Bob Hunter commentary: Schott can't match feel of amped-up St. John

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Tuesday, March 25, 2008 3:08 AM

By Bob Hunter

NEAL C. LAURON | DISPATCH

Ohio State cheerleaders entertain the sellout-crowd of 13,276 in St. John Arena during a timeout in the second half. The Buckeyes will return to action against Dayton at 9 p.m. Wednesday in Value City Arena.

There was something wrong here. The Ohio State-California game meant nothing. Zilch. It was a second-round NIT game -- N-I-T, as in Not Important Tournament -- and the noise was a lot like the water inside a covered pot sitting on a burner turned to high, boiling faster and faster until it felt like the roof, uh, lid was about to come off.

You can feel St. John Arena. No kidding. You can actually feel it. That has happened on a few occasions in the Schottenstein Center, although most of the time your sensory experience there consists of some kid winning a "Buckeye prize pack" for guessing that David Lighty's favorite country is New Zealand.

Maybe it's my imagination, but when the announcer said "Welcome to St. John Arena" last night, some of the fans cheered the building. If ever a place deserved it, this 52-year-old basketball cathedral does...

I totally agree with what he says! There's just something about St. John Arena. It's a special place, like The Barn at Minnesota, Pauli Pavillion, even Madison Square Garden. That is where I watched The Bucks play when I was in school and I can tell you that it was the loudest arena I've ever been in. Who ever designed The Schott didn't do their research. If they had, they'd have designed, simply a bigger and better St. John. At some point the University needs to think about redoing VCA and making it more like St. John.