David Woods has never pulled a tape measure out inside Hinkle Fieldhouse and measured certain dimensions around the basket.
But he’s well aware of the mystique and aura the legendary building that opened almost 100 years ago on the Butler University campus in Indianapolis carries.
The 67-year-old award-winning sportswriter at the Indianapolis Star — who is a proud 1971 Urbana High School graduate and former News-Gazette staffer for 18 years — has covered the Butler men’s basketball team since 2001.
So when the eyes of college basketball turn towards Indiana next month, plenty of attention will rightly focus in on Hinkle.
Besides Hinkle, Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse and Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis, Assembly Hall in Bloomington and Mackey Arena in West Lafayette will serve as hosts for all 67 NCAA tournament games that will tip off in Indiana.
And Woods has a good idea of where teams will want to play their first-round game when they arrive in the Hoosier State.
“All of the 68 teams will want to be assigned to Hinkle,” Woods said. “It looks like a gym, and it is a gym. It has a modern videoboard, chairbacks and renovated restrooms, but it largely resembles the fieldhouse as built in 1928.”
Illinois is familiar with the building from a current and past perspective. Brad Underwood’s team notably had its final practice of the 2019-2020 season at Hinkle on March 12, 2020, before the Big Ten tournament and NCAA tournament was ultimately canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Illinois is 5-3 all-time at Hinkle, but the last game between Butler and Illinois in the facility was a 75-57 win by the Illini on Dec. 2, 1967.
Either way, Hinkle is home to history — both in real life and on the big screen. Danville native Gene Hackman had one of his more notable acting roles as Norman Dale, the coach of the fictional Hickory High School team portrayed in the 1986 classic movie “Hoosiers,” that filmed several scenes inside Hinkle.
Including the one where Hackman gets a tape measure to show his team that the larger-than-life feel of the fieldhouse was similar to the bandbox gym Hickory played its home games in.
Don’t expect Underwood do to the same with Trent Frazier or any other Illini, but they will have to adjust their eyes a bit. Because fans will be allowed to attend, with the NCAA capping capacity at 25 percent for each of the venues. Hinkle will host first-round, second-round and Sweet 16 games
And if you’re a lucky spectator who gets a ticket in the 9,100-seat venue, Woods has some suggestions to check out at Hinkle — socially distanced, of course.
“There is a collection of memorabilia in cases along the main corridor, including the 1929 national championship trophy awarded to Butler by the Veteran Athletes of Philadelphia,” Woods said. “I also think it’s fun to walk up and down the ramps from floor level to the upper seating above the running track, and some fans love sitting in the crow’s nest on the north end.”
Woods has covered some memorable Butler games inside Hinkle, from buzzer-beaters by Avery Sheets to beat Illini nemesis Bruce Pearl when he coached Milwaukee in 2003 and Roosevelt Jones doing the same to Gonzaga in 2013. But Hinkle is more than just Butler basketball.
It’s a living capsule of how much basketball means in Indiana. And the fieldhouse will add a new chapter to its illustrious story next month.
“You can sense the history that was made there,” Woods said. “There is no better college basketball arena.”
from WordPress https://ift.tt/3q98QM8
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment