KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The flashy LED basketball court has been an even bigger topic than the quality of play at the Big 12 Tournament, which started on March 10 and runs through March 14 at T-Mobile Center.
The floor adds some pizzazz, lighting up during opening introductions, highlighted in the colors of each team. The players' names are flashed across the floor as they come out. The title sponsor, Phillips 66, gets plenty of play as well. Statistics also can flash across the floor.
The court, being used for the first time for college basketball, is controlled through a tablet that is capable of instantly changing the look of the court.
Many say the surface is slicker and has led to some injuries. Three players from Texas Tech left the quarterfinal loss to Iowa State with apparent injuries, including sophomore guard Christian Anderson.
Kansas State's Khamari McGriff said the floor gave him a migraine because the lights flashed beneath his feet all evening in KSU's Tuesday, March 10, 105-91 loss to BYU.
“I suffer with seasonal migraines,” McGriff said. “Early in the second half, I started to feel pain, and my head started pounding after that.”
McGriff added that despite the headache, he thought it was interesting. “I actually liked it,” McGriff said. “For me, it didn’t feel necessarily slippery. I thought it was cool.”
Others were not as kind in their assessment.
“It’s slippery,” Kansas State forward Taj Manning said. “The lights and stuff caused Khamari to get a migraine. It’s a bad court. They shouldn’t bring it back. It’s just an eyesore. It’s constantly changing and stuff and flashing different lights. Nobody wants to play on that floor.”
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark debuted the LED floor last week during the women’s Big 12 Tournament in the same venue. Yormark has been known to push the envelope, looking for anything that can set the Big 12 apart from other conference tournaments taking place at the same time nationally.
"It's definitely different, and it's a challenge at times," said Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland, whose team lost a quarterfinal to Iowa State on March 12.
"It's obviously a different surface than what we're used to playing on, and there were some challenging moments today, is what I would say,'' he said. "I think with size around the basket, it's not. But the quickness and the guard play and start-stop and changing direction, it just has a different response than what we're used to. I thought we had a hard time handling changing directions over the course of the game."
Arizona took to the floor for the first time in its quarterfinal win against Central Florida, 81-59, on March 12. As the top seed, the Wildcats had a double-bye, so they were one of the last teams to try it out. Coach Tommy Lloyd didn't care one way or another.
"I didn't play. I coached, so I was on fine footing," Lloyd said. "You can ask these guys. They would be able to give you a better answer about that. We'll play on asphalt. We'll play on asphalt with double rims. I mean, we're fine with that. And if the other team has to deal with it, then we'll deal with it as well. But I'll let the powers that be make those higher-up decisions."
Arizona guard Brayden Burries weighed in on the topic.
"I think you've just got to get used to it real quick," he said. "Just the first five minutes when you're warming up, just get used to it. But other than that, it's pretty good. And then like the only thing I didn't like was if you're shooting a free throw and you're on the other side, the LED lights get in your eyes a little bit. But ain't no big deal."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: LED court gets mixed reviews at Big 12 Tournament