During this whole thread about hoops road trips, I've been working with a couple buddies on a trip, and I'm please to say we'll be heading to Hinkle for the first time come January. It's been on the top of my bucket list for a few years.

In sticking with my opinions on road trips needing to include local food and brew options. With that, I'm curious if anyone has any "must visit" spots in the vicinity of campus or the fieldhouse?

Pacers wore Hickory High School uniforms (similar to what I'm familiar with from the movie) in Friday night's nationally televised game v. Heat.

With OUr guys playing in Olean this weekend, along the lines of this thread, I'm interested to hear feedback on the road trip.

Hinkle was a super cool place to watch a game, and I felt like we lucked out big time getting Butler in the BracketBusters.

It's a shame that Cleveland State doesn't have more of a following because the Wolstein Center is a nice college basketball venue, especially for a mid-major.

As for the other buildings around the MAC that I've visited (the JAR, the MAC Center, Anderson Arena*, Millet)...let's just say I feel very fortunate to have the Convo.

* To be fair to BG, I haven't been in the Stroh, but from most accounts, they did a really nice job with it.

Having recovered from Saturday's postgame indulgence sufficiently, I wanted to share some thoughts on the trip to Hinkle from Saturday.

First, let me simply start with this: If you've never been, you absolutely must go. The place is just fantastic. With the renovations they recently completed, the building is among the best places I can recall seeing a game. Sight lines are good, though the seats in the overhang areas in some cases make it tough to see the baseline under you, or closest to you, completely.

As others said, the place just reeked basketball. The minute you walked in the door, you smelled popcorn and hot dogs. It reminded me of walking into high school games when I was a kid. It just felt like a basketball venue the moment we walked through the door. I was impressed by the fans quite a bit. It's no joke that they know their stuff. We were talking about how Butler was killing SJU because they mostly stuck to the 1-3-1. I was immediately approached wearing an OU hat and Cat's Eye shirt by a guy asking about Walt Offutt. Turns out he went to high school with him. The lower concourses had what seemed like every possible image, award, etc. And a team store. Hanging from the rafters was an individual banner for every single time any team has qualified for a post season tournament or won something. It's just an outstanding display of the school's success and history. If any program wants to look at how to show off their tradition, Hinkle and Butler isn't a bad place to start.

Following the game we walked the many block walk to a few neighborhood bars. We met up with bornacat and family for a few - great to catch up and talk hoops over food and beverage. While we went up to Broad Ripple later in the night, I think it was unanimous amongst the four of us that the neighborhood spots along College were more relaxed and enjoyable for us for the most part. I don't think you can go wrong with all the options in the area. If you love college hoops, I can't recommend the trip to Hinkle and Indy enough. I've already decided I'll have to get my dad there sometime soon.