© 2024 WUKY
background_fid.jpg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Sneak Peek of UK Basketball's Renovated Locker Rooms (sort of)

LEXINGTON, Ky. -The Kentucky men’s basketball team will be able to use its newly renovated locker room for the first time Friday night as the Wildcats prepare for the home opener against Lafayette. Reporter Brenna Angel got a sneak peek.

Okay, I can't really show you what the new locker room looks like (no pictures were allowed) but I was able to tag along with my recorder Thursday when the Lexington Center Board of Directors took a tour. 

Power saws were still buzzing and hammers pounding at Rupp Arena as construction workers rushed to get the renovated locker room ready.   

The locker room is round and features dark wood paneling, a domed ceiling, and floor from the 2012 Final Four court. Lexington Center CEO Bill Owen says the space was also expanded to include a theater room, a players’ lounge, and a medical assistant’s room.

“If a player gets injured, needing help from a physician anything above a trainer, we’ve got a separate room to isolate that condition.”   

With extra tall doorways and shower heads, and finishes that rival professional standards, the new locker room and lounge areas are designed to serve some of the top basketball players in the country.

“This becomes a gathering place for team and families. It also is a place that I’ve heard repeatedly Coach Calipari indicate that it’s an area where recruiting for other sports can be conducted.”   

Calipari raised money for the $3 million project through private donations. Work is mostly finished on the locker room, but final touches will likely take another two weeks to complete.

Lexington native Brenna Angel anchored local morning newscasts for WUKY through May 13. She joined the station in March 2010 after previously working for WHAS-AM in Louisville.