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.