Hoops in the Bay: Basketball’s Rise in Tampa Sports History

By Joey Johnston

Once again, the Tampa Bay area will put the Madness into March by hosting early-round games during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  And as the crowd gets rocking at Benchmark International Arena, as one of America’s most beloved sporting events unfolds in its unmistakable fashion, as we are introduced to Goliath, Cinderella and every familiar hoop archetype in between, there’s really no place else you’d rather be.

On World Basketball Day, it’s worth remembering how all of this came about. Basketball makes you bundle up to retreat from the snow and cold. It’s a crooked rim assembled on the side of a Midwestern barn. It’s the high-stakes, cold-blooded city game in hotbeds such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit or Indianapolis, even pure religion in small towns throughout Kentucky and North Carolina.

So how did the game take hold in the land of seashells and sunsets, a place where the locals are more apt to wear flip-flops instead of high-top sneakers?

Maybe it took a little time. But just like it’s impossible to walk past an empty court and not pretend you’re lining up for a game-winning shot, it’s equally irresistible to cram into the bleachers and scream your lungs out for a game that really matters, whether it’s an NCAA event, a high-school regional or that moment at the YMCA when a kid successfully launches their first shot at a regulation basket.

“That bouncing basketball, it’s like a heartbeat,’’ Coach Bob Huggins told Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly nearly three decades ago, when the NCAA brought its premier basketball event to cavernous Tropicana Field, normally a baseball field, where hoops fans nonetheless hung from the rafters. “It’s that damn ball and the dream.’’

Hundreds of kids will venture to downtown Tampa’s Benchmark International Arena on March 20 and 22, dreaming of being the man. But young players everywhere can court those aspirations beginning in spring 2028 with the opening of a 12-court basketball venue near the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI), adjacent to the University of South Florida. It’s expected to become one of the nation’s premier destinations for youth basketball and volleyball events.

According to Jason Aughey, vice president of sports tourism for the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, it’s not just a luxury item. This building, operated by the Tampa Sports Authority, is a necessity to keep up with the area’s growing demand for high-level basketball competition.

This new venue will be such a positive addition to our portfolio, being it can host events on its own, or it can be layered with other facilities such as the Tampa Convention Center,’’ said Aughey, who added the new complex can be adjusted to accommodate 24 volleyball courts. “It all starts with the places to play, and having a venue like this takes Tampa to a whole new level when it comes to recruiting high-profile events. It’s especially attractive to event organizers who previously had to use a multitude of venues throughout the area to get to the number of courts needed to meet demand. Now they will be able to simply host everything under one (or two) roofs, which leads to greater efficiencies.”  

“When you look at the success that we’ve had in recruiting major basketball events such as the Women’s Final Four, SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament or March Madness, infrastructure plays a huge role in it. With the advent of this new indoor facility, which is slated to open in the spring of 2028, we’re confident that we will be able to bring more youth and amateur basketball competitions to the region and add to Tampa’s growing basketball resume.”

It’s the latest chapter in Tampa Bay’s basketball evolution, which has seen the nation’s leading high-school scorer (Brandon’s Toney Mack, 41.0 points per game, 1984-85) and a McDonald’s All-American who became an All-SEC star and an NBA first-round draft pick (Tampa Catholic’s Kevin Knox). 

With the Orlando Magic about two hours away — depending on Interstate 4’s pleasure that day — Tampa Bay has also dabbled in professional basketball. Back in the 1970s, the ABA’s Miami Floridians played half of their season at Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Hall, bringing their trademark bikini-clad ballgirls and that iconic red, white and blue basketball. When COVID-19 hit, the NBA’s Toronto Raptors called Tampa home for one year. And who can forget the Tampa Bay Thrillers, back-to-back champions in the CBA?

USF, which began its men’s basketball program in the Curtis Hixon crackerbox, now plays at the sleek and modern on-campus Yuengling Center. USF calls itself “Tampa Bay’s Home for Hoops’’ and first-year head coach Bryan Hodgson, in Pied Piper-fashion, is constantly seeking converts to sample the Bulls’ crowd-pleasing style.

March Madness? Tampa Bay is hardly an ingenue when it comes to that level of big-time basketball.

It has twice welcomed the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament (2009 and 2022). When attracting the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament (2007), amid much Tobacco Road skepticism, it merely staged one of the most memorable noon-to-midnight opening days in the event’s history (four games, four upsets, including a Wake Forest-Georgia Tech double-overtime thriller that finished in the wee hours).

It was the first community to host four versions of the NCAA Women’s Final Four, witnessing the last of Pat Summitt’s eight national titles at Tennessee, along with two of the dozen captured by UConn’s Geno Auriemma.

Now Tampa Bay is bracing for its eighth NCAA men’s basketball event. Past highlights include a high-powered Sweet 16 in 1998 (when Coach Tubby Smith’s Kentucky Wildcats shot down Duke en route to a national title) and the Final Four in 1999 (the first of UConn’s six national crowns on the men’s side). 

The bluest of men’s blue-bloods have performed here — Arkansas, Auburn, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami, Michigan State, North Carolina, NC State, Syracuse, Tennessee, UConn, UCLA, Villanova, Wake Forest, you name it — while Tampa Bay’s NCAA matchups have featured no fewer than 18 men’s and women’s coaches who wound up enshrined at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Eighteen! 

Those are the names you remember.

Here are a couple you might have forgotten. 

Robert Tatum and Ty Rogers.

Tatum, of Ohio University, hit an off-balance, falling-down shot at the buzzer, clinching a 51-49 victory against Robert Morris in 1983, when the NCAA held opening-round games at USF’s Sun Dome. For years afterward, Tatum’s shot was used as part of CBS-TV’s March Madness pre-tournament promotions.

Meanwhile, Rogers, of Western Kentucky University, made one of the most memorable shots in NCAA Tournament history in 2008, when his buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the overtime horn defeated Drake 101-99 at the St. Pete Times Forum.

“I lost total control,’’ said Rogers, from Eddyville, Ky. (population 2,350) as he recalled the game’s aftermath. “So much adrenaline was running through my body. I saw my family and was yelling at them. I was yelling at God. It was amazing.

“It was a shot I had visualized and practiced so many times before. In a way, I still can’t believe it actually happened.’’

That was a memorable Tampa day for Ty Rogers.

But it was much more than a day.

Three years later, as he made calls during his career as a pharmaceutical salesman, Rogers stopped at a restaurant in Bowling Green, Ky. 

And there it was, his moment of moments, being replayed again on the television screen. 

Brazelton’s got it … End to end he’ll come … Leaves it for Rogers for three … For the win … Western Kentucky does in Drake!

Rogers overheard a conversation in the next booth.

“Remember when that guy hit the shot?’’ 

Rogers said he got chills. He was that guy.

“Basketball,’’ Rogers said, “can be kind of amazing.’’

It’s that damn ball and the dream.

It makes for a perfect backdrop on World Basketball Day. 

A world of opportunities.

A world of memories.

Stay tuned for March, when the Madness returns to Tampa Bay.