The Jayhawk flashes across center court as the starting lineups are announced prior to tipoff against TCU, Thursday, March 12, 2026, at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Who knows what the future may hold, but at least for a while the Kansas men’s basketball team will be one of precious few that can boast an unbeaten record on a “state-of-the-art full LED video sports floor.”

That’s how the Big 12’s press release back on Feb. 11 described the special court made by ASB GlassFloor that it planned to implement for its men’s and women’s conference tournaments — employing a technology that had already found its way into NBA All-Star Weekend and EuroLeague games.

It was the same press release in which KU coach Bill Self said, “I’m an old school guy, but this has me thinking of new school ways, and from what I’ve seen and heard, this is the wave of the future. I think it’ll be great.”

By the time his team, and quite a few others, had played on the court in question, Self had a bit more to say about it on Thursday night, following KU’s 78-73 victory over TCU.

“To be honest with you, in theory, if it wasn’t slippery, it’s good,” Self said. “I mean, in theory. The one thing I would like, I’d like for it not to be gray. I’d like for it to look like wood, to make it lighter. Because if you watch it on TV, to me it looks dark. But when it’s all lit up and everything, you got to admit it’s kind of cool. But not to the extent of risking somebody maybe getting nicked up.”

That was the risk that became a prominent topic of conversation over the course of the first three rounds of the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament. Some players had already described it as slick or slippery during the women’s tournament — and indeed it was KU women’s coach Brandon Schneider who advised Self to go and practice on the glass court early, as the Jayhawks did on Monday. But the criticism ratcheted up, or at least gained more publicity, beginning on Tuesday when, for example, Kansas State’s Taj Manning called it “pretty bad” and an “eyesore” and said it had given his teammate a migraine. Then, earlier on Thursday, Texas Tech’s star guard Christian Anderson slipped on the floor and strained a muscle late in the Red Raiders’ loss to Iowa State.

“I didn’t notice us slipping as much,” Self said. “I personally didn’t think it was as big a deal, but if you study it and watch the games throughout the day — and maybe even some tonight — (it) seemed like to me there were a lot of steps that end up sliding one or two inches. It just didn’t look quite as clean.”

And so by the time the Jayhawks and Horned Frogs left the T-Mobile Center on Thursday, a crew was already hard at work replacing the glass floor with more traditional hardwood; out with the new, in with the old.

“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,” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement. “We look forward to a great Semifinals and Championship Game.”

Self said he wasn’t asked for his opinion on switching out the court, but that he thought it was the right thing to do.

“The narrative tomorrow needs to be about the two games and not about somebody slipping on the floor or whatever,” he said.

And so the Jayhawks will not be on the floor that Flory Bidunga had called “unusual” or Melvin Council Jr. had compared to the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament and Rucker Park in New York when they take on No. 2 seed Houston at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night. The other semifinal, between No. 1 Arizona and No. 5 Iowa State, is set for 6 p.m.