Bears, Cobras, Timber Wolves and Rockets will be in Danville this week…but there’s no need to panic. Those are just some of the names of the 16 teams that will be playing as Danville hosts the National Junior College Athletic Association – Division II – Men’s National Basketball Tournament.
Danville Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr. explained how he feels about the tournament being back….
{AUDIO: ”Incredibly exciting. I see that the sixteen teams have been named. One of them is our neighbor – Parkland College. So it’s going to be great to see a local team playing in the tournament. It’s always great to have the town full, our hotels full, our restaurants full.”}
Danville Area Community College is hosting the tournament for the 29th time this year. DACC is guaranteed it will be hosting the games through next year, but this is a bid year. Jeanie Cooke, Executive Director of the Danville Area Visitors Bureau, explains what will be happening…
{AUDIO: ”We will be going to the National Annual Meeting of the NJCAA in April, which is in Birmingham. We’ll be bidding again. We will be working on bidding again to keep the tournament. And the Convention and Visitors Bureau will host a breakfast for all the NJCAA people that are at their national meeting. And we will have a contingent that goes – led by Tournament Director Brian Hensgen. And I don’t see how anybody could make a better case than we intend to.”}
Mayor Williams says Danville would like to keep the tournament permanently. And he adds one thing that would help is showing your support for the teams…
{AUDIO: ”I hope that we have huge crowds and that we support all of our basketball teams. That’s one of the best ways that we could help keep it here in Danville.”}
The first session of games tips off at 9 o’clock Tuesday morning in the Mary Miller Gymnasium.
For more information visit the tournament website:
Facebook: NJCAA Division II Mens Basketball Championship
Twitter: @NJCAATournament
Snapchat: Njcaanattourney
