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SLAM has just published Buckets List: 64 Iconic College Basketball Experiences, a coffee table book that highlights great college hoops venues nationwide.
The latest guest on SportsJam with Doug Doyle is Peter Robert Casey, a Brooklyn-native, self-confessed hoops junkie, visionary entrepreneur, investor and chairman of SLAM and creator of Buckets List.
PRC says the idea of the new book has been in his head for about a decade.
"I'm a huge fan of college basketball. A huge fan of actually being at the game, not just sitting back on the couch and watching it on television. There's so many unique aspects about the sports of college basketball. I think it's a really an experiential sport. What I wanted to do curate a list of 64 iconic college basketball experiences, everything from the tradition and the rivalries to the historic gyms to some hidden gems out there, so that other fans maybe one day get out on the road and check some of those off themselves."
Casey admits there's always going to be debate when you create of list of anything in the world of sports. But he says Buckets List really captures a wide range of venues and stories.
"We went from Division I to Division III. We have NAIA experiences on the list as well. It was really kind of crowdsourcing a group of experts and then ultimately coming up with a list that was balanced. Everyone knows how special Allen Fieldhouse is for Kansas and Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Palestra are, but not many have experienced a college basketball game at The Corn Palace or the newly-built Sanford Pentagon or Rose Hill (Fordham University). These are places that if you're a college hoops junkie you should one day take a trip to experience them yourself."
The former Division III college basketball player says he is personally about halfway through the 64 experiences mentioned in the SlAM book.
Growing up in Brooklyn, baseball was actually his first love and he met his wife at a Yankees game. His love of basketball grew out of a family tragedy. Casey's sister and Irish twin died in when she was just 10 years old. For PRC, basketball became his escape when it came to dealing with the loss.
"Basketball made it really easy and accessible to play by yourself. We were fortunate in Brooklyn to have a little patch of asphalt in the yard with a hoop that was about eight-and-a-half feet tall so the ball didn't keep bouncing over the fence. I really fell in love with the game because what you put into it is what you really got out of it. I was too young to process and grieve of my sister and through that probably specialized in basketball at too young of an age."
You can SEE the entire SportsJam interview with Peter Robert Casey below:
