After a fan-voting contest, the Arizona Wildcats have a new floor at McKale Center this season, which combines the cactus from the Lute Olson era (1983-2007) with the big "A" from the post-Olson era.
This video from 1987 shows the court with no center-circle decoration, but with the cactus-based logo diagonally above (to the upper-left) and below (to the lower-right) of the circle. The logo featured a cactus above a red, all-caps ARIZONA (with the cactus stem filling in the "I" in Arizona) and hints of mountains and the sun in the background. Later on, the center-circle was painted solid blue, with "LUTE & BOBBI OLSON COURT" painted in red letters with white outline.
The removal of the cacti and switch to the big "A" at center-court occurred in 2009, according to this scathing review of the change. Here's a video with the "A" court.
I like having the cacti back (this time sans ARIZONA underneath). In my view, however, in the new combined design, the cactus and mountains are way too big, allowing very little space between them and the "A" above them. In fact, the "A" gets overwhelmed. With some resizing and repositioning, this court could have been much more attractive. For a different opinion, see this list of best courts at CBS Sports.
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