Sep. 19, 2008

Pecora, Hofstra program making way for history

By Gary Parrish | CBSSports.com Senior Writer

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It's less than one week until moving day at Hofstra.

So pack your bags, Tom Pecora.

Tom Pecora's team has no qualms with abandoning its home. (US Presswire)

And get ready to get out!

"It'll be fine," Pecora said. "As long as I have my Blackberry I can still go to work every day."

Well then, God bless the Blackberry.

And may God bless the United States of America.

Those are two phrases sure to be uttered around Hofstra over the next four weeks as the campus continues preparations for the final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. The event is scheduled for Oct. 15 and will take place inside the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex, otherwise known as the place that houses the Hofstra basketball team.

Or at least it used to house the Hofstra basketball team.

Now it houses electricians, construction workers and lots of Secret Service agents presenting their demands, one of which is that the arena must be vacated by next Friday. Consequently, Pecora, his assistants and players are moving across campus. The coaches will work out of Margiotta Hall. The team will conduct individual workouts nearby at Pecora's alma mater, Adelphi University.

So yeah, the Pride are being evicted.

Who knew the housing crisis would lead to this?

"What are you gonna do?" Pecora said. "This is a historic thing, not only for the university but for the country. And it's quite a feather in the hat of our university to be doing this."

Easy to say now, Tom.

Let's talk when you no longer have a desk.

But in all seriousness, this will be a pretty neat experience for the school and basketball program in a lot of different ways. It's the last time the world will see McCain and Obama faceoff before what many are calling a generation-defining election, and it'll all happen on a floor where Antoine Agudio just spent the past four years making one 3-pointer after another.

"My office in the arena overlooks the entire floor where the stage will be," Pecora said. "So if this was a concert I could throw a party and have my own private suite. But this is no concert. It's serious stuff."

So serious roughly 2,000 journalists are expected to attend, and Pecora said the school was given only a few hundred tickets. By the way, that is a fact he would like his friends to understand, especially those of you who keep leaving voicemails.

"The university got a few hundred tickets and the president gave them all to students, so there are no tickets available," Pecora said. "But it's funny. I get calls from guys I help out during the course of the year and they're like, 'Hey T, I need two for the debate!' And I'm like 'This isn't a Yankee game. I can't get you two. This is not a Knick game. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing here.' So I kind of get a kick out of that when I get voice messages from guys wanting 'two for the debate.' "

In other words, stop calling, because it's not going to happen for you.

But if you want to catch a Hofstra workout, well, you're more than welcome to swing by Adelphi University.

And when you get there, just make yourself at home.

Because that's what Pecora will be doing, at least for the time being.