Arkansas playing Seton Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, which used to be the home court for the University of Louisville, except they brought in Kentucky's floor straight from Rupp to play the game on, except it looks like the floor has Big East logos on it.
I'm sure there are good explanations for all of this (one is that Ky is playing ND on this floor later on), but... whateva.
They didn't just go out of their way to haul the floor from Rupp over to Louisville. (And who else is surprised the court at Rupp isn't a permanent part of the floor in the first place, as at Cameron?) They put "Freedom Hall" decals on the floor as well. Or maybe they even painted the "Freedom Hall"s on. From closeups of the court it clearly isn't one big decal.
Who cares, our game's on, gotta go.
I'm pretty sure I saw Kentucky playing a regular season game against some random opponent in Louisville a few years ago. There's no way that any of the Big 4 would let another Big 4 team borrow their home floor unless it was NCAA mandated for the tourney or something.
Don't know about tractor pulls, but they do have non-basketball events, such as WWE Smackdown, several concerts, and a number of shows (such as Boat, Sport, & Recreation Show, Home, Garden, & Flower Show, etc.) It's not that unusual for large arenas to have a floor that can be taken up if necessary.
As for Freedom Hall, the Kentucky floor was paid for by the KY State Fair Board in hopes that KY would have more games there. It's apparently permanent (more or less), not a one-time thing. Details here: http://www.courier-journal.com/artic...ome-floor+feel
Evidently, lots of things are done differently in Kentucky . . .
Actually, this makes perfect sense.
Kentucky has over the years regularly played a "home" game in Louisville or Cincinnati, for recruiting/alumni purposes, just like we've played home games in the NYC-metro area.
With the Cards leaving Freedom Hall, a public building that would otherwise be a white elephant, for the new YUM Center (ugh), spending a paltry $10k to paint the Freedom Hall court seems like a wise investment if it can help lure UK to not only continue to play a game every year or two in Louisville, but to also do it in Freedom Hall rather than in the gleaming new stadium a few miles away.