Indiana's Assembly Hall takes top spot on ESPN's top 10 court designs

The 2014-15 college basketball season is just one month away, which means that fans are already gearing up for what should be a very exciting year of Big Ten hoops. We know about the players. We know about the coaches. We know about the fans. But what about the court designs?

Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com recently released a list of the top 10 college basketball court designs. Three Big Ten courts land on the list, headlined by Indiana's Assembly Hall, which takes the top spot.

"The Hoosiers' home floor is the granddaddy of college courts, a perfect design whose timelessness testifies to the depth of the state's relationship with the game. Adding a conference logo is like putting an "Only at the Louvre!" sticker on the Mona Lisa. May it ever be so."

Following Assembly Hall is Maryland's XFINITY Center, which comes in at No. 8 on Brennan's list.

"We preferred Maryland's old midcourt mark to its new logo, but even after a recent refresh — which spells out "Maryland" and underlines it in the colors of the state flag — this remains a clean design worthy of a mention here."

Rounding out the list is Iowa's Carver Hawkeye Arena at No. 10.

The Hawkeyes have always had the benefit of that great black-and-gold color scheme (and a fantastic logo somewhat obscurely inspired by a fictional nickname given to the hero of James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" — hey, the 1800s were weird). The floor at Carver-Hawkeye Arena has almost always used it well."

See the complete list here.