Williams: No NCAA tournament in Cincy. How about basketball showcases in UC, Kentucky, Indiana?

Ask columnist Jason Williams anything — sports or otherwise — and he’ll pick some of your questions and answer them on Cincinnati.com. Email: jwilliams@enquirer.com

Subject: Kentucky Wildcats and Indiana Hoosiers set to play in Cincinnati showcase

Message: Here’s a suggestion to add to the new sports commission’s list of potential events. Host an annual KY-OH-IN Basketball Showcase with four D-1 teams playing a doubleheader on a Saturday afternoon around the holidays. There would be six teams involved, with two teams away each year.

The teams would be Kentucky, Louisville, UC, Xavier, Indiana and Purdue. Other regional teams could participate if necessary. To maintain the season’s rivalries (UC vs. Xavier, Kentucky vs. Louisville, Indiana vs. Purdue), these rival teams would not be scheduled against each other. Games could be played at the Heritage Bank Center.

To respond: To bring. This. About.

This is exactly the type of creative thinking that the future revitalized sports commission needs to have.

Such an event could help reinvigorate our national brand as a hotbed of college basketball. The brand has lost some luster in recent years, mainly because UC is no longer a perennial NCAA Tournament team. A showcase event would be a celebration of our rich college basketball history.

OK, so the NCAA Tournament ignores us because of the outdated Heritage Bank Center. The showcase could still be a way to bring a major college basketball event to the city.

Getting Kentucky and Indiana to play would be key to increasing attendance. Fans of both schools travel well. Kentucky averaged 15,033 fans for 12 regular-season games at Heritage Bank Center. Kentucky has not played at the arena since 2005.

It wouldn’t be easy to set up a showcase. It would take major sponsors and a television network to support this. Would there be space in the schedule? There are already several well-established early season tournaments and exhibition events on neutral courts. That’s where the sports commission would come in to see if something like this is possible.

The arena has hosted occasional four-team regular season basketball events. They typically don’t get much fanfare.

In December 2008, Heritage Bank Center hosted the Big East/SEC Invitational doubleheader. UC, then in the Big East, played Mississippi State. No. 9 Louisville, also then in the Big East, faced Ole Miss. Announced audience for both games: 5,922.

This article originally appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer: UK Wildcats would be key to Cincinnati’s big college basketball event