Why can’t McCasland Field House host OU basketball… permanently?

A basketball venue doesn’t have to be expansive in order to offer an electric environment and a legitimate home-court advantage.

You witnessed this phenomenon firsthand if you were one of the 3,594 people lucky enough to attend the Sooners’ 107-86 thrashing of Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Thursday night. For just the second time in the last 48 years, Oklahoma hosted a regular-season basketball game at McCasland Field House, which had previously served as the program’s primary venue from 1928 until 1975.

The night was intended to be a one-off nod to history for the primary purpose of student engagement. Instead, it morphed into arguably the most memorable home game for Oklahoma basketball in half a decade.

From start to finish, the capacity crowd at the intimate old arena maintained a steady roar, which spiked to a crescendo when Otega Oweh opened the contest with a thunderous dunk off a fast break. Over 40 minutes of frenetic hardwood action, the unbeaten Sooners delivered a prolific offensive performance underscored by a confident swagger. In symbiosis with the crowd, Porter Moser’s squad displayed flair in their dominant effort.

And granted, the opponent was Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Do the Sooners win that game by 20-plus points in pretty much any venue? Probably so. But for the first time in years, it truly felt as if Oklahoma’s home crowd was actually making a difference.

Since 1975, the Sooners have played their home games on the south edge of campus at the Lloyd Noble Center. The LNC is versatile, it’s spacious, and it offers ample parking and easy accessibility (at least by vehicle) off Highway 9. But it’s roughly a mile from the dorms, which makes it quite a trek for students who want to catch a game. Parking around the dorms is highly limited, and for fear of being left without a parking space, many students refrain from using their vehicles unless absolutely necessary. But if those among the on-campus population want to watch OU basketball, they either have to run the risk of losing their parking spot to go by car, or make a 20-minute walk to the LNC.

Oklahoma has struggled to drive student interest in basketball for years. Save for the 2017-18 season, when Trae Young took the college basketball world by storm with his transcendent talents, student attendance — and for that matter, attendance in general — has continually been moderate and inconsistent. Besides its inaccessibility for students, the LNC is a multi-purpose venue that hosts a myriad of other campus events and competitions. It’s not designed specifically — or even primarily — for basketball. It’s closer to a concert venue than a basketball arena. It’s also obsolete and something of an eyesore from the exterior.

That’s part of the reason why there’s been continual talk of building a state-of-the-art arena to house Oklahoma basketball. But that talk has percolated for years, and it hasn’t resulted in any action. And even if the plans for a new arena off Interstate 35 came to fruition, it wouldn’t do much to solve the issue of student attendance. Rather than walking for 20 minutes one way, students would have to drive for 20 minutes one way, which is hardly any more appealing.

Numerous other collegiate hoops programs across the country can attest to the reality that the student body is the lifeblood of a vibrant crowd. That’s exactly why smallish arenas are capable of ranking among the most raucous venues in the country. Look no further than Duke’s Cameron Crazies, which help make Cameron Indoor Stadium a daunting environment for visiting opponents every year. With a capacity of just over 9,000, Cameron Indoor is less than half the size of PNC Arena, the home of Duke’s most detested rival in the North Carolina Tar Heels. But week in and week out, it’s filled to the brim with the Blue Devil faithful, who take it upon themselves to compensate in noise for what the arena lacks in size.

The Lloyd Noble Center offers no distinguishable home-court advantage. It isn’t a consistently loud venue. Games aren’t generally well attended. And this issue clearly isn’t getting solved any time soon.

So why not make McCasland Field House the primary home of Oklahoma basketball once again? Why not spend a few million dollars to spruce up and enhance the historic arena, instead of playing ping-pong with the Norman City Council over a brand-new venue situated in a $1 billion entertainment district?

Granted, even if the field house underwent renovations to maximize its capacity, it probably couldn’t hold more than about 5,000 fans given the way it’s nestled into the existing campus architecture. Unless it underwent an extensive upward transformation the likes of Gallagher-Iba Arena, McCasland has a pretty limited cap on its potential size. That fact alone will no doubt leave many fans closed off to the idea of the Sooners playing home games at McCasland. Why be content to play in an arena that’s barely half the size of the smallest current SEC venue for men’s basketball (Auburn’s Neville Arena, at 9,121)?

But the better question might be this: is Oklahoma better off playing in a sizable venue with a sparse crowd, or an intimate venue with a boisterous crowd? Is Oklahoma better off with five thousand people scattered throughout a venue that holds 11,528, or are they better off with five thousand people packed like sardines into an arena that will rattle at its very foundation every time the Sooners hit from beyond the arc?

Here in 2023, Porter Moser has the Oklahoma men’s basketball program nationally ranked and undefeated. Jennie Baranczyk has led the women’s program to the second round of the NCAA tournament in each of her first two years on the job. The Sooners own arguably the nation’s most storied collegiate basketball program that is still in search of a first national title. They deserve to have the seats occupied when they hit the hardwood. But that’s not nearly as feasible at the Lloyd Noble Center as it is at McCasland Field House.

People simply don’t show up to the Lloyd Noble Center. The easiest solution to this predicament would simply be to pack out the LNC. But that hasn’t happened, it isn’t happening and it won’t happen. Creating a true home-court advantage at the LNC has become an utterly futile mission.

Yet if home games were moved to McCasland, that 20-minute walk for students would become a five-minute walk. Crowd noise would become a factor in every single game. The Sooners would have the smallest venue in the entire Power 5, and they could wear it like a badge of honor. Oklahoma could become the program nationally acclaimed for having the loudest 5,000 fans in the country.

Needless to say, it’s not a suggestion that will please everyone. But it’s a suggestion that ought to provoke some serious rumination. There was considerable din at McCasland for a midweek tilt with Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Imagine how loud and how lusty that building would be for a weekend matchup in February with the likes of Texas or Tennessee or Kentucky.

If the Sooners are serious about creating a unique and riveting basketball environment in Norman, the best option at their disposal right now isn’t the Lloyd Noble Center.

It’s McCasland Field House.

Until (or unless) their pie-in-the-sky palatial accommodations ever get past the proposal stage, Oklahoma basketball belongs at the corner of Brooks and Jenkins.

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