CBS Sports Classic in Chicago

So, CBS Sports is hosting a doubleheader at Chicago's United Center, featuring Ohio State vs. North Carolina and UCLA vs. Kentucky.Wow. I've never seen a court design like this! Note also, along the baselines, how the first "S" in "Sports" looks like it extends from the out-of-bounds area onto the in-bounds part of the court. Could make it difficult for the refs to determine if the ball is in or out of bounds in that area.

Uni Watch's 2014-15 College Basketball Preview

In addition to reviewing new developments in its specialty area, uniforms, this year's Uni Watch college-basketball preview also lists several schools featuring new court designs this season (some of which have already been discussed at the present site).

Wyoming and Augustana

Via Uni-Watch, the University of Wyoming will have a new court design. The "7220" on the court apparently is to remind visitors of the altitude of the campus (much greater than the 5280 feet representing one mile). Older designs of the Wyoming court include this and this.

Augustana College (South Dakota) will also have a new floor design.

ESPN.com's 10 Best College Hoops Floors

ESPN.com's Eamonn Brennan lists his 10 best college basketball floors (with photos). As you'll see, Brennan goes for traditional, basic court designs.

Pelicans' Court to Feature Shellac Backgrounds

An NBA item via Uni-Watch: New Orleans will feature shellac Pelican backgrounds inside the three-point arc, at both ends of the court.

IUPUI Latest to Feature Skyline Imagery

Via Uni-Watch, the joint Indiana U./Purdue U. campus in Indianapolis (IUPUI) is the latest school to add a city skyline look to its basketball floor.

UC Irvine's Logo Overkill

Via Uni-Watch and Matt Rachmiel, the University of California, Irvine, has a new court design that, as Matt puts it, features "both a large & extra large center court logo."

Readers of this blog will know that I'm generally not a fan of the outsized center-court graphics that have become popular in recent years. This Irvine design is probably one of the worst, in my view. Either of the logos alone -- the blue-and-gold interlocked UCI in the center-circle area or the shellac-based UCI cutting diagonally across the middle portion of the floor -- might have been OK. But, to me, having both is overkill.

Webster Bank Arena (Bridgeport, Connecticut)

The Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut, hosted an exhibition game tonight between the U.S. women's basketball national team and Canada. As shown in the highlights video on ESPN.com, the floor featured a large logo in each key area. The logo looks like a tower outside the arena. Anybody know anything more about the arena, tower, or logo?

Grantland Ranks All 30 NBA Courts

Grantland writer Zach Lowe ranks all 30 NBA court designs, with artistic renderings of all the floors.

Texas Tech Revamps Court Again; Iowa State Too

Right here in my figurative backyard, Texas Tech has redesigned its basketball floor after only four years since the previous update. You can see a nine-photo sequence of day-to-day progress in putting down the new design, at Viva The Matadors. It's neat how the huge stencils and other masking processes are used.

(Not all browsers may be able to display the full set of nine photos; Google Chrome couldn't on my computer, but Internet Explorer could. I was, however, able to view the day-9 photo on Chrome.)

As one of the Viva The Matadors commenters points out, Texas Tech now joins the University of Texas, Austin, and Texas A&M in using the state outline at midcourt. I guess Tech doesn't score high on originality points. Another writes that, "When you have a logo with such precision and detail as the TT, it is better to be left to stand alone." I've never formally studied graphic design, but this last comment rings true to me.

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Elsewhere in the Big 12, Iowa State has a modest revision to its court. Even though the Hilton Coliseum floor was stripped completely and repainted, as shown in this time-lapse video, the only major difference entailed a shift from keys that were solid red to empty keys.

Tulane Spruces Up Center Court

Via Uni Watch and Matt Rachmiel, Tulane has augmented its big-T/Green Wave midcourt logo with a ring around it saying "Devlin Fieldhouse" (link).

New Floor for Northern Illinois

Via the usual sources, Northern Illinois has a new floor design. As the writer in the linked document notes, the NIU court prominently features the playground blacktop aspect used previously by Central Florida. Another trend that Northern Illinois is following, of course, is the use of a huge logo and initials at midcourt.

Contest to Design Xavier (Ohio) Court

Back in May, the athletic department at Xavier University (Cincinnati, Ohio) gave fans a basketball-court template and invited them to submit their proposals for a new court design for the Musketeers. Those designing new courts were also encouraged to share their renderings on Twitter at #myxaviercourt. As shown here, numerous designs have been published on Twitter, some more serious than others.

Now, via Matt Rachmiel and Uni-Watch, we know the winning design for Xavier (shown here). Like several other courts containing images of local landmarks (here, here, and here), Xavier's will include a depiction of its home-city skyline.

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Also, Uni-Watch features an interview with basketball-court designer Jordi Kodrinsky.

WNBA's San Antonio Stars Playing Tonight on Pink-Themed Court for Breast Cancer Awareness

Pink uniforms are a well-established way for sports teams to show their commitment to breast cancer awareness. The San Antonio Stars* of the WNBA have taken the effort to a new level, sporting a pink-themed court for tonight's game against the visiting Connecticut Sun. Here's a shot from the Stars' website (I don't know how long the graphic will remain on the team's site, so I've taken a screen capture).

San Antonio's pink court actually debuted a year ago, which I only learned tonight. Breast cancer survivors who are season ticket-holders did some of the painting.

Late night update: Highlights of tonight's game are available here (when the new page opens, scroll down a bit).
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*Until this season, the team was known as the Silver Stars.

Dayton Court Features New Logo

From the usual sources, the University of Dayton Flyers have a new logo. It's a big "D" with stripes to the left, similar to the Philadelphia Flyers' striped-P logo. Previously, the court featured "DAYTON FLYERS" at center-court. Even though the rest of the court design (e.g., red out-of-bounds area, open keys) looks the same as before, the new logo at center-court gives the floor a new look.

New Court Designs for Northwestern and Baylor

Via the usual sources...

Northwestern will be switching to a more conventional design, after painting the area inside the three-point arc purple.

Baylor, which had experimented with top-of-the-key circles that looked like basketballs and shellac-filled key and arc areas, is likewise dialing back the visual overload. The new court will be pretty minimalist (almost like Indiana's). Note also that the mid-court area will now sport the name "BAYLOR" rather than the interlocking BU, as well as the new, curvy Big XII logo in the keys.

Historical Look at University of Florida Courts

From the website Stadia File, here's a look at present and past floor designs at the University of Florida's O'Connell Center (or "O-Dome"). Whereas the Gator logo has been featured at center-court in recent years, the shape of the state of Florida adorned the court a generation ago.

NC State Latest to Go With Huge Logo

From the usual sources, NC State's new floor will feature a huge wolf at center-court.

Professional Courts in Japan

One of our former Texas Tech players, Darko Cohadarevic, is now in a Japanese league. This highlight reel of him shows him playing in several different arenas. One thing you can't miss is how much floor space in Japan is devoted to advertisements!

U-Dub to Add Seattle Skyline

Via Uni-Watch and Matt Rachmiel, the University of Washington will be adding a Seattle skyline to the lower sideline of its court. It's basically the same scheme as the University of Memphis introduced this past season.

Men's Final Four Court Unveiled & Conference-Tourney Notes

Via the usual sources (Uni-Watch and Matt Rachmiel), the floor design for this year's men's Final Four has been unveiled. The Final Four will be played at the Dallas Cowboys' domed stadium.

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The Southeastern Conference tournament floor in Atlanta's Georgia Dome sports a large, circular SEC in a lighter shade of shellac than the rest of the court, surrounding the regular SEC logo in the center circle. Here's a screen-capture from ESPN3.com.

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The Sun Belt tournament floor in New Orleans features a mural of the home city's skyline. Click here first and then, when the page comes up, click on the small photo of the floor to enlarge it. (Note the Superdome in the panorama.)

College Spun's "13 Coolest Courts"

The website College Spun shows panoramic photos of what it considers the "13 Coolest Courts in College Basketball" (link). College Spun evidently has a preference for color- and design-saturated floors, many of which have been discussed (and critiqued) here on this blog.

Twitter Page @HoopsCathedrals

I just learned about the Twitter page @HoopsCathedrals, which features numerous photos of current and historical basketball venues. The page, which can be accessed by clicking here, focuses on all aspects of the buildings that have hosted high school, college, and pro basketball (construction, exterior, and interior). Still, a good number of floor designs can be seen. Worth a look!

Cougar Logo Embedded in U. of Houston Keys

At the University of Houston's Hofheinz Pavilion, the keys are painted solid red with what appear to be a bunch of black curvy lines (see graphic below, which you may click to enlarge). If you look closely, however, the curves in the key depict the school's Cougar logo (upper left) -- but not all of it. In order to have the logo extend all the way from baseline to free-throw line, small amounts of the logo are cropped off the top and bottom. I've superimposed a partially transparent red rectangle on top of the Cougar logo (upper right) to illustrate how the key design apparently was created.

Sources: logo and video clip.

Hypothetical Court Designs for Several NBA Teams

Via Reddit, Bleacher Report, and my colleague Dana Weiser, here's a link to some hypothetical NBA court designs. Note that some of these new designs involving changing teams' basic logos, as well as their courts.