You are looking live at Gallagher-Iba Arena, a great and loud place to watch a game, but not quite the best working environment. In fact, NBA scouts kind of loathe the experience that is traveling to and scouting here.

“That’s a bad seat,” a Director of Scouting informed. “They put you upstairs on the baseline, which in their case is way up. They don’t have a lot of media seating. The lower level is very small. You have to use relationships with the coaching staff. That’s a rough one in my experience.”

“That’s a ‘do not visit venue for me,” a Director of Player Personnel told us. “I just don’t go back to places where I have one or two bad experiences. Especially if it’s as out of the way as they are. If I have to go somewhere like that I’ll just use Stubhub and pay an arm and a leg. That’s not ideal, especially when you are on the eighth game of a nine day trip, and you can barely remember what city you’re in, but sometimes you have no choice. If I have a relationship with the visiting team’s coaching staff then I might try and use that if I need to. I hate asking for favors, but sometimes that’s just what you have to do.”

The posted picture is from my seat. I’m not complaining, but I’m offering a POV that some scouts have to deal with — and in truth, my seat is going to be no worse or better than a few of theirs. You can read the article I’m about to link to below and see some of the other vantage points. It’s a 2014 problem, the sort of thing that you can group in with conversations about facilities and needed  improvements.

The Cowboys have a lot of NBA talent. They play host to a lot of NBA talent. You’d like the convenience for scouts to be an afterthought because part of the recruiting pitch these days is that, yes, a lot of scouts will be around to watch you. And when you’re an hour away from an NBA franchise, you stand to attract a lot of visitors there.

There are going to be NBA people here today, including one Jonnie West, who I parked next to and walked in with today. He’s here scouting on behalf of the Golden State Warriors. He’s never been here before, but Oklahoma State is trying to make his experience and those of others more enjoyable.

“We heard about it last year,” Ford said. “I didn’t even realize it until some people said something. And I agreed with them. They don’t need to be up there. They’re trying to evaluate.

“But it’s changed. We addressed it before the season started. So maybe these are people who came last year.”

Mike Noteware, OSU’s associate director of media relations for men’s basketball, said he reached out to DraftExpress president Jonathan Givony, who wrote the story, to ask just that: are the complaints new, or from previous seasons? According to Noteware, Givony said he wasn’t sure.

One thing is for sure, NBA personnel haven’t stayed away from Cowboys home games.

Noteware said they continue to show up at Gallagher-Iba, and are scheduled to visit frequently throughout the season with Marcus Smart, Markel Brown and Le’Bryan Nash all in their sights as likely pros.

For Saturday’s 1 p.m. tipoff against West Virginia, five scouts have requested seats. A season-high of 21 were on hand for the early season clash with Memphis, and 13 scouts have given notice of plans to be in Stillwater for OSU’s next premium matchup — Iowa State on Feb. 3.

No problem with the view here. Let’s post!