La Salle opened Glaser Arena with a 65-52 victory over American on Monday night. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
November 4, 2024
PHILADELPHIA – The parking lot is the same. The outside of the building looks similar. The steps are familiar. Once you reach the top of your ascent up them, though, you’re struck with the following feeling: “Where, exactly, am I?”
And that is great. Just great. First and foremost, for La Salle and its fans.
The Explorers opened brand-new Glaser Arena with a crowd-pleasing 65-52 victory over American on Monday night that was part of a historic evening for the Big 5. Everything about the evening felt just right, beginning, of course, with the new digs.
Gone are the hard concrete walls behind the baskets that helped make the Explorers’ former home feel so cold, so void of atmosphere. In their place are lively students behind one basket and excited home fans behind the other.
Gone is the old scoreboard above center court with lights so faded that you never really were sure what the score was without checking your running notes. In its place are multiple high-tech scoreboards that are pleasing to the eyes and keep you from worrying over scribble-scrabble on your notepad.
Gone are those seats on opposite ends of the sidelines. Those seats were neither comfortable nor occupied much of the time in the old gym. For such a small gym, the sightlines in the old one were surprisingly unsatisfying and your view way too far from the court. In their place is a court fully surrounded by seats that look more inviting, practically on top of the action, and, most importantly, being used.
It’s just more fun when you’re at a sporting event with people than a sea of blue seats that don’t cheer, yell, or scream.
Glaser Arena is intimate. It has atmosphere. It has energy. It is cool. It has a modern vibe. It has life. It is not immense. A full house might mean squeezing three thousand people into the shiny new home of the Explorers.
No, it’s not big.
But, man, it feels just right.
And perfect for La Salle.
“If I were to take a picture or a snapshot of the arena at the beginning of the process, this would have been exactly it,” La Salle athletic director Ash Puri told Big5Hoops.com on Monday night.
Puri smiled while talking, clearly elated with the transformation of Gola Arena to Glaser. He also might have been exhaling because it’s been a whirlwind eight months, from the start of construction on March 4, 2024 to the opening of the new place on November 4, 2024.
“You’d say there’s no way,” Explorers coach Fran Dunphy said of the quick turnaround. “It all came together because of the dedication and hard work of our administration.”
Dunphy mentioned Puri, chief athletics operating officer Phil Snead, and president Daniel J. Allen as key players in shepherding the project to the finish line. Puri also was quick to point out the team of Freedom Enterprise (general contractor), ANC (sound, lighting, video), and Miller Sports (flooring) as deserving credit. And La Salle administrators have repeatedly thanked the project donors.
Everyone involved should take a bow.
“I was just sitting there on the sidelines today saying, ‘This is a great atmosphere,’” Dunphy said.
The players also could feel the difference.
“It gives you energy as well as your teammates,” said Jahlil White, who had 15 points and six rebounds in his debut for La Salle after transferring from Temple.
The arena wasn’t the only new thing that looked good for La Salle; the new team looked pretty snazzy, as well.
Sure, the Explorers were predicted to defeat American, though oddsmakers had them just as 5 1/2-point favorites, but there was a lot to like even though the win was expected.
There was White grabbing an offensive rebound and scoring a putback during a key stretch with under seven minutes remaining, a play that was sandwiched between similar offensive rebounds and follow scores by fellow newcomers Mac Etienne, a transfer from DePaul who started his career at UCLA, and highly touted freshman Deuce Jones. Jones’s basket gave La Salle a 54-41 advantage with 5:47 to play that felt like it would be enough to bring smiles and cheers and high-fives from the elated crowd that wasn’t a sellout but was pretty full and plenty lively.
“Those stickbacks were critical,” Dunphy said.
The Explorers continued to make smart plays down the stretch, none better than Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi’s layup after a beautifully designed out of bounds play following a timeout.
When the final whistle sounded and you looked at the box score and thought back to the contest, there was a lot to be impressed by, including Jones’s fearlessness attacking the basket; Rider transfer Corey McKeithan’s floor generalship after a 16-point, three-assist, one-turnover night; White’s promising new beginning just a few miles north from Temple, where he never really displayed his full abilities due to injuries and a coaching change; Etienne’s eight strong rebounds in 17 important minutes; and the list could go on.
Let’s keep in mind that the opponent was from the Patriot League and not the Power Five. But let’s also keep in mind that American tied for second place in its conference in the regular season in 2023-24 and returned seven of nine leading scorers. This is a good Eagles squad, as likely will be proven by the end of this season.
So, celebrate Explorers fans. You have a beautiful, new gym. And some good, new players.
“A fresh start is great for everyone,” White said.
White was responding to my question about his personal situation.
If a building could talk, I bet it would say the same thing.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. His byline regularly appears on Associated Press stories. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages. His book on the 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball team is expected to be published on March 1, 2025. Read a summary and preorder it by clicking HERE. Contact him at aaron@big5hoops.com.