When the Oregon Ducks unveiled their “Deep in the Woods” creatively themed home court at the Mathew Knight Arena this past season, it was initially met with a ton of criticism. The brightly colored hardwood featured tall fir trees around the perimeter to symbolize the picturesque Great Northwest and was themed after their 1939 National Championship team nicknamed the “Tall Firs.”

The court originally was made to create an undeniable home-court advantage and to generate national interest in the Ducks basketball program. While the Ducks struggled through a mediocre 21-18 regular season in the PAC-10, then went nuts in the post-season to take home the CBI crown, I don’t think anyone would argue that they are definitely on the right track after hiring former Creighton head coach Dana Altman prior to last season. Their 21 wins are their most since ’06-’07 as Altman has surprisingly made great strides on the recruiting front by getting a commitment from elite level shooting guard Jabari Brown (rated #19 by Rivals), in addition to getting back their 2nd leading scorer E.J. Singler for next season.

While I’m not saying that getting a wild and outlandish home court necessarily guarantees a school’s success, it definitely gets everyone talking about the program.  If your a fan of the multi-colored Oregon home court, you will love the news coming out of Donahue Media Group now that they have been commissioned to design a minimum of 8 new geographically themed courts for Division I hoops programs. Check em out:

Arizona

Colorado

Hawaii

Louisville

LSU

Miami

Nebraska

UNLV

Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.  Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.