Visiting hundreds of college basketball games in 26 years as an athletic director at Cornell and Kent State hasn't dulled Laing Kennedy to the thrill of seeing a game in a cathedral like the University of Kansas' "Phog" Allen Field House.
Kennedy stood behind the Golden Flashes' bench an hour before Monday's tip-off between KSU and Kansas and stared up at the banners hanging from vaulted roof of the 53-year-old home of the Jayhawks, then glanced down at the original red-and-royal-blue bleachers that would soon seat more 16,000 fans. His grin reached ear-to-ear.
"I love facilities like this. The old ones. The ones with all of the history" Kennedy beamed.
For lovers of history, Allen Fieldhouse is located on James Naismith Drive. The hardwood is also named after Naismith - the inventor of the game of basketball.
"Naismith coached here," Kennedy said. "And Dean Smith (the legendary North Carolina head coach), he played here. Wilt Chamberlain, too. That's some history."
The banners in the rafters celebrate national championships from 1922, 1923, 1952, 1988 and last season, along with the uniform numbers of greats like Chamberlain, Jo Jo White, Danny Manning and Paul Pierce.
"It's a beautiful building, and there is a lesson it for us," said Kennedy. "If you have an older building like we do at the M.A.C. Center, if you take care of it, renovate it when it's time and embrace it for what it is, you can have something very special."
"The Phog" was renovated in 1986, 1994 and 1999.
Kent State hopes to raise enough money to give the M.A.C. Center a face lift in the not-too-distant future. KSU's home arena is five years older than Allen Fieldhouse. The arena last underwent a major renovation in 1992.
GREENE RETURN DELAYED - The Golden Flashes could have used some minutes from center Justin Greene, who re-joined the team Sunday after missing games with Illinois and Texas A&M, while he returned to New York City to attend the funeral of his grandmother.
Just having the 6-foot-8, 280-pound freshman's body to lean on 7-1 Kansas center Cole Aldrich would have been a help. Unfortunately, in his first month of college ball, Greene is still too raw to be ready to step back in and face such a difficult challenge after five days away from the team.
Greene didn't see his first action until the game's closing minutes. Fellow freshman Alex Grimsley played the bulk of Greene's usual minutes, earning the extra time in an impressive effort in Saturday's loss to Texas A&M.
BREAKING THE SEAL - Geno Ford was slapped with his first technical foul as head coach at Kent State with 14:45 to play in the second half. Who could blame him. By then, the Jayhawks were in middle of a stretch that saw them shoot 17 free throws in just six minutes.
Ford directed towards the official, "just give us one call. One call."
Don't expect Ford to take too many technicals during his tenure at KSU. His style on the sideline isn't terribly different than former Flashes coach Jim Christian, who was called for only two technicals in six seasons.