So many of the college basketball games being televised right now are taking place in arenas where NBA teams play. When the college teams are playing, the floors say “NCAA” and the name of the staduim, and when the NBA teams play (sometimes the next day), there are the NBA logos etc. on the floor. My questions are: are the floors the same, with different logos, or are they different floors? How do they change what appears to be painted on so quickly? What is the process of changing out a floor, if that’s what happens, and how long does it take?
I thank you in advance for your help in my quest for knowledge.
The floor is made of a number of sections, which have to be assembled to complete the playing surface. This means that it is possible to have sections made with different logos for special events such as the NCAA tournament.
Putting a floor out completely can take several hours depending on how experienced the crew is. Once the pieces are laid out, they have to be fitted together and the floor has to be checked to make sure it is level and that no edges are exposed.
I think the basketball court floors are the same pieces of wood flooring that the arenas usually use and they just put some sort of temporary NCAA logo on them and temporarily cover up the pro team logo.
The NCAA insists that all pro team logos be covered up during the course of the event. I went to a first round NCAA game in Pittsburgh several years ago, at the Mellon Arena aka Pittsburgh Civic Center aka Igloo building, and the Penguins’ Stanley Cup Championship banners which normally hang from the rafters there were all hidden away.
Along those lines, it looks like there are two three-point lines in some of the games–one connecting to the top of the key(?), and one a little farther out. Now, I know that there are sometimes differences between the pros and college and high school (the hash marks in football comes to mind), but I don’t really like basketball, especially pro basketball. Are the pros using a three-point line that’s further out than college and high school?
Yes, the NBA 3-point line is 23’ 9" from the basket, but the NCAA line is 19’9".
Most of the first and second round games were played in arenas that do not primarily host NBA games, incidentally. The only NBA arena being used was in Charlotte, although Cleveland and Indianapolis hosted games. Chicago will host games in Allstate Arena rather than the United Center. Indy’s games were in the RCA Dome, and Cleveland’s games were in the arena of Cleveland State University.
I hope I can ask this here without straying from the topic…
What is the story behind that semi-circle directly under the basket, in the key?
That semi-circle you are referring to is only used in the NBA. It is the “legal charging” area. If an offensive player runs into a defensive player in that area, it is not an offensive foul, although it would be in college basketball.
The theory is that a defender not in an area to block a shot or prevent a player from getting to the basket should be able to draw an offensive foul.
I’m confused, do you mean that he should not be able to draw a foul?
If you run an arena, you need to keep it booked with events to keep $ coming in. You have to look at clients and say, “If you want a circus here, we can have 4,000 bails of straw and 29 tons of dirt on demand.”
You need to tell potential clients (NCAA) that if they want the logos, you’ll find a way to cover or create whatever the hell they want! If it means pasting them on, or oredering several thousand dollars of new maple hardwood sections, then that is what you do.
That is precisely it. Inside those little circles under the basket the offensive foul of “charging” cannot be called. The theory behind the rule is that fans like NBA players driving in for dunks so the refs are prohibited from calling the charge right when the defensive player is in that area under the basket.
It’s not that it’s supposed to encourage dunks, but it’s supposed to discourage defenders from drawing offensive fouls that are unwarranted.
A player standing directly under the basket is in no position to block a shot or prevent the player from driving toward the basket. The offensive player is already at the basket.