Maybe the Biggest Center-Court Logo Yet (UCF)

Here's a screenshot from highlights of the closing moments of Central Florida's upset win over Memphis a couple days ago. I've been blogging extensively about the new trend toward huge center-court logos and this one for the Knights may very well take the cake!

Ryerson University (Toronto)

While doing some web searching, I somehow came upon this YouTube video of a Canadian college basketball game at Ryerson University. Many courts now feature different shades of shellac wood finish to distinguish different areas of the playing surface (e.g., keys, three-point areas).

I don't recall seeing a court quite like Ryerson's, however, where the surface is predominantly such a dark shade, with the center circle and two-point areas (inside the arcs) set off in such a light shade.

Also note the trapezoidal key, which until 2010 was used for international competition (there are lines painted within the trapezoid to also allow a rectangular key to be used on Ryerson's court).

Single 3-PT Arc for College Men and Women

Sorry for not picking up on this earlier, but it just hit me that a great many college-basketball courts now feature only a single three-point arc at each end, not the two separate arcs for men and women that we'd grown accustomed to. Here's the University of Michigan's Crisler Arena, as one example.

Last summer, the NCAA voted to bring the men's and women's arcs into sync. I had always found having two arcs right near each other to be a distraction, so am glad to see the change.

Not all schools have erased the previous women's inner arc, however. As seen in the lower-left of the adjoining screen capture from highlights of last Saturday's Baylor at Texas Tech men's game, the United Spirit Arena's floor still has two arcs.

My guess is that, because the arena hosts games every year in the Texas high school state championship tournament, the inner arc may still serve a purpose.