Home-Court Heaven

By Jim Gazzolo 

It seemed like a gamble when David Griffin and his wife Kimberly bought the naming rights to McNeese State’s on-campus basketball arena.

McNeese wasn’t much of a basketball school and the arena, known then as the Health and Human Performance Center, had already been destroyed by Hurricane Laura.

The storm recovery for the entire area was just over a year old when the Griffins gifted $2.5 million over 10 years for the building to be renamed The Legacy Center.

It wasn’t known on that August day back in 2021 if Southwest Louisiana would come back from the devastation let alone the McNeese basketball program.

Two and a half years later, the deal the Griffins made looks like a bargain.

The Legacy Center is seeing record sellout crowds and McNeese is one of the hottest names in all of college basketball thanks to first-year head coach Will Wade and his record-setting Bayou Bandits.

Even in his wildest imagination, David Griffin could not have considered such a scenario when he cut the tape to reopen the arena on Jan. 15, 2022.

“I was hoping it would draw 500 to 700 people,” said Griffin. “We never could have dreamed of this.”

McNeese averages five to six times those numbers this season, including four sellouts. That means the Cowboys are filling the Legacy Center to almost 81 percent capacity and much higher for Southland Conference games.

The rowdy crowd has been rewarded handsomely. McNeese is a perfect 14-0 at home this year heading into the final two home games of the regular season. That’s three more wins than the Cowboys earned in total last season.

Even the McNeese students have taken notice, coming out in record numbers themselves. And they have been loud.

“It is great to see our students become involved,” said Dr. Wade Rousse, Executive Vice President of McNeese. “We wanted to enhance the student experience and this is doing it.”

This is a far cry from the days when few people showed up to watch McNeese play at Burton Coliseum down the road. Back then they had a bus from campus to the games about three miles away.

There were times when only one student got on the bus before the idea was canceled.

During their last two road games, at Nicholls and then last Monday at Lamar, two buses of students went on the road with the Pokes. There were also a pair of buses for fans provided by the Cowboy Club.

When Wade is the guest on the McNeese Pokecast, a weekly podcast at Mr. Bills across from campus, the restaurant is full of fans. Several students even show up as interest in men’s basketball has never been higher.

“I imagined this could happen but never this fast,” said Heath Schroyer, McNeese Athletic Director. “This has been great for McNeese athletics, the school, and our community.”

It only likely will grow as for the second straight year the Legacy Center will host the Southland Conference tournaments starting on Sunday, March 10. The top eight teams from both the men’s and women’s regular season will compete for the championship.

The winners receive automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. 

Wade’s team is looking for its first trip to the Big Dance since 2002 and just McNeese’s third bid overall. The Cowboys are 0-2 in the tournament with their other appearance coming in 1989.

With the games at home and the Cowboys on a roll, the Legacy Center has become the home-court advantage everybody dreamed it could be.

“It is a massive advantage for us,” said Wade. “Our fans and the support of this community have been unbelievable. Never would have guessed we would get this  response this soon.”

For the Griffins, the gamble has more than paid off.

Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese athletics. He is the host of Poke Nation on CBS-Lake Charles