Tournament Prep

It’s a shame the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is one of the newspapers that places its content behind the pay wall because today’s edition has a great article on what is being done to get ready for the two court format. The article is by Jeff Slatton, the UALR beat writer. I’d suggest following him @JeffreySlatton on Twitter during the tournament. Update: a working link to the article.

First, remember it is the “Convention Center Court” not the “secondary court”. They don’t want it considered the secondary court. They brought in an additional basketball court and goals using the same company that did the set-up for the new Cowboys Stadium and will do the Final Four.

There is also additional lighting being used for the Convention Center court. The temporary lighting was installed yesterday.

The interesting thing to me was seating. I had anticipated the 1200 to 1500 additional seats would be portable bleachers. Instead they found a vendor that has portable chairback seating. The seats are installed on risers five feet up so you can see over the tables and benches. Sounds like fans will actually have a better view from those seats than they do from some of the lower level seats at Summit Arena.

Off-topic, if you are coming to the tournament, while you are there, check out a new photo exhibit in the convention center. Hot Springs was the birthplace of Major League Baseball spring training. There will be 24 photos of early major league players in Hot Springs during training.

Update: Democrat-Gazette editor adds mention of tournament and ASU-UALR match-up.