Hi Mods, I don't want to be redundant but yesterday on POD-UP with Shane Matthews, Shane and Mike Morgan made brief mention that a "NEW" Basketball Practice Facility was in the works. I am not sure if this relates to bgator85's post below, on July 2023, about "improvements" to the existing center. Perhaps someone in the "know" may be able to clarify. https://facilities.ufl.edu/library/prjdocs/00102172.pdf Shane and Mike seemed to suggest a brand new one. They also mentioned UF Basket-Ball just got a one million contribution from one of the big donors (Not Hathcock) - another one of the familiar names, sorry I forget who exactly. Just an FYI.
Biggest question . Where will we put all the Final Four mid courts that we currently mount, if we keep accumulating them?
They haven't changed anything on the facilities page, thought they may have already started because they wanted it ready for fall 2025. A renovation would be fine, but a brand new facility would be completely earned. One even closer to the O'Dome and the football facility would be ideal since they eat over there. Or just go a little grander with the reno. Some initial concept renderings that went around. New Facilities | Gator Boosters - Year In Review Would be nice if they finally moved Swimming & Diving into a new facility over by SW Rec. Would open up the perfect space for a new practice gym.
Now that we do indeed have a "GOLDEN" coach, perhaps your concern going forward is somewhat alleviated.
There are a lot of great coaches that have zero NCs. I do not expect, merely because a thing happened once, a thing will happen again. Consider all the “what if’s” we are hashing out here don’t line up? It’s like holes in Swiss cheese: they have to line up just right to get through. I do expect we will compete regularly. Winning it is too rare to expect.
Fair enough, but if current events are any indication, Gator Nation expectations at competing at a higher level are excellent, when compared to the previous replacement for Billy D. I am not knocking the other guy, in fact I was very supportive, perhaps too much so. But you make excellent points, we both have probably seen some EXCEPTIONAL coaches fail to bring home the big prize over our basketball fandom. A few names I think of: Depaul legend Ray Meyer Houston legends: Guy Lewis, Kelvin Sampson Temple Legend: John Chaney Illinois legend: Lou Henson Eddie Sutton: (numerous colleges) Bob Huggins: (numerous colleges) Many more. It is amazing UF has 3 titles since 06. I have enjoyed them all. (and the near misses)
I'm not saying there is no correlation. There are things we can do to enlarge the holes in each slice of Swiss cheese to amplify the likelihood of lining them up.
I’ve heard people talking about repeating again. I think that’s a tall order and shouldn’t be expected when you lose your whole senior backcourt. I’m just elated we won this one…I will never forget it!
I'd like to retain the O-Dome, with its uniqueness and history/identification with basketball, as the basketball-only facility. The two premier sports, football and basketball, would share that area.
I assume at some point in the next 15-20 years we will be talking about a new arena. Maybe sooner in response to other SEC investments. It's fine for now after the renovation, but there is only so much you can do. Not a great basketball specific venue since it was designed to be multi-purpose. That said, lot of other things need to happen first. Biggest of which is getting swimming & diving to a new venue. Was supposed to happen years ago. Overdue and it would better serve the campus community with a modern space elsewhere.
Yeah, some of the schools around here have "new" larger arenas, but still have their older arenas for other sports. For instance, the NC State and UNC women's basketball teams play in their older, smaller arenas. Will be interesting to see what happens, but I wouldn't be surprised to eventually see a new basketball arena built over near the baseball/softball/lacrosse complex
