NCAA Arena, Once a Movie Star, Is Again Ready for Its Closeup

“Anybody who is anybody in the state of Indiana, you found a way to get onto Hinkle’s floor to play,” Lewis said.

Duke Werner, the trainer for Florida, which opened the tournament at Hinkle with a win over Virginia Tech, first came to fieldhouse as an 11-year-old in 1981, when the high school team in his hometown, Versailles, population roughly 2,000, reached the sectional tournament. He said it felt as if half the town had formed a caravan that followed the team buses on the 90-mile drive to Indianapolis.

“The guys on that team were your heroes growing up,” Werner said. “In a small town like that, it’s not just that you know them, you know everything about them. They were only 17-, 18-year-old kids, but you see them have that kind of success, they almost become bigger than life.”

The next time Werner set foot in Hinkle was in 2006, when Florida used it as a practice site for the Final Four in Indianapolis. As the players entered and put on their basketball shoes, Werner grabbed a ball and stepped right to the free-throw line.

“I was the first one on the floor that took a shot — just because of where we were,” he said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/sports/ncaabasketball/hinkle-fieldhouse-indiana-basketball.html