Regionals’ Garden bears little resemblance to the C’s home

Derrick Brown passes the ball by Pitt’s Gilbert Brown last night.

Foto: GETTY IMAGES

To put it mildly, collegiate athletics don’t carry the same weight in the city of Boston as professional sports.

So despite the bands, cheerleaders and loyal traveling fans, the buzz Thursday night at TD Banknorth Garden for the NCAA tournament’s East Regional semifinals hardly seemed to live up to the well-earned reputation of “March Madness.”

It didn’t help that the four participating schools — Pittsburgh played Xavier in the opener and Duke danced with Villanova in the nightcap — had few ties to the host city. There were also no Cinderella stories — the top four seeds in the region were there — no overwhelming headliners and few, if any, top-notch NBA prospects.

The crowd filed in during Xavier’s unsuccessful upset try against Pitt in the night’s first game, packing the place by halftime.

The aura of the Celtics’ Garden was largely missing, though. The championship banners and legendary parquet floor were stripped and stashed in some faraway closet.

The floor was pale hardwood with a smattering of logos — NCAA, host Boston College and red, white and blue ribbons — ringed in black. Red Auerbach’s signature was nowhere to be seen.

The rafters, likewise, were empty.

The generic court and constant barrage of NCAA logos made the arena a passable twin for University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., where Thursday night’s West Regional semifinals took on a similar look.