The University of Illinois is planning a major facilities project, as it has announced a Richard T. Ubben Basketball Practice Facility renovation.
As envisioned, the $30 million renovation will enhance the facility’s offerings. The building’s square footage will be more than doubled, with new courts, improved strength and conditioning areas, medicine facilities, new locker rooms, recruiting spaces, and offices among the amenities on tap.
The project is currently pending the approval of the board of trustees. If it does move forward, the scope of the Ubben Basketball Practice Facility renovation should allow it benefit both the men’s and women’s basketball programs. More from The Chicago Tribune:
The money to improve Ubben, [athletic director Josh] Whitman said, will be raised through “The Champions Campaign” under the athletic department’s $300 million fundraising goal that is part of “With Illinois,” a $2.25 billion university-wide campaign.
The Ubben renovation is expected to take three years, Whitman said at a news conference in Champaign. The project awaits board of trustees approval.
The facility will be “tremendously helpful” in recruiting and for developing current athletes, men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood said at the news conference.
“Providing an atmosphere where our student-athletes — incoming and future — have an environment where we’re self-contained (is beneficial),” Underwood said. “Things have changed a great deal in 20 years. It’s not as much advantage-disadvantage (in recruiting) as it is making us at the elite level. This facility and this venture is something that puts us at the very top with anybody in America.”
In all, the renovation will add about 45,000 square feet to the facility. The Richard T. Ubben Basketball Practice Facility first opened in 1998.
Rendering courtesy University of Illinois athletics.
