The Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball

Texas A&M University Basketball is undoubtedly on the rise, however the Athletic Department and athletic supporters recognized that for the escalation to continue, significant changes must be made at Reed Arena where the Aggies' current locker rooms were cramped, crowded and woefully inadequate compared to other Big 12 schools.

Thus the master plan for The Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball was developed which now serves as the new home for the Men's and Women's basketball teams. This 68,000 square foot state-of-the-art basketball facility adjacent to Reed Arena includes a foyer rotunda entrance, 2 practice gymnasiums, significantly larger locker room facilities, players' lounges, coaches' offices, a weight room, team meeting rooms, a training/medical room, and video rooms, thus giving A&M a showplace for its student-athletes.

"Our goal was not to catch up with the rest of America," Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne said, but to jettison on by when it came hoops centers.  We wanted recruits' jaws to drop."

The facility is home to athletes while on campus providing them practice, training and study areas all in one facility.  The practice gyms replicate the playing court in Reed Arena, including using the same type basketball goals, court flooring system, lighting levels and the clear height from the floor to the bottom of the suspended scoreboard system above the court.

Amenities include everything for today's student athletes including LCD flat screen TVs wired for multi-media input and gaming systems in all areas of the building utilized by players including player lounges, locker rooms, training rooms and weight room.

The foyer rotunda entrance is a transitional space capable of providing a welcoming and exciting entrance to a potential basketball recruits and families while also meeting the needs to use the space for game day activities including hosting of donor and alumni functions.

A major key to building the Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball was the need to tie this building into the existing Reed Arena.  The design response is a three level addition, with the lowest level (Competition Level) containing training facilities, team locker rooms, coach's locker rooms, and players' lounges allowing quick and easy access to the Competition Court in Reed Arena.

The second level or Practice Gym Level contains two court-and–a–half practice gyms, weight room and weight training coach's offices and mechanical rooms that serve the entire building. The two 12,000 square foot practice gyms feature a maple hardwood court six basketball goals of the same type as used on the Competition Court, a full size NCAA regulation size court and two high school size cross courts. This combination of court sizes and markings allows for a multitude of practice scenarios and tasks to be accomplished by the teams and coaching staffs. A full court practice can occur on the NCAA court while at the same time players can be working on rebounding techniques on one of the cross courts while on the other, players can be working on three-point shooting or free throws. In addition, a sound system allows for coaches to speak to large high school camp groups hosted by the programs and for student athletes to play music while they do individual shoot around including the ability for the players to plug in their own MP3 player or IPod into the system to player their own recorded music.

The Concourse Level of the new facility provides offices for both Men's and Women's teams and the Foyer Rotunda Entrance into the facility. The offices are all equipped with wall mounted flat panel TVs which can watch a variety of media sources including local programming, national sporting networks, and A&M's own network and can view tapes of previous A&M games or upcoming opponents previous games. The Foyer Rotunda Entrance features trophy cases and a maple wood floor to simulate the basketball court wood floor.

The new Cox-McFerrin Center for Aggie Basketball has been a huge success with staff, players and recruits from around the nation who have seen the facility both during construction and after its completion. Coach Gary Blair of the Women's team has stated: " The Cox-McFerrin Center is state-of-the-art just like the pro facilities for the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Cowboys. Our players are going to love it. I involved my entire staff in the designing of the facility. It is really going to help us in recruiting and be able to compete at the highest level."