Auditorium’s floor rejects bounce pass

Consider the bounce pass.

Or, if you’re John Bapst boys basketball coach Bob Cimbollek, don’t consider it at all. At least not on the Bangor Auditorium floor, where dead spots are as prevalent as the magical moments which have helped give the high school basketball tournaments its storied, historic feeling.

A lot of tournament-bound teams will be coming to the Bangor Auditorium in the coming weeks to play on the floor. They will notice some definite differences from the courts they might be used to playing on. Not only does the Auditorium floor feature its infamous ever-changing dead spots, which seem to move slightly with every passing game, but it’s a uniquely different feeling for a basketball player.

“It changes from bounce to bounce,” said Cimbollek. “If you bounce the ball at the exactly same spot and then come back to it, it might react differently. Players are always going into it at different angles and it reacts differently.”

The floor on which basketball sneakers will be squeaking for the next week is the original floor installed when the new Auditorium opened in 1955.

There was a time when there was a sub floor underneath the portable floor. Now, however, there is only cement.

Still, the floor is comfortable on players legs and offers a slight springboard which allows a player increased jumping ability.

Cimbollek, who has won three state championships at Bapst in the last five years, knows the floor well enough so that his players will not throw bounce passes during games.

“We don’t like the bounce pass,” Cimbollek said. “The ball can just die there. It makes people smaller anyway. I think the bounce pass is highly overrated.”

Many people who have followed the tournament over the years will tell you the floor has never cost a team a game. Physically speaking, they are probably correct.

Psychologically, however, playing on the Bangor Auditorium floor can be a bit unnerving to some.

“I think when you first go out on it (it could be),” Cimbollek said. “But, it’s the same as any other portable floor. It’s different. It’s slower. But I don’t think it has that much of an affect.”

A few tournament teams will be finding out this week.