When we made the NCAA’s, I’d check into my hotel and we’d have boxes in our room full of stuff to wear, shirts, hats, sweats, wind suits. If we were in a cold weather city, parkas and winter wear. It was insane.

We’d also get new sneakers to wear – Nike would send them to us before the conference tournament and before the NCAA’s. If they were launching a new brand/style, we’d usually wear them as well.

I too have been to hospitality suites at the NCAA Tournament, and the shoe companies give stuff away like it’s water – sometimes it’s excess stuff from ad campaigns that have just ended, or it’s new stuff for new products.

You’d be shocked how many pairs of sneakers a team goes through in a season. When I was mananger, we’d get 3 pairs for pre season (pre October 15), then 2 pair for October 15-start of regular season, then every 2 months or so we’d get new sneakers for the kids. Back then, there wasn’t as much concern about the players selling their shoes on the internet or ebay, so we wouldn’t collect the old shoes. I have big feet, so I got hooked up by our Nike rep. I went about 18-20 years without buying new shoes as I was given the same quantity of gear and shoes as a player.

Going off on a slightly different tangent, I miss the scorer’s table banner that featured the names of all the schools at that regional site, plus the name of the host institution, whether it was a school or a conference.

They’ve been supplanted by those huge electronic display boards that have the names of the two schools playing in the current game. That to me seems utterly pointless. Everyone in the arena knows who’s playing and so do 99 percent of the people watching the game on TV.

The only site I’ve seen so far in the Men’s tournament that uses the electronic banner is Omaha, all the rest are using very good quality banners. And the Womens Tournament still has the banners with all of the teams on them.

Going off on a slightly different tangent, I miss the scorer’s table banner that featured the names of all the schools at that regional site, plus the name of the host institution, whether it was a school or a conference.

They’ve been supplanted by those huge electronic display boards that have the names of the two schools playing in the current game. That to me seems utterly pointless. Everyone in the arena knows who’s playing and so do 99 percent of the people watching the game on TV.

100% agreed- I miss those as well.

Did anyone see the lack of logo creep on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated? (The one with Kansas’ Brandon Rush on the cover.) I don’t know if the basketball is blocking the Adidas logo, (I think the Jayhawks are a three-stripe school) but the only things on the uni are the school name, player number, and an American Flag. Does anyone know if this is an authentic jersey? I grew up in Oklahoma so I’m not a Kansas fan, but I have to admit I like the uncluttered look.

I think that the NCAA does not allow brand logos on the tops of basketball jerseys, just the shorts.
Sorry, I don’t have pics.

They’ve been supplanted by those huge electronic display boards that have the names of the two schools playing in the current game. That to me seems utterly pointless. Everyone in the arena knows who’s playing and so do 99 percent of the people watching the game on TV.

http://qconline.myca...

Kyle at IU said:

How about the CONFERENCE tournament floors? I noticed that the Big Ten managed to make their own entire floor for the big ten tournament in indianapolis, since they have Conseco Fieldhouse for the men and women for the foreseeable future. It featured this crazy pinwheel thing (minus all the words and the “08″) at center-court. This was the only floor I noticed for the conference tourneys that was completely conference-specific.

By the way, the pinwheel is an ingenious logo. It (for the most part) incorporates each school’s color combos in an eye-pleasing design. Good job, Big Ten.

this video gives a decent idea of how the B10 floor looked. Note the lack of NBA 3-point lines, meaning it’s an entirely different court from the Pacers’. (Also, at past Big Ten events at Conseco, I’ve seen the Pacers’ floor chilling in pieces in the basement under the stands)

I had almost put that court design out of my mind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen boundary lines that friggen wide.

Kyle at IU said:

How about the CONFERENCE tournament floors? I noticed that the Big Ten managed to make their own entire floor for the big ten tournament in indianapolis, since they have Conseco Fieldhouse for the men and women for the foreseeable future. It featured this crazy pinwheel thing (minus all the words and the “08″) at center-court. This was the only floor I noticed for the conference tourneys that was completely conference-specific.

By the way, the pinwheel is an ingenious logo. It (for the most part) incorporates each school’s color combos in an eye-pleasing design. Good job, Big Ten.

this video gives a decent idea of how the B10 floor looked. Note the lack of NBA 3-point lines, meaning it’s an entirely different court from the Pacers’. (Also, at past Big Ten events at Conseco, I’ve seen the Pacers’ floor chilling in pieces in the basement under the stands)

And I could be wrong, but I think the giant NCAA midcourt logos are actually done with temporary paint, not a decal. The smaller NCAA logos and ribbons are decals.

I’m not saying you’re wrong, cause I’m not sure myself, but the big blue balls look too scuffed up to be painted on.