Las Vegas worth a lot more than No. 124 for March Madness

An Internet poll came out just before the ongoing edition of March Madness ranking Las Vegas No. 124 among the 300 best basketball cities in the U.S.

Annapolis, Md., probably benefiting from a boost from that Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee “In-THE-Annapolis” TV commercial, was No. 123. Orono, Maine, was No. 108.

Other basketball cities ranked ahead of ours: Ypsilanti, Mich. (No. 121); Cedar Falls, Iowa (No. 118); Cape Girardeau, Mo. (No. 104); Boiling Springs, N.C. (No. 91).

This is why one should not pay heed to Internet polls.

I have never been to Orono, Maine, during basketball season, or any other season for that matter. I am sure it is beautiful during summertime, with trees and lakes and stuff.

On Friday morning, conversely, I stumbled onto the March Madness bachelor party of Jeff Hofacker, a young man who designed the Orbit chewing gum package and who grew up in Michigan’s upper peninsula but now lives in Chicago. He was wearing a Michigan State Rose Bowl cap and a dark green Sparty T-shirt. He was drinking something called a 007 — orange vodka, orange juice, 7-Up.

Was this his first 007 of the day? Not exactly. The over-under was 3½ before halftime. Most of his buddies had bet the over.

This was at 11 a.m., at Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq.

Jeff Hofacker and 14 of his pals had ponied up $2,595 per day for Brooklyn Bowl’s lower level Basketbowl package: all-you-can-drink Coors Light, PBR and well drinks; upgraded buffet with bar food; breakfast buffet; two full-service bowling lanes; premium leather sofas and table; a personal 9-by-20-foot TV screen showing one’s March Madness game of choice.

The game of choice was Michigan State vs. Georgia.

It came out to about a reasonable $180 per buddy, Hofacker said. Maybe it wasn’t Orono, Maine, but you could bowl and watch Tom Izzo and the Spartans put a hurt on Georgia at the same time (although it almost got a little too close for comfort at the end).

When I mentioned to Jeff Hofacker’s pals that Orono, Maine, was ranked ahead of Las Vegas among the top U.S. basketball cities by WalletHub.com, they said they’d still rather watch March Madness unfold in Las Vegas.

“Orono in Maine?” asked Johnny Pliszka, one of Jeff Hofacker’s bachelor party pals. “Whatever came out of Orono? Maybe Jimmy Howard, the Red Wings’ goalie” who played college hockey for Maine.

WalletHub.com used the following criteria to rank its top basketball cities: number of NBA and NCAA Division I teams; performance of those teams; NBA and Division I ticket prices; arena accessibility; championships won; number of sports bars per capita; Twitter and Facebook followers and likes.

This is why the UNLV basketball team must start beating Air Force, and why @CoachDaveRice needs to pad his number of Twitter followers (8,137 as of halftime of Sunday’s Michigan State-Virginia game).

Las Vegas’ basketball reputation depends on it.

While I am sure the people at WalletHub thought they had all the key metrics covered, there was no category for Conference Tournaments Held in Town (4 for Las Vegas, 0 for Orono, Maine), no mention of the NBA Summer League; or Coach K and Derrick Rose and USA Basketball; or AAU hoops; or Bishop Gorman and Findlay Prep; or lazy afternoons at Sunset Park when the weather is nice and sides are chosen and the Shirts and Skins are hooping it up.

I have a feeling that if the WalletHub people spent any time with Wyoming fans during the Mountain West Tournament, or with Bill Walton at the MGM pool during the Pac-12 tournament, they might revise their poll.

They should have sent a man with a key metric down to Fremont Street on Saturday night.

Notre Dame and Butler were fighting tooth-and-nail in the day’s last bit of Madness, and people were jammed around the TV screens at the Golden Nugget’s outside bar, about a dozen deep.

A few people wearing shamrocks were cheering for Notre Dame, a few people with short haircuts were cheering for Butler.

A whole lot of people were cheering for their money. They had bet Notre Dame at minus-4½.

So these people were sort of subdued until the game went to overtime — and then they got excited again, because that was their only hope. And then with a few seconds to go, Notre Dame was up by five and had a guy shooting bonus free throws, and Notre Dame betting fans were whooping it up.

But the Notre Dame guy — the same guy who double-dribbled at the end of regulation — missed, and then he and his teammates conceded Butler a dunk at the buzzer. And then the Notre Dame betting fans weren’t whooping it up anymore. They were tearing up betting slips and throwing the little pieces at the TV screens at the Golden Nugget’s outside bar.

I’m sure had the WalletHub people witnessed any of this, Las Vegas would have shot right past Orono, Maine, on the list of top basketball cities, and would be giving Boiling Springs, N.C., all it could ask for.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.