It’s official:
Maples Pavilion will get a new floor as part of its
renovation this year (Farm
Report, November/December). The old floor’s
four layers of crisscrossing beams, a design unique
in major college athletics, make it unusually bouncy.
An informal survey by the San Jose Mercury News
last winter found that Stanford basketball players had
sustained more than their share of stress-related injuries,
and questioned whether the floor could be the cause.
Men’s head coach Mike Montgomery recently told
the paper that was “nonsense,” but that
“the question has been raised, and we can’t
afford to have it out there.” Bottom line: in
a $30 million renovation, it’s worth paying $400,000
for a new floor. Otherwise, Montgomery said, “it’s
like redoing your house and leaving the same paint.”