NCAA Final Four: Ball State grad’s design chosen for Minneapolis court
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Despite Purdue University being the only Indiana team in the Big Dance, the state is playing a big role in this year’s men’s basketball tournament.
While it is still a little early to know for sure if Purdue will make the Final Four, the Hoosier state will definitely have a spot on the court at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The games will be April 6-8.
The guy whose design was chosen for the Final Four court has some specials ties to Indiana basketball. The Indianapolis company that he works for has been creating the NCAA tournament logos for the last 10 years.
Connor O’Malia was born and raised in Indiana and graduated from Ball State University in Muncie in 2013, so he is very familiar with basketball and what it means in Indiana.
”Big basketball fan; I still play basketball pretty often. Huge basketball fan in general, Pacers fan, high school basketball fan — so to be able to kind of blend my passion with basketball and sports and kind of merge that together with design and being able to design something like this, it’s pretty amazing,“ O’Malia said.
He is a designer at the Section 127 design agency in downtown Indianapolis, and his court design is what millions will see when they watch the Final Four tournament.
“It is pretty amazing to see this come together and kind of come to a big stage that it will be on.“
Section 127 has been designing everything from the logos and the tickets to the court design for the NCAA tournament for the last decade.
“It literally is March Madness for us around here right now. We experience the tournament in a very different way than most other people do outside of these doors,“ Senior Designer Chris McCormick said.
McCormick is also from Indiana; he designed this years NCAA logo.
The planning for the tournament starts 18 months in advance. “So, we are already looking forward toward Atlanta but focusing on ’19 now,“ McCormick said.
O’Malia’s court design for the Final Four is unique to Minneapolis. “Some of the kind of wavy line work there, that is a representation of the Mississippi River, another tie to nature. Four stars are also kind of unique to Minneapolis because the four stars on the sidelines represent the four teams in the final four and then Minneapolis hosting their fourth Final Four,“ he said.
But every year, regardless of the tournament location, the NCAA designs start in the same place.
McCormick said, “That it is on point and celebratory and athletic, and we want to keep that high level of energy and stuff in our designs as well.“