ORLANDO, Fla. – UCF may have found their identity in the new American Athletic Conference with a blacktop. The Knights revealed a unique, black-stained basketball court: the only court of its kind in college basketball.
The court, which was hyped up by UCF's athletic department using the hashtag #OperationBlacktop, was installed overnight Sunday and revealed to players and members of the media on Monday.
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"The court is part of our branding," UCF men's basketball head coach Donnie Jones told Local 6 News partner Florida Today. "When you turn on the TV, you will know when UCF is playing."
The new flooring pattern at CFE Arena has lighter wood on the inside of the 3-point line and black-stained wood throughout the rest of the court. It has a large stacked UCF logo and includes #ChargeOn social media hashtags on the sideline as well as promotion of the @UCFKnights Twitter handle.
Connor Sports Flooring manufactured the flooring, with Praters Flooring sanding and re-finishing the blacktop. UCF's in-house designer Carlos Phillips, a former track and field athlete at the University of Florida, designed the court. Phillips has never designed a basketball court before.
"I can't think of another court in college basketball that is like this one," Phillips said.
The uniqueness of UCF's new blacktop should help the Knights with recruiting and with gaining more TV exposure.
"We've had some pockets of success over the last three years and I think now that we're moving to the next level it's an important time for us to continue to build," said Jones, who recently signed a contract extension through 2018.