NC State Basketball Game 10- Charleston Southern & Reynolds Colisuem

A little different NC State basketball post for your Saturday afternoon.  I will return to my usual posts tomorrow when the Wolfpack returns to the court to play Wofford.  I had been excited for awhile to attend one of NC State's Heritage Classic Games this weekend at Reynolds Coliseum.  Reynolds was the on campus arena for the NC State men's basketball team starting in 1949 running through the 1999 season when they relocated to their current home, the PNC Center, down the street near the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.

If you take a second to read the plaque outside the building it's a very important building on campus.  When I was a student at NC State I actually parked in the parking deck next to Reynolds and walked through a tunnel across the street to get to Poe Hall, which houses the College of Education.  I love Reynolds because it's on my little corner of NC State.  I walked by this place all the time for a few years and loved looking at the cool red doors on the outside and loved going to the few games that the Wolfpack played here every year.

The inside is in need of a little love.  In it's original form the building was nearly identical in lay out to Cameron Indoor at Duke, but was a larger building.  I posted two pictures, taken from similar places in both buildings, which do a pretty good job of showing some of the likenesses between two buildings.  The roof and seating bowl are the most obvious similarities.

State still plays their Women's Basketball games at Reynolds as well as wrestling and gymnastics too.  The configuration of the seats has changed a little bit since the seating bowl is much longer than the actual basketball court.  Step into the seating bowl on the ends of the arena and this is your view:

You're still not far from the court, but with only two men's games played there every year, and the other sports not needing the full 14,000 seats, the school placed a set of bleachers at the end of the basketball court.  The bleachers are temporary and can be moved or reconfigured for volleyball or concerts.  I have been in the building a few times when the bleachers are not even out and it's just one long big floor with a basketball court in the middle and two volleyball courts on each end.  

The concourses also show a lot of age in the building.  They are skinny and covered with a track.  The concession stands could double as a coat closet.  I decided not to snap a random picture of a student selling M&Ms in a concession stand, but here's a glance at the concourse.  

In spite of what it lacks in modern amenities, I still Reynolds.  NC State won two national championships playing their home games in this building and plenty of great players have walked through the doors to play in this building both for and against NC State.  So on to last night's game....

Reynolds is first come first serve on seating.  I got to the arena at 6, when the doors opened, and thought long and hard about where to sit.  I had thought about sitting along the sidelines, but I opted for a spot behind the basket next to the NC State bench.  The Wolfpack were taking on Charleston Southern who had already upset Ole Miss this year and gave Florida State a tough game in Tallahassee earlier in the year.  Plus the team was without starting shooting guard, and leading scorer, Trevor Lacey who was out with an ankle injury.  How did it turn out?

This was the score at the under 14 timeout.  State did a great job of coming out and shooting the basketball. Caleb Martin and Ralston Turner did a great job of shooting on the perimeter while Cat Barber did an excellent job of controlling the tempo of the game from the point.  BeeJay Anya and Kyle Washington played great defense too erasing several shots from Charleston Southern close to the basket.  As a side note, there was a current student sitting in my row who was thoroughly confused as to what to wear to the game.  Why would anyone wear Maryland shorts to an NC State game?

The Wolfpack played a great a game and walked away with the a 36 point victory against the Buccaneers which included a chunk of time played by the walk ons at the end of the game.  I was happy with the victory and could do the usual stats and breakdowns of field goal percentages, assist to turnover ratios, and harp on missed field goals, but it was nice to see one last game in Reynolds.

This weekend is the final time that the men's team will play at Reynolds before the university completely guts Reynolds and refurbishes the building this spring.  I might wander into the old building one more time for a women's game just to see it one more time.  The new Reynolds should be nice, complete with air conditioning, a smaller seating bowl, and a cool area to recognize some of the great athletes who have played sports at the school.  This short video from the Women's Basketball team YouTube channel show some of the renderings of what the building will look like when it reopens.