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 #105: Pete Hanna Center - Samford vs. UT-Chattanooga

It's not ideal when you want to pull a doubleheader of games but the game times aren't spaced quite adequately.  Such was the case in this instance as we had to leave late in the second half from Tuscaloosa to make the hour drive to Birmingham and the campus of Samford University to catch this Southern Conference opener between the Bulldogs and the Mocs.  We knew we wouldn't make tip of this one but managed to make it in during halftime to see the second half.  Similar to Troy, driving onto campus it was obvious that attending Samford University is not a cheap proposition based on the design and architecture of the buildings, including the Pete Hanna Center.  Turned out this also wasn't a very competitive game either but again was a perfectly sized, modern venue for a mid-major team like Samford.

Inside the Pete Hanna Center

UT-Chattanooga getting a good look in the paint

Front entrance to the Pete Hanna Center

Arena #104: Coleman Coliseum - Alabama vs. #5 Texas A&M

Continued our journey northward in Alabama to Tuscaloosa to catch the SEC opener for the Crimson Tide against the #5 Texas A&M Aggies.  This was a highly anticipated game for the Tide and their highly touted freshman Collin Sexton getting the chance to host one of the hottest teams in the nation in Texas A&M.  Even though the students weren't on campus for this contest, Coleman Coliseum was well packed and boisterous and you could tell the Tide responded well to the crowd support in throttling the Aggies on this afternoon.  Thankful this did turn in to a bit of a blowout though so we could leave a bit early to head to Birmingham and a game at Samford for a solid doubleheader day of hoops...

Main entrance to Coleman Coliseum on the Alabama campus

Full view inside the arena...one of the more unique designs in the 100+ venues to date

Opening tip between the Crimson Tide and the #5 Aggies

Alabama with the throwdown!

Arena #103: Trojan Arena - Troy vs. Georgia Southern

Third game in a third state in three days brought us to Troy, AL for a Sun Belt conference opener between the Troy Trojans and the Georgia Southern Eagles.  Troy, AL isn't exactly a large town, but the campus of the university is pretty impressive.  It's obvious that it's definitely not cheap to be a student here when you see all the buildings on campus, including the Trojan Arena.  What a perfect sized arena for a mid-major team (capacity was around 5,000) and even though it wasn't nearly full on this evening, it didn't feel barren either like many games we end up at during the week after Christmas.

Impressive southern architecture - wouldn't even know it was a sports arena

Top of the bowl of the arena...can't imagine there's a bad seat in this house

Trojan mascot on the paneling in the concourse of the arena 

Trojans protecting the rim in the second half

Arena #100: Auburn Arena - Auburn vs. Connecticut

Less than 9 years after starting Mission 351 in earnest with a visit to Allen Fieldhouse I was able to achieve my original goal of getting to 100 home courts with a Saturday afternoon trip to Auburn, AL to see my UConn Huskies take on Auburn.  The brand new arena Auburn has built in the last couple years is a perfect venue for them and their fan base and it was impressive how many people showed up the Saturday before Christmas to see a struggling UConn program.  While the outcome of the game was not what I hoped for my team, I loved the fan support from the locals and everyone was super nice even though I was cheering for the opposing team.

Plus, who can hate watching Bruce Pearl go nuts on the sidelines...

The Auburn Arena

Upper level view of the teams warming up

Opening tip between the Huskies and Tigers

Jalen Adams of UConn pulls up for 3

Isaiah Whaley attempting to block an Auburn layup 

 

Arena #97: Pete Mathews Coliseum - Jacksonville St. vs. Chattanooga

First trip to Alabama starts with a stop in Jacksonville for a pre-holiday Thursday afternoon matchup between the Gamecocks and the Chattanooga Mocs.  Outside of the Pete Mathews Coliseum was definitely nothing to look at, but in the arena itself, the remodel they did within the last couple years has created one of the best quality small school venues I've been to in years.  Plus having a competitive game that comes down to the final shot doesn't hurt either!

Main entrance of the Pete Mathews Coliseum

Love when schools have venues that are right sized for their fanbase

Opening tip between the Cocks and Mocs

Final shot for the Gamecocks to try to force OT