On New Year's Eve, I took the 50 mile trek up the road to Greensboro to watch UNCG and NC State play in a non-conference basketball game at the Greensboro Coliseum.
For the first time in the school's history, UNCG this year has moved all of their home basketball games to the GC. In year's past, the school would play a couple of selected games there (usually involving an ACC team). In fact, I saw Duke play UNCG there in December, 2005.
However, this year, their entire home schedule is played at the Coliseum (including their Southern Conference games). UNCG's on-campus facility is tiny Fleming Gymnasium, which was a very intimate facility. The Greensboro Coliseum is adjacent to the UNCG campus - in fact, Chris can walk to it from his off-campus apartment in 10 minutes.
In conjunction with the move, UNCG (a mid-low-major school) plans to schedule a number of high-major schools. this year alone, Clemson, Wake Forest, NC State, and Maryland have already played there or are scheduled to visit (and Duke is rumored to be coming next year).
The Greensboro Coliseum is a massive venue (seating 23,500 in its normal configuration for basketball). For the UNCG games this year, they use an alternative configuration where they curtain off the majority of the upper deck as well as large portions of the lower bowl behind the baskets.
Our seats were in the 4th row of the upper deck. The game itself was competitive through about the first TV timeout of the 2nd half. At that point, NC State slowly pulled away for a comfortable win.
I always enjoy attending games at the Coliseum. For a college basketball fan, the Coliseum is a historic arena. It has hosted a number of NCAA tournament regionals, was the long time home of the ACC Tourney, and was the site of the 1974 Final Four where NC State slew the UCLA Goliath.
After the game, I joined Chris and Tony and some of their friends for a couple of beers, wings, and nachos at JP Looneys right off campus. (Looneys has a special place in my heart, as I watched Pitt's upset of #2 WVU in 2007 there after a UNCG game).
