Arena #134: Ollie J. Edmunds Center - Stetson vs. Lipscomb

For Arena #134, I visited the Ollie J. Edmunds Center on the campus of Stetson University for an Atlantic Sun Conference matchup between the Stetson Hatters and the Lipscomb Bisons.  My buddy and I ended up at this game solely because our weekend trip to Florida also included a visit to Daytona for the Rolex 24 at Daytona IMSA sportscar race.  I couldn’t turn down a good opportunity to catch a basketball game after being up for almost 24 hours watching an auto race.  Sadly, it turned out that we both ended up with more sleep than we expected as constant heavy rain in Daytona all day Sunday basically prevented the cars from running most of the last 10+ hours of the race, though it did also allow us to have more time to get to DeLand, FL for this game.  Turns out there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for a Stetson basketball game on a Sunday afternoon in January as there might have been 400 fans in the building for this matchup.  I understand that Stetson has been pretty poor at basketball for years, and their arena is basically an extra-large high school gym, but the lack of student turnout was also pretty disappointing to see.  I didn’t expect this game to be much of a contest as Lipscomb is probably the best or second-best team in the conference and the game meet my expectations to a T as the Bisons thoroughly dominated the Hatters from tip to horn.  Basically, the top highlight from this game was the fact that somehow a school with little to no fanbase sold souvenir cups at the concession stand!

Main entrance to the Edmunds Center on a rainy Sunday afternoon

Not exactly a robust crowd leading up to tip on this day

Opening tip between the Hatters and Bisons in this Atlantic Sun conference contest

Stetson with the kickout for 3

Arena #102: Swisher Gymnasium - Jacksonville vs. Middle Georgia St.

Second game in a row featuring a D1 vs. D2 matchup so again fairly low expectations for this one to be a competitive contest but Middle Georgia St. kept it close for 25 minutes or so, though we only saw about 10 of those minutes arriving in the middle of the first half due to a 5 hour drive from Charlotte taking about 8 with insane I-95 traffic in South Carolina.  I must say, this is definitely the first time I had to check in with a security guard to get through a gated entrance to go to a basketball game...didn't expect a fenced in campus after dark at Jacksonville University.  Gym was definitely barely a step above a high school venue, but I could see it getting going when crosstown rival North Florida or FGCU's Dunk City comes to town.

Entrance to Historic Swisher Gymnasium at Jacksonville University

Not exactly a full house on this night, but loving the mid-court logo

JU attacking the rim in the second half