Allen Fieldhouse has windows. You know that. Now name another college basketball arena with windows visible from courtside.

Uh, let’s see … there’s Kansas State’s Ahearn Fieldhouse. No, the Wildcats left that mushroom patch in 1988. How about Missouri’s Brewer Fieldhouse? Nope. The Tigers departed that dreadful dungeon in 1972.

Darned if I can remember the last time I was in a basketball arena other than Allen Fieldhouse that has windows. There sure aren’t any in the Big 12 Conference. Even Oklahoma State’s Gallagher-Iba Arena — the league’s oldest venue — doesn’t have windows.

So when KU athletic director Lew Perkins announced Saturday that part of the Allen Fieldhouse renovation project funded by a $12 million gift would be used to improve the windows, I could imagine other ADs around the country who have never been in KU’s basketball facility wondering why Perkins would waste valuable donor money on windows.

One reason is the surreal atmosphere inside when the Jayhawks are playing an afternoon game and the sun is shining brightly, as it was Saturday during the Texas Tech game. The windows high above the south end are covered with a glare-reducing material that casts an eerie blue glow. To prevent some of that glow, KU officials attached an extra layer of brown paper across the lower tier of panes.

“We had paper on the windows,” Perkins said. “I don’t know if that’s the kind of program you want to have.”

Allen Fieldhouse has had renovations before, but mostly for safety reasons. An additional exit ramp was installed, an elevator was added and the original doors that weighed as much as a light cruiser were replaced. Additional rest rooms also were built.

Speaking of rest rooms, I can’t speak for the Allen Fieldhouse women’s facilities, but the men’s rest rooms still contain original trough urinals that look like relics of an ancient civilization. What’s more, the re-painting of the re-painting of those porcelain conveniences is peeling badly.

As far as the arena itself, I wouldn’t call it ugly, but I can’t say it is pretty, either. I don’t know if they plan to repaint the drab planks in the upper desks, but I’ll bet they replace those chair-back seats on the east side. They remind me of those old wooden baseball stadium seats you see now only in museums.

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Will they be replaced with cushioned seats? Why not? Other arenas have them, notably Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum which has more than 10,000 comfortable seats for its 14,000-plus patrons.

Incidentally, in the Big 12, did you know that Kansas and Oklahoma are the only schools that consistently sell out their arena for basketball. Missouri is close, averaging about 1,000 under capacity at the Hearnes Center, but all the other schools are averaging thousands below.

Even Gallagher-Iba Arena, a snake-pit when it seated only about 6,000 fans, doesn’t sell out since it was expanded to hold 13,611 fans three years ago. The Cowboys are averaging about 8,500 per game. However, the OSU barn — still a viper-pit — no doubt will be jammed for tonight’s game against Kansas.

About a decade before the Gallagher-Iba Arena expansion, OSU officials renovated the ancient place by adding classy bronze fixtures to the walkways and stairwells. Similar areas in Allen Fieldhouse make you feel more like you’re in a factory than in a leisure-time environment.

On the outside, Allen Fieldhouse’s limestone facade is riddled with ugly black splotches caused mostly by the fumes from the automobiles that use the adjacent parking garage. Those will be removed and a seal added.

Allen Fieldhouse is a heckuva place. Not only is it steeped in tradition, it was built like NORAD headquarters. The chief designer may have been the third little pig. Remember, the fieldhouse was built during the Cold War and was supposed to have an alternate function as an armory.

In my opinion, the venerable structure lacks only one thing. Form follows function, they say, and Allen Fieldhouse is as functional a structure as perhaps there is in the entire state of Kansas. All it needs, in addition to the outside scrubbing, is a touch of internal charm.