KANSAS CITY — If there is an opportunity to market the product and bring additional attention and buzz to his conference, commissioner Brett Yormark is going to seize it — every time.
The latest example is the dazzling but undeniably controversial decision to install an all-LED floor for the Big 12 basketball tournaments. The women’s tournament was played here last week without significant incident. Now, the men are getting their opportunity to glide across the first all-glass floor ever used for legitimate basketball competition in the history of the United States.
The reviews are landing frequently and are anything but unanimous. Some players and coaches think the slickness is too much. That feeling was backed up on Thursday afternoon, when the anxiety around the issue ratcheted up during the Iowa State-Texas Tech game.
Tech, which already doesn’t have its best player (JT Toppin; ACL injury), came close to another potential season-wrecker when its next-best option, point guard Christian Anderson, slipped and tweaked his groin. Anderson squirmed in pain in the second half of TTU’s 75-53 loss against Iowa State. He left the game with the Red Raiders down by 22 points and didn’t return. I walked alongside Anderson after he left the press conference. He had a slight but noticeable limp. Fortunately, the minor setback isn’t expected to affect his status for next week’s NCAA Tournament.
“I’m feeling good,” he said after the loss. “Obviously, the floor is a bit slippery, so I think I kind of misstepped or did a movement that caused me to slip and kind of ended up in a little unnatural position.”
Teammate LeJuan Watts offered a succinct opinion: “Let’s just do it on wood.” Anderson said as much as well afterward in the locker room.
Others, including BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, who put up 40 on the court earlier in the week, told me he didn’t think it was that big of a deal.
“I slipped a couple of times, but I don’t have anything negative to say about it,” Dybantsa told CBS Sports on Wednesday night after BYU beat West Virginia 68-48.
And yet …
“All the players hate it,” a source at one program told CBS Sports, referring to just that team.
That source was not connected to Kansas State, which was one-and-done earlier in the week here and had the most outspoken critic.
“It’s pretty bad,” Wildcats forward Taj Manning said. “It’s a bad floor. They shouldn’t bring it back.”
Arizona’s Jaden Bradley, the Big 12 Player of the Year, told CBS Sports he has no issues with the playing surface.
“Everybody’s playing on the same court,” he said after Arizona’s cruise-control win against UCF on Thursday. “We’ve got to adjust. It’s a little different.”
Bradley’s teammate — and likely future lottery pick — Brayden Burries told me he changed his shoes after warmups but also didn’t have any problems.
Would Anderson have slipped all the same if he were playing on hardwood? We’ll never know. Players slip on wood floors all the time, too. But in talking to players and/or coaches with many of the teams at the Big 12 tourney, all of them agree: the surface is unavoidably different, and it’s impossible to ignore or remove that reality from your head while playing.
The majority opinion at this point is the mental and physical adjustments from traditional hardwood probably isn’t worth the trade-off for all the glitz and flashy graphics that accompany the digital playing surface.
“We’re just not used to playing on it,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland told me Thursday. “And so the difficulty is the familiarity of how it responds, and it does respond differently. Am I saying it caused problems? It was a challenge just because we don’t play on it enough to get used to how to respond to it. And I think for quick guards and change of direction, it’s difficult.”
Another coach I spoke with on Wednesday brought up that same point. The faster, twitchier players are at a disadvantage.
Yormark told CBS Sports some coaches have reached out and said there is a legitimate adjustment to the playing surface.
“I would say that it’s down the middle, there’s mixed reviews, and that ultimately there’s an adjustment to be made,” Yormark said. “I am encouraging feedback, because I think anytime you do something different, it’s a fluid process, and you want feedback as often as you can get it. I’m asking for it, and I’m fully engaged with our ADs and our coaches.”
One of those coaches, Iowa State’s TJ Otzelberger, told CBS Sports he has no problem continuing to play on the court for the duration of the tournament and that his players have acclimated after initial adaptation.
“Initially, when you’re playing on any new surface, there’s going to be a mental and physical adjustment that you make,” Otzelberger said. “At this point, we’ve made the adjustment, we’ve practiced on it and played multiple games on it. We base our program on mental toughness. We’ll play anyone, anywhere, at any time.”
Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd echoed that in his postgame presser on Thursday, saying, “We’ll play on asphalt with double rims. We’re fine with that.”
What science says about LED glass court
American sports fans have already seen this type of court on television prior to this month; a near-identical one was used for the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend (though not the All-Star Game).
The court was designed by ASB GlassFloor, a company out of Zurich, Switzerland. The Big 12 leased it this year for a cost of approximately $185,000, Yormark told CBS Sports. Two dozen technicians come with the deal to make sure there are no glitches, blackouts or technical problems that would instantly cause a viral story — and halt of competition.
But the actual playing surface gets no in-tournament upgrades. Is it ultimately just as safe to play on as hardwood? ASB CEO Benedikt von Dohnanyi is on site at the tournament and talked to CBS Sports about what the science, research and development have shown with the LED glass floor.
“The NBA had the same question,” Dohnanyi said. “It plays the same as a wooden court. It plays the same from a grip perspective.”
Some players this week may disagree, but when the NBA did its diligence before using it, the league relied on third-party testing from a global engineering company named Rimkus. The NBA was satisfied enough to use it for All-Star Weekend in 2024.
“Rimkus concluded that the ASB LumiFlex glass floor has surface friction in line with or greater than typical NBA hardwood courts, meaning it does not pose a higher slip risk than the courts currently used in professional basketball,” Dohnanyi said.
The court is also “FIBA level 1 certified, meaning approved for all top-tier competitions,” Dohnanyi said.
Adding to the court’s credibility, FIBA has used the court for its Champions League event, as well. In Europe, Panathinaikos plays on it, as do a variety of Greek teams in the Euroleague. The same goes for Bayern Munich in Germany. One of the biggest selling points of the court, beyond the visuals, per Dohnanyi: “It has more give to it. It’s a little softer, but it’s not soft enough where the NBA said we can’t play on it.”
Dohnanyi also cited Rimkus’ research that the court “performs better than wood when moisture is present” due to the surface being dotted with millions of tiny nubs, and the point of the court was to actually improve shoe traction and be more forgiving on joints and muscles.
“It has different characters as opposed to lacquer floor, where you stop, it has a real impact on our joints,” he said. “Ours has a little bit of give and then grabs, so you have a little bit of time for the muscles to adjust, and this is what the players are feeling.”
Dohnanyi said it takes players some time — 10 minutes or so of real competition, per the feedback the company has received from players — to adjust to the differences in playing surfaces versus a typical hardwood surface.
I asked nearly a dozen players that very question, and a lot of them largely agreed. The adjustment is real, but it’s also not something that lingers the entire game.
“Your muscle players tell you one thing and you see something and your brain is telling you this is different,” he said. “Now, people slip. I know that. It’s going to happen. It happens on wood courts.”
That is true.
And even if the science does check out, it’s impossible to test here in the midst of competition. What’s undeniable is the mental effect. This is a drastic change, and it’s been done for show, for the marketing and entertainment aspect. Yormark believes it’s the future of basketball in a sense. But opting to do this on the doorstep of NCAA Tournament play was too aggressive.
“Any time you innovate, there’s going to be risk,” Yormark said. “And I understand that, and my team understands that, and I think, in fact, the coaches and ADs understand that. But I’m monitoring it. I’m engaged with all of our key stakeholders, and we’ll move forward accordingly.”
To this point, the court has been a curiosity and an easy, obvious target for criticism. Anderson’s injury opened a window for doubt. Should something change before the end of the weekend? The Big 12 has played two dozen tournament games over the past week-plus and avoided a catastrophe. Hopefully, it can stage a few more without interruption and start anew next year.
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