IT’S DONE: National champion Gamecocks purchase Final Four floor. Here’s why and how much.
Columbia — It’s a good (or rather, extremely pleasant) problem to have.
The Colonial Life Arena is running out of space to exhibit all of the hardware earned by South Carolina’s three-time national champion women’s basketball team. The most recent: the original center-court cutout from Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse earlier this month, where the Gamecocks defeated Iowa for the championship.
“We’re proud, of the success and of the team,” said Maria Hickman, USC’s executive associate athletics director and sport administrator for women’s basketball. “Just happy to have that opportunity.”
Connor Sports, which has been creating NCAA Tournament courts since 2006, offered the floor for sale to the winner team after the Gamecocks won 87-75 and finished 38-0. USC, of course, wanted to acquire it, having won titles in 2017 and 2022.
The center courts from those championships are hanging on the walls flanking the lobby of CLA. The one from Cleveland, with its distinctive guitar-pick shape, will have to find a home somewhere in the building.
At least it should take up less room than the 2017 Final Four logo, which featured points of a star and the Dallas skyline, and probably the 2022 one as well. The court from Minneapolis that year was the design of a compass face, stretched to include “Final Four” across the middle.
Hickman said the new floor would take “a little while” to arrive at CLA and would not be completed before the 2024-25 season began. It must be shipped to Columbia for reconstruction, and the 2022 one was not hung until halfway through the 2022-23 season.
The logo and 10 more panels cost $86,946, including shipping. These panels will be carved into picture frames and pendants for fans to purchase. Artsman, a sports collector company, offers the remaining floor pieces for sale on its website.
This season, CLA refurbished the trophy case above the lobby, extending it end to end. The reason for this was to accommodate USC’s seven SEC regular-season championship trophies (one of which is a large, bulky trophy) and seven SEC Tournament Championship trophies.
The Gamecocks have more coming to that case as well, after again winning each title this year.
The very plain national championship trophies are just across from that trophy case in their own special display, complete with a TV showing title game highlights and National Player/Coach of the Year trophies for A’ja Wilson, Aliyah Boston, and Dawn Staley.
That will also require some adjustments.
“We have some shelving in those,” Hickman said, laughing. “There’s room togrow.”
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