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By Cole Sullivan
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The Kansas Jayhawks outlasted the TCU Horned Frogs on Thursday night to punch their ticket to the Big 12 Conference tournament semifinals.
However, the story of the evening into Friday morning was the Big 12’s decision regarding its highly controversial LED glass court being used for the tournament.
The floor is digital and features tempered safety glass panels with embedded LED lighting, functioning like a massive television screen. That said, it also raised potential injury concerns.
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With that in mind, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark issued a statement following the quarterfinal games announcing that the conference will remove the court and move back to a traditional wood surface for the final three games of the tournament. Those matchups will feature Iowa State vs. Arizona and Kansas vs. Houston on Friday before the two winners face off on Saturday for the championship.
“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 in a statement. “We look forward to a great semifinals and championship game.”
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Reacting to the decision was Kansas head coach Bill Self after his team advanced, seemingly agreeing with the decision to switch the court back to the traditional wood surface that players are accustomed to playing on.
“I think it's the right thing to do," Self said. "The narrative [Friday] needs to be about the two games and not somebody slipping on the floor."
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While making it clear he wasn’t thinking about the court during practice or the game, Self did go into a bit more detail about what he believed was wrong with it.
"I don't think the court was as good as we're used to, but I didn't think it was awful. I thought it was probably not perfect, but not awful," he added. "But with guys, if there's a chance anybody's going to slide or slip, I think the league is smart — the commissioner is smart — to make sure that's not the story."
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