Toughest Arenas in the Big Ten per BT coaches!

[Blimpy]

Mackey Arena by a wide margin of coaches best climate for basketball, fans are unbelievable!
MY list as of today:
Purdue - Hands down
Nebraska - great crowd
Rutgers - can rock
Michigan ST.
Maryland-
Indiana- great history, need to tear it down start over.
Illinois

 

[tjreese]

Mackey Arena by a wide margin of coaches best climate for basketball, fans are unbelievable!
MY list as of today:
Purdue - Hands down
Nebraska - great crowd
Rutgers - can rock
Michigan ST.
Maryland-
Indiana- great history, need to tear it down start over.
Illinois

Indiana is a safety concern. Not only are fans too close as recently shown when a ref got to hear one and threw him out, but there just isn't enough room outside the lines. First row needs to go and teams moved back so the ref doesn't have to attempt to provide three feet to throw ball in bounds when contested or players twisting ankles on others too close.. Additionally, periodic checking of I beams should be mandatory and droning of mantra should be moved away from TV and those with brain activity

 

[boilerzz]

 

[Chi-Boiler]

Indiana is a safety concern. Not only are fans too close as recently shown when a ref got to hear one and threw him out, but there just isn't enough room outside the lines. First row needs to go and teams moved back so the ref doesn't have to attempt to provide three feet to throw ball in bounds when contested or players twisting ankles on others too close.. Additionally, periodic checking of I beams should be mandatory and droning of mantra should be moved away from TV and those with brain activity

I've always thought the same thing about that court and others as well. Coaches barely have room on the sidelines to stand. Players inbounding the ball, same thing. I think Allen Fieldhouse is similar but it's hard to tell because their benches are on the same side as the main court cameras.

 

[Born Boiler]

My favorites far and away are our own beloved Mackey Arena and Illinois’ Assembly Hall (forget all about that B.S. State Farm rebranding). They’re the round mounds of rebound from the 60s, and I was around to see both open. Mackey is more intimate and much louder, but I also love the looks inside and out of the Spaceship on the Prairie. The Martians landed in Champaign. George Jetson, meet Chief Illiniwek. Woo-Woo-woo-woo. Woo-Woo-woo-woo.

(Speaking of, did you know the real Illini tribes were actually killed off and made extinct by their fellow “native” Americans, whose alleged descendants whined so long and loud that the U of I’s revered Chief got killed off, too? And who should feel insulted? The Illini spirit, not posers.)

I’ve also been to Crisler, Breslin, Carver-Hawkeye, old St. John’s, the Kitties’ Cathouse turned Litter Box and that cryin’ baby cradle upside-down in helltown. It’s always looked like some old white swayback ready for glue. Fans in the upper levels can’t even see the fans on the opposite side. Collapsing roof in the way. It’s so sickening that it made me exit and barf in my first visit for a 1972 concert. That and half-baked pizza with whiskey. Boilered up before it was a thing.