St. Joe's Hawks Stretch Their Wings on New Court

The St. Joseph's University Hawks have a wild new court design that had flown under my radar, so to speak, until today. I just happened to notice the court on a CBS Sports Network broadcast of the Duquesne at St. Joe's women's game from Philadelphia.

The Hagan Arena floor is not painted in at all inside the three-point arcs. However, on the rest of the court, there's hardly any place that's unpainted. Occupying the vast middle of the court are two Hawk images, a giant gray one and a crimson one that's merely large. Here's an article (with photo) on the development of the new design concept.

Noted Associate AD Amanda Hall in the linked article, “I’m fully acknowledging that it’s polarizing... Some people are going to love it, some people are going to hate it, but everybody’s going to notice it, and everybody’s going to know it’s St. Joe’s.”

Another view of the court, this one more straightforward and detailed, is available here on this game-program cover.

Article on Staples Center Logistics for Lakers and Clippers (Including Court Surfaces)

ESPN.com has an article (actually more like a photo essay with extensive captions) on the logistics of Lakers and Clippers games at the teams' shared venue, L.A.'s Staples Center. The piece covers a number of aspects, including public-address announcers, light shows, locker rooms, team stores, and so forth. One section, however, discusses court surfaces.

One thing I didn't know was that, "The NBA requires that each team change its home court every 10 years..." I interpret that as referring to the boards of wood, not the designs. After all, the Celtics have had the same essential floor design for as long as I can remember (going back nearly 50 years). Still, when teams make their decennial change in the physical court, perhaps that is an impetus for some teams to change design, as well.

Also, the teams use different floor-construction companies. The article notes that when the Lakers modify their designs -- mostly tweaks on the basic purple-and-gold scheme -- they must notify their builders "well in advance."

"They actually go out, and they physically choose and pick the wood," [Lakers' game-operations director Kathy] Montoya says. "So when you get a new court, you have to tell them way ahead of time because it takes a while for them to actually pick and choose which (pieces to use)."

The Lakers' arena-mates seem to change their motif more frequently.

The Clippers, previously known for using team colors blue and red in their court designs, underwent a makeover for the 2019-20 season. "We're a blacktop team," [coach] Doc Rivers said in 2018.

San Jose State Tones Down Its Court

I noticed while watching tonight's Utah State at San Jose State game on ESPN2 that the Spartans have toned down their court. The Spartan helmet design remains at center court. However, the huge shields that were in place since 2013 are now gone. With the removal of the shields, the helmet is now more vertically centered than before. Also, the keys are now painted solid blue, whereas they previously were yellow.

College Courts Catching My Eye Early in 2019-20

Two court designs have caught my eye at this early point in the 2019-20 college basketball season.

• It had seemed to me that huge center-court logos were losing popularity compared to a few years ago. No one told that to Louisville, however. A large "Dunking Cardinal" image now adorns the court at the KFC Yum! Center.
• Coastal Carolina's court, which actually was introduced before the 2018-19 season, presents a nice combination of a shellac-based shape of the state of South Carolina, with the school's Chanticleer logo overlaid.

Will Memphis Tigers' New Court Earn Its Stripes?

Via the usual sources, the University of Memphis has a new court for the Tigers, shown here. The design is one of the gaudiest you'll see. The idea of tiger stripes -- let alone ones colored in light and royal blue -- to fill in the keys is pretty inventive. However, keeping the areas inside the three-point arcs a conventional wood color and painting the entire area between the arcs light-blue doesn't work for me.

Washington State Court with Some Novel Features

Via the usual sources, Washington State University will have a new court this season. Two features are of note:

• When we've seen horizontal-strip geographic motifs (skylines, mountain ranges, etc.) on courts in the past, they have appeared along the lower sideline. WSU's, which depicts landmarks throughout the state ("the Cascade Mountains, the Seattle skyline, the Ed Hendler Cable Bridge that spans the Columbia River, the Riverfront Park Pavilion and Clock Tower and the Bryan Clock Tower"), will appear midway up the court, from one key to the other.
• With the men's three-point line being moved further out this season and the women's staying put, most schools will probably paint two different lines, in different colors. WSU's approach will be a little different. The area inside the men's (more distant) three-point arc will be filled in with a single shade of shellac, surrounded by a white line. There will also be a white line denoting the women's arc, giving the men's arc the appearance of being extra-thick. The closest analogy I can think of is from a former UNC-Charlotte court.

UMass Amherst... and UMass Boston

Via the usual sources, the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) will be switching from a parquet floor to one featuring a uniformly light shade of wood with a large shape of the state in a darker shade of shellac. A carryover element from the old court to the new will be a large U, with MASS superimposed, at center-court.

Quite by accident, while I was searching for images of the UMass court, I came upon the unusual court design for the UMass-Boston branch campus. As seen in the video at this link, the bulk of the court is solid blue (except for inside the three-point arcs), with a giant Beacon logo in the middle of the court.