The Barn Gets a New Floor and it’s Absolute Fire

Photo: Twitter – @GopherMBB

So, 95% of the time, my twitter notifications annoy the fuck out of me. Not the likes or the retweets on our Twitter account (@RealMNSportsFan if you’re looking). No. Those notifications cause emotions that more closely mimic those I used to feel in my younger days when hearing the magic words at the end of a long night out… “let’s go back to my place”.

As someone who tries to keep up with the news around Minnesota sports, I set notifications for some of the bigger reporters, players, coaches, and teams around the Twin Cities. But, because of that, my phone is blowing up all day from the Twitter machine. My wife and boss would both probably appreciate the idea of throwing all of my devices out the window while driving over one of the many local overpasses or bridges.

But sometimes, like late this afternoon while I was getting ready to leave my day job, I’m reminded why those notifications are there:

The Barn got a fresh new look for the season.

A post shared by Gopher Men’s Basketball (@gophermbb) on Aug 6, 2018 at 2:10pm PDT

I don’t open too many tweets that leave me wide-eyed… but this one did. I originally saw this on the team’s Twitter account but threw the instagram pictures up because I figured they might look a little better from a platform that was built for pictures. This new court is unbelievably done. The bright wood makes it pop off of the maroon chairs. It has that throwback feel though, with the cursive “The Barn” logo outside of the perimeters. It’s absolutely perfect.

This isn’t the first time in recent history that this court has been redone. And before that, it had been A LONG TIME with the original floor. The original building was built in 1928, when it held a different name: “The University of Minnesota Field House”. That floor remained installed until late summer 2009, when it was finally replaced for the first time.

Nope, you read that correctly. The Minnesota Men’s basketball team played on the same wood floor for 81 fucking years. That blows my mind…. For the second remodel, we could only wait 9 years (2009-now).. Replacing the original floor in 2009 cost just as much as it did to build the entire building back in 1928 with a price tag just over $600K. The numbers are yet to come out on this one.

The University of Minnesota Athletic Department and boosters continue to give the coaches everything they need to go out and get the best kids to come to this school and play basketball and football. There are less and less excuses for losing. And “it’s too cold” doesn’t fly anymore. The talent has gotten better but with all of the money pouring into these facilities, it needs to continue on the upward trend. 2018 fall and winter sports could dictate the tone of that conversation going forward.

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan (@RealMNSportsFan)