Down on the boardwalk, they're getting ready for the Atlantic 10 tournament's final championship hand.
After six tournaments, the A-10 is set to cash in its postseason chips in Atlantic City, N.J. The conference home to NCAA tournament regulars like Temple and Xavier is playing its last conference tournament this weekend at Boardwalk Hall. Next year, it moves to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Barclays is the state-of-the-art new home of the NBA's Nets. And the A-10 has a five-year deal that starts in 2013. The Nets will begin play there next season.
A-10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade said the tournament deserved a turn under the bright lights in the No. 1 media market in the world.
''The move and the location,'' she said, ''is really going to give us an opportunity to take this championship to another level.''
The A-10 hopes to grow in Brooklyn. Especially after failed attempts in so many other places.
The league's signature event had become a bit of a vagabond, in fact. Atlantic City, never really known as a hoops mecca, had finally given the tourney an identity, a place to call home, after it failed at the Spectrum and the Palestra, both in Philadelphia, and Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio and beyond. Atlantic City's proximity to Philadelphia made it an easy trip for Temple and Saint Joseph's fans (oh yeah, and La Salle, too), and those teams were often in title contention.
With Fordham just one state away, in New York, the A-10 seemed to have a decent niche in this sleepy, Jersey Shore casino town. But it just never panned out.
Though that never seemed to matter to Temple.
In fact, under coach Fran Dunphy, the Owls have seemingly headlined A.C. as much as Frank Sinatra once did. Temple has ruled the resort city like no other team, winning three Atlantic 10 tournaments from 2008-10. Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli has joked that the Owls are the true basis of the HBO show ''Boardwalk Empire.''
The No. 21 Owls (24-6) are the No. 1 seed again, and open tournament play against Massachusetts (21-10) on Friday.
''We'll to go Brooklyn and see how that is,'' Dunphy said. ''It takes a while to create your brand at different places. I think Atlantic City was about ready to emerge.''
The Owls won't get too comfortable in Brooklyn. It indeed is a time of change in the A-10. The conference is finding a new postseason home and the Owls are bolting for the Big East after next season.
Temple's football program will join the Big East next season and all other sports will follow the next season. McGlade hoped the focus this weekend was on the tournament, won last season by Richmond, and not Temple's defection to escape.
''The teams that are coming in here, the attention deserves to be on them to win a championship,'' she said. ''We're really not here to talk about Temple going to the Big East.''
Win or lose this weekend, the Owls are locks to join the NCAA field of 68. The A-10 has earned three bids to the NCAA tournament and sent a team to the round of 16 for the last four years. But attendance at its conference tourney hasn't always matched the national success over the years of its 14 members.
Last season's final between Richmond and Dayton drew an announced crowd of 5,602 in a facility that holds 10,500. The Barclays Center seats about 18,000.
''I don't think this league,'' Martelli said, ''has ever been a travel league.''
That's why The Shore made so much sense. The A-10 had A.C. all to itself.
In New York, the tournament will be held just a cab ride away from the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden. McGlade, of course, believed The Big Apple was big enough for both tournaments. She said media could cover the A-10 semifinals on Saturday afternoon, then make the quick trip to MSG for the Big East championship game that night.
Sunday would still belong to the Atlantic 10.
Will New York embrace the A-10 and teams like Dayton and St. Louis? Travel, hotels and expenses could soar through the rim, as opposed to very affordable rates in Atlantic City. The Press of Atlantic City, in fact, reports some of the 17,000 casino-hotel rooms in town can be had for as little as $19 per night in the waning weeks of winter and in early spring.
Good luck getting lunch for less than $20 in New York.
Also, the advent of sports gambling - though patrons wouldn't be able to bet on A-10 games in Atlantic City - also makes the town that Bruce Springsteen once sang about more of a sports-themed market.
Sports wagering in town still seems a ways off, but it's closer than ever. New Jersey passed and enacted a law legalizing sports betting, but the federal ban still must be overcome before Atlantic City casinos and the state's four horse tracks can start taking bets on professional and college sporting events.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, signed New Jersey's sports betting law.
''Whatever allows us to be able to institute sports gambling in New Jersey in a way that's legal, I'm in favor of,'' he said. ''Whatever approach can get through Congress, fine by me.''
In the proposal, games held within the state would be off limits to bettors. But if they hit town to bet on the other March tournaments, chances are, they would have taken in an A-10 game or two in person.
Jeffrey Vasser is the president of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority. He said the tournament will be missed.
''We're certainly going to look for other events to fill those dates, even if it's another conference tournament,'' he said. ''We were doing well. We were growing. People were recognizing A.C. as the home of the Atlantic 10.''
Well, all hope is not lost. It's not like the A-10 hasn't moved before. Perhaps a return trip isn't out of the possibility.
After all, Springsteen - in his 1982 song, ''Atlantic City'' - put it best.
''Everything dies, baby that's a fact. But, maybe everything that dies someday comes back.''
