Big 12 Scraps Controversial LED Basketball Court for Final Tournament Games
Big 12 Tournament Say Bye-Bye to LED Glass Floor ... For Championship Weekend
Published
The Big 12’s flashy court experiment didn’t even last the whole tournament.
Conference commissioner Brett Yormark announced late Thursday the league is ditching its much-hyped glass LED court for the rest of the tournament ... meaning the semifinals and championship of the Big 12 Men's Basketball Tournament will be played on a traditional hardwood floor instead.
The abrupt switch came the same day Christian Anderson -- a star guard for Texas Tech who leads the conference in assists -- slipped multiple times on the court and left the Red Raiders’ quarterfinal game with an injury, putting the controversial playing surface in the spotlight.
In a statement, Yormark said the decision came after consulting with the four semifinal teams and was made to ensure players can be at their best on the big stage.
“After consultation with the coaches of our four semifinal teams, 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.
All four remaining teams are nationally ranked .... Iowa State will take on Arizona in the first of two semifinal games, while Houston and Kansas will go head-to-head in the second for a chance to play for the conference crown.
The decision is a pretty big reversal from earlier in the week ... when Yormark was still hyping the glass court as “the future” during an appearance on ESPN -- pointing out the surface is FIBA-certified and already used by EuroLeague teams overseas.
The high-tech floor was supposed to be the conference’s big splash -- capable of changing logos instantly and even showing graphics like a “shattering” effect after dunks. But players and coaches quickly started raising concerns about traction and how the surface felt under their feet.
Some players thought the lights were cool. Others weren’t fans at all.
But after Anderson’s slip-and-exit Thursday, the Big 12 clearly decided the risk wasn’t worth the show.
So for the biggest games of the tournament, the conference is going back to basics -- ditching the glowing floor and rolling out old-school hardwood instead.
