It’s official: The Big 12 is gatekeeping hardwood floors.
With No. 1 Arizona primed to take on No. 5 Iowa State and No. 2 Houston gearing up for No. 3 Kansas in the conference tournament semifinals, Brett Yormark and the conference are scrapping the controversial LED surface the first rounds of the men’s tournament and the entire women’s tournament was played on.
Advertisement
Instead, the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City will have good, old-fashioned hardwood for the semifinal and final rounds of the men’s tournament.
REQUIRED READING: Big 12 tournament court going back to hardwood after complaints about LED glass surface
Yormark went on the “Pat McAfee Show” to discuss the decision to go back to basics for the latter part of the conference tournament, citing “mixed reviews” from players about playing on glass while going back to the conference’s desire to “innovate.”
“First of all, anytime you innovate, you know there’s gonna be risk. And you know that going in,” Yormark said when he was asked. “And I think it’s fair to say that you never expect 100% buy-in. That being said. There were mixed reviews. Some players liked it, some people didn’t … There was discussion about the potential slippage. And following the games yesterday I met with the four semifinal coaches. And I had been encouraging feedback … the last two weeks in fact starting with the women’s and into the men’s … And we decided last night that for us, most importantly, is that you’ve got four of the biggest brands in college basketball competing (March 13), and the conversation should be about those teams, and not the court.”
Advertisement
Yormark saying as much, of course, opens a Pandora’s Box of questions, including but not limited to: Why was it OK to overshadow TCU vs. West Virginia as the women’s final? Was slippage discussed before the conversation fell down to Bill Self, Kelvin Sampson, Tommy Lloyd, and T.J. Otzelberger? And how much feedback was received to make the choice to scrap the court with two days of tournament play left?
The climactic incident that spurred the decision to replace the court may have been the injury to Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson, who was injured while slipping on the floor March 12.
The Big 12, for its part, is having an outstanding college basketball season. It has eight Men’s NCAA Tournament locks, and Arizona has a real shot at the No. 1 overall seed.
Yormark did praise the court and said some tweaks could make it viable.
Advertisement
“I’m still a lover of the LED court based on what it can do and it was brought to life certainly throughout the women’s and men’s,” he said. “That being said, I said to the owner last night and his staff: ‘You gotta go back to the lab. You gotta refine some things.'” Yormark added he would “stay in touch” with ASB GlassFloor, the aforementioned developers of the court, meaning the door is not closed on reintroducing the court in future conference events.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brett Yormark on decision to scrap LED court: ‘There were mixed reviews’
Read the full article here