USA Today Article on Garish College Hoops Courts

Via Matt Rachmiel, yesterday's USA Today had an article on some of the more colorful college basketball court designs (link). The main theme of the article is schools' use of elaborate geographically based designs (e.g., UMass's state shape; UIC and Loyola's use of the Chicago flag) to market themselves to prospective students who watch basketball.

The article also revealed some interesting pieces of trivia. For example, the University of Memphis court with the blue tiger-striped rectangles for the keys originally also had the semi-circle behind the free-throw line shaded blue. That created a phallic-type image, so the semi-circles were redone sans shading!

NBA All-Star Game Floor in Chicago

The NBA's All-Star Weekend tipped-off last night in Chicago with the Rising Stars Game, revealing the floor design for the three-day extravaganza (skills competition and All-Star Game). The above screen-capture is from here. The court features a Chicago skyline -- not in itself terribly original -- but this skyline is larger and more detailed than other ones we've seen. The Hancock Building, the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower, and other structures come to life. The light-blue and red Chicago flag theme also makes an appearance in the center-court logo.

CCNY Floor with New York City Skyline

Via the usual sources, City College of New York (CCNY) has the city skyline along the lower sideline of its court. CCNY is only the latest of many schools to adopt this theme (although some have already abandoned it; here and here). Ordinarily, I would not write much about a Division III school such as CCNY. However, as detailed here, CCNY has unique historical roles in college basketball, both good and bad.

On the positive side, CCNY is the only school to win both the NCAA and NIT championships in the same year (1950), while at the Division I level. However, the team was embroiled in the infamous New York City Point-Shaving Scandal. Not only did big-time college hoops end at CCNY. College basketball as a whole became moribund in New York City for several decades. In fact, other than some conference tournaments being held in the Big Apple in recent decades, some would argue college basketball has never fully recovered in the city.

Major Re-Design at Cal State Northridge

Via Matt Rachmiel, there's a drastically new floor design at Cal State University Northridge, widely known as CSUN. The new court features a huge, red block-type C, with "SUN" in black within the open part of the C. The new court replaces this black-top theme with an embedded Matador, which had been in place for several seasons.