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Thursday, March 26, 2009

NCAA Regionals -- More of the Same

I suspect that many of you, like me, were hoping that the second (regional) weekend of play in the NCAA men's tournament would feature some new floor designs, beyond last week's ubiquitous configuration of blue center-court blobs and blue semi-circles above the free-throw lines. If so, the courts on display tonight from Glendale, Arizona and from Boston are major disappointments. The NCAA at least could have featured a different color for each site!

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.

2 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. Sports 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.

    http://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.

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