Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament

I'm not crazy about how the circle at the top of the key was designed at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, home of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off college basketball tournament (the screen capture is from the Dayton-Georgia Tech game, the larger set of highlights of which can be viewed here).

For one thing, many college courts no longer even depict the semi-circle inside the free-throw line (i.e., the key is a solid rectangle, as seen in this example), because the held-ball/alternating-possession rule has eliminated the possibility of a jump-ball in the free-throw circle. Also, I find a white free-throw stripe on a light wood floor hard to discern, sometimes.

On the other hand, the unusual key give the Puerto Rico court some uniqueness, which is sadly missing from a lot of other courts.

Hall of Fame Showcase from St. Louis

Super-contributor Matt Rachmiel notified me about the funky court used a couple of nights ago in St. Louis for the Hall of Fame Showcase game between Louisville and Arkansas (a Kansas-Memphis rematch of the 2008 national championship game was also on the bill). I encourage readers to watch the highlight video from ESPN.com. I made the following screen capture to give everyone a preview (on which you can click to enlarge).

Welcome to the 2009-2010 Season!

With the NBA season a couple weeks old and college basketball heading into its first big weekend of play, I'd like to welcome everyone to another season of my Basketball Court Designs blog! I invite all visitors to add comments to any of the postings (or e-mail me via my Texas Tech faculty webpage at the top of the links column to the right) with any ideas, suggestions, or questions you have. If you discover a team that has a new court design this season, please let us know!

I am pictured above on the floor at Texas Tech's United Spirit Arena, by the giant Double-T center-court logo (photo by Michelle Flores). If you've taken photos of basketball courts, I'd be happy to post them, too.

Early Reports of College Court Changes

Sports uniform guru Paul Lukas, in previewing college basketball teams' new duds for the coming season, also alludes to a few floor changes. The specific passage, which appears down near the bottom of the linked article, is:

Several teams have new court designs, including Arizona..., East Tennessee State, Marshall, Minnesota..., Mississippi State, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.

In Lukas's article, you can actually click on the school names and other links to see pictures and videos of the new court designs (hat tip: Matt Rachmiel).

I really enjoy seeing videos and slide shows of the court-design process, including the use of decals, stencils, and paint. Here's a clue about one of the aforementioned changes: Arizona will no longer have the McKale Center court adorned by the cactus logo.

2009-10 NBA Court Designs

Matt Rachmiel, a frequent contributor to this page, has provided the link to a page that depicts this upcoming season's court designs for all NBA teams.

Courts of Former NBA Teams: Baltimore Bullets

The modern-day Baltimore Bullets were an NBA team from 1963-1973, before moving 35 miles to the District of Columbia to become the Capital Bullets, Washington Bullets, and finally Washington Wizards (franchise history). Before changing cities, the team played at the Baltimore Civic Center (shown above), now known as the 1st Mariner Arena. The above photos are from screen captures I did off of YouTube; judging from the on-screen logos, the video appears to be from ABC's telecast of the 1971 NBA finals between the Bullets and the Milwaukee Bucks, from the vaults of NBA TV.

Courts of Former NBA Teams: Buffalo Braves

A new feature I'd like to introduce is the documentation of court designs for NBA teams that are no longer in existence (either because the franchise moved to a different city or went completely defunct). Today's inaugural ex-team is the Buffalo Braves (1970-1978), who later became the Clippers (first in San Diego, then in Los Angeles). The Braves played at the Memorial Auditorium (better known as "The Aud"), which was demolished only within the past year, even though the NHL Sabres had moved to a new arena in 1996.

The Braves' basketball court is depicted on the Buffalo Sports Museum website (pages 3 and 4). Buffalo does not have an official athletic shrine. Rather the "Museum" is a personal memorabilia collection -- a labor of love, really -- by lifelong Buffalo sports fan John Boutet.

As can be seen on the linked webpages, the Aud's court for the Braves was pretty basic, with solid blue keys and a midcourt logo on a solid circular white background.