The NCAA men's and women's tournaments are, of course, not the only Division I competitions taking place. There's also the NIT and Women's NIT. But that's not all. Third- and fourth-tier men's teams can also play in the College Basketball Invitational or CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
It was in the CBI that Wyoming's Adam Waddell did his famous flip-and-crash dunk that has been such a sensation on television and on the Internet. I don't know about you, but I think Wyoming's court, which appears in the video, is pretty sharp. I like the horse-and-cowboy logo at midcourt, plus the Mountain West Conference logo in the key.
UPDATE: The NCAA does have a pretty nice court in use -- for Division II. Unlike the D-I tourney where only the "Final Four" teams are brought to the concluding location, the D-II event brings together the last eight remaining teams in one venue to play the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals (Springfield, Mass., appears to be the permanent site for D-II). Here are some shots of the "Elite Eight" court.
The extremely oversized center court logo at the D-II Elite Eight is pretty gaudy, but at least it's better than the boringness they are doing for the D-I tourney. I've heard that all of the first/second round sites next year are going to have the NCAA's template, so it's only going to get worse.
ReplyDeleteSports Illustraited has a story about the ncaa branding of its tournament courts. Kinda interesting to hear theres a lot of resentment over this issue even from building managers.
ReplyDeletehttp://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153895/index.htm
If you want things to change, i suggest calling and emailing managers at next years sites or writing to the NCAA themselves.