Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall is a 17,222-seat arena on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the home of the Indiana Hoosiers men's basketball and women's basketball teams. It opened in 1971, replacing the current Gladstein Fieldhouse. The court is named after Branch McCracken, the men's basketball coach who led the school to its first two NCAA National Championships in 1940 and 1953. Basketball sportscaster Gus Johnson called the Assembly Hall "the Carnegie Hall of basketball."HistoryConstructionIndiana officials spent decades planning and four years of construction before The Assembly Hall was finally opened in 1971 at a cost of $26.6 million. The new "Assembly Hall" was named in honor of the school's first basketball arena of the same name. The facility was intended to be aesthetically pleasing and hold a large capacity while offering modern conveniences.The opening of the arena coincided with the debut of coach Bob Knight, who guided the Hoosiers for 29 seasons before his dismissal by then-IU president Myles Brand in September 2000.