Arena #168: Pete Maravich Assembly Center - Louisiana St. vs. Georgia

For my final trip of the regular season (and what would ultimately turn out to be my final trip overall after Coronavirus stopped the world), it was off to the state of Louisiana for a weekend tripleheader starting at Louisiana St. University (LSU) in Baton Rouge.  These would be my first games ever in the state of Louisiana; bringing my total number of states where I’ve seen a game to 40 and the District of Columbia.  On this afternoon, the LSU Tigers were hosting the Georgia Bulldogs in the final SEC game of the regular season at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, Arena #168.

Walking up to the Maravich Center, you walk right past Tiger Stadium (aka Death Valley), which just towers over the basketball arena.  Additionally, you walk past one of the most unique features of LSU sports in general, the habitat of Mike the Tiger.  There’s certainly not many places in the country where you have a live animal mascot housed right outside the school’s sports facilities as is the case in Baton Rouge.  For obvious reasons, Mike does not make an appearance in the arena for basketball games, but is brought out onto the field for football games.  From the outside (and the inside), the Maravich Center is almost a carbon copy of the State Farm Center in Champaign, IL, which is the home of the University of Illinois basketball program.  The concourses aren’t very wide, but the huge windows throughout the concourse make it appear much more spacious than it really is.  The seating bowl itself is well designed and the layout is nearly perfect to where I’d argue there probably isn’t a bad seat in the building with even the 300 section of the arena seeming like it’s decently close to the action.  On this day, I was fortunate enough to get a reasonably priced center court ticket that gave me access to the Legends Club, which was a private room off the concourse that offered plush seating, specialty drinks, and free popcorn pregame and at halftime.  It wasn’t overly fancy, but was a decent place to hang out and stretch instead of being in a cramped arena seat.

LSU was having a relatively strong season again on the basketball court, and were even ranked in the top 20 at one point before going on a bit of a losing streak, and Georgia was struggling even though they had one of the top NBA draft prospects in the country in guard Anthony Edwards.  As such, I didn’t expect this game to be overly competitive, but I hoped that Georgia could keep it somewhat close at least.  As it turned out, my initial assumptions were correct that LSU was by far the superior team in this contest, especially playing at home and especially being on Senior Day with the Tigers having 3 senior players and honoring a 4^th young man, Wayde Sims, who would have been a senior before his untimely passing prior to his junior season.  LSU dominated the game throughout in a 94-64 win that would turn out to be the Tigers final win (and final game) of the season to finish with a record of 21-10 (12-6 SEC).  LSU would have expected to hear its name called on Selection Sunday if the world hadn’t turned upside down soon after this game was played.

Mike the Tiger in his habitat just outside the Maravich Center

Outside view of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center

Even halfway up the upper level of the seating bowl the view isn't too bad

Opening tip between the Tigers and Bulldogs

LSU going for the slam early in the game

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 #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 #101: Colonial Life Arena - South Carolina vs. Limestone College

Second trip to the Southeast in a week started with a trip to the state capital of South Carolina for an afternoon tip between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Limestone College Saints to kick off the next 100 venues on Mission 351.  Obviously with playing a non-D1 school, my expectations of the competitiveness of this game were not very high, but Limestone kept it close throughout the first half before I had to leave to get to Charlotte to get my Kemba Walker bobblehead at the Hornets game that night.  Also unsurprisingly, the crowd was not very robust for a mid-afternoon weekday tip just after Christmas, but I would imagine the CLA gets pretty loud when the Cocks are good and playing a top caliber team.

Outside entrance to the Colonial Life Arena

Not too many fans inside the Colonial Life Arena for this contest

The Frank Martin scowl...

Gamecocks attacking the paint

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 #98: Stegeman Coliseum - Georgia vs. Temple

Day 2 of this trip to the Southeast brought about another doubleheader, this time in Georgia, starting in Athens for an afternoon tilt between the University of Georgia and the Temple Owls.  Stegeman Coliseum was a surprisingly nice venue as well having also been recently refurbished and it was super impressive how many people showed up for a 1 pm non-conference tip on the Friday before Christmas as the building was probably over 75% full.  The game wasn't nearly as competitive as hoped, but the crowd was definitely into the game throughout.

Outside of the Stegeman Coliseum

Pretty sweet mural on one of the baselines showing some of the best players in UGA history

Georgia with a hook shot in the lane

Temple with the aggressive take to the rim

Arena #95: Murphy Center - Middle Tennessee St. vs. Mississippi

Finding a cheap $98 RT flight from Milwaukee to Nashville meant a chance to get a couple more random venues checked off the list in Tennessee, starting with a short trip south of Nashville to Murfreesboro for a rare opportunity to see a Power 5 conference team play a true road game against a Conference USA school.  Appreciated the free T-shirts and the nearly full building after the last couple games where the fans were few and far between.  Plus it's always fun seeing how one of the better "smaller" conference teams is able to defeat a team from the SEC.

Exterior view of the Historic Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee St.

Opening tip between the Blue Raiders and Rebels

MTSU with the flush

Having an SEC team in their building certainly brought the fans out to this one

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