Arena #141: Show Me Center - Southeast Missouri St. vs. Belmont

To close out the season and check off Arena #141, we visited the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, MO for an Ohio Valley Conference contest between the Southeast Missouri St. Redhawks and the Belmont Bruins.  The Show Me Center is a nice venue in and of itself, but is definitely a little too large for a school with such an anemic basketball tradition recently.  As such, I can’t say I expected much out of this game knowing Belmont has been the class of the OVC for the last number of years and the game pretty much turned out as expected.  Belmont more or less dominated this game from start to finish in taking an 18-point win back home to Nashville.  Honestly, the highlight of the game for both myself and, I assume most of the crowd as well, was the fact that everyone got free custard from a local chain because SEMO crossed the highly achievable 63 point threshold!

Main entrance to the Show Me Center

The not so robust crowd just prior to opening tip...

Opening tip between Southeast Missouri St. and Belmont

Belmont attacking the basket during the first half

Arena #136: CFSB Center - Murray St. vs. SIU-Edwardsville

There’s not much better on the Mission 351 journey than a two-state doubleheader day (only trumped by the three-state tripleheader!), which is exactly what we got on this day with a trip to Murray, KY and the campus of Murray St. University for another Ohio Valley Conference contest, this time featuring the home Racers hosting the Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville Cougars.  Coming here to Murray, I had some expectations for a strong crowd atmosphere and fan turnout given the Racers have been near the top of the OVC for several years and in 2018-19 featured one of the most electrifying players in NCAA basketball in point guard Ja Morant.  Thankfully, both the quantity and quality of the crowd met my expectations, even against an overmatched opponent.  The game was close and competitive throughout the first half, though with SIUE even taking a 6-point lead into the locker room.  However, that Cougars lead quickly disappeared in the second half behind the scoring and passing of Morant.  The Racers raced ahead after the break while SIUE was able to only manage 17 points after halftime in being completely destroyed for the final 20 minutes of this matchup.

Crowd lining up to get into the CFSB center for this contest

Future 1st round NBA draft pick Ja Morant during pregame introductions

Murray St. with a slam dunk during their second half barrage of the Cougars

View of the seating area inside the CFSB center in Murray, KY

Arena #135: Elam Center - Tennessee-Martin vs. Tennessee Tech

After a weekend off, it was back on the road starting with a stop at Tennessee-Martin for an Ohio Valley Conference matchup between the Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks and the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles.  Not many people know that Tennessee-Martin is where the winningest coach in women’s college basketball history, Pat Summitt, got her first head coaching job before heading east to Knoxville.  As such, her name and likeness are prominently displayed in and around the Elam Center with a statue out front and the playing surface itself being named after her.  It’s pretty obvious the Elam Center has been around for awhile and was constructed with multiple uses in mind with the very square footprint of the building consisting of a set of temporary bleachers on each side of the court.  The most interesting part to me being that the main entrance is on the upper level of the bleachers and one has to walk down tens of rows to get to the playing surface level.  It’s an interesting setup that adds some uniqueness to an otherwise fairly bland facility.  This matchup ended up being another contest that was never all that competitive.  The Skyhawks led early and often in completing a 30 point win over one of their in-state conference rivals, who scored a partly 42 points in the entire 40 minute contest!

Entrance to the Elam Center in Martin, TN

Statue outside the arena of Pat Summitt coaching and teaching

Opening tip between the Skyhawks and Golden Eagles

Not exactly a big crowd, but a crowd that left happy after a dominating UT-Martin win

Arena #112: Dunn Center - Austin Peay St. vs. Murray St.

The final game of the 2017-18 travel season certainly turned out to be one of the top 3 or 5 most memorable stops of my 112 thus far, but for nothing that had to do with the on-court action itself!  With about 5 minutes left in the game, we all of a sudden hear a huge BANG! in the arena and water starts pouring in near one of the hoops!  Turns out a severe storm had just passed through the area and tore a hole in the roof of the building!  We were moved out of the seating bowl and into some team and coaches offices behind the seats where were waited for an hour or more for the storm to pass and for the teams to decide what was going to be done to complete the game.  We ultimately left after about 90 minutes of waiting, but it turned out that they managed to patch up the roof and complete the game 45 minutes or so after we left.  Murray St. ended up winning the game so not much changed from their 9 point lead established prior to the "weather break."

The Winfield Dunn Center on the campus of Austin Peay State University

Crowd filling in for the Border Battle between Austin Peay St. and Murray St.

Best chant in all of sports!!

Ja Morant before he became a household name the following season

The APSU solution to drying the court with a hole in the roof...

Arena #110: Eblen Center - Tennessee Tech vs. Belmont

Second game of this Tennessee doubleheader weekend took us about 90 minutes east of Nashville to Cookeville, TN and the Eblen Center on the campus of Tennessee Technological University for an Ohio Valley Conference matchup between TTU and Belmont.  While the outside of the Eblen Center and the concourse inside show some age, it seems like the seating bowl itself has been re-done recently.  I was incredibly impressed with the pre-game introductions and the graphics used to show and enhance images on the court as this was the first time I'd seen outside of a pro arena and it was at an OVC school nonetheless!  As for the game itself, TTU kept the game closer than I expected throughout, though Dylan Windler and his crew from Belmont ultimately came out with the W on this rainy evening.

Outside of the Hooper Eblen Center in Cookeville, TN

Bring out the Tennessee Tech flags to welcome the team onto the court!

Loved the pre-game graphics that were NBA arena-worthy

Tennessee Tech taking the ball to the rack in the first half

Arena #107: Vadalabene Center - SIU-Edwardsville vs. UT-Martin

Decent weather on a mid-January weekend where 2 teams in southern and western Illinois had home games means you take advantage of the opportunity to check both off the list.  The Vadalabene Center on the campus of fairly new to DI SIU-Edwardsville, was also fairly new and a good size for a school and fanbase up and coming in DI.  The crowd wasn't big, but the Cougars were on fire early and often from 3 in the contest leading to lots of "3 for the E" calls from the announcer...

Outside of the Vadalabene Center, including a rather interesting sculpture

Opening tip between the Cougars and Skyhawks

One of the plentiful 3 point attempts for SIUE in the first half

Final chance for SIUE to win the game (the shot did not go in)

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

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