FLOORS for 2014-15

     Coaches, conferences, uniforms, rule changes, and FLOORS! Below are photos of new floors debuting this year in college hoops.

North Carolina State

...not bad

Northern Illinois 

...nice touch with the eyes.

Xavier 

...when I think of Xavier basketball, the skyline of Cincinatti will never come to my mind but whatever. Trending obviously.

Washington 

 

...totally buy in because of the Space Needle. Good job.

Utah 

...keeping it simple looks good.

Wyoming 

...facilities renovations abound in Laramie and love that reminder of altitude. Wish I had a better shot.

Baylor 

...despise Baylor so I was hoping the ugly floor would have remained but the arms race never ends! 

Dayton 

...if there was anything other than Long Beach State's floor and Western Kentucky's floor that dominated floors was the OLD Dayton floor. Debuting this floor is not just upsetting but outright ugly. At least their new uniforms aren't as bad as this overthought, tradition killing floor. Good luck.

UC Irvine 

...another confusing one. I get that incorporating an anteater maybe challenging but I think UTEP upon initial sight. Seems lazy and non-creative.

Eastern Kentucky 

...good job.

Texas Tech 

...I guess today's hypersensitive, blameshifitng, culture wouldn't allow a "Guns Up" ode to Tech on the hardwood but reminds me of the Longhorns and A&M too much with the state logo right there smack-dab on the circle. Set your program apart!

Murray State 

...back to the Ohio Valley and Murray States new floor dons the improved logo. Sucker for the old one but not a bad look. 

IUPUI 

...I get it but this is a classic example of when trying too hard goes wrong. Unless this turns it around for the Jags, ugly, unacceptable, and who knew Indianapolis even had a skyline. For the casual college basketball fan, IUPUI, is Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Out of the ever changing Summit League.

     My take on what otherwise has nothing to do with the play on said floors. Everyone is trying to keep up with the latest this and that so I brought debuting floors. Always on the look and will be on watch for new ones. 

     Western Kentucky is still my favorite floor. So basic and yet so confusing because it doesn't include "Big Red", the best mascot in college basketball. Take that Syracuse.

     Going forward to 2015-2016 Long Beach State actually improves their floor with a more organized palm tree look. 

     But one will never forget arguably the best design ever emblazoned on a basketball floor 

Changes

     College hoops is almost upon us only a few weeks away. Anticipation is exciting and anxiously fueling me for one more year of fantastic basketball. After a great run last year that ended to a talented Arizona squad, Weber State has been picked to finish first in the preseason Big Sky Conference poll. Sixth out of the past seven seasons for those keeping score and you know as well as I that preseason polls amount to jack. A good sign nonetheless for the fans of the Weber State Wildcats. Last weekend, in Utah, I stopped inside the Dee Events Center to watch the Wildcats practice. Coach Rahe is focused and in control. The program has reflected this image, annually contending for Big Sky titles. A trip down memory lane as I was thinking of my time with the program, spending two seasons as Weber State student manager.

 

     

     Many conference changes. Here they are:

The Atlantic 10: Along with new logo 

the A10 welcomes Davidson from the SoCon bolstering an already strong basketball league.

The Atlantic Coast Conference adds Louisville. Yikes.

The American gets Tulane, Tulsa, and East Carolina by way of CUSA. 

The Big Sky adds the Vandals of Idaho.

The Big Ten will get Maryland and Rutgers, which has to be the new punching bag. 23 years and counting for the Scarlet Knights absence in the NCAA tournament. 

The Colonial welcomes former SoCon member, the Phoenix of Elon.

Conference USA has just one team coming in after three teams bailing. The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Same best floor logo and mascot.

The Southern Conference or SoCon adds more teams than any other league welcoming VMI, East Tennessee State, and Mercer.

The Sun Belt Conference adds Appalachian State and Georgia Southern primarily to strengthen their football.

     Listed below are this years new head coaches. Thanks to bsstate.com. Not listed is recently fired Hawaii head coach Gib Arnold. As of this blog entry a new hire as not been confirmed.

Obviously Manhattan head coach Steve Masiello had quite the time this off season, leaving the Jaspers to coach South Florida, only to be let go by the Bulls after they found out Masiello hadn't yet completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky. Manhattan welcomed him back as head coach on the condition he completed his degree over the summer, which he did. So interesting that I found this photo from Steve's twitter account dated October 14th 2014.

Have never been the biggest fan of Coach as blogged about 2 seasons ago but I must say that I hope for the best!