Fans of cool on-court designs in college basketball, I am sorry to report that the mountains have been removed from the UTEP hardwood floor ahead of the program’s move to the Mountain West Conference.
In a tweet posted to Twitter/X The Everything App, UTEP shocked us with a photo showing the new court with the caption “New court who this? *side eye emoji*”.
The previous court was used as the main playing floor at UTEP’s Don Haskins Center since 2021-22, thanks to a $100,000 donation that went toward arena improvements.
The now-retired Mountain Court design featured the Franklin Mountains with El Paso’s star on the bottom left mountain top, and at the top right the phrase “Glory Road” was placed to honor the legendary 1966 NCAA Championship run by Haskins and Texas Western (now UTEP of course).
The new court, sadly, appears to be missing the homage to the title team.
My immediate response to the social admin’s question was simple: “What happened to the mountains?”
So I asked the friendly folks over at the UTEP Athletics Communications Department, and received the following reply: “Moving into the Mountain West, we felt a ‘cleaner’ court better emphasized our institutional and conference branding. Additionally, given new commercial opportunities, we felt the new layout would provide partners greater visibility.”
The era of simplistic design continues, which frankly saddens me. We need more gaudy court designs, not empty canvases to appease corporate and/or paid sponsors.
Credit to UTEP, the new court is easier to look at. I simply enjoyed the synergy of seeing a majestic mountain range on the court, much like how fans, when sitting inside UTEP’s football stadium, are engulfed in the mountains of the southwest.
