Arena #109: Allen Arena - Lipscomb vs. North Florida

Second time to Tennessee during this season, this time starting in Nashville to complete the triumvirate of schools in the city with a visit to Allen Arena on the campus of Lipscomb University.  Lipscomb hosted the fairly overmatched North Florida Ospreys in this Atlantic Sun contest.  Lipscomb, like it's Nashville rival Belmont, has a beautiful campus with lots of southern architecture and brick buildings that justify the $50k/yr or more students pay to attend.  Allen Arena fits well into the landscape of campus being fairly modern both inside and out, while having a capacity of a few thousand that seems a perfect size for the school.  The crowd wasn't full but any means for this one, but UNF brought more fans from Jacksonville than I expected and there were lots of students (many late-arriving...) helping to create a pretty solid atmosphere for this matchup.

Main entrance of Allen Arena

Impressively nice arena on the inside; just as nice as local rival Belmont

Opening tip between the Bisons and Ospreys

The Bisons love the 3 ball

Arena #86: Gentry Center - Tennessee St. vs. Eastern Kentucky

February 18, 2017: Back half of a Nashville OVC doubleheader to catch the TSU Tigers and the EKU Colonels on Senior Night.  Can't say this was one of the better facilities along the journey given that basketball is being played in a multi-purpose sports venue...and the fact that there was about 750 people in the building.  Highlight of the game though was definitely the TSU Band...they were crazily into the game and saved the atmosphere of the venue for sure!

Upper deck view of the court

Pregame baseline view

Opening tip between the Tigers and Colonels

Fastbreak slam by the Tigers

Arena #85: Curb Event Center - Belmont vs. Morehead St.

February 18: 2017: Final regular season college basketball travel weekend of the season for me took me on a 9 hour trip to Nashville for a doubleheader commencing with a visit to the Curb Event Center for an Ohio Valley Conference matchup between the league-leading Belmont Bruins and the Morehead St. Eagles.  What a beautiful campus at Belmont...so much traditional southern architecture and charm that clearly carried over to the Curb Event Center as well.  What a uniquely styled and perfectly sized venue for a team like Belmont.

Best architectural design for a college basketball venue of my 85 visits so far

Perfect size - not a bad seat in the house for the best team in the OVC

Leading scorer Evan Bradds takes it to the rack

One of the plethora of Belmont's 3 point attempts (and makes) in the game