KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It's more than 220 panels of wood that will help determine which team advances to the Final Four for a chance to live every college basketball players' dream.
A crew from Connor Sports laid a series of 4-foot-by-7-foot panels, which each weigh about 150 pounds, on Wednesday inside the Sprint Center for the NCAA Midwest Regional.
"Laying the floor down in a facility like this takes a lot of effort, it takes a big team and these guys worked overnight to get this in," Brian Klein of Connor Sports said. "We have been manufacturing floors like this since 2006 for the NCAA, so we've got a lost of expertise."
The floors, which are made of MFMA northern maple, only take a few hours to install, but the manufacturing process started months ago.
"The manufacturing of these floors for the NCAA regionals, Men's Final Four and Women's Final Four started back in September of 2018," Klein said. "That's when we were harvesting the lumber and making sure it was optimized as far as wood, moisture content, drying and manufacturing those sub floors, and getting all of the components put together."
Klein said even after 13 years making these floors for the NCAA, it never gets old.
"Every time you come down here, it's really a special feeling," he said. "No matter how many times you do it, it's always special. It's really amazing to think that just a few days from now we are going to have this entire stadium filled with fans, and all of the student-athletes who have worked so hard the entire year will be able to put their skills on display."
Top-seeded North Carolina (29-6) will play fifth-seeded Auburn (26-9) at 6:29 p.m. Friday followed by and second-seeded Kentucky (29-6) against Houston (33-3). The winners meet in the Midwest Regional championship on Sunday, vying for a Final Four berth.
