UCLA this week unveiled the $35M Mo Ostin Basketball Center, the school's new "basketball practice facility," which will alleviate scheduling "headaches long endured inside Pauley Pavilion, where five teams vied for practice time," according to Ben Bolch of the L.A. TIMES. Planning for the 35,000-square-foot facility "involved three weeks of discussions just about acoustics." They were "considered essential for teaching purposes and the state-of-the-art sound system that was important to Ostin, 90, the UCLA alumnus and music mogul who was the facility’s primary donor." The design of the two-story facility is "intended to be airy and efficient, with the practice courts illuminated by ambient lighting and overhead lights activated by motion sensors." Twenty-four plush seats inside the film room "shared by the men’s and women’s teams are extra wide to accommodate large bodies" (L.A. TIMES, 10/27). In L.A., Thuc Nhi Nguyen noted the women’s court, "named for UCLA legend Ann Meyers Drysdale, has the script UCLA logo at the center, while the men’s court that bears the name" of Thunder G Russell Westbrook has the school’s "classic center circle logo." Each team has a "separate conference room that overlooks their respective practice courts." The rooms can be "used for meeting spaces for coaches, who did not move their offices from the J.D. Morgan Center, or lounges to host potential recruits" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 10/27).
