The Sprouting Divot
January 5th, 2005, 02:07 AM
I just noticed that Tupper (12/31) claimed that the Vegas court wasn't any shorter than normal:
"You’re so close to the action. The playing floor is the same size as the Assembly Hall (the Illini coaches said they would not consider playing on a floor that didn’t measure 94 feet in length). You can hear players talk and easier than ever you can hear Illini coach Bruce Weber holler."
http://www.herald-review.com/blogs/marktupper/
This isn't right, is it? It sure looked smaller to me, and those two announcers (I think one of them was named Luther somethingorother) made mention of it periodically, although I wouldn't trust those guys further than I could throw them. It seemed like there wasn't enough runway for us to get up and go as much as usual in either of the games. I think on breaks we typically outrun our opponents as we draw closer to the basket, rather than at a constant pace down the court, and it looked to me like the court neutralized that advantage of ours.
"You’re so close to the action. The playing floor is the same size as the Assembly Hall (the Illini coaches said they would not consider playing on a floor that didn’t measure 94 feet in length). You can hear players talk and easier than ever you can hear Illini coach Bruce Weber holler."
http://www.herald-review.com/blogs/marktupper/
This isn't right, is it? It sure looked smaller to me, and those two announcers (I think one of them was named Luther somethingorother) made mention of it periodically, although I wouldn't trust those guys further than I could throw them. It seemed like there wasn't enough runway for us to get up and go as much as usual in either of the games. I think on breaks we typically outrun our opponents as we draw closer to the basket, rather than at a constant pace down the court, and it looked to me like the court neutralized that advantage of ours.