Several days after Michigan State defeated Florida to win the 2000 national championship, Bill Gappy placed his annual call to the winning school’s athletic department.

Gappy wanted to gauge MSU’s interest in purchasing the very court on which the Spartans claimed their first title in 21 years. Gappy is the sales manager for portable floors at Horner Flooring, the company which has provided the men’s and women’s NCAA Final Four court since 1985 and currently services about half of the 328 Division I schools.

Even though Horner Flooring’s headquarters are located in Michigan, albeit in Dollar Bay in the Upper Peninsula, MSU senior associate athletic director Greg Ianni said the school had no idea the option existed.

But each April, the festooned court the country saw during the Final Four does indeed quietly find a permanent home. Horner builds a brand new court for the Final Four every year and is free to sell it afterward, just like any floor it produces. The winner gets the first shot, and Michigan State took the offer in 2000.

‘(Our) old floor was at the end of its life cycle,’ Ianni said. ‘The timing was perfect. (The new court) was in good shape and it had great sentimental value to the university.’

While that appears simple motivation for each champion, Gappy said the winner only buys about half of the time. A school generally declines because it recently bought a new court, likely from Horner, and doesn’t want or need another one.

In that case, Gappy turns to a long list of primarily smaller schools that expressed interest to him over the years. Potential buyers should take note: Gappy said he sells the court to whichever school shows the most passion during the first few rounds of phone calls. Since it is a large financial commitment for the university, few schools are as initially convincing in their interest as Gappy would like.

‘A lot of schools talk and talk and talk (amongst themselves),’ Gappy said yesterday from his cell phone at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, where he is directing the layout of this year’s women’s Final Four court. ‘From a sales standpoint, you get to thinking, how interested are they really?

‘It’s whoever puts their money down first.’

Often times those schools are opening new arenas. Such was the case last year after Connecticut declined to purchase its winning court. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi athletic director Dan Viola said he first contacted Gappy in 2000 to build up a relationship, but always wanted to wait until the America Bank Center opened last year. Corpus Christi was rewarded with the floor from San Antonio.

That scenario also occurred after Duke passed on the offer in 1992. That made it possible for the Bob Carpenter Center to make a splashy debut on the Delaware campus that fall.

‘We thought it was important to our program and would help us promote the opening of our facility,’ said Delaware athletic director Edgar Johnson.

A Delaware spokesperson declined an interview request to speak with a player to get his perspective. The spokesperson said all current team members had nothing to say because none of them knew they played on the same wood that squeaked during Duke’s win over Michigan in Minneapolis 13 years ago. While that seems odd, it will likely be true at Corpus Christi in the future as well.

‘You wouldn’t even know it’s a Final Four floor,’ Viola said of Corpus Christi’s court.

That’s because following the tournament the floor is deconstructed and shipped back to Horner’s headquarters on the shores of Lake Superior. After the NCAA Final Four logos are stripped, the court is re-sanded and finally re-painted with the recipient’s colors.

Gappy said he could only recall Michigan State making an effort to visibly preserve the memories. Upon MSU’s request, Horner installed a commemorative bronze plaque on the sidelines next to the Spartan bench. Not only do current MSU players see it, but potential ones as well.

‘When recruits come in they understand the significance,’ Ianni said. ‘The average fan may not realize it. Everything is about recruiting.’

The actions of other winning schools prove otherwise.

‘We chopped it up into little pieces and sold it,’ said Duke athletic director Joe Alleva of the court on which the Blue Devils won the 2001 championship. Duke followed Connecticut’s 1999 example, and probably others before that.

Gappy said Syracuse considered ripping up its 2003 title court. However, former SU athletic director Jake Crouthamel did not mention that possibility. Crouthamel said SU bought a new floor early in 2003 and simply did not need another one a few months later. But in today’s world, the souvenir route is likely always discussed.

There is also financial incentive for a school that intends to utilize the court for its true purpose. Since a Final Four court is used (what Lexus would call ‘Pre-Owned’), Horner sells it cheaper than a new court. While three games appears a paltry amount, the court that arrives in its new home is hardly new after the resurfacing and repainting.

To be specific, Corpus Christi purchased last year’s court for $87,300. Gappy said brand new courts sell for around $120,000.

If a school is desperate for a court, perhaps they should call Johnson at Delaware. Johnson said the Fighting Blue Hens will part with their Final Four court in a few years due to old age. Normally, 13 years isn’t a floor’s average lifespan, but the school resanded and repainted it when Delaware changed conferences and logos multiple times. Johnson said he doesn’t know what he’ll do with the old court.

Another option for a school is to win the women’s tournament. The same process for selling the court exists for the women’s Final Four floor.

That means two champions should expect to hear from Gappy in the next few weeks. Only when he sells the court will Gappy be happy, though. At the same time, he understands his responsibility.

‘It’s a very prestigious honor to be able to provide the championship courts,’ Gappy said of Horner. ‘We’ve been doing it for 20 years. The NCAA must feel that we do a pretty good job.’

(1) ILLINOIS (-4) VS (4) LOUISVILLE

SATURDAY, 6:07 P.M., CBS

If the Cardinals win the championship, you could argue the Big East produced the winner for the third straight year. Illinois will spare talking heads of that discussion, though. While Illini guards Dee Brown and Luther Head are flashier, true point guard Deron Williams makes them tick. Despite six turnovers against Arizona in the Chicago Regional Final, Williams kept his composure, scoring 22 points and holding Wildcat leader Salim Stoudamire to only nine. Illinois already encountered its toughest test.

PICK: ILLINOIS 76, LOUISVILLE 68

(1) NORTH CAROLINA (-6) VS (5) MICHIGAN STATE

SATURDAY, 8:47 P.M., CBS

After unexpected close calls against Villanova and Wisconsin in Syracuse, the Tar Heels won’t take anybody for granted anymore. Teams may have had a tendency to do so against the Spartans, which became the first school to knock off Duke and Kentucky in the same tournament. As long as North Carolina does not get away from feeding Sean May in the middle, as they did during futile stretches at the Carrier Dome, it will be fine. An all-Big Ten championship game is averted for the final we all want to see.

PICK: UNC 69, MICHIGAN STATE 67

Published on March 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm