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Thursday, March 19, 2009

NCAA Tourney Open Thread

It looks like, at most, there will only be slight variation in the appearance of different first-round sites' floors for the NCAA men's tournament. In my viewing market of Lubbock, Texas, I first got a few minutes of the LSU-Butler contest from Greensboro, North Carolina. Then I was taken to the Texas A&M-BYU game from Philadelphia, which I think will be the primary game for my part of the country in this time slot. I'm also getting some cut-in to the Memphis-Cal State Northridge game in Kansas City.

All the courts have what appears to be an oversized blue circle at center court, with the letters "NCAA," similar to what's shown here.

At Greensboro, the rest of the court did not have any solid, painted-in areas except for the semi-circles above the free-throw lines (in blue). Same for Kansas City.

At Philly, it's pretty much the usual 76ers' floor (which already has a lot of blue), except for the NCAA circle at midcourt.

I have two immediate reactions: (a) for me, with court designs, variety is the spice of life, so I don't like the push for uniformity; and (b) given that there appears to be a single prototype design (as seen in Greensboro and Kansas City), I think it's ugly.

I invite those of you who get games from other tournament sites to describe the court designs you see, in the Comments section of the blog. And, by all means, let me know if you agree or disagree with my opinions.

15 comments:

  1. Can I just say that I hate how the majority of the NCAA tourney floors look the same? I hate this trend. Now if I tune in to a game, it takes me a few seconds to realize who is playing and where they are. It was better when all the floors were unique.

    [Moved from the NIT thread]

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  2. I hate how the NCAA has tried to make all the tournament sites look uniformed with the same court. I enjoyed the variety look you got in years past. Hopefully this isnt a permanent change.

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  3. Yes, Portland is the same as Greensboro and KC. Not only is it an ugly design, but there is no local flavor at all. It's so bland and antiseptic.

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  4. I do miss how the opening rounds were played at various NBA and college arenas with the different courts and not on the "cookie cutter" courts. I don't know why, but my favorite court was the New Jersey Meadowlands in the 90's.

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  5. The floor in Miami isn't the NCAA template, but it's not much better. It's all plain-- no color in the semicircle at the top of the key. I hate the plain, colorless look, but at least it's something slightly different from the other cookie-cutter designs. I have a feeling I'm going to sound pretty whiny by the end of this tournament.

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  6. The Dayton site is just the regular UD floor, except, of course, for the NCAA's blue blob at center court.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/sonnett/3085500596/

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  7. Minneapolis (the Metrodome) is using its previous Final Four court.

    http://blog.lib.umn.edu/snackeru/greet/2006/03/23/ive_got_mad_skills_or_is_that_bad_skills.html

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  8. OK, can you settle an arguement? the sites that are using the NCAA template, are they using a completly different floor or are they using a ton of stickers to create the bland, uniform look.

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  9. The floors are built for the tournament...more details here:

    http://www.jsonline.com/business/41064007.html

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  10. Anon--

    It's a completely new floor. They said they would be using new floors at about half the sites this year. I can't remember where I read that though.

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  11. Here's an article about Boise State using a plain, NCAA cookie-cutter court, instead of the school's colorful (some might say "gaudy") floor.

    http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/only-the-mood-is-blue-in-boise/

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  12. I noticed in recent years that all the courts for the regionals, and this year the opening rounds, were uniform, with the blue semi-circle, city on right baseline, arena name on left baseline, host college logos on wings, ncaa logo in middle- but when they get to the final four, they change it up again. Seems like a waste to build so many new courts

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  13. I'm sure im just echoing what everyone else is saying and I really hope it isnt falling on deaf ears but the overall look of the tournament just doesnt seem right with the uniformity look. If the NCAA wants to build new courts, thats great but let each site give it their own paint scheme or something to keep the individuality.

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  14. It's horrible what the NCAA is doing to the venues. How can they think recycling the same look every year and now for every single site, how can they possibly think that looks special. Just let the sites use their own courts and give them the chance to shine.

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  15. You guys are all complaining about this, but is anyone really doing anything about it? I dought the NCAA will take any notice to a handfull of posts on a blog site. If you really want the NCAA to reconsider things, write them, email them, call them, let them know that people don't like their uniformed look.

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