Last night’s basketball game was … intriguing. Our SMU Mustangs took on the UTEP Miners in the first men’s home game of the semester.

The stands were populous, and Ed Board was pleased to see the student section filled to capacity. Other Mustang supporters also had a good showing, and were as vocal as they have been all season, with chants of “S-M-U!” raining down from the stands during crunch time.

The game was close, ending in a 60-55 win for UTEP. However, the Mustangs were playing shorthanded with Bryan Hopkins out with a wrist injury.

Things were not all right on the court however. The Mustangs committed six fouls in the first half and 10 in the second. Admittedly UTEP wasn’t far behind with a total of 14, and they would have had far more if the referees had been calling everything.

Now, Ed Board would like to think themselves impartial, at least in calling fouls, and there was severe lack of proper refereeing last night. But we digress…

Today we’re concerned with the interactive screen in the court’s northeast corner. For those who haven’t seen the tacky, four-colored light board hanging in the corners of Moody, it is a blast from the past. Why do we still have that? Four colors? Are we living in 1976? Forget Jumbotrons. Moody has a Lite Brite on steroids.

We need to get a decent television in that corner. The expansion of Moody Coliseum will likely result in better facilities, but the update that is long overdue won’t even begin for another two years at least.

But perhaps, in a strange way, the board is part of the strange, traditional allure of Moody Coliseum. The board, mixed with a floor paint scheme from the early nineties, the bleachers that would better serve as kindling than something to sit on, the awkward lighting and the inaudible sound system through which the announcer mumbles excitedly; all of this adds to the old school charm of Moody.

For those who don’t know, Mustang basketball has called Moody home since December 3, 1956, when SMU defeated McMurray University 113-36. Since that day, the Mustangs have played around 600 games in the ol’ coliseum, winning almost 400 of them.

So for the time being, Moody is home. But the Coliseum could use a facelift, and soon. The last renovation, in 1996, redesigned the floor. And before that, well, you have to go back to 1986 to find any renovations.

Ed Board hopes that when head coach Jimmy Tubbs re-establishes men’s basketball as a contender, and head coach Rhonda Rompola continues her hard work with the ladies (who, by the way, won at UTEP last night), the athletic department will do a little house cleaning. A little work on Moody could help draw top recruits and probably more fans. While Ed Board’s desire for luxury boxes would be the ultimate idea to draw fans, we just hope our peers keep playing hard and representing SMU like winners.