Cougar Logo Embedded in U. of Houston Keys

At the University of Houston's Hofheinz Pavilion, the keys are painted solid red with what appear to be a bunch of black curvy lines (see graphic below, which you may click to enlarge). If you look closely, however, the curves in the key depict the school's Cougar logo (upper left) -- but not all of it. In order to have the logo extend all the way from baseline to free-throw line, small amounts of the logo are cropped off the top and bottom. I've superimposed a partially transparent red rectangle on top of the Cougar logo (upper right) to illustrate how the key design apparently was created.

Sources: logo and video clip.

Hypothetical Court Designs for Several NBA Teams

Via Reddit, Bleacher Report, and my colleague Dana Weiser, here's a link to some hypothetical NBA court designs. Note that some of these new designs involving changing teams' basic logos, as well as their courts.

Orange Bowl Basketball Classic

Although most sports fans associate the term "Orange Bowl" with the annual showdown between elite college-football teams played on (or around) New Year's Day, several other Orange Bowl-related events are held in sports such as lacrosse, tennis, swimming, sailing, and track and field. Among the competitions is the MetroPCS Orange Bowl Basketball Classic, played in Sunrise, Florida at the BB&T Center. This facility, situated in Broward County, just north of Miami-Dade County, is known mainly for being the home of the NHL's Florida Panthers.

This year's Orange Bowl Basketball Classic, played last weekend, featured a college hoops doubleheader. Florida State took on UMass and Florida faced Fresno State. As shown in the following screenshots from the first game (source video), the BB&T Center has a colorful basketball court.

I'm not sure what the design just outside the three-point arc represents. The most likely contenders would seem to be Florida's ubiquitous palm trees or doves proclaiming "Peace on Earth" for Christmas. Note also that Florida State wore special turquoise uniforms for Native American Heritage Month

More College Court Updates (Early Dec. 2013)

Four items today:

Temple University eschewed its on-campus Liacouras Center home yesterday to  host Texas at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, home of the 76ers. The regular Wells Fargo Center court is completely outlined in blue, with a 76ers logo at center-court. For the Temple game, however, some floor boards were strategically substituted to make it look like a Temple floor, as seen in the following screen captures from ESPN-U/Watch ESPN... (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

As far as these kinds of floor-board substitutions go, this one isn't bad. The only problem is that blue isn't a Temple color.

Mizzou Arena has added Tiger stripes along the baselines to reinforce Missouri's team nickname, as seen in the following screenshot from CBS...

Memphis has added a city skyline aspect to its court at Fedex Forum, based on shellac shading.

Finally, Rhode Island has added an interlocking, two-tone RI to its center-court (thanks to Matt Rachmiel). The two-tone aspect is not unlike that of Penn's "P."

Cal State Fullerton Mural/Scenery Court

Several schools have adopted full-court mural/scenery designs for their basketball floors, as has been documented in several entries on this blog. One that I first learned about via a telecast today is Cal State Fullerton's. Here's a link with photo.

Uni Watch Previews College Hoops Uniforms -- and Courts (2013-14)

Uni Watch's 2013-14 college basketball preview focuses, naturally, on changes in teams' uniforms. However, several new court designs are also noted. Many of the listed floor changes on Uni Watch have already been documented here on this site. However, two court changes listed by Uni Watch are worth keeping an eye out for: Buffalo and Central Florida. Thanks, as usual, to Matt Rachmiel for bringing these changes to my attention.

NBA Court Changes for 2013-14

Via the usual sources, here's a visual compilation of new court designs for the 2013-14 NBA season. Frankly, most of the courts depicted don't look that different to me from what the respective teams have had in the past.