Wake Up Call: Look, we warned you about Oregon’s basketball court back in November

It was opening night at Oregon’s new Matthew Knight Arena on Thursday, and at center stage, literally, was the new basketball floor. Evidently the computer-generated tree skyline disoriented some viewers, because my Twitter feed was crackling with discontent.

This new Oregon court is hurting my eyes, way over the top for a bad team — gwashburn14

OMG. What is that monstrosity on the floor in Oregon? — fangsbites #nikestrikesagain

Look, we tried to warn you about it in November, when the design was first released, and no one seemed concerned about it then. So no complaining.

The $227 million arena is named for Phil Knight’s son Matt, who died in a scuba diving accident in 2004. The floor itself is technically called Kilkenny Court, and it was designed by Tinker Hatfield, a Duck alum and ex-track star who runs a lot of the designs for Nike. What exactly was the inspiration for this grand design? Well:

“When I was asked to work on the new floor for Matthew Knight Arena, I really boiled it down to three things,” Hatfield said. “I really wanted to pay tribute to Matthew Knight himself, to the Kilkenny family and lastly but maybe not least, I wanted to pay tribute to the Pacific Northwest and the Tall Firs, the original basketball team that won a national championship for the University of Oregon in 1939.”

As our own Rob Sylvester noted, hopefully the Blazers never set foot on the court with all that flammable timber. Safety first.

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ABOUT LAST NIGHT

What you missed while suing because a mouse bit your penis …

• Kyle Singler’s flop for Duke has soccer players everywhere nodding and saying “Nice.”

• What was that thing you mentioned about karma again, LeBron?

• Are the Sacramento Kings moving to Orange County?

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TODAY IN MARK TRAIL …

Getting an octopus to fill out a census form is more difficult than it appears.