KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Big 12 didn’t announce its decision to change out the ASB GlassFloor with a hardwood floor until after the final game ended on Thursday night at T-Mobile Center.
But, as I watched the Kansas-TCU game from the hockey press box, out of the corner of my eye I saw Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark step out of a tunnel and watch the game for a few minutes. It was the only time I saw him all day. In hindsight, I wondered if he was taking one last look at his latest innovation before it was taken apart?
As with any innovation, I wanted to give the ASB GlassFloor a chance.
So, I didn’t pass judgment as I watched Big 12 women’s tournament games on TV last week. I saw some slipping, most notably hustle plays by West Virginia’s Jordan Harrison and Kansas State’s Gina Garcia that clearly showed a lack of traction. But I wanted to see the floor, and games, in person before I wrote my thoughts about it.
Plus, Yormark asked for feedback, though I’m sure he meant from players and coaches and not writers. Wheh he spoke to reporters on Tuesday he said that “when you innovate you won’t get 100% buy-in.”
The Big 12 Experiment Had to End
But after three days of games here at T-Mobile Center, it was clear to me that the experiment should end after this tournament. It was for the reason I highlighted in a piece I wrote after the floor was announced in February — player safety. Back then I wrote:
My biggest [concern] is player safety. These players have been working on hardwood floors all season and now they’re moving to this at the biggest tournament of the conference season. This isn’t a Gene Hackman in “Hoosiers” tape-measure kind of thing, either. Playing surface matters.
The Big 12 finally agreed late Thursday. In consultation with coaches, the Big 12 decided to move back to a hardwood floor for the semifinals and the finals.
“I have decided that in order to provide our student-athletes with the greatest level of comfort on a huge stage this weekend, we will transition to a hardwood court for the remainder of the Tournament,” Yormark said in a release.
The Final Straw
So, he did listen to the feedback. But it took eight days of game play in the men’s and women’s tournaments to get to that point. I think the Texas Tech-Iowa State game on Thursday was the breaking point.
In that game, Tech lost guards LeJuan Watts and Christian Anderson after plays that saw them slip on the floor. Anderson said the floor was slippery and he made a move that caused him to slip and end up in an unnatural position. It was a basketball move, if we’re being honest. It’s the sort of move players don’t slip on playing on a hardwood floor unless there is water on the floor. Fortunately, Anderson and Watts appear to be OK.
After the game, Red Raiders coach Grant McCasland was diplomatic about it, but his comment was also telling.
“It’s definitely different and it’s a challenge at times,” he said. “It’s a different surface than we’re used to. There were some challenging moments.”
The challenge should be the team you’re playing, not the floor you’re playing on. At this time of year, when there is so much on the line — tournament titles, NCAA bids, gearing up for March Madness — players shouldn’t need to adjust to a new playing surface so different than the hardwood they’ve played on all season. And the talk of the tournament should be about game play, not the court.
I didn’t get to walk on the floor much. It’s not like they let the media play on it, though I would have been game to test it out. But I did step on the extended part of the floor that featured the ceramic technology designed to give shoes grip. When I stepped on it, I got traction. I moved around like I was pivoting. The grip held. But that’s not playing a game or even practicing. Alex Busse, who covers Iowa State for 247 Sports, got a good look at it. Well, kind of. That ceramic technology is really small.
What I Saw with the Glass Floor
On Wednesday I got to T-Mobile early and I got to watch Houston work out for 20 minutes. I wasn’t watching plays — I was watching feet. Simple moves during workouts seemed OK. Players were able to stop and pop for jump shots and things like that. But one play caught my eye.
One Houston post player flashed into the paint on a full sprint. He came in from the sideline along the baseline, flashed into the paint, planted his foot and ran back to where he started. As he made his stop to go back the other direction, his plant foot skidded. It didn’t slip. It skidded. On a hardwood floor that foot plants. This happened as he attempted the move multiple times.
After Houston’s workout was over, the work on the floor began. There are these seams that connect the floor together. Hardwood floors use an interlocking system. In this case, a team of workers was essentially “grouting” the seam after the Cougars were done. I’m sure there’s a more technical term. But at various points someone used a portable heater to cure the seam. Nathan Giese at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal got a good shot of the seam.
In truth, the discontent was there last week during the women’s tournament, if you were paying attention. They were asked about the floor during the tournament. Some were diplomatic, some were not. Addy Brown of Iowa State was a hard no on social media, and she had good reason to be worried. She missed nearly two months with a lower leg injury. Iowa State’s second round loss was just her fifth game back.
Men’s Tournament Reaction
The men’s players tried to be diplomatic. But not all held their tongues. Kansas State forward Taj Manning said to reporters after their first-round exit that the graphics used on the floor gave his teammate Khamari McGriff a migraine.
The migraine part is interesting. I’ve been here since Tuesday up in the hockey press box and I’ll be honest — I had a migraine by the end of Tuesday night. I think some of that was travel to get to Kansas City but I covered three games and it was clear to me that my eyes were overstressed. I do a lot of computer work. I know when it’s normal and when it’s not. This was not normal.
Imagine being that close to that court for 40 minutes? I’m not sure I could deal with that with 21-year-old eyes, much less the 50-something eyes I have. I adjusted on Wednesday and Thursday covering both quadrupleheaders. But my eyes felt it after each night. I know you don’t care that I had a migraine. But it leads to a talking point for more than a week — the court’s color.
The Big 12 could have chosen any court color. That’s the whole point right? But it chose a gray aesthetic that got horrible reviews by just about every fan on social media. I think Shelby Hilliard, who covers Tech for RedRaiderSports.com, had the best logic for why the Big 12 used the gray floor, one I agree with and suspected while I watched the women’s tournament on TV. My experience in KC only amplified it.
After Texas Tech lost, KLBK’s Cole Banker caught up with Watts, who left the game with an injury after slipping on the floor. He said, “Let’s just do it on wood.” He also told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Nathan Giese that he wasn’t entirely sure what caused the injury.
Other players expressed nothing more than needing an adjustment period to get used to the floor. Some, like Iowa State’s Justin Jefferson, changed shoes to get different traction and moved on. Some of this is personal preference. Some players adjusted quicker than others. Not everyone hated it. Houston’s Emanuel Sharp and Kingston Flemings were, at minimum, neutral about the court.
The Court Overshadowed the Games
But the amount of chatter about the playability of a basketball court in March really is the point, isn’t it? As undeniably cool as the floor is from the standpoint of in-game engagement, the playing surface is just not what it needs to be for a tournament of this magnitude. That feedback came from a significant number of players that played games on it after eight days of game play in the last week. It needs to be consistent and it needs to provide sure footing. There was enough feedback from players to show that it didn’t.
I have a general rule — if athletes and coaches are being diplomatic in public about something controversial, chances are they’re being far less diplomatic behind the scenes with those in charge of making decisions. Given that the league made this decision in consultation with coaches, it showed me that the level of discontent reached the point where it couldn’t be ignored and moving to a hardwood court was the only solution. I assumed the Big 12 would ride it out for this tournament. They chose to make this move instead. It’s the right thing to do.
Innovation is great. Innovation in basketball is great. Yormark is willing to try new things and, honestly, many of them work. But this one didn’t. At least he was willing to listen to the league’s coaches and players and do the right thing. You can say he should have saw it coming, that he should have done it sooner or shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Perhaps those are legitimate notes. But this experiment ends, fortunately, with no player in the men’s or women’s tournaments ending up with any serious injuries that could be blamed on the floor.
Now, we can focus on basketball and semifinal games in the best conference in America.
