Avery Johnson court finished

 
Thursday marked the completion of the newly resurfaced basketball court, a court soon-to-be named after Brooklyn Nets head coach Avery Johnson in the F.G. Clark Activity Center.
Johnson played point guard for the Jaguars in 1986-88 and led the nation in assists his senior year with 13.3 per game. As a professional coach Johnson holds the highest winning percentage in NBA history and set the record for reaching the 150-win plateau.
“It resurrects tradition and the people that has helped our program to be on top, and for this floor to be named the Avery Johnson floor and to have his signature on it just says volumes about how we feel about the respect what the others have done for our program as we try to keep the respectability by winning basketball games,” men’s basketball head coach Roman Banks said.
This is the first time the court has been totally resurfaced to its bare wood since men’s and women’s basketball moved to the center in 1976, in the past the court has only been screened and recoated every four years.
The new court cost around $20,000 to get done, according to athletics director Dr. William Broussard.
“We are trying to make the facility a lot more attractive for a number of reason one being when people visit we want them to leave with a good impression of Southern University,” SU Manager of Operations Welton Bowie said.
The court has a new center logo that has a Columbia blue and gold SU design, and around the borders is a darker stain with the school’s name around the edges.
Derick Beltran, a shooting guard for the men’s team, said that the improvement is well needed and with a new court, new team, and a new coaching staff, brings a new generation of what’s to come with southern university men’s basketball team.
“It’s going to be exciting, based on what we did last year our fan base is where it needs to be,” Beltran said. “I feel that we got the student body as well as the community back to how it was in the 80s and early 90s when we were winning all those games.”
But with the improvements to the court raises the issue with the Minidome roof. The roof was damaged in hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, which causes it to leak whenever it rains.
How far along the university is in getting a new roof is unknown, but Bowie insures that the roof is a top priority on a list of improvements to the Minidome.
“Pricing on how much it would cost to get the roof fixed on the mini dome hasn’t been estimated upon, but they do know that its going to be a project that’s going to need help from the state,” Bowie said.
The new court is just another addition to the slew of improvements the athletics department is doing to improve the face of Southern athletics.
“We just want make sure that we can do as many upgrades to the facility that would help attract even more students to come to activities that’s here not just for homecoming week but to come to functions over here and feel good about the facility when they leave in terms of the look and cleanliness and everything else about it,” sai