Arena #171: Redhawk Center - Seattle vs. Pacific Lutheran

After a 990-day break due to COVID, I was finally able to restart Mission 351 with a visit to the Redhawk Center on the campus of Seattle University for Arena #171.  Since the Redhawk Center was the only Division I arena I had yet to visit in the state of Washington, it was imperative to get to a game there while out in the Pacific Northwest for the 2022 Phil Knight Invitational/Legacy tournaments over Thanksgiving weekend.  Unfortunately, the schedule makers didn't help me out much by making the only Seattle home game for the week and a half before Thanksgiving a Thanksgiving Eve matchup with Division III Pacific Lutheran.  I make it a goal to avoid non-D1 games as much as possible, but given the timing, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to get this venue checked off the list (especially knowing Seattle plays a number of their conference games downtown at the home of the NHL's Seattle Kraken, Climate Pledge Arena).

Seattle University is located just a couple miles east of what I would consider "Downtown Seattle" though it's surprisingly difficult to access via public transit.  As such, a drive to campus was required.  Parking was a bit challenging to find given the arena's location and the lack of clear parking directions even though lots were supposedly defined on the athletic department's website.  The outside of the arena isn't anything to write home about, but once inside, it's actually pretty nice for a low major Division I school.  Redhawk Center is one of the smallest home courts in all of Division I basketball, holding a miniscule 999 people.  I've been to smaller venues though... (Arena #127 - Hodge Center at USC Upstate for example as the smallest venue in Division I).  The arena only has about 9 rows of seats on each sideline and about 5 rows of seats behind one of the baskets to constitute the student section, though on this evening the student section was pretty empty.

Main entrance to the Redhawk Center

Love a good city skyline on a basketball court

The on-court action wasn't much to write home about on this night either as Pacific Lutheran was clearly overmatched as expected.  The Redhawks were able to get to the basket with ease and were hot from the perimeter as well in building a sizable lead at the half.  The start of the second half wasn't much better for Pacific Lutheran and with a 2 hour drive to Portland still to come, I decided to head out at the under 12 timeout as there was no way Pacific Lutheran was coming back in this one, which turned out to be accurate in a post-game check of the final score.

The Redhawks with some tough defense on a Pacific Lutheran drive

Arena #142: Jones Convocation Center - Chicago St. vs. Loyola (MD)

Started off Year 12 of Mission 351 with Arena #142 by finally making a stop at Chicago St. to complete all 13 venues in the state of Illinois.  Chicago St. rarely plays Division 1 home non-conference games so had to take advantage of the opportunity when they actually hosted the Loyola-Maryland Greyhounds during the first weekend of the season rather than taking my chances with a WAC conference game come January or February.  Honestly, my expectations of the crowd and the venue were pretty low heading into this one knowing that Chicago St. has been one of the worst schools in the nation the last number of years, but the game turned out to be reasonably competitive and the arena was actually really nice; though adding a videoboard of some sort would certain enhance the in-arena experience.  I don’t think there were more than 300-400 folks in attendance for the game since there’s obviously a lot of better things to do on a fall Saturday in Chicago than catch a 2 pm Cougars game, but the few that were there were engaged enough when Chicago St. was scoring.  Chicago St. showed some better than expected offense, but in the end their defense was just too porous in allowing the Greyhounds to out-shoot them 98-85.

Main entrance to the Jones Convocation Center at Chicago St.

Opening tip between the Cougars and the Greyhounds

Not a huge crowd, but everyone had great seats!