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Allan Hild stood on UNCG’s new home court last week and felt a tinge of envy.

He played for UNCG two decades ago. Back then, he was No. 45, a 6-foot-5 forward. His hoop home? Park Gym, a spot that no longer exists along Spring Garden.

It wasn’t much. The gym fit 900 people — maybe. They called it “The Pit.’’ It had a metal roof, low-hanging lights, walls of chipped paint and eight to 10 rows of bleachers painted brown. Or as Hild says, “pull-out brown.’’

Then came last Thursday night.

The 45-year-old insurance broker and father of three watches his youngest child, Erin, scurry across his alma mater’s new hardwood inside a big arena where David Thompson, Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry once played.

“This is like big time,’’ he said. “Big-time college basketball.’’

It is. Or it could be. All thanks to 217 pieces of polished hard maple.

On Thursday night, UNCG unveiled its new home court and talked about the promises of an inaugural season in which its basketball team will play 15 home games underneath the steel arches of the Triad’s biggest arena.

The team could get spanked. UNCG went 5-25 last year, and its players will step onto its new home court and face some athletic muscle, including Clemson, Wake Forest, N.C. State and Maryland from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

But it’s not just about winning games. At least, that’s what you’ll hear.

It’s about drawing recruits, starting a basketball reputation, building civic pride and creating a buzz that’ll bring 60,000 area alumni and residents of a basketball-crazy city, the Hoopville of North Carolina, into the seats.

Since 1989, UNCG basketball had called Fleming Gym home. The gym had room enough for 1,800 fans. But many times, fans didn’t come.

Marine and Lairron Ritter — husband and wife, classmates from Cone Elementary, a married couple for 63 years — saw it often. They have watched UNCG play basketball for at least 20 years.

“Sometimes, I felt sorry for the attendance at UNCG,’’ Marine, 83, said Thursday night at the home court unveiling. “We’d go to Fleming Gym, and it would hardly draw anybody.’’

“And I felt sorry for the players,’’ added Lairron, also 83. “But here. This is the coliseum.’’

Yes, the Greensboro Coliseum. One of the most storied college basketball spaces in the country. It’s a place where basketball ghosts roam.

Park yourself beside section 123, and you’ll see a trophy case full of 19 basketballs, 36 programs and eight sets of tickets from the 1974 NCAA basketball finals in Greensboro.

Then, listen to coliseum officials and they’ll color their conversations with this: The Greensboro Coliseum will host the ACC men’s basketball tournament four of the next five years.

Now, here comes UNCG. University officials have signed a four-year contract with the coliseum, in which they will play 60 games in front of 7,613 fans — or more if need be.

So far, 500 season tickets have been sold — double the number from last year. Yet, it’s a gamble. The partnership between UNCG and the coliseum could mean either at worse a $60,412 loss or at best $317,570 profit.

You wonder if it’ll work. Then, you meet someone like UNCG playmaker Montel Smith.

“It brings me to tears,’’ said Smith Thursday night about playing on a new home court. “Sometimes, I never expected to be here right now. Where I’m from, some of the people I knew who didn’t make it ended up in jail.

“But I persevered. I stayed focused, and I get to play on this floor in a great city,’’ he said. “I’m at a complete loss for words.’’

He’s UNCG’s senior point guard, a pastor’s son from Greenville. He came from a family of nine, and he learned to shoot hoops on a goal from Walmart erected in the dirt of his backyard. The goal was bought by his grandmother.

And now, in front of thousands, he’ll play on 217 pieces of polished hard maple, laid on a famous floor.

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com