College basketball is taking over Mason's tennis center

Driving the news: A temporary hardwood court is taking over the 12,000-seat Center Court for two exhibition games.

• Cincinnati and Ohio State tip at 3pm, followed by Xavier and Dayton at 5:30pm.

• The afternoon starts are meant to avoid moisture and rising dew points later in the evening.

Behind the scenes: The conversion has required relatively few changes because basketball and tennis courts have similar footprints, Ben Baumeister, senior director of event strategy for Beemok Sports & Entertainment, tells Axios.

The intrigue: Dayton head coach Anthony Grant told WKEF-TV the unusual setting brings "a level of excitement" to the exhibitions.

• Beemok also hosted the recent LinkU Invitational in Charleston, South Carolina, where three basketball games were played at a tennis stadium.
• Baumeister tells Axios the players he spoke with embraced the unusual setting and the chance to "get back to their roots" after spending countless hours playing basketball in parks and driveways.

Yes, but: Playing outside comes with some quirks. One of the teams in Charleston was Vanderbilt, which struggled shooting in the sun.

• Cincinnati head coach Jerrod Calhoun told Chatterbox Sports he called Vanderbilt's coach to get the scouting report.
• "It's going to be an ugly shooting game," Calhoun says. "It's a cool idea, and hopefully this weather holds up."

The bottom line: It should be a cool experience, but the teams might also be glad these games don't count.