Arizona Tries to Blend Two Eras

After a fan-voting contest, the Arizona Wildcats have a new floor at McKale Center this season, which combines the cactus from the Lute Olson era (1983-2007) with the big "A" from the post-Olson era.

This video from 1987 shows the court with no center-circle decoration, but with the cactus-based logo diagonally above (to the upper-left) and below (to the lower-right) of the circle. The logo featured a cactus above a red, all-caps ARIZONA (with the cactus stem filling in the "I" in Arizona) and hints of mountains and the sun in the background. Later on, the center-circle was painted solid blue, with "LUTE & BOBBI OLSON COURT" painted in red letters with white outline.

The removal of the cacti and switch to the big "A" at center-court occurred in 2009, according to this scathing review of the change. Here's a video with the "A" court.

I like having the cacti back (this time sans ARIZONA underneath). In my view,  however, in the new combined design, the cactus and mountains are way too big, allowing very little space between them and the "A" above them. In fact, the "A" gets overwhelmed. With some resizing and repositioning, this court could have been much more attractive. For a different opinion, see this list of best courts at CBS Sports.

Noblesville Boom of G-League Have Court Design Befitting the Team's Name

The court of the Noblesville (Indiana) Boom, the Pacers' G-League affiliate, features an explosion emanating from the center circle (link).

2025 Conference Tourney Time: Big Ten in Indy Adopts Racing Theme, Big XII Adopts Lots of Little X's and I's

The Big Ten (B1G) women's tournament is underway and, in tribute to the host city's Indianapolis 500 auto race, the court prominently features a checkered-flag design. Next week's men's tourney will feature the same court. It's a nice design, in my view, but I wonder why the checkered squares in the keys have such little contrast between black and gray.

The B1G had in the past featured a pinwheel of the member schools' pennants. According to the Sports Logos site, however, "The pinwheel logo featured the color schemes of all 14 Big Ten institutions, but with the additions of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington this season, it simply needed to be expanded or replaced."

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The Big XII, meanwhile, has a court covered with rows and rows of consecutive small "XII" letters. Further, all the X's are positioned so that, viewed from the sidelines, the court appears to have criss-crossing diagonal lines. It's hard to describe, so just take a close-up look here (thanks to Matt Rachmiel). 

Fordham Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Rose Hill Gym with New Floor for This Season

Frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel notified me of a new floor design for Fordham, which he saw on television. The new floor can be seen here. In further researching the matter, I learned that Fordham's Rose Hill Gym was college basketball's oldest on-campus arena still in use and that today, January 16, 2025, was the 100th anniversary of the facility. The Rams' men's team hosted a game at Rose Hill Gym last night, losing to UMass in triple overtime. The Fordham women will mark the centennial with a game this coming Saturday.

Timberwolves' "It's Cold" City Edition Court

City Edition uniforms (used in the NBA and MLB) and court designs (for the NBA) appear occasionally during the season to illustrate a connection between a team and the city in which it plays. Some teams' logos already incorporate aspects of the home city (for example, the Warriors' use of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges). Others do so to a lesser degree, if at all.

This season, the Minnesota Timberwolves are invoking a very basic idea in their City Edition imagery, namely that Minnesota is cold! As illustrated in this screenshot from the Wolves' website, especially in the court's keys, "The striking white and black aesthetic captures the contrast of winter landscapes, reflecting the elegance of snow-covered lakes under a moonlit sky."

I like this court. It's something different, without overwhelming the viewer.

New Courts for Second Annual NBA Cup

This Yahoo! Sports article presents illustrations of all 30 team courts for the second annual NBA Cup (in-season tournament). All the courts feature large, colorful concentric circles -- which kind of remind me of Olympic-style wrestling mats -- with large images of the NBA Cup trophy in the keys and at center-court. The only court I really like is Boston's, with its pretend parquet squares painted onto the court.

Oregon Tones Down the Forest, Adds Green Out-of-Bounds Area

I finally caught a telecast from the University of Oregon, featuring the Ducks' new court that Matt Rachmiel had e-mailed me about. This link shows the old and new courts side by side. The two main changes, in my view, are the toning down of the forest motif with fewer trees and the solid green out-of-bounds area. I like both of these changes, especially the greater emphasis given to UO's school colors (the added green area and the slogans "MIGHTY OREGON" and "FIGHTING DUCKS" in yellow, one slogan along each baseline).