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Maravich Center Practice Facility
Practice FACILITY
The modern “workplace” of hoops is helping LSU basketball be a better team and a better program every day.
While the front of the building is dominated by the statues of Shaquille O’Neal and Bob Pettit, it is what goes on inside the facility that is most important to the present and future of the LSU men’s basketball program.
The chance to schedule practice when needed and the chance to get shots up or work on free throws any time is what makes this facility so important.
The facility features exact duplicate full-size gymnasiums. Each has two portable goals and four overhead retractable goals. Both courts are exact replicas of the PMAC competition court. Each gym features a scoreboard, video filming balcony and scorer’s table with video and data connection. Each gym spans 11,324 square feet and includes a regulation NCAA court in length with two regulation high school courts in the opposite direction.
Besides, the men’s practice gymnasium, the facility is the primary work area for the basketball team with locker room, team lounge, training room, laundry facility, coaches locker room and storage areas. Soon to be completed is a renovation of an area that will provide a much-needed weight room in the facility.
The building also includes a central twostory lobby and staircase that ascends to the second level that has a room (The Legends Club) that can hold approximately 500 people for pre-game and post-game functions that leads into the Maravich Center concourse.
The lobby of the building showcases team displays and graphics, trophy cases (featuring the hardware of some of the great seasons) and memorabilia from the long history of LSU basketball.
Also design work is featured in the men’s basketball halfways complete with vibrant pictures that lead players and coaches down to the dressing room rotunda and hallway to the arena floor.
The facility was constructed by Guy Hopkins Construction of Baton Rouge based on designs by the firm of Tom Holden Architects of Baton Rouge in a unique joint
The Legends Club connects to the Maravich Center concourse.
• Ground broken on July 1, 2008
• Contractors: Guy Hopkins Construction of Baton Rouge based on the designs by the firm of Tom Holden Architects of Baton Rouge in a joint venture with RDG Sports of Des Moines, Iowa
• Total Project Area: 58,960 square feet of new construction and 1,100 square feet of renovated construction
• Two state-of-the-art practice gyms each spanning 11,324 square feet; includes a regulation NCAA court in length with two regulation high school courts in the opposite direction
• Each gym can hold up to 800 people for special events
• Each gym features a scoreboard, video filming balcony and scorer’s table with video and date connections to enable instant replay
• A central two story lobby and grand staircase ascends to the second level. The lobby showcases team displays and graphics, trophy cases and memorabilia from the past. The displays and wall graphics were designed by ZE Design of Centerville, Ohio.
• On the second level of the facility is the Legends Club that opens to an extension of the Maravich Center concourse. It can hold approximately 500 people for pre-game and post-game functions.
• Other areas of the addition include the Men’s Basketball Locker Room, Team Lounge, Training Room, Laundry Facility, Coach’s Locker Room, storage area and a still-to-be-completed weight room. .
The dressing room rotunda and this brilliant Tiger logo leads one into the LSU Lockerroom.
This wall spotlights LSU’s eight SEC player of the year honorees.
First-team All-Americans from Sparky Wade in 1935 to Ben Simmons in 2016 are also highlighted in the walk down the hallway. Another mural spotlights LSU’s three “NBA at 75” players -- Bob Pettit, Shaquille O’Neal and Pete Maravich.
