Doug Roth was there, center stage and standing tall for the opening tip.

He was the man in the middle.

He was a 6-foot-11 hometown hero wide-eyed and surrounded by 25,272 University of Tennessee basketball fans.

It was opening night of Thompson-Boling Arena - Dec. 3, 1987.

"I think we were all kind of in awe," Roth said of the memory. "To play in front of 25,000 people is obviously a pretty exciting experience, especially for a hometown boy."

Adrenaline took over for Roth. This wasn't quaint, intimate Stokely Athletics Center. This was big time. This was bigger than Kentucky's Rupp Arena.

"What I remember most is getting the opening tip over to Clarence Swearengen for the first basket," Roth said. "He got a dunk and the place went absolutely crazy."

The 82-56 rout of Marquette on opening night was a sign that good times were here.

There have been a few of those through the years.

When there was still a luster on the endless sea of bright orange seats, fans would pack one of the largest on-campus facilities in the nation to witness basketball memories.

After 20 years, there have been 229 victories and six 20-win seasons.

But during the bad times - there have been more than a few of those, too - a head count might find only 5,000 faithful actually showed up at the cavernous "showplace" of UT basketball.

Welcome back to the good times.

The "showplace" is officially back, complete with a fresh new look courtesy of a $19 million face-lift.

UT begins the 2007-08 season with an unveiling of renovations during tonight's exhibition game at home against California (Pa.).

Former Tennessee basketball coach Don DeVoe will be there.

The coach during Roth's first tip in 1987 plans on attending tonight's game, but he couldn't wait for the "official" grand opening.

He had to go take a peek earlier this week.

"It was more than I could ever imagine," DeVoe said. "I'll be frank with you, I was really skeptical about how things would look after removing all the orange seats (and substituting with black).

"It looks like a palace. To me it looks like an NBA arena. If you didn't know any better, you'd swear this was going to be the first time basketball was ever played in there."

Wear and tear

Twenty years of wear and tear had taken a toll on the massive building.

Arena manager Tim Reese has seen it all, from opening night to the grand reopening tonight.

"I think people are going to really like what they see," Reese said as his crew put the finishing touches on the arena floor Thursday. "There's 20 years of cotton candy, coke and popcorn gone from the floor and chairs.

"The luxury boxes are special. The Loge seating is spectacular. The ($3 million) scoreboard is amazing. But everybody got something. There's nobody sitting in the same seat in that bowl they left last season."

A total of 4,934,139 fans have walked through the turnstiles to watch UT play since opening night.

The university is still paying off the debt it incurred when building the state-of-the-art facility in the mid-1980s.

"The total cost when it was built was $48 million, and we're still paying $450,000 a year annual debt service until 2014 on the original capital investment," UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said. "Probably what I'm most proud of is, with all the new arenas that are going up around the country with costs of $150-200 million, we spent $19 million on this.

"To build a 21,000-seat arena with 32 suites and 166 club seats today would probably be $250-300 million easily."

The original construction had its own share of controversy with the midstream changing of contractors, delays and resulting lawsuits.

None of that meant anything to DeVoe. He was just living in the moment.

"It was really a fun time in my life to see the excitement we had for basketball at Tennessee," he said. "To see the excitement of people wanting to move into a bigger, better arena was just a fun ride.

"Our crowds that first year allowed us to be second in the nation in basketball attendance, and the next year we were third. It was a golden time."

Ebbs and flows

The shine just seemed to wear off during most of the 1990s.

The newness had worn off the arena, and the potential lure of good basketball was rarely present during the coaching stints of Wade Houston and Kevin O'Neill.

You could watch Allan Houston become UT's all-time scorer, or watch O'Neill tirelessly stress defense in those 54-48 games, but fans weren't coming in droves unless Kentucky was in town.

Under Jerry Green, the Vols returned to an NCAA Tournament- caliber team, but Green's lack of postseason success signaled his doom and the start of the Buzz Peterson era.

More frustration and more empty seats resulted.

Then came a fresh start.

Bruce Pearl brought his up-tempo style and showman-like marketing skills, and big things started happening in the big arena once more.

"Now, with coach Pearl being here two years, I think they've only lost two games in Thompson-Boling," DeVoe said. "You're selling the tickets and you've got the excitement back to renovate the facilities.

"It seems the program is really headed in a wonderful direction. We should all just enjoy what we have right now and hope it continues."

Roth, now a regional manager for a contract facilities management company, is about to relocate to Knoxville after spending the past few years in Memphis.

"I saw some pictures of the renovations and it looked really nice," he said. "Of course, it was hard for me to sit back and think about it being 20 years already and the fact that arena needed a face-lift.

"A lot of things happen in 20 years."

A lot of ups and downs take place.

"The timing is really fortuitous when you think about the changes we've made in the arena coupled with probably the most preseason excitement we've had certainly in the time I've been here," Hamilton said. "I can't wait to get in there and see the floor down, with the center-hung scoreboard lit up and all the students in their seats.

"We've taken the arena to a different level. I don't really like that term, but that's really what has been done. It has an intimate feel to it and it looks first class."

Reese still finds himself walking around looking at what has become of his home away from home.

"It's absolutely gorgeous," he said like a proud dad. "It's a night-and-day difference. What the architects and Blaine Construction were able to accomplish in seven or eight months is really phenomenal.

"Add that with the fact we've got great coaches and two great programs. It's a really special time for Tennessee basketball right now."

Good times are back for the big arena.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.