Thursday, September 12, 2013

Rhode Island Keeps It Simple With New Court Design

Rhode Island keeps from going over the top on its new court design. (nbcsports.com)


The newest college basketball fad is redesigning the basketball courts to be covered in trees, national monuments or tiger stripes.

Schools are trying to take a piece of their environment and enshrine it in the court. It makes sense, and is a nice gesture, but rarely is it done well.

When Rhode Island announced it was unveiling a new court design Wednesday, more of the same was expected. Yet URI didn't give in to peer pressure and managed to create a design that was not over the top, but still easy on the eyes. Rhode Island has included plenty of color with the two-tone logo at half court and the darker wood inside the 3-point arc, and proudly displays the athletics website and Twitter handle on both sides of the court.

The goal of any court design is to easily let people watching at home know where the game is taking place and to add to the atmosphere of the arena. By looking at this design, it is easy to figure out what school the court belongs to, so what else is needed? Is the action on the court not interesting enough that fans need something else to look at during games?

If Rhode Island wanted to take a piece of its environment or history and place it on the court, top choices probably would be the state bird (Rhode Island Red - a type of chicken) tree (Red Maple), flower (Violets) or maybe Peter Griffin from Family Guy.

It's probably best to stick with the final product above.

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