Arena #174: Bartow Arena - Alabama-Birmingham vs. Texas-El Paso

To complete the Alabama doubleheader started with Arena #173, it was a quick 90 minute drive back up I-65 to Birmingham for a visit to Bartow Arena on the campus of the University of Alabama-Birmingham ("UAB") for Arena #174.  On this day, the UAB Blazers were hosting a Conference USA matchup with the Texas-El Paso Miners.  Given that Bartow Arena is located squarely within the confines of the UAB campus, parking was a bit of a chore to find, but thankfully a public garage a couple blocks away was located fairly quickly allowing me to make it into the arena just as the Star Spangled Banner was commencing.  Coming from a game that had maybe 200 people in the stands, it was nice to come into an arena that had probably 3,000-3,500 fans present, most of which were thoroughly engaged given that it was a conference matchup instead of a lowly non-conference contest.

I must say, I was reasonably impressed with the quality of Bartow Arena for a smaller conference school, though I realize UAB is a fairly large school with an enrollment of over 20k students even if their sports play in a non-Power 5 league.  Plus a venue that offers hard copy programs and souvenir cups in 2022 automatically increases my enjoyment given how many places have eliminated such things for "COVID reasons" nowadays.  

Given this was my second game of the day after 8+ hours of driving for the day, I was really hopeful to get an entertaining game to keep myself awake for the entire two hours.  Well I certainly got that and then some as the game ended up going into double overtime even though Texas-El Paso led for pretty much the entirety of regulation before UAB tied the game up late.  Then, in the first overtime, UAB led for the majority of time until a late run from the Miners put them up 1 with only a few seconds to play.  Unfortunately for Texas-El Paso, a boneheaded foul on a three-point shot with only tenths of a second remaining gave the Blazers the chance to win the game in the first overtime.  However, UAB was only able to convert 1 of the 3 free throw attempts so the game went to a second overtime; a 5 minute period that UAB thoroughly dominated to secure the conference win after 50 minutes of action.

Arena #173: Dunn-Oliver Acadome - Alabama St. vs. Lane College

Given I was planning a driving trip from WI to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl over New Year's weekend, I had to work in some Mission 351 college basketball stops along the way.  The original plan was to hit a Mississippi/Mississippi State doubleheader on the way down, but some travel delays meant that was no longer feasible so a backup plan was hatched that included a minor detour through Alabama instead of Mississippi.  Fortunately, Alabama St. University had a non-D1 game canceled earlier in the month and chose to add a December 29 matchup with non-D1 Lane College to their schedule.

Crazily, this December 29 game served as Alabama St.'s home opener as they put together a pretty typical SWAC non-conference schedule of exclusively road games to replenish the athletic department coffers from Power 5 school buy games.  As I always mention, I strongly dislike attending non-D1 matchups and with this being the third straight campus non-D1 matchup, I wasn't thrilled to attend, but finding SWAC home games to attend before January are few and far between.  Unsurprisingly, this game was sparsely attended to the point that tickets weren't even being sold to the game; the school just let anyone come in who wanted to watch the game.  As such, there wasn't much of an atmosphere given there was no student section, no band, and no cheerleaders to hype up the minor crowd.  Thankfully, the PA announcer was pretty darn into the game to at least provide some energy into the building.

The Dunn-Oliver Acadome itself is pretty old and not terribly well maintained, but if you got a crowd of a few thousand into the building, I think the environment would be pretty good.  The sightlines seem pretty good from anywhere in the building and the seats are pretty severely sloped to where even sitting halfway up in the seating bowl, I felt pretty close to the action.  Unfortunately, the on-court action in this contest wasn't that great either.  Even with Alabama St. coming into this game with only 1 win on the season, it was pretty clear the Division II squad from Lane College was overmatched.  I'll give Lane credit that they played hard all afternoon and even made a bit of a push early in the second half cutting a double digit halftime deficit down to 4 point, but Alabama St. pulled away once again to lead fairly comfortably before I had to leave to make sure I had enough time to make Game 2 of the day from the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Arena #172: Schoenecker Arena - St. Thomas vs. Crown College

Having previously visited the only Division I college basketball venue in the state of Minnesota (Williams Arena - University of Minnesota), I can't say I was thrilled to see the University of St. Thomas decide to transition to Division I for the 2020-21 season since it meant I needed to make a return trip to Minnesota to re-complete the state.  St. Thomas, located in St. Paul, MN, made the extremely rare double division jump in going from Division III all the way up to Division I because they basically outgrew and outspent their former Division III home.  Going into this game, I had no idea what to expect from the campus or the arena given the arena is the same as it was when they played in Division III and, honestly, I didn't expect much from the game itself either since this was another unfortunate non-D1 matchup as the Tommies hosted the Crown College Polars in this contest.

The arena itself surprised me as it was pretty decent for a low major D1 school, which means it probably was an incredible venue for a Division III school.  Schoenecker Arena is located in the middle of the St. Thomas campus and holds approximately 1,800 fans, though there was certainly not a capacity crowd on this frigid December evening.  While most of the venue has general admission bench seats, there are a few sideline sections that offer chairbacks, though at $35 each for a non-D1 game, these sections were unsurprisingly sparsely populated for this game.  Additionally, while the student section isn't very large, there were a few dozen students who were pretty into the game, which certainly helped to make the atmosphere of the game better than expected for a game that expectedly turned into a blowout pretty quickly.

Pregame at Scheonecker Arena

Opening tip between the Tommies and the Polars

It was pretty impressive to think St. Thomas absolutely crushed a team that just 2 years ago would have been in the same division as them.  It wouldn't surprise me to see St. Thomas become fairly competitive in the Summit League over the next couple years and even challenge for a conference tournament title before their Division I transition period ends a la Bellarmine in 2021-22.

Tommies attempting a 3-pointer

2022 Peacock Classic at the Pentagon (Sioux Falls, SD)

I have no idea how a 3,500 seat venue in middle America attracts major college basketball games, but the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD continues to do so.  Being only about 6 hours from my home, it's been on my list of non-campus venues to get to at some point when a game that would capture my interest was scheduled there.  When a top 5 matchup between Gonzaga and Iowa was scheduled there in December 2020, my interest was captured.  Unfortunately, even with South Dakota's fairly progressive COVID restrictions in 2020, fans were still not allowed to attend when that game took place.  Thankfully, in 2022, the Pentagon again scheduled Gonzaga to participate in a non-conference game there, this time against the Baylor Bears, in a 2021 national championship game rematch.  Since I was in attendance in Indianapolis at that most unusual Final Four, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to see the Zags get some revenge on Baylor for that April evening.

Front of the Pentagon

Given this game was scheduled for early December in the midwestern plains, weather would certainly dictate whether or not that 6 hour drive would even be feasible.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated enough for 5.5 hours of the 6 hour drive over before turning from bright sunshine to sleet and eventually snow, plus some less-than-comfortable 20 degree temperatures and 30+ mph winds once in Sioux Falls.  At least they don't play basketball outside...

The Sanford Pentagon is honestly a pretty cool basketball venue. Obviously shaped like a pentagon on the outside (and much more accessible than the other slightly more famous Pentagon in this country), the main court is flanked throughout the venue by other side courts that can be used by local teams throughout the year, which is definitely unique to nearly every other venue I've been to thus far. Plus the unique features on the show court like the darkened wood floor and the old school time clocks on the wall and scoreboard were different. The 3,500 seats for this game sold out in 6 minutes so I knew I was fortunate to get seats and that it would be a packed house.  I certainly didn't expect it to be like 75% Gonzaga fans, 20% neutral supporters, and like 40 Baylor fans. 

Packed house ready for team introductions

Opening tip between the Bulldogs and the Bears

The Gonzaga fans didn't have a whole lot to cheer about early as Gonzaga was as cold as the outside temperature from the field and Baylor jumped out to a sizable lead early.  At least both teams were pretty poor offensively for most of the night so the Zags were able to manage to whittle away at Baylor's early lead and eventually took the lead in the second half. After a hard fought 38 minutes of play, Gonzaga managed to build a 7 point lead after a dunk by Malachi Smith. Unfortunately, that would be the last points Gonzaga would score as Baylor hit back to back 3s to get within 1 and Drew Timme got hit with a brutal loose ball foul in the closing seconds that let Baylor make 2 free throws to take the lead at 64-63, which was ultimately the final score after some poor end-of-game situations for both teams. Definitely a unique experience in a unique venue, though it certainly would have been nice to not see the Zags lose in person to Baylor for the second time in a row and for the second time this season after the drubbing I had to sit through when they played Purdue in Portland...

Gonzaga's Julian Strawther (#0) for the layup

Gonzaga guard Malachi Smith (#13) attacking the rim

Don't love the final score, but love the old-school scoreboard clock

Arena #171: Redhawk Center - Seattle vs. Pacific Lutheran

After a 990-day break due to COVID, I was finally able to restart Mission 351 with a visit to the Redhawk Center on the campus of Seattle University for Arena #171.  Since the Redhawk Center was the only Division I arena I had yet to visit in the state of Washington, it was imperative to get to a game there while out in the Pacific Northwest for the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational/Legacy tournaments over Thanksgiving weekend.  Unfortunately, the schedule makers didn't help me out much by making the only Seattle home game for the week and a half before Thanksgiving a Thanksgiving Eve matchup with Division III Pacific Lutheran.  I make it a goal to avoid non-D1 games as much as possible, but given the timing, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to get this venue checked off the list (especially knowing Seattle plays a number of their conference games downtown at the home of the NHL's Seattle Kraken, Climate Pledge Arena).

Seattle University is located just a couple miles east of what I would consider "Downtown Seattle" though it's surprisingly difficult to access via public transit.  As such, a drive to campus was required.  Parking was a bit challenging to find given the arena's location and the lack of clear parking directions even though lots were supposedly defined on the athletic department's website.  The outside of the arena isn't anything to write home about, but once inside, it's actually pretty nice for a low major Division I school.  Redhawk Center is one of the smallest home courts in all of Division I basketball, holding a miniscule 999 people.  I've been to smaller venues though... (Arena #127 - Hodge Center at USC Upstate for example as the smallest venue in Division I).  The arena only has about 9 rows of seats on each sideline and about 5 rows of seats behind one of the baskets to constitute the student section, though on this evening the student section was pretty empty.

Main entrance to the Redhawk Center

Love a good city skyline on a basketball court

The on-court action wasn't much to write home about on this night either as Pacific Lutheran was clearly overmatched as expected.  The Redhawks were able to get to the basket with ease and were hot from the perimeter as well in building a sizable lead at the half.  The start of the second half wasn't much better for Pacific Lutheran and with a 2 hour drive to Portland still to come, I decided to head out at the under 12 timeout as there was no way Pacific Lutheran was coming back in this one, which turned out to be accurate in a post-game check of the final score.

The Redhawks with some tough defense on a Pacific Lutheran drive

Arena #170: Devlin Fieldhouse - Tulane vs. Connecticut

For the third and final game of my trip to Louisiana (and what would ultimately be my final game, and the teams’ final game as well due to the Coronavirus craziness), I visited Devlin Fieldhouse on the campus of Tulane University for Arena #170, which featured an American Athletic Conference (AAC) contest between the Tulane Green Wave and the Connecticut Huskies.  Similar to my visit to East Carolina the weekend prior, it was very important for me to get a visit to Tulane checked off this season before UConn left the AAC to return to the Big East.  Driving to the Tulane campus from near the airport, I was quite surprised the residential nature of the neighborhoods I was driving through and how narrow the streets and buildings were along the way.  As I got to campus somewhat early, I took some time to walk around since I’m not used to having 70-degree weather for my college basketball trips.  Tulane’s campus is quite a blend of modern and historic architecture and the students were out in force on this Sunday afternoon enjoying the weather by studying outside or playing some baseball in the park across from the commons building.

Devlin Fieldhouse is a great example of that blend of modern and historic architecture on campus as the Fieldhouse has been there for decades, but it’s pretty clear both the outside and inside of the building has been renovated and upgraded fairly recently.  Walking into the building though, I was quite surprised how small the concourse was and that the concourse doesn’t really go all the way around the building.  Basically, to navigate from the front to the back of the building you either have to walk along the court (which obviously isn’t allowed when the game is actually going on) or walk around the top of the seating bowl itself.  Devlin Fieldhouse only holds like 4,000 people, which goes to show just how little basketball support and tradition Tulane really has.

On this day, which was Senior Day for 3 of the Green Wave’s players, there were probably no more than 2,000 people in the gym, and honestly half of those folks were probably UConn supporters.  One of the most unique things I’ve ever seen though occurred on this Senior Day as UConn’s head coach, Dan Hurley, was included in the Senior Day activities for one of Tulane’s players, Christion Thompson.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that Thompson played his first 3 seasons at Rhode Island under coach Dan Hurley.  The comradery between Hurley and Tulane coach, Ron Hunter, during the presentation was pretty fun and inspiring to watch.  Ron Hunter has been one of my favorite coaches for years since he was at IUPUI, though he’s probably most well known by others for his time at Georgia State where his 14-seed Panthers upset 3-seed Baylor in the NCAA tournament and he fell off his stool in celebration after tearing his ACL celebrating a conference tourney title the week before!

As the game started, Tulane came out playing well and UConn not so well.  As Tulane was the worst team in the conference, I expected (and hoped) that UConn would have as easy a time with the Green Wave as they did with the ECU Pirates the weekend before.  That would definitely not be the case on this day as Tulane came to play and hung with the Huskies all afternoon long.  While UConn typically struggles on offense for stretches at a time, their defense is usually their calling card.  On this day though, the Huskies defense struggled to contain the guard play of the Green Wave, allowing a lot of dribble penetration to the basket and leaving shooters open off those drives.  Tulane scored a very surprising 41 points in the first half and took a 2-point lead into the break.  UConn came out of the break playing some better defense, but also struggling more on offense to where they managed to take the lead, but never really were able to build the lead to a comfortable level.  Tulane kept it close throughout the second half and had their chances to take a lead late, but UConn ultimately held on for a 80-76 win to finish 5^th in the AAC and set up a rematch with Tulane in the 5/12 game of the opening round of the AAC Tourney that was ultimately cancelled due to Coronavirus.  As such, UConn finished the season at 19-12 with a 10-8 record in the AAC while Tulane finished 12-18 overall and last in the AAC at 4-14.

View of Devlin Fieldhouse from across the street

Tulane has to have one of the best center court logos in all of college basketball

Opening tip between the Green Wave and Huskies

Isaiah Whaley from UConn pulling up for the short jumper

Arena #169: F.G. Clark Center - Southern vs. Prairie View A&M

For my second game on Saturday, I drove across town in Baton Rouge to visit Arena #169, the F.G. Clark Center on the campus of Southern University, for a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) matchup between the Southern Jaguars and the top team in the conference, the Prairie View A&M Panthers.  This was my first-ever visit to a SWAC conference school and my first-ever SWAC conference contest, meaning I’ve been to a game at a school in all but 2 of the NCAA Division 1 conferences (America East and Northeast remain).  The F.G. Clark Center was a pretty non-descript building from the outside and my thoughts didn’t improve much upon getting inside.  The arena holds probably 8,000 people, but, on this day, the entire upper level was roped off and even the lower bowl was probably no more than 3/4 full for Senior Day.  Honestly, this was probably a good thing though as even with the smaller crowd on hand, the concourses were cramped to navigate around and there was only 1 concession stand open for the entire crowd, which made that section of the concourse almost impossible to navigate through.

I came into this game expecting it to be fairly competitive given this was a matchup of the top two teams in the conference, but honestly I was most excited to see and hear the band performances throughout the game knowing how well known and honored HBCU bands are.  I will say the band lived up to my expectations, and was probably the highlight of my visit by far, but the game was certainly a bit of a disappointment even though it was quite competitive.  The quality of the on-court action was honestly not very good and lead to some very inconsistent action that had very little flow.  Fouls piled up on both teams through the game and led to the game taking forever to play.  As I still had to head back to New Orleans for the evening, and the game had already crossed the 2-hour mark, I chose to leave the game with about 5 minutes left and Southern up 7 points.  It would turn out that the game would ultimately go to overtime, but Southern would pull out a 9-point win.

Outside of the F.G. Clark Center at Southern University

View of the multipurpose seating area of the F.G. Clark Center

Opening tip for some SWAC action between Southern and Prairie View A&M

The famous Southern University band jamming out during a media timeout