KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Basketball on glass? Turns out, it’s slippery.
“It was like a rug being pulled under me,” said BYU sophomore Mihailo Boskovic, who tried to jump stop and landed on his backside late in a win over Kansas State on Tuesday, during the first round of the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament.
Last week, the Big 12 debuted an LED glass floor for its women’s tournament, part of the conference’s efforts to “keep raising the bar.” On Tuesday, it was the men’s turn. The playing surface, which has LED lighting underneath, is essentially a giant television screen. One minute, it’s an American flag. The next, it’s lit up with a team’s logo during player introductions. Want to draw on it? That’s possible. Want to move X’s and O’s from a whiteboard onto the actual playing surface during practice? Or create targets for where to shoot? Can do. It would have been perfect for MTV’s “Rock N’ Jock” back in the 1990s.
this is sick @Big12Conference pic.twitter.com/t54reBXERa
— BYU Men’s Basketball (@BYUMBB) March 9, 2026
As for a college basketball game? The early reviews were mixed among players. Arizona State’s Moe Odum said it felt like an AI court. Teammate Bryce Ford said it felt futuristic. Both had no complaints. But out of the eight players The Athletic polled Tuesday, the other six said it was slippery.
Arizona State’s Allen Mukeba said he had a migraine and the lights were “messing up with my head.” Kansas State’s Khamari McGriff told The Kansas City Star the court gave him a migraine, too. And BYU’s Keba Keita said the lights from the player intros made him dizzy.
“I don’t know how I feel about this one,” Keita said. “It’s cool and all, but I personally prefer the regular courts. My feedback is bring back the old one.”
The floor is FIBA-certified and two EuroLeague clubs, FC Bayern in Germany and Panathinaikos BC in Greece, have used it as their home court surface since 2024. ASB GlassFloor, a German company that was founded in 1965, debuted its glass floor with integrated video in 2008. The Big 12 is leasing the floor and its intention is a multiyear lease. It’s the first time the technology is being used for an official competition in the United States.
“When you innovate and you want to disrupt in a positive way, you’re never going to get 100 percent buy-in,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said Tuesday. “But I’ve received a lot of positive feedback. And it’s interesting, whenever we innovate, we really encourage all key stakeholders — coaches, student-athletes, whoever — to give us their feedback and we listen intently. So I’m very happy about where we are, but we’re monitoring that feedback and we’re making the necessary adjustments where we can. But I’m very pleased.”
It’s not the first time the Big 12 has innovated with its conference tournament floor. It turned heads last year with a court that resembled a Magic Eye trick, when the league partnered with the clothing brand Undefeated and plastered the Roman numeral XII across the surface. The background during Tuesday’s games was a solid gray. Those XII(s) were still present but lighter. More subtle. All of the lines — half-court, 3-point line, sideline, etc. — were white. The Phillips 66 logo was also a permanent fixture, which would be a luxury of the LED screen if it weren’t for the fact the players reported the surface was slippery.
The players said it was most impactful when running fast and then trying to stop, such as on a closeout, and several slipped when trying to turn the corner on a drive.
“The traction, to be honest with you, is really good, but when you go really, really hard, you slip,” Mukeba said. “You’re gonna slip, for sure. I think it’s more like the shoes and the court, they don’t really match that much. It makes it dangerous for sure. You know how hard we play, the intensity and everything, so it makes dangerous, but it’s still a basketball court. A lot of stuff can happen on a regular basketball court, too.”
BYU’s Mihailo Boskovic shoots after falling during Tuesday’s first-round game against Kansas State. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
The players also said the ball didn’t quite bounce like normal, almost like there were some dead spots. Courtside, the squeaks from sneakers made it seem normal, and from above, the lines looked normal.
But on the floor, Keita said during Monday’s practice that he noticed it’s hard to tell exactly where the lines are.
“When you’re close to something, when you’re standing here, you will see it, but like when you are on the other side, it looks like you’re not stepping on the line,” he said. “If you’re facing the sideline, from different angles, it looks different.”
Keita took a hard spill in the first half when he stepped on the foot of K-State’s Taj Manning. He said his coaches got on him for not playing hard enough, and he said he found himself “kind of being cautious.”
That didn’t stop the Cougars from setting a Big 12 tourney record with 105 points in a 14-point win. Freshman star AJ Dybantsa, who also said the floor was slippery, broke Kevin Durant’s freshman Big 12 tourney scoring record with 40 points.
“It seemed like we had a couple guys slip a little bit, and that’s obviously a little concerning,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “I applaud Commissioner Yormark for trying something innovative. I was a little skeptical, to be honest with you. Just, I don’t love doing new things in the postseason, but I think it’s pretty cool and the fact there’s two teams in Europe that use it exclusively, you feel like it’s been tested well enough.”
The players did say the floor felt bouncy, and Yormark said he had officials telling him if adopted, the surface would prolong their careers because the shock absorption was less taxing on their knees.
But the player’s vote?
Bring back the hardwood.