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How in the world can you feel at home in a place you’re visiting for the first time?
That’s exactly how I felt as I walked into Kansas basketball’s Allen Fieldhouse ahead of UNC’s early-season showdown with the Jayhawks, who are celebrating their 70th season inside “The Phog.”
As someone with a “Basketball Jones,” who grew up in a small North Carolina town, I learned at an early age that there are two seasons in the “Hoop State” — basketball season and not-basketball season.
Roughly 1,160 miles from my hometown of Bladenboro, Allen Fieldhouse felt so familiar. It’s the same feeling I get every time I walk into Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, UNC’s Dean Smith Center and N.C. State’s Reynolds Coliseum.
Diving a little deeper for the North Carolina hoopheads, it’s the same cozy feeling I got as a kid when I walked into Carter Gym, the former home of Campbell basketball.
For decades, that small gym in Buies Creek served as the hub of the Campbell Basketball School, which was considered the top summer camp in the nation. If you need validation for that claim, Michael Jordan, John Wooden, Bob Cousy and Pete Maravich were among the lengthy list of legends to visit Campbell for the annual camp.
Given the current landscape of a debate-driven world centered around the need for constant comparisons, particularly on social media, it would be easy to lean into measuring up Allen Fieldhouse against the home courts in North Carolina.
But, for me, it’s less about a list of rankings or which program has the upper hand and more about the emotions that each place evokes for fans, players and coaches alike.
Phog Allen, James Naismith and the rules of ‘basket ball’
History hits you before you even walk into Allen Fieldhouse.
The statue of Phog Allen, dubbed the “father of basketball coaching,” greets you outside of the fieldhouse — which was named for Allen when it opened in 1955 — at the entrance to the Booth Family Hall of Athletics.
Just up the way, a…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/im-north-carolina-kansas-basketballs-090540899.html
Author : The Fayetteville Observer
Publish date : 2024-11-11 09:05:00
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