NU falling behind in regard to hoops practice facilities
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BY BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star
Sesame Street came to town, and suddenly, Rick Barnes was dodging volleyballs.
That’s a not-too-dramatized account of life with University of Texas basketball before a $12 million practice facility opened in the fall of 2003.
At Oklahoma, women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale refers to her team’s practice gym as a “laboratory,” where players can shoot free throws whenever they want, as much as they want, with no worries of when the men’s team will suddenly invade.
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Basketball practice facilities
Nebraska is the only Big 12 Conference school without a basketball practice facility or current plans or fundraising designated for one. Husker Extra'...
* Name: Lt. Jack Whetsel Jr. Practice Facility.
* Cost: $8 million.
* Completed: 2006.
* Location: attached to north side of the Ferrell Center.
* Notes: It’s 67 steps from the women’s locker room to the practice gym. En route, you bypass Gray’s Gym, a strength and conditioning center that is about twice the size of Baylor’s previous weight room. Included is a Hall of Honor entry plaza. Coaches’ offices also overlook the practice gym.
Oklahoma
* Name: Bob and Ann Coleman Men’s Basketball Center.
* Cost: $17.1 million (includes other renovations to Lloyd Noble Center).
* Completed: 2001.
* Location: attached to south side of Lloyd Noble Center.
* Notes: The 70,000 square-foot addition includes two full-sized courts — one for the women, one for the men. New offices overlook the practice gyms. New film rooms, training rooms and locker rooms were included with the addition, along with a full-sized weight room.
Texas
* Name: Denton A. Cooley Pavilion.
* Cost: $12 million.
* Completed: 2003.
* Location: attached to south side of the Erwin Center.
* Notes: How good is the Longhorn’s two-story, 44,000 square foot facility? Top-notch enough for the Houston Rockets to call this home for a couple of weeks in October for their preseason training camp. Two basketball courts are on the upper level, atop the locker rooms and players lounge, which features flat-screen TVs, video game consoles and leather recliners.
That’s thanks to $17.1 million of improvements and expansions to Lloyd Noble Center in 2001.
Charlie Melton, associate strength and conditioning coach for the Baylor men’s basketball team, is thankful he’s no longer lugging 70 pounds of medicine balls 200 yards across a parking lot for a practice at the campus recreation center.
An $8 million practice facility, opened in 2006, ended what Melton described as “terrible” practice conditions.
“They’d drop a curtain and give you one-third of the floor,” Melton said, “and the whole time there’s girls watching our guys, or there’s guys right next to us playing pick-up.”
Those close to the Texas program described similar conditions in 2003, when the Longhorns were preparing for the NCAA Final Four. Volleyballs flying over the dividers of the recreation center, it seemed, caused some eye-rolling frustration.
That’s what happened when the Erwin Center, a multipurpose facility, hosted a special event, like Sesame Street, and kicked out its main tenants.
“They were orphans,” said Jim Baker, Texas associate athletic director for events and operations. “They really had no place to go.”
Oh, worry not. The Longhorns now have a cozy home, attached to the south side of the 31-year old Erwin Center.
Two floors, 44,000 square feet. Two practice gyms — one for the men, one for the women, with built-in video cameras for filming practices. A players’ lounge, boasting leather recliners, flat-screen TVs and video-game consoles.
The weight room and athletic-training facilities are so top-notch that the NBA Houston Rockets also call this home for their preseason training camp in October.
“We’ve got everything we need down here. Everything’s just top-of-the-line,” said Texas sophomore Matt Hill, a Lincoln native. “They’re always going to get everything they want, and they’re always going to be up there at the top, first-class.”
Nebraska, meanwhile, is the only Big 12 Conference school without either a basketball practice facility, or current plans or fundraising designated for one.
***
It’s not just a Texas thing.
Iowa State is currently planning and raising $35 million, some of which would be used to build a practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball.
Kansas State was recently approved for $45 million in athletic-related improvements by the Kansas Board of Regents. That would include a new basketball practice facility and a hall of fame at Bramlage Coliseum. Missouri attached a practice gym to its new Mizzou Arena when it was built in 2004.
First-year Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik has stipulations in his contract that call for groundbreaking for a practice facility within three years. The school is currently raising funds.
By this fall, Texas A&M is expected to complete its $22 million expansion to Reed Arena. It’s 68,000 square feet of practice gyms, locker rooms, fancy rotunda entrances, weight rooms, meeting rooms, video rooms and athletic-training facilities.
Nebraska has Mabel Lee Hall.
***
Nebraska men’s coaches joke that the Huskers’ transition defense looks a lot better when practicing at Mabel Lee Hall.
That, of course, is because the court, tucked away in the upper corner of the two-floor classroom building, is 10 feet shorter than regulation size.
Mabel Lee Hall is almost a mile from Nebraska’s home at the Devaney Sports Center. There are no available locker rooms. Players drive themselves or carpool to practice. Managers scramble to find campus security to unlock classrooms so the team can watch video.
Yet, as Nebraska basketball coaches Connie Yori and Doc Sadler prepare for postseason play, that’s been the site of several recent practices, what with high school state tournaments at the Devaney Center. In some years, the women’s team has also had to use Nebraska Wesleyan’s Snyder Arena.
To be fair, the trek to Mabel Lee Hall doesn’t happen often. Normally, Sadler said, having the Devaney Center court isn’t a problem. He appreciates the opportunity to practice on the same court his team plays on, almost every day.
“What more could you ask for?” Sadler said. “But sometimes, that’s not the answer people want to hear.”
By people, Sadler means recruits.
“Two or three other people are telling them there’s no commitment because there’s no practice facility,” Sadler said. “And I tell them, ‘We don’t need one,’ and the next coach recruiting him says, ‘Well, what did you expect him (Sadler) to say?’ Three or four people are telling him different things than you.
“I don’t know that (a practice facility) helps you win games, but it helps you recruit players that win games. Unfortunately, I think that’s what has come into recruiting, is materialistic things.”
Said Melton, the Baylor strength coach: “The players kind of need to feel big-time to act big-time. You know what I mean? You need the bells and whistles.”
Others say a practice facility is a functional need.
“There was a concert, there was graduation ceremonies, a wrestling match, a gymnastics event, and you didn’t have your floor,” said Oklahoma’s Coale. “It’s nice to be able to have just the ability to know that we can practice at the time we’re supposed to practice every single day, no matter what.”
Texas’ Baker said the reason behind practice facilities is a combination of recruiting and functional needs, with one common goal in mind: showing commitment.
“With everything Coach Barnes has done for the program,” Baker said, “for him to elevate it and get the best recruits here, if we were committed to basketball, we had to have a facility that they could showcase it and say that Texas is definitely a basketball school, too, not just football.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.
