By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
It's been a long wait, but Washburn University's basketball teams will finally get the opportunity to officially christen the newly-renovated Lee Arena this week as the Ichabods tip off the home portion of the 2025-2026 basketball season.
After seventh months of waiting, Lee Arena will be rocking Wednesday night when Washburn's men's basketball team hosts Rockhurst in a 7 p.m. contest. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabod men will host Rockhurst at 7 p.m. Wednesday while the WU women will host back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday in the Washburn Invitational.
The $8 million dollar, seven-month-long renovation of Lee, which opened in 1984 and is the home for the Ichabod basketball and volleyball teams, necessitated major schedule changes, including the nationally-ranked WU volleyball team playing all of its regular-season matches in Whiting Fieldhouse.
But now its time to reap the rewards the new state of the art facility will provide.
"My office looks into the gym, so for the last six months every day you see it,'' Washburn men's basketball coach Brett Ballard said. "That's good and bad because it just feels like at first nothing's happening and then it's all come together.
"It looks amazing. I've always felt like we had a great atmosphere in Lee Arena, and I think this will just enhance it. I know our guys are really appreciative and excited about it. We're just ready to get that opportunity to play out there.''
Lee, which had not been used since the Washburn men captured the NCAA Division II regional championship in late March, features a new court and scoreboards, a new seating system and updated technology.
Both Washburn basketball teams will make their debuts in the newly-renovated Lee Arena this week. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
"You just walk down there and I don't know if you can feel energy in a place, but you can feel it in there,'' Washburn women's coach Lora Westling said. "It's fresh, it's clean, it's sharp and I just can't imagine a better venue in Division II in the country. We're just dying to get on it because they've done an exceptional job with the renovation.''
"I'm excited, it looks great,'' said Washburn women's senior standout Payton Sterk. "It's really going to be awesome in there.
"It was beautiful before, so it's really been cool to see what they've been doing and I'm really excited to play in it and have my family and friends and everyone be able to be in there and watch, too.''
