Louisiana-Lafayette's New Oregon-Like Court

Via the usual sources, Louisiana-Lafayette has unveiled a new floor design invoking scenes of the outdoors, like Oregon's court. According to this article (with photo), the ULL floor "features a silhouette of Cypress Lake" on campus. Here's a time-lapse video of the court's design being applied and here's a picture of the real Cypress Lake for comparison.

Toronto's NBA Throwback Court

Via Uni-Watch, the Toronto Raptors did more than wear throwback uniforms against the visiting New York Knicks last night; the Air Canada Centre also featured a throwback court, in recognition of the Toronto Huskies franchise (1946-47). Game highlights are available here.

Uni-Watch's 2016-17 Preview

Uni-Watch's annual college hoops preview naturally concentrates on uniforms. However, it also includes a good number of new floor designs. We continue to see city-skyline imagery being added to courts, along with shellac-filled areas inside the three-point arc. I would say South Carolina has the most toned-down new court (having removed the huge-lettered school name), with Santa Clara sporting the busiest new design. Thanks to Matt Rachmiel, as always, for keeping me posted on some of these changes.

Uni Watch 2016-17 NBA Preview Includes New Court Designs

The Uni Watch NBA Preview documents changes in court design, as well as in uniforms. One thing to note is that the proposed design revision for the Cavaliers' court has been put on hold.

Utah Jazz Downplay Music-Note Motif

Via the usual sources, the Jazz's court has switched from this in 2015-16 to this in 2016-17. The team also seems to be emphasizing purple and gold, at the expense of green. A purple-and-gold identity would be a great idea, except that another, older NBA franchise has already solidified that color scheme in the public mind!

Cavs Change a Few Things Up on New Floor

Via Uni-Watch, the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers will sport a new court design this season. As shown here, the main addition is the sword motif for the half-court line. Also, the darker shellac inside the three-point arc and the city skyline from last year's floor are gone.

Rockets Go For More Redness

Via Matt Rachmiel and Uni Watch, the Houston Rockets will have a new court design for this upcoming season. Whereas areas of the court previously were differentiated by shades of shellac, now the out-of-bounds area and keys will be solid red. I still think the Rockets should go back to red and gold as their primary colors, instead of red and grey.

Video of Michigan's Court Being Refinished (But Design Remains the Same)

There's no new design here, but I thought some of you basketball-court aficionados might find of interest this video of Michigan's Crisler Center floor being refinished.

Sacramento Kings' New Court

Via Matt Rachmiel, Uni-Watch provides links to both a photo of the Sacramento Kings' new court and a slideshow of Kings' courts since they've been in Sacramento. I've never liked the Kings' purple and black color scheme, as the purple seemed too similar to the colors of divisional rivals the Lakers and Suns. I like the red, white, and blue colors of the Kings' forerunner, the Cincinnati Royals, although Cincy's floor was nothing special. The franchise goes even further back, as the Rochester Royals, but that was well before my time.

UW-Milwaukee Tones Things Down

Via the usual sources, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (which just goes by "Milwaukee" in the athletic realm) has changed its basketball-floor design near the baskets. Previously, the rectangle for the key was solid black and the semicircle at the top of the key, solid yellow (shown in this video, around the 2:00 mark).

Now, the rectangles and semicircles will be empty, giving the floor a simpler look. I like it. The yellow-gold Panther claws are also a nice new touch, in my view, noticeable but not too overwhelming.

2016 Rio Olympics Basketball Floor

The floor for this year's Olympic basketball play is fairly conventional -- only the center-circle, keys, and out-of-bounds area are painted. The dominant color is a bright green, which I find kind of soothing. Here's a close-up of the center-circle. My only quibble is that the logo is fairly small and perhaps difficult to read at a distance. It could have been bigger and still fit within the circle.

Southeastern Louisiana Goes for New Court Design After Old Floor Flooded

Via the usual sources, Southeastern Louisiana will have a new floor design this season. The court with the prior design was flooded last spring, so rather than reproduce the old design on the new hardwood, the school has opted for a new scheme. The Lion logo on the new court looks pretty understated to me and I wonder how well it will show up in person and on television.

St. Bonaventure Changes a Few Things Up

Via the usual sources, St. Bonaventure is making some changes to its court. Here's the old and the new. There will be a new logo at center-court, plus each of the two areas between a key and three-point arc will be painted in a darker shade of shellac than before.

Youngstown State Latest to Add Large Logo

Via the usual sources, Youngstown State will embed a large shellac penguin behind the letter "Y" at midcourt. The previous design can be seen in this YouTube video. The move away from a cartoonish penguin is on a par with Minnesota's removal of Goldy Gopher circa 2010-2011.

New Jersey Swamp Dragons?

Supposedly, the Nets franchise, still back in New Jersey, once entertained the idea of changing the team's name to the Swamp Dragons. Click here for an ESPN.com article on the alleged possible name-change. About halfway down in the article is a rendering of what the Swamp Dragons' court would have looked like. It kind of grabs you.

Women's Final Four in Indy Features Brickyard Motif on Court

The NCAA women's Final Four always seems to have a more interesting and geographically relevant court design than the one for their male counterparts. This year is no exception. This year's women's Final Four is in Indianapolis, and the local auto-racing tradition provides the theme for the basketball court. Specifically, the areas between the keys and three-point arcs feature a brick-like design, an apparent salute to the racing track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The track once consisted of an entirely brick surface (around the same era in which the Cubs last won the World Series!), with more and more of the track gradually being covered with asphalt over the years. Today, just a narrow strip of brick exists by the start/finish line. Here is a stylized drawing I made of the women's Final Four "brick" area.

Also, here's a video of the floor being installed.

New NCAA Tourney Court Design

As a commenter on a previous post noted, there is a new design for NCAA-tournament courts. The format is identical in all cities, with a unique color-coding scheme for each location. As shown here, the different areas inside the court (the keys, inside and outside the three-point arcs) appear in different shades of wood shellac. The out-of-bounds area framing the court is what differs in color from site to site.

From the games I've seen so far, the court in Providence features royal blue, light blue, and red, whereas the one in Raleigh is mainly light blue and lavender. The center-court logos, which say "March Madness" for this weekend, will be updated for later rounds. Also, labels in the out-of-bounds area identify the city (above the center-court area) and round (upper-left corner).

I find the new style a definite improvement over the "blue-blob" design of the past several years, although some of the new color schemes will need getting used to.

Via the usual sources, the "First Four" round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament in Dayton will have a new design this year. Television station WDTN has a report on the delivery and assembly of the wood sections forming the court.

Also from Uni-Watch, Twitter user @ACC_Tracker compiled all the league's court designs in one montage.

Miscellaneous: Sacramento Kings, Eastern Kentucky, Temple Women

Some brief items:

• Via Uni-Watch, the Sacramento Kings will close down their current arena by using a retro court for six remaining home games this season. The court will feature powder blue, dark blue, and red, which were the Kings' colors until their switch to black and purple in 1994. Blue and red were also the colors of the Cincinnati Royals and Kansas City Kings, two forerunners of the current franchise.
• Tonight on television was the first time I saw Eastern Kentucky's court, which the Colonels have had for two seasons. The topic of huge mid-court logos has been discussed frequently on this blog. However, EKU's court is the first, to my knowledge, to use different shades of shellac to create the mid-court logo.
• Finally, we have McGonigle Hall on the Temple University campus in Philadelphia. The Temple men's team used to play in McGonigle until the larger Liacouras Center was constructed. The women currently split their home games between McConigle and Liacouras. Whereas the Liacouras Center switched to a pretty conventional floor design several years ago, McGonigle Hall's floor has two unusual features. One is that the volleyball court has a lighter shade than the rest of the basketball court, indicating that the volleyball court is a permanent presence on the floor. At many schools, only the basketball layout is permanent, with rolls of tape being put down to delineate the volleyball court for home matches. A second notable feature is the Owl imagery in the corners of the court.

TCU's "Frog Skin" Court Surface

I've recently seen some games on television from Texas Christian University's (TCU) refurbished arena. The floor has some criss-crossing white lines and shapes faded into the wood, which I initially thought might be depicting a basketball net. It turns out, however, that the design represents "frog skin," in honor of the school's nickname, the Horned Frogs. Pictures are available here and here (the second link has some close-ups).