Hoops fans will travel how far?

While organizers of the NCAA men's basketball tournament say they try as best they can to place teams in areas of the country that will minimize travel costs for schools and fans, two of Utah's three teams in the Big Dance aren't so lucky.

Both Brigham Young University and the University of Utah will hop on cross-country flights this week, and with the economy the way it is, a lot of people appear to be settling for watching it in HD on their couch.

"We have a few people making the trip to Miami," U. assistant athletics director Zack Lassiter said. "We don't have a lot of alumni in the Florida area and I think it is tough to make last-minute travel plans all the way across the country."

Lassiter said they did not have a lot of inquiries Monday when the tickets went on sale for donors and Crimson Club members. The tickets are available to the rest of the general public on Tuesday, which could bring more interest.

Utah and BYU were both allotted 350 tickets that they are responsible for selling. Teams have opportunities to pick up extra tickets at times, but the rest of the tickets may be purchased through the venue directly.

Despite the sputtering economy and the game being in Philadelphia, BYU had already sold all of its allotment by Monday afternoon.

"The ticket office told us that the demand was equal to the last couple of years that the men have gone to the tournament," BYU associate athletic director Duff Tittle said.

While Tittle didn't know exactly where all the tickets sold are going, he did acknowledge that BYU is a slightly different dynamic.

"I would guess that there is a good mix," Tittle said. "We will have some coming from Utah as well as family and friends of players from all over the country, but I am sure there are a lot of people from the East Coast, whether they are BYU alumni or members of the (LDS) Church that will be there too."

In 2001 the NCAA implemented a system designed to limit travel for teams and fans. The design was to make the tournament more split up with only eight teams placed at each first-round site. The only thing that makes that difficult is the NCAA rule that teams from the same conference can't meet until the regional final, which leads to some teams being sent far from home.

But it isn't just the Cougars and Utes that have to deal with playing outside of their region of the country. Both of their first-round opponents (Texas A&M and Arizona) will be dealing with the same thing.

As for Utah State University, playing Marquette, Boise is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Logan, and all day Monday USU officials were answering ticket inquiries.

"It will be in the thousands when it is all said and done," Utah State assistant athletics director Doug Hoffman said of ticket sales. "Last time we played in Boise a few years ago in the tournament, we had 3,000 or 4,000 people there."

E-MAIL: ethomas@desnews.com