Pack guest in Big Easy arena re-opening

Athletics director Jim Miller considers the University of New Orleans fortunate to have high-profile ACC opponent N.C. State coming to town for the re-opening of Lakefront Arena on Saturday.

Three years ago, Hurricane Katrina tore the roof off New Orleans’ 8,933-seat basketball facility. With the city evacuated for weeks, the wet seats inside the arena became moldy.

A basketball arena wasn’t high on the priority list for federal recovery money, so it took a long time to get the facility rebuilt.

Gabe Corchiani, a former New Orleans basketball standout who’s the brother of N.C. State career assists leader Chris Corchiani, donated $1 million along with a business partner to the reconstruction project. That money allowed the school to upgrade the men’s basketball offices; the reconstruction funds would only pay to restore the facility to its pre-Katrina condition.

Tonight, the school will honor Corchiani by naming the court in honor of his father, Gabe Sr.

“(Gabe Jr.) stepped up when it was very, very difficult to get anybody to step up, because there were so many hands out,” Miller said. “Everybody needed help. We’ve got some very generous people in this city, but there were so many people in need. They had to make some choices.”

Monte Towe, the N.C. State alumnus and New Orleans head coach at the time of the storm, also made a difficult choice. When Sidney Lowe was hired in the spring of 2006, he hired Towe away from New Orleans.

Towe, the point guard on N.C. State’s 1974 NCAA championship team, told Miller that Towe had to listen when the school with his jersey in the rafters came calling.

Miller said he understood, but cash-strapped New Orleans needed to collect a buyout of about $450,000. Miller said Towe paid about $150,000 of that, and the school forgave the rest of the buyout in order to get a three-game series scheduled with N.C. State.

Last season in Raleigh, New Orleans recorded its first win over a ranked team since 1993. The teams will play again in Raleigh next season.

“It helps us tremendously,” Miller said. “. . .You don’t see a lot of big-name, the upper-tier basketball teams playing at the lower-tier institutions because they don’t have to."

In this case, N.C. State has to, and will lend a big-time presence to the arena’s reopening in the process.