KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Texas Tech guard Christian Anderson strained a muscle while slipping on the new glass floor at the Big 12 tournament, leaving the all-conference player to watch from the bench as No. 7 Iowa State beat the No. 16 Red Raiders 75-53 on Thursday.
Anderson was hurt on an inbounds pass when his foot slipped near his own free throw line with about 8½ minutes remaining in the game. He immediately grabbed at his groin area while Iowa State proceeded to score a basket and play was stopped.
Anderson limped over to the end of the Texas Tech bench, was examined by a trainer and spent the rest of the game there.
“I’m feeling good,” Anderson said afterward. “Obviously the floor is a bit slippery, so I think I just kind of misstepped or did a movement that caused me to slip and kind of ended up in a little unnatural position. That’s what it was.”
The innovative glass surface has drawn mixed reviews during the Big 12 women’s tournament last week and the first two days of the men’s tournament this week. It has been praised by coaches and players alike for its glitzy ability to display graphics and hype up the fans, but numerous players in both of the events have complained about its relatively slick nature.
It’s important to note that slips can occur on any surface, including traditional hardwood floors.
Nevertheless, the injury to Anderson was another blow for the Red Raiders, who are likely to be a fourth or fifth seed during next week’s NCAA tournament, especially if it causes him to miss games. Texas Tech already is without All-American forward JT Toppin, who is out for the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee on Feb. 17 in a loss to Arizona State.
“It’s definitely different,” Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland said of the floor. “It’s obviously a different surface than we’re used to playing on, and there were some challenging movements today, is what I would say. I think with size around the basket it’s not [a big issue] but the quickness of guard play, and stop-and-start action — it just has a different response than what we’re used to.”
Iowa State guard Tamin Lipsey slid like a baseball player on several occasions during the game. In the Cyclones’ second-round win over Arizona State, teammate Joshua Jefferson switched sneakers at halftime, going from Ja Morant 3s to a pair of red Kobe IVs.
“It’s just an adjustment, I think these shoes right here are probably going to be done for the week,” Jefferson of the Ja Morants. “I only wore them against Texas Tech this year [on Feb. 28]. Might see them later on in the tournament, in March Madness, so we’ll see.”
The Big 12 announced with great fanfare last month that it would play its tournaments on ASB GlassFloor’s surface, which has been used at the NBA All-Star Game and in Europe but never for an official U.S. competition. Immediately, critics questioned whether it was wise to introduce such a potential game changer at an event as important as the Big 12 tournament.
The floor itself has an aluminum and steel spring-action design that is supposed to mimic the flexibility of wood, while ceramic coating and little dots etched into the glass are supposed to create sneaker grip consistent with regular hardwood surfaces.
But the real appeal of the floor is its LED panels, which allow league officials to display everything from data-driven graphics to advertising.
“It’s really cool. It’s really cool-looking,” BYU women’s player Brinley Cannon said, “but it definitely is a little bit of a different feel.”
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who has been praised for a number of innovations that modernized the Big 12 and its basketball tournaments, said this week that the league would consider the feedback of everyone from players to fans about the court.
“We’re very intentional about that,” Yormark said, “and we’ll react accordingly.”
