KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas State doesn’t play in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals until Thursday, and under normal circumstances the Jayhawks would have completely skipped the opportunity to practice for 30 minutes at the familiar T-Mobile Center three days earlier.
But when coach Bill Self met Brandon Schneider, he was convinced the 30 minutes might be worth it. Brandon Schneider’s women’s team just played on the new high-tech glass floor installed at Kansas City’s downtown arena.
advertise
“The floor is nice,” Self said afterward, “but it does look a little different than most courses from a traction standpoint.”
Here’s an overall review of the floor: It’s a lot like ice, a little slick, but cool.
“It’s really cool. It looks really cool,” BYU women’s player Brinley Cannon said, “but it’s definitely a different feeling.”
The Big 12 announced last month that it would play its men’s and women’s games on Surface, a surface made with ASB GlassFloor that has been used for the NBA All-Star Game and European games but never for an official game in the United States.
advertise
Rather than traditional wood, the flooring features an aluminum and steel spring-action design designed to mimic the flexibility of hardwood. The LED panel, which enables the league to display everything from data-driven graphics to advertising, features a ceramic coating and small dots etched into the glass that create a consistent grip with traditional surfaces.
The ball seemed to bounce like normal, but made a different “pop” sound. The sneakers were squeaking much more than usual. But the biggest difference is traction: Many players could have slipped, but they did.
“I would say it was a little slippery in some areas,” admitted Kansas State women’s player Allie Evans.
There are many other differences in such an unusual court.
advertise
When the players landed, staff members wearing black jumpsuits with “Windex Glass Care Team” written on the back no longer used traditional brooms, but quickly ran to the floor with special mops to clean up. Sometimes they spray cleaning fluid before wiping it off.
This is how you clean your windows at home.
The team logo will be prominently displayed during the introduction. During timeouts, the three-point line, half-court line and lane lines turn into flashing red lasers. When someone dunks, the entire inside of the three-point arc lights up like broken glass.
“There was a media timeout and the scene started moving on the court,” BYU women’s coach Lee Kamard said, only half-jokingly, “and it kind of scared me, right?
advertise
“I wasn’t paying attention to the field,” Kamade added, “but in the pregame introductions, the whole field was lit up in BYU blue and their name was on the entire field, and I thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in a pregame introduction.”
One group seems to like the court’s slightly more elastic side: officials.
“Every official last week came out and said, ‘Brett, this is going to help me — if we ever play on this court again — this is going to extend my career,’ because it provides shock absorption for their knees,” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said. “To be honest, I haven’t heard much beyond that. But we encourage all key stakeholders to provide us with feedback.”
___
advertise
Get AP Top 25 poll alerts and updates all season long. Register here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
