Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Analysis:

Bern’s-Eye View: No college arena better than Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse

Allen Fieldhouse

Associated Press

Fans dressed in red and blue watch the second half of an NCAA college basketball game between Oklahoma State and Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan., Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014.

Stating subjectivity objectively is silly yet we do it all the time, and only with closer inspection do the claims either hold true or fall unfounded. Here’s an example, and I encourage you to put this one to the test, as some will do this weekend, because I’m prepared to stand by it: There might be equals, but no college basketball venue is better than Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse.

UNLV travels to No. 13 Kansas on Sunday, the finale of its 16-day stretch highlighted by three top-15 opponents and Wednesday’s trip to Wyoming. The game tips off at 1:30 p.m. Las Vegas time and will air on CBS.

Kansas is my alma mater, so there’s some obvious bias, but unlike most alumni I know I’m not much of a Jayhawks basketball fan. My relationship is more like an appreciation, and most of that stems from the feeling inside the place Kansas has called home since 1955.

There are plenty of tangible reasons for this. The student routines during pregame and free throws are usually entertaining, the pregame video is one of the best in the business and the place just gets freaking loud.

Much like North Carolina’s Dean Smith Center, where UNLV played in 2012, the banners also add to the Fieldhouse aesthetic. They’re simple, mostly blue and white, and voluminous. The only one that breaks the font mold hangs above the five national championship banners and cautions, Pay Heed, All Who Enter: Beware of the “Phog”.

The building is named for Forrest “Phog” Allen, the second and fourth coach in Kansas history. His statue stands outside the front entrance, a short walk away from the currently under construction DeBruce Center, which, among other things, will house James Naismith’s original rules of basketball. It’s almost impossible to attend even a routine Kansas game without feeling the game’s history around you.

Obviously the teams make the building great, but it feels like some of the opposite has happened, too. A game at Allen Fieldhouse is a bucket list item for some people, so there’s an enjoyment inherent in being one of the 16,300 in the building that night.

The feeling is not entirely unique to Kansas. Think about the best environments over the years at the Thomas & Mack Center, or at San Diego State’s Viejas Arena or The Pit at New Mexico. The peak moments provide a similar rush, it just comes more consistently at a place like the Fieldhouse.

In simple terms, it means the dead games are less dead and the classics are all-timers. The most electric the place ever felt to me was the hour leading up to what turned out to be a dud of a game.

In the 2008-09 season, Kansas lost at Missouri on a buzzer beater. When the Border War came to Lawrence a few weeks later featuring two top-15 teams the crowd was more hyped than usual and the Jayhawks raced out to a 45-19 halftime lead in an easy victory.

That game is commemorated on a panoramic poster that’s still sold around town; UNLV has a version just like it. Sitting courtside in the middle of that KU poster are two college students, Sun reporters Case Keefer and myself.

Whether we get a good game or not, I’m thrilled to come back here and feel the pulse inside that gym again. Even better to do it alongside Keefer, whom I first met in Allen Fieldhouse nearly eight years ago.

Again, obviously I have some bias based on personal history. I encourage you to create a little of your own history with the place and judge for yourself.

The Jayhawks had won 68 straight nonconference games in the Fieldhouse before San Diego State pulled the upset a year ago. That plus Kansas’ recent loss to Temple, which UNLV beat in New York City, give the Rebels hope.

My hope is that any UNLV fans who are making the trip get to the game early and really embrace the environment. I can’t guarantee you’ll like the outcome but the experience is second to none.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

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