Remember the Alamodome: San Antonio has been unkind to Triangle teams in the past

There’s an argument to be made that there’s no better venue for the Final Four, at least as long as they insist on playing it in blimp hangers masquerading as football stadiums. San Antonio is compact, tourist-friendly, convention-savvy, hotel-blessed and the average fan can get righteously drunk for $10 if they play their cards right. For $20, they can tumble off the River Walk and into the river on their way to jail.

The Alamodome’s capacity of only 64,000 scared the NCAA away for a decade, an error finally corrected in 2018 at the same time the NCAA also realized the folly of playing regional finals in domes. The basketball is often only as good as the building allows it to be, something ACC fans learned decades ago in Greensboro, and the Alamodome is the best of the big buildings. Only Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, a building constructed with the thought of hosting Final Fours in mind, even comes close.

Indianapolis, like San Antonio, also puts the coaches’ convention in close proximity to the arena, unlike Houston or Phoenix, which creates the additional benefit of random celebrity sightings downtown. Matt Painter! Steve Forbes! Ryan Odom! Thousands of graduate assistants networking for their next job!

At a good Final Four, the incredible variety of logos — blue bloods, mid-majors, Division II and III schools — is a big part of the atmosphere, and you can’t throw a chair on the River Walk this week without hitting an assistant coach in a quarter-zip.

San Antonio offers all of that along with the Alamo itself and Tex-Mex food, although it’s mildly concerning that it’s not currently back in the Final Four rotation, which runs through 2031. (Neither, at this moment, is Phoenix. Thankfully.)

But what’s always good for fans has never been as good for Triangle teams, which are 0-for-5 trying to win a title in Texas. San Antonio in particular has been the site of some of the biggest disappointments.

That starts with the Billy Packer “It’s ovah!” game against Kansas in 2008, when Billy Packer wrote North Carolina off midway through the first half, with the Tar Heels down 38-12. That group got its national title a year later … but in Detroit.

Duke had its own moment of pain at the Alamodome four years earlier, when it crumpled as Connecticut went on a late 12-0 run to deny J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams their best shot at a championship, something Redick later said he thinks about “on a daily basis.”

And top-ranked North Carolina got Andre Millered here in 1998. What looked like a team of destiny, the just-add-water title contender Dean Smith left Bill Guthridge when he walked away, was unexpectedly derailed by Utah.

Throw in Kris Jenkins — Houston, 2016 — and Pervis Ellison — Dallas, 1986 — and Duke and UNC have combined to go 2-5 in Final Fours played in Texas, a remarkable record for two teams with a 21-10 record and nine national titles over that span otherwise.

That is, of course, an exercise in small sample sizes, but it does leave some uncharted territory for Duke to explore this weekend.

There’s no question, though, that San Antonio got a good one. Four No. 1 seeds, clearly the four best teams in college basketball, all surviving the rigors and randomness of the tournament to battle it out at the end.

It could end up one of the best semifinal Saturdays ever: Duke and Cooper Flagg against the meat-grinder that is Houston, with the winner to face the survivor of the battle of SEC powerhouses Auburn and Florida. Two grizzled old souls, Kelvin Sampson and Bruce Pearl, and two guys who had KenPom subscriptions before it was cool, Jon Scheyer and Todd Golden.

It’s a quartet of teams worthy of the Final Four’s best venue. And long after all the rest of the coaches clear out, one of them is going to be taking his team and the trophy on a midnight boat ride along the River Walk as Monday turns to Tuesday. You can’t do that in Houston, or anywhere else they play this thing. There’s no argument about that.

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This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Remember the Alamodome: San Antonio has been unkind to Triangle teams in the past."

Luke DeCock

The News & Observer

Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.