LNB (France) All-Star Game With Artistic Court

The court for today's French LNB (Ligue Nationale de Basket) All-Star Game featured what might be considered an abstract art design. As shown here, the court was, for the most part, conventional, with black (or dark grey) keys and out-of-bounds areas, an unremarkable center-court logo, and different shades of shellac to distinguish the areas inside and outside the three-point arc. Painted on top of this basic "canvas," however, were swirls of yellow and red that seemed randomly located on the court and multicolor dot/mosaic patterns filling in the semicircles above the two free-throw lines.

Northwestern State (College) and Long Island Nets (NBA G League)

Frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel sends along two interesting court designs.

Northwestern State University (Louisiana) has joined the large-midcourt-logo club, with its shellac-shade Demon behind the blue "N" and state outline in the center circle (video clip). Just a little too busy for my tastes. Further, the out-of-bounds area is blue on one half of the court and orange on the other. The video also features the play of Hansel Enmanuel, who had his left arm amputated in his childhood. An amazing story!

The Long Island Nets of the NBA G (Development) League have a court that is unusual in at least two ways (video clip). One key is painted in blue and the other red. Also, each key has a solid white semicircle below the free-throw stripe.

Memphis Tigers Go From One Gaudy Court Design to Another

 From this to this.

"6" to Appear in the Keys of Celtics' Court to Honor Bill Russell

It was announced a while ago that the Boston Celtics would depict the number "6" on their home court to honor basketball and civil rights giant Bill Russell, who died this past July 31. This article includes a photograph of what the "6" in the keys will look like.

Casino Chips on T-Mobile (Las Vegas) Floor

Frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel writes in about last night's Lakers-Suns NBA exhibition game at Las Vegas's T-Mobile Arena (home of the NHL Golden Knights). Matt notes that "The court had a unique casino chip design for the baselines. I don’t remember seeing that previously." You can see for yourself in this highlights video.

Gophers Go Back to Traditional Wood Tone

The University of Minnesota's court has been resurfaced with a traditional brownish wood tone, replacing the cold gray tone that had been in place for the past four years (thanks to the usual sources).

Seattle U. Adds City Skyline

Incorporating a city skyline was a somewhat popular design feature in the mid-2010s (although Xavier later removed the Cincinnati skyline). Whether we're witnessing a revival of skylines is too early to tell, but Seattle University has now added one (thanks to the usual sources).

Middle Tennessee St. Adds Shellac Shape of State

Via the usual sources, Middle Tennessee State has a new court design. As shown in this time-lapse video, the court now features a shape of Tennessee in a different shade of shellac, behind the "MT" and Blue Raider horse logo at center court.

Notre Dame Ditches Shamrock, Enlarges the "ND"

Via Uni-Watch and Matt Rachmiel, Notre Dame has a new court. As shown in this time-lapse video of the resurfacing, the large shamrock (set off in a lighter shade of shellac) is gone and the interlocked "ND" at center court is a lot bigger. The name of the arena, Purcell Pavilion, is also pretty big (with "At the Joyce Center" in smaller font underneath). Finally, there is now only a basic white line for the arc delineating the three-point area, whereas before, the area inside the arc had been in a lighter shade of shellac.

San Jose State: Still Gaudy After All These Years

San Jose State, which has featured gaudy court designs in the past (here), now has a new one (here). A couple thoughts on the new court, one pro and one con. 

First, the array of lines, curves, and dots surrounding the Spartan logo is really innovative. One observer called this the "motherboard" court design, which also looks like a circuit board design. Given San Jose State's presence in Silicon Valley, the juxtaposition of the school logo and computer imagery is quite apt and clever.

Enough praise. I don't like that the entire court (except for inside the three-point arcs) is painted solid blue. Natural wood looks nice, so I wish a wood background could have been used somehow. 

Thanks to the usual sources for bringing the San Jose State redesign to my attention.

Bowling Green Blends State-Shape with Logo

Via Uni-Watch, here's a time-lapse video of  the court being sanded down and repainted to a new design at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. I think it's pretty sharp how they embed the school logo into a shellac-based state-shape at mid-court.

Colorado State Shrinks Ram Horns

From the usual sources, Colorado State University will have a new court for next season. As shown in this time-lapse video of the resurfacing of the floor, the rams horns that used to dominate the court will now be smaller and lighter.

Inverting the Tiger Stripes

Back in January, we looked at four schools whose basketball courts included tiger stripes in their keys. Now, as I've just learned from frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel, there is a court that does the opposite, namely featuring tiger stripes throughout the entire court except for the keys. This new court appears at Edward Waters University, a Division II institution in Florida. Here's a picture.

2022 NCAA Women's Final Four Floor is Pretty Ordinary in Minneapolis

Unlike the highly uniform court designs the men's NCAA tournament has been using for several years, the women's Final Four courts have been notable for their creativity in symbolizing the host city. Last year's Alamo-themed floor in San Antonio, 2009's St. Louis Arch court, and 2007's huge guitar in Cleveland (home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame) are some notable examples. 

This year's court in Minneapolis, on display tonight in the two national semifinals, underwhelms, in my view. As I've learned tonight, Minnesota is the northernmost US state, invoking images of compasses and the North Star. Hence, there is a center-court logo incorporating these themes (as explained here) and bright star logos under each basket (in the restricted zone), but nothing else to symbolize Minneapolis or the Twin Cities.

Pac 12 Tournament Court May Be Most Confusing I've Ever Seen

The Pac 12 women's championship game is currently underway in Las Vegas. All I can say about the court design (which may or may not also be used for the conference's upcoming men's tourney) is that, unless you are intimately familiar with the Pac 12's logo, most of the court will leave you wondering "What is that?" Here's a screenshot from Twitter...

In the center-circle, you'll notice the rounded-triangular Pac 12 logo, which features an arched "PAC" across the top and a "12" below it. What would happen if you blew up the logo by about 100 times (so big the logo could not be contained by the court) and converted the blue and white to different shades of shellac? That's what you see to the left and right of the center-circle. 

Perhaps the Pac 12's inspiration was the SEC, with its shellac-based logo (below). I personally don't find the SEC's court all that attractive, but at least the full SEC logo is self-contained within the court and thus comprehensible to viewers. 

2022 NBA All-Star Game Court

Here is the court for this year's NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland (via Twitter)...

Tiger Stripes in the Key: Who Does it Best?

Frequent contributor Matt Rachmiel e-mailed the other day about the Idaho State Bengals featuring Tiger stripes in the keys of their court. I went and looked at Idaho State's design and it reminded me of Memphis's (albeit with different colors). I did some Google searching and found two additional courts with Tiger stripes in the paint: the University of the Pacific and Bandon High School in Oregon. After taking screen captures, we have the following array (clockwise from upper-right: Memphis, Bandon, Pacific, and Idaho State). You may click on the images to enlarge them.

Which do you like best? Take the poll below. I know of other teams called the Tigers (Mizzou, Auburn, LSU, Princeton, Towson), but they don't have stripes in the key. If you know of any other team with Tiger stripes in the key, please let me know in the Comments.