CBS college basketball analysts Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander put together a fun offseason series called “Candid Coaches” where they interviewed roughly 100 college coaches about a variety of topics.
Coaches were asked to provide a list of the top three best home court environments in college basketball, and unsurprisingly The Kennel was among the most selected venues.
Gonzaga’s home court was named on 27.4% of all the ballots submitted, the third highest rate behind Allen Fieldhouse (67.3%) and Cameron Indoor (50.5%) the homes of Kansas and Duke, respectively.
Coaches were promised full anonymity for participating in this survey, but the article did include three anonymous quotes from coaches regarding The Kennel:
“They built that thing right. Perfect size. Students are wild. I don’t blame (Kentucky coach John Calipari) for not wanting to play there. It’s a madhouse.”
“When you travel that far to play them, it’s a really long way to go to get your ass kicked. Fans feel like they are on top of you.”
“When they play ‘Zombie Nation’ before tipoff, it’s one of the best student section hype songs I’ve seen. It gets loud and the arena actually shakes.”
Gonzaga’s Kennel Club has long been among the most notorious student sections in all of college basketball, and getting respect right on the level of Duke and Kansas from a reasonably large sample size of college coaches is a tremendous compliment to the basketball program, as well as the student section, McCarthey Athletic Center staff, city of Spokane, and anyone else involved in the delirious gameday atmosphere at The Kennel.
Plus, whichever coach took a dig at Calipari deserves to start the season 1-0.
Host – Locked on Zags Podcast
Writer – Ducks Wire
One thought on “The Kennel ranked No. 3 best college basketball environment in coaches survey”