Season Uniform Preview - Part 2

Hello again Jungle blog! I am back again to finish up the uniform post for the 2013-14 Auburn basketball season. You can check out yesterday’s post here. Today we will complete the SEC portion of the schedule and then go to a more overall look around the country.

• The SEC schedule unfortunately starts at Ole Miss. We all would love to host the Rebels again, even if Henderson is suspended, just because of what happened last year. (guys, no more flicking off. Never) Since we don’t host Ole Miss, we wont have to worry about whether or not they’ll wear red or blue, (unless they want a red-on-blue or blue-on-orange game, which I would love!) so here are the white uniforms they wore last year. I would doubt they change anything for this year, but don’t be surprised if they did.
• Last year we traveled Missouri for the first time as an SEC opponent, so we get to host them this year. Missouri is set to honor their 1993-94 Big Eight Championship team with some awesome throwbacks. These are on tap for the opening game, but don’t be surprised if they wear them more. Before last season, the entire Missouri athletic department was completely overhauled by Nike, with new uniforms for every sport. For the basketball team, they got new white, yellow, and greys, and new "sweatback" designs.
• Tennessee has had more different basketball designs than you might think. Just because the football uniforms don’t change doesn’t mean the basketball ones, no matter how storied a program, will stay the same. The biggest difference for the Vols throughout the years is just the template. This year, Adidas has switched UT over to their spray paint pant template. I never was a fan of this template last year, for the mesh shoulders just add for a very odd contrast. Just odd.
• Florida received new uniforms last year. I honestly wouldn’t expect many differences, maybe an odd “pro combat” like thing from Nike later in the year. And since we host and travel to Florida, we get to see two of these sets. I’m hoping to see the orange in Auburn.
• Adidas transitioned Mississippi State over to their new template that Tennessee is wearing last year. Here are the white and maroon versions. They were also given a black alternate to wear in Hawaii last year, which seems a little counter-intuitive don’t you think?
• Arkansas may be the team that has the simplest, classiest, most traditional uniforms in the SEC this year. They don’t change them! So simple…so clean…I like.  Thanks Arkansas, now I have to redo this part. So, a few hours after I submit this to the King, the Razorbacks revealed their new uniform set. And just like the football team, black is now a color option (which looks really bad for Arky). Honestly, this set isn’t awful, but not the greatest either. Pretty simple, but bland. This is the best picture available. They released these in a video that is no longer available.
• Alabama got some seriously ugly uniforms this year from Nike. And no, I’m not saying that just because they’re the enemies. Ok, maybe a little, but what is this?! That’s ugly Nike. Never again.
• Georgia received one of Nike’s infamous complete athletic department overhauls during the offseason. Pretty much all they did was add a new typeface and alternate logo, and screw up the number fonts. But as far as the basketball uniforms go, they aren’t that bad. Nice and clean, I like.
• South Carolina is getting new uniforms from Under Armour this year, just like the football team. The basketball team’s new unis are…odd…Racing stripes galore, and digi camo in the numbers. Yuck to the camo. I don’t mind the stripes, except for the asymmetrical placement. I think it is a good uniform design, but could easily be built on to be great. The camo is just too much. Way too much.
• It is a crazy year in scheduling, especially with the teams that we only host or visit, not both. Well, we visit LSU this year, and get to see this crazy new thing. Yea, ok. Well, they also have new simple uniforms.
• Kentucky is another team that, even though they have a historic basketball program, they change uniforms every year like Oregon football changes weekly. But man, these are beauties. I’m excited to see these in the Arena this year! I hate that we can’t see everything at once, but we will see these real soon.
• Vanderbilt was given some really nice new uniforms last year. So don’t expect anything different than these this year. Very nice and simple. Well done Commodores.
• Guess who is using the new Adidas sheer shoulder template? If you guessed Texas A&M, you’d be right! We got to see the maroon versions live last year, but since we travel to College Station this year, we’ll surely be seeing the white edition.

And that does it for the SEC preview. Now for some news around the NCAA:

• Even though a lot of teams are just now transitioning to a new Adidas template, they are already putting their power houses into a new design. Which is a bit odd to me. But this template I like. I really like the contrasting shoulders and short design. Here are Kansas and Baylor to show you.
• UConn is one of a few teams that were completely rebranded. With the new jerseys and shorts, they got a new logo. New sweatbacks as well. This has to be the weirdest thing ever: they are getting NEW uniforms next year, which are apparently something never seen before. Then why did they get these new ones?!
• Oregon State was also rebranded. This was my favorite rebranding from the football standpoint. The basketball unis aren’t bad either!
• Miami has an updated pair of jerseys and shorts.
• Iowa has new uniforms.
• Memphis has a new arsenal of every color under the rainbow. Or at least what the sky in Memphis looks like…
• St. John’s has some really unique new Under Armour uniforms, with New York City skyline being featured. Oddly enough, these are only for non-conference games. When conference season starts up, they will wear the same design but no skyline. The number and font style are supposedly throwbacks to the Mark Jackson (Golden State Warriors head coach) era during the 80s.
• UCF is drawing inspiration from…baseball? Yes, baseball. The Knights from Orlando will be wearing pinstriped uniforms this year. There’s a reason pinstripes stayed on the diamond and no where else…
• Louisville will be wearing a 100 years of basketball patch. (Auburn wore an awesome patch in 2005)
• Montana State has some very unique Under Armour uniforms that look like a combination of Nike’s alternates from last year and Depaul’s barber shop pole uniforms. I like.
• Penn State has new uniforms that feature Nike’s templatic sweatback design.
•  San Jose State has some really unique uniforms. I’ll wait to see them on the court before I make an opinion. But they do have a very odd court design…
• Seton Hall has some classy new unis.
• USCal has some new, awesome uniforms. Love the Trojan design on the pants stripe.
• UTEP has some awful Nike uniforms that are way too similar to Adidas’ "bleed out" uniforms they used last year for both college and pro.
• Valpo has very simple uniforms for the year.
• VCU has changed their uniforms for like the 5^th time in as many years. I, for one, actually like these.
• Virginia Tech has some new unique uniforms. Still don’t know how I feel about these.
• Washington State has some overly simple uniforms, but at least they have a pretty cool sweatback design.
• Colorado has a new white and a black uniform set.
• Arizona State has a new black uniform with a cool pitchfork sweatback.
• Cincinnati has new uniforms.
• California was rebranded during the offseason and has some nice new uniforms, with a new bear logo featured in the sweatback. Just not a fan of the shorts.
• Hofstra is using a very old Nike template, but I really like it.
• Kent State has some ugly uniforms. Bleh.

Thing to look for:

• Expect to see a lot of alternate uniforms. Nike and Adidas LOVE doing this. Nike went with logo encrusted uniforms last year, Adidas went with sleeved and zubas uniforms. We will definitely see sleeved uniforms this year, for Adidas confirmed last year that they were trying to get a decent number (around 10 if I remember correctly) of teams to wear them this year.
• Wait until March. A lot of teams will break out new NCAA Tournament uniforms when the time comes. Just because a team doesn’t wear a different uniform during the season doesn’t mean they won’t get new ones during the tournament. The opposite holds true as well.
• Expect the unexpected. Last year Adidas brought out neon licorice uniforms along with the zubas stuff. Anything goes guys. Don’t be too surprised to see some things completely off the wall.

Well, that does it! Lots of changes of the year, and a lot more will happen during the season! Again, if you enjoyed this post, feel free to check out my ownpage, which is based around Auburn uniforms and the uniforms we plan to see when our Tigers hit the field/court.

 

War Eagle!

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Thanks again to Clint for taking the time to do this! Be sure to check out his Auburn uniform blog and stay tuned to this one, as I'll have even more content for you to enjoy leading up to Friday's game against Nicholls State!