Arena #128: PNC Arena - North Carolina St. vs. #7 Auburn

After spending the day with about 400 people at USC Upstate it was off to Raleigh for a nightcap at the PNC Arena that North Carolina St. shares with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and a crowd of probably 15,000+ who were there to cheer on their Wolfpack to an upset of the 7^th ranked Auburn Tigers.  PNC Arena is located a bit off by itself right off the interstate in the western city limits of Raleigh, which makes for a bit of a subpar external atmosphere with all the parking lots that surround the building.  However, the inside of the building is pretty nice as expected given it houses a pro hockey team as well as Wolfpack sports.  The biggest disappointment for sure though was no souvenir cups in a power 5 conference venue!  As for the game itself, for as high octane of an offense that Auburn showed during the early part of their non-conference season in moving into the top 10 of the national rankings, they simply could not get anything going on this night in Raleigh.  NC State held the Auburn three-point shooters in check most of the night and hit some timely threes of their own to pull off the upset in this matchup.

Inside the expansive PNC Arena - home of the NC State Wolfpack

Opening tip between the Wolfpack and the #7 Tigers

Auburn coach, Bruce Pearl, getting fired up (and T'd up) on the sideline in the first half 

Auburn taking it to the rack for a slam

Arena #125: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Wake Forest vs. Davidson

Night three of our North Carolina trip took us over to Winston-Salem for an intra-state matchup between the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and the Davidson Wildcats from Arena #125, the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.  Now normally I would have expected this to be a pretty hot ticket given the expectations for Davidson in 2018-19, but Wake has been pretty subpar the last couple years and with the students still on break, the arena wasn’t too packed or boisterous for this one.  Davidson definitely didn’t bring their best game to this contest, though being without one of their best players in Kellan Grady didn’t help.  Wake controlled the tempo and the scoreboard throughout the game and pulled off a 4 point win in what had to be considered an upset of one of the favorites to win the Atlantic 10 for the 2018-19 season.

Holy bollards outside the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC

Not the most exciting court design anymore (definitely miss having the Deacon at mid-court)

Opening tip between the Demon Deacons and the Wildcats

Davidson head coach Bob McKillop having a conversation with Teddy Valentine on the sideline

Arena #123: Dean E. Smith Center - #12 North Carolina vs. #4 Gonzaga

After an early afternoon stop at Liberty, it was off to Arena #123, the Dean E. Smith Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina for the lynchpin game of this trip, a top 15 matchup between Gonzaga and UNC. While the Smith Center is a surprisingly non-descript facility on the outside, you can’t help but to be in awe of the history and legacy of the UNC program when you look up into the rafters in the Carolina blue colored seating bowl and see jerseys from Jordan and Jamison to Worthy and Carter. For a non-conference game, the crowd was at capacity and the students were rocking for this one as the Heels were hosting a Gonzaga program that suffered their first defeat of the season in Phoenix the prior weekend to the top 5 Tennessee Volunteers. This was definitely one of the most entertaining, yet sloppy games of basketball I’ve ever seen live in my 123 stops to date. Let’s just say the shot clock never became an issue in this contest with both teams running and gunning throughout. At the end of the day, the Zags left too much of their defense back in Spokane as the Heels hung over 100 points on them in this one, yet drawing the loudest ovation of the night when the 100 point mark was eclipsed meaning the crowd won a free Bojangles biscuit! Gotta love the South!

The Dean E. Smith Center certainly doesn't have much in the way of exterior styling

Inside the seating bowl of the Smith Center...whole lotta Carolina blue everywhere...

So many jerseys hanging from the rafters in Chapel Hill

Opening tip between the Bulldogs and the Tar Heels in front of a raucous crowd

Rui Hachimura of Gonzaga with the emphatic dunk

Arena #99: McCamish Pavilion - Georgia Tech vs. Wright St.

The nightcap of the second consecutive doubleheader day of games brought me to downtown Atlanta and the campus of Georgia Tech for Arena #99 and a fairly nondescript matchup between the Yellow Jackets and the Wright State Raiders.  As expected, the building was quite nice having been just constructed within the last few years.  However, the crowd support certainly left something to be desired, especially being in downtown ATL and having just come from Athens where probably close to 10,000 people showed up for a 1 pm tip.  In the end though, the game ended up being pretty competitive and even produced an upset as Wright St. came away with the win in a high-scoring affair.

Clean court design and setup inside the McCamish Pavilion

Opening tip between the Yellow Jackets and the Raiders

Jamie Luckie...ugh

Wright St with the flush!

2017 PK80 - Phil Knight Invitational

When a one-off, 16 team college basketball extravaganza was announced back in 2015 for Thanksgiving weekend 2017, I knew right then what my holiday plans would be for this year.  Having the opportunity to see both of my teams (UConn and Gonzaga) in the same "tournament" for the 2nd time in 3 years was definitely going to be a can't miss event.

The ability to have 2 tournaments running simultaneously in buildings a few hundred yards from each other was a perfect setup for the event in that it allowed me to catch 15 games over the course of the 3 days(including 7 of the 8 games on Day 1).  ESPN did manage to botch scheduling on Day 2 making the semifinal matchups overlap with each other (when both my teams were playing in them no less!), but other than that the coordination of the event was pretty strong.

Can't say I was thrilled having to watch Duke and Michigan St. win their respective brackets, but it was definitely a memorable event over a memorable weekend honoring the man behind Nike, Mr. Phil Knight.

Moda Center glowing in a clear Portland evening

The man being honored with PK80 - Mr. Phil Knight

Outside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum - the 2nd building hosting PK80 games all weekend long

Jalen Adams (UConn) with the jumper in a PK80 quarterfinal matchup with Oregon

Upstairs vantage point inside the Veterans Memorial Coliseum during the PK80

Josh Perkins (Gonzaga) pulls up for 3 against Ohio St. in a PK80 quarterfinal

Arena #92: Maples Pavilion - Stanford vs. #9 North Carolina

The final stop of 6 games in 6 days in NorCal to once again see North Carolina play, this time on the road against the Stanford Cardinal.  For someone who isn't a fan of UNC, it's ridiculous to think this was the 7th game I've seen of theirs in the last year after a matchup at the University of Hawai'i, 3 at the 2016 Maui Jim Maui Invitational, and 2 more at the 2017 Final Four.  Sadly, I'm beginning to think I'm a good luck charm for good 'ol Roy and team as they won every one of those 6 previous games.

As for Maples Pavilion and this game, the matchup was not nearly as competitive as I hoped for as UNC blew out the Cardinal and Maples Pavilion was significantly less interesting and unique than I expected.  

Opening tip of Stanford vs. #9 North Carolina

Stanford taking it to the rack

Strong crowd, including a lot of powder blue, to see a top 10 opponent at Maples