On one hand, the buzz of the crowd -- so typical and infectious at smaller venues -- tends to get lost among the vast numbers of empty seats.

For most high schoolers, however, playing on the floor of a professional arena is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

"I think we all wanted to play here," said Bishop O'Dowd boys coach Pete Morales, whose team had just beaten Northgate 29-26 for the North Coast Section Division III title at the Oakland-Alameda County Arena on Saturday. "It was exciting for me, too."

Still, there is a different "look" to the place. At most high school games, one sees a wall, doors or in some venues, a stage, behind the backboards. Professional arenas and those of many colleges, instead, have rows and rows of seats in those places.

"It took us a little while to get used to the depth perception," O'Dowd senior swingman David Brower said. "But it was great. It was something I'll never forget."

Seating capacity and overall structural size were just a couple differences between the Arena and smaller gyms.

"The rims are different and the lighting is pretty big, too," Dragons junior point guard Chris Cobb said.

OK, so the lights are bright and some cameras might not require a flash in the Arena. Oh -- and yes -- the floor, some argue, is larger and ceiling is high, too. And the backboards are supported from the floor rather than the ceiling. And ...

OK, you get the point. But the differences between places like the Arena and high school gyms are more than just physical and material.

Overall, a professional venue has a different psychology than a high school gym -- hey, the pros make their living there, for goodness sake -- which can be disconcerting to some teams. O'Dowd, though it struggled through most of its championship game with Northgate, was not one of those teams, it seems.

"We weren't any more nervous than any other game," Cobb said.

"It was just a basketball court as far as I was concerned," Dragons junior forward Jesse Byrd said. "But it was great to be here."

This year, the NCS opted to stage six of its title games at the Arena after McKeon Pavilion at St. Mary's College -- one of the section's usual venues -- had a conflict with another event. Perhaps the game will return to McKeon next year.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. For this year, O'Dowd hopes that playing on the same floors the pros use will become habit-forming. The Dragons, you see, have the top seed in the California Interscholastic Federation Division III Northern Regional playoffs this week -- and the regional finals will take place Saturday at Arco Arena in Sacramento.

A most interesting season looks to get even more interesting for some teams.

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