From her desk at the entrance of the newly renovated Carolina Basketball Museum, Angie King has watched coaches bring in visiting student-athletes in an attempt to secure a commitment to the UNC men’s basketball team.
“The video gets everyone pumped up," King said. "They get real excited and ready to go in. Once the coaches take the recruits in there, it’s a done deal.”
Since its opening in 2008, the museum has seen over 500,000 visitors, Steve Kirschner, senior associate director of athletic communications, said. But after nearly 10 years, the technology in the museum had become outdated, so the recent renovation focused on technology upgrades and exhibit maintenance.
“A lot of the technology had grown obsolete so we couldn’t even replace the parts,” Kirschner said. “We had to completely redo the technical components. There are a number of videos that detail the history of the program, Final Fours and some specific people.”
Upon entering the museum, visitors are directed into a dark room with a massive projector screen where a video plays on a loop. Complete with intense music and clips from famous games and championships, the video serves as the gateway to the rest of the museum and tugs at the heartstrings of its visitors and, as King cites, of basketball commits as well.
“(The renovation) timed nicely with winning a national championship because since (opening), we’ve won in 2009 and 2017,” Kirschner said. “We reworked the last room to account for all of the titles.”
This section of the museum is built like a championship corridor, starting with ACC play, then Final Four appearances, and ending with NCAA championships. Each segment is filled with audio and visual aids from the renovation. The last room, which Kirschner references, is filled with audio of commentators during national championship games, and glass casings with trophies and rings.
Brian Carver, a UNC basketball fan, was taking a stroll through the museum on Oct. 24, his first since the renovations.
“The video is incredible,” Carver said. “They put in clips from the 2017 championship, and anytime you’ve got Michael Jordan, you’ve got a highlight. It’s pretty cool.”
