For the Villanova-Kansas and Wisconsin-Davidson games Friday night in the Midwest regional in Detroit, Ford Field is going for a novel approach.

As done at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, many football arenas which host basketball games have always put the court in one end of the stadium and placed seats on one side of the court. But this season, in Detroit and Houston, the courts are going smack dab in the middle of the stadium. With seats all around (see below link for a picture) the court, it will be able to fit 70,000 people, and will be a new feeling for the players - especially for jump shooters with nothing behind the baskets.

As the New York Times reports (no, it’s not Stephen Danley), the court is also 27 inches above the ground, much like it is at Vanderbilt or Minnesota.

I can’t say if this will help one team or the other, but anything that could screw up a guy like Mario Chalmers or Brandon Rush is a good thing for ‘Nova.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 2:43 pm and is filed under City, Men's Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.