 teams a few years back, you can look at the conference in thirds: four schools north of North Carolina, four in North Carolina and four more south of North Carolina. Farthest to the north is Boston College. The BC Eagles basketball team plays at the Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. BC finished in the middle of the ACC last year with an overall record of 15-16 and 6-10 in the conference. The University of Maryland finished second in the conference at 24-9, 13-3 last year. The Maryland Terrapins play at Comcast Center in College Park, Maryland.
Of the two Virginia universities in the ACC, the Virginia Tech Hokies had the better season in 2010-2011, finishing up at 25-9, 10-6. Anyone interested in going to one of Virginia Tech’s home games will benefit from our list of hotels near Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Virginia. The University of Virginia Cavaliers had highs and lows during their first season under new coach Tony Bennett (no, not that Tony Bennett), completing the year with a 15-16, 5-11 record. The UVA basketball team plays on-campus at John Paul Jones Arena (no, not that John Paul Jones) in Charlottesville.
The two most successful ACC basketball programs are in North Carolina: Duke and the University of North Carolina. The Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball team had the ultimate level of success in 2009-2010, going 35-5 and 13-3 – and then winning the NCAA tournament. If you can get tickets, we can give you hotels near Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC. After winning the national championship themselves the previous year, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels had a disappointing year with a final record of 20-17, 5-11. But it’s not exactly going out on a limb to expect much better results this season at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons finished in the top half of the ACC standings in 2010, with a 20-11 and 9-7 record. Those wishing to attend home games may be interested in hotels near Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This year the NC State Wolfpack will be hoping to advance beyond “also ran” status (20-16, 5-11 last year) as they host ACC opponents at RBC Center in Raleigh.
The southern “third” of the ACC includes colleges in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The Clemson Tigers will host ACC opponents at Littlejohn Coliseum for the 43rd straight year. They hope that their 21-11, 9-7 record last year is a sign of better things to come. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets basketball teams play home games on their campus at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. They, too, had a season of the “mixed” variety last year, going 23-13 overall but only getting to 7-9 in the ACC.
The University of Miami Hurricanes had a mixed 2009-2010 season: 20-13 overall but only 4-12 in ACC play. You can plan your visit to the BankUnited Center for basketball games or other events with our list of nearby hotels. The farthest west of the universities of the ACC is Florida State. The FSU Seminoles basketball team was probably quite happy with a 22-1, 10-6 record last year and hope to do at least as well in their home games this year at Leon County Civic Center.
The ACC season will end with the crowning of a champion at the 2011 ACC Basketball Tournament, to be held at the Greensboro Coliseum from March 10th to March 13th.
