McKale Practice Net, January 2025

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Pictured here is a practice net at McKale Center. Not a game net, not an event net, not one of those nets they’ll take down on TV, surrounded by screaming fans, but a net players cut their teeth on day in, day out. Game nets are single use, but Athletics tells us the teams like to keep the practice ones up as long as possible. It’s a comfort thing, part of the ritual of building a season, like a favorite pair of sneakers or a lucky charm on the dashboard of your car. The game net sees you once, the practice net sees all the work it took for you to get there. The practice net knows where you’ve been. Just because nobody’ll save it when it comes down doesn’t mean it doesn’t count.