In recent years, college basketball has seen programs throughout the country come up with non-traditional designs. That will be the case for the folks in Long Beach.
The folks at Long Beach State knew that with their campus being just three miles from the shoreline, they could incorporate that into their new design. Along with placing “The Beach” on the front of their jersey’s, that have now designed a palm tree themed makeover for their court. Palm trees will frame the court, which will give it a feel of a Southern California beach.
College sports is quickly moving to these types of fads. In the last couple of years, we have seem some new innovative jerseys in basketball and football. It started a few years ago with the Blue field, that attracted folks to the Boise State football team. Oregon, in 2010 unveiled an orange and tan fir tree-line floor, which brought a ton of attention to the program. Later, Towson University put orange tiger stripes on their court. Cal State Bakersfield went with an all blue, while Northwestern discussed an all purple floor.
Coaches and administrators have given positive support to the floor. Also, fans throughout the area are chiming in, with mostly positive support. One fan on a Long Beach State message board wrote: “Classy, simple, gives us a personality and strengthens our brand as ‘The Beach,’”.
The first game to be played on the new floor will go to the women’s volleyball team this week. The men’s basketball team will not get a chance to play a game on the floor until November 10th, when they welcome North Alabama.
This is a pretty good idea for a program that seems to be gaining steam the last couple of years. Long Beach State has plenty of reasons to attract players to campus, but now this adds another one. Only time will tell if the new court becomes an advantage for the basketball team or not.
