The NCAA Tournament returned to the state of South Carolina this week for the first time in 15 years with the first and second round action in the Greenville.
Greenville received those games because all NCAA events were pulled from sites in North Carolina due to the discriminatory HB2 law passed in the state. It’s not a coincidence that the games were moved to South Carolina; in 2002, the NCAA pulled events from that state because of a confederate flag that was flown on the statehouse grounds.
On Sunday, prior to the second round NCAA Tournament games, Duke-South Carolina and North Carolina-Arkansas, in Greenville, someone raised a confederate flag at the top of a parking structure across the street from the arena.
Someone put up a Confederate Flag on a pole at parking deck beside the arena where NCAA games are being played in Greenville, SC...@WFMY pic.twitter.com/0I98ZnnST2
— Brian Hall (@bhallwfmy) March 19, 2017
“The NCAA is proud and excited to host championships in the state of South Carolina once again,” Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, said in a statement released by the NCAA. “We are committed to assuring that our events are safe and accessible to all. No symbols that compromise that commitment will be permitted to be displayed on venue property that the tournament controls. Freedom of speech activities on public property in areas surrounding the arena are managed by the city of Greenville and we are supportive of the city’s efforts.”