Final Four excitement? Here are two collegiate sports facilities to check out before your weekend of hoops

With college basketball action set to play out on the sports greatest stage this weekend - the Final Four - hoops hype and March Madness energy abounds. With that in mind, CannonDesign recently shared new images of two collegiate sports projects with interesting ties to college basketball past, present and future. Take a look below and don’t forget to check your brackets one last time before Saturday’s games.

University of Maryland Baltimore County, Campus Event Center

The University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers made history when they became the first #16 seed ever to beat a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, downing the Virginia Cavaliers 74-54. Several leaders in the sport have referred to UMBC’s win as one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history.

Nearly six weeks before making history, UMBC also opened a new Campus Event Center where their men’s and women’s basketball teams play along with the school’s women’s volleyball team. Flexible and multi-purpose in nature, the event center has seating capacity for 5,000 in its stadium bowl and an additional 1,000 on the floor. The center will be used for commencement, concerts and various public speaker events and is equipped with concessions, catering, hospitality, restrooms and security and guest services amenities.

Located on the outer edge of the UMBC campus, the event center forms a key gateway to the athletics precinct and physically and visually connects it to the UMBC stadium complex, residential communities and academic quarters of the campus via an accessible wooded pathway. The facility will house the administrative and coaches’ offices for the UMBC athletics department and also feature spaces for academic services, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, locker rooms and dedicated practice space. Above the seating bowl, a dynamic hospitality space overlooks the main court and athletic precinct.

In a February 2018 Baltimore Sun news article, UMBC Athletic Director Tim Hall said of the building, “It’s going to be certainly the best facility in our league, in my opinion.” UMBC is a member of the NCAA’s America East Conference.

University of Maryland, Cole Fieldhouse

The University of Maryland Men’s Basketball team is one of the most storied programs in the sport with one national championship and 25+ trips to the NCAA tournament to their credit. A huge portion of their success took place in the university’s historic Cole Fieldhouse. However, moving forward, Cole Fieldhouse will serve as an elite training center for the university’s Division I football squad.

Set to full open in 2018, the rejuvenated Cole Fieldhouse will be a dynamic multidisciplinary hub for sport, health, science, wellness and entrepreneurial education. The project converts the historic Cole Fieldhouse basketball arena in the heart of campus into an indoor football facility adjacent to the campus stadium in College Park, MD.

Core to the dynamic building’s mission is its Terrapin Performance Center, dedicated space focused on helping UM athletes train, improve and compete. This space is anchored around a full-sized indoor football field and also offers two outdoor fields, an advanced strength, conditionining and hydrotherapy center, locker rooms, team meeting spaces, coaches offices and a dining facility.

The space will offer Division 1 athletic training experience and bring together nutritionists, academic mentors and career advisers focused on student success and peak athletic performance. It is connected to the campus football stadium via a tunnel that visually celebrates UM’s remarkable sports heritage.

Other key components of the UM Cole Fieldhouse include:

— The Center for Sports Medicine, Health and Human Performance which brings together leading researchers from UM Baltimore and UM College Park together to lead advanced studies focused on concussion and traumatic brain injury, genomics, brain imaging and other field related to injury prevention and rehabilitation.

— An Orthopedic Clinical Treatment Center will serve as a resource for thousands of patients in the region each year, with more than 40,000 sf of dedicated treatment space.

— The Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a dynamic space connecting students with exciting experiential-learning opportunities to work across disciplines and lauch innovative ideas, products and companies.

The design preserves Cole Fieldhouse’s beloved entrance along UM’s Campus Drive and presents a pedestrian-friendly façade facing Maryland Stadium. Located in the heart of the UM Campus, the renovated Cole Fieldhouse is a beacon for sports excellence, innovation and campus pride.