On the first day of the season I headed up to Lafayette to watch the Purdue Boilermakers take on the Fairfield Stags. It was a pretty solid game for both teams until Purdue pulled away late. This is the first game in my behind-the-scenes look at college basketball arenas across the nation. Hope you enjoy!

These are a few of the pictures that I took on my walk up to Mackey Arena. I parked in a high school parking lot very close to the school as I had not picked up my media pass or parking pass quite yet from the game.

I entered Mackey and being inside was a little weird since there weren’t anyone in there quite yet. Having been to a dozen or so games here before, it was a cool thing to see the place with just a few students.

I had a good seat and was pretty much straightaway on the second level of the arena. During the game I didn’t take too many pictures because, well, there really isn’t much to take pictures of. But, I did manage to take quite a few after the game. Here are two that I took during the game.

The media got access to the live stats during the game and this is the screen that I stayed on for most of the game. You can see all of the tabs and the play-by-play is helpful for writing game stories. This is something that all colleges allow media to have at the Division 1 level, in my experience.

After the game I headed down to the media room and snapped a few pictures as well as partook in the press conference after the game. The first two pictures are during the press conference and the next couple are various places in the media workroom and conference room. The two rooms were attached to each other.

This was a really cool thing to see as I had always wondered what the media room was set up like. I then walked around the underneath of Mackey. There was a single hallway that circles the court and I took the following pictures as I walked around.

I think stood in the exact spot that players run out onto the floor from in order to help show you what they may see as they run out onto the floor. I then took a picture standing on the floor and various other shots from the floor level.

Here are some various pictures from the stands that I took at different points. I really like to see the whole arena when looking at pictures and I think that I accomplished that here a little bit.

Those were some crazy nice seats. Carpet and everything was put down for then. Like usual, I then climbed to the top to take pictures from the highest point in the arena. But first I had to take pictures of all the banners hanging down.

I then ended up taking pictures from the top of the rafters. These are the types of pictures that I enjoy looking at the most of arenas. I just love to look at gyms and this really captures the essence.

And with that, I was out. I took a few parting shots as I left the arena and as I walked around out to my car.

I had a ton of fun doing this. If there is anything I can do better, let me know. Share this article, it would mean a TON to me. If you want to get your comments to me faster, my DM’s/mentions are open on Twitter (@masonhasher). I want to thank r/collegebasketball for letting me do this and u/nebraska_actually for letting me get into his good graces and taking a chance.

I’ll be at the Evansville vs. Illinois game on Thursday. So check back for that!