Basketballs...what difference can a ball make?

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N8theGr8

Well-Known Member
After the Maryland game and remembering they play with different balls at home, I was wondering what impact the different balls might have on their play away from home. I found this ESPN article and was pretty surprised to hear how unregulated basketballs really are. All the NCAA rules state is that it be spherical, made of leather or composite, generally orange/brown, between 20-22 oz and 29.5-30 inches in circumference, and bounce straight up between 49 and 54 inches when dropped from 6 feet. Nothing about placement of logos, depth of stripes, tackiness of the ball, or even PSI is specified outside of this: "The air pressure that will give the required reaction shall be stamped on the ball".

Maryland is far from the only team to play with a weird ball too as NW plays with Under Armour as well, Nebraska and Indiana play with an Adidas ball, and Wisconsin plays with a Wilson ball (which should be mentioned is the official ball of the NCAA tournament). I believe the rest play with Nike balls. Those teams playing with non-Nike balls are a combined 4-13 away from home with 3 wins coming from Wisconsin who uses the NCAA standard ball and 1 win from NW. That single win away from home for NW? Against Boston College, another Under Armour school.

Is it a coincidence that Iowa's worst shooting night came with an Adidas ball? And that when Nebraska went to Indiana, they had their best shooting performance of the year away from home in an OT loss? And that Maryland can't shoot away from home?

Fran obviously thinks it's a problem in the article: "I don't think the players like it," McCaffery said. "I don't like it. I don't agree with it. But you start dealing with 'This school is with Nike, this school is with Under Armour.' I get it. We all get it. So I don't think it's going to change. But whatever the basketball that's used for the NCAA tournament, they should use that for games."

The reason I bring this up, we'll be playing with an Under Armour ball again in Evanston tomorrow night. I'm not saying it will be a deciding factor, but if we have another off shooting night I'll certainly be wondering how much of a factor it really was.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...dvantage-facing-college-basketball-road-teams
 
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The NCAA should just go with the NBA's ball. That ball is the best ball, IMO. Not too slippery, not too rough, not too sticky, not too soft, not too hard, a true consistent performer.
 
I remember the Under Armor ball being more slippery for the last couple years. The slip factor how it comes off the finger tips has A LOT to do with it. The weight and diameter should be consistent. It is all about the texture of the ball and how slippery it is.

I didn't even know that Adidas even made a ball.

I prefer the Wilson Solution.
 
tksirius said:
The NCAA should just go with the NBA's ball. That ball is the best ball, IMO. Not too slippery, not too rough, not too sticky, not too soft, not too hard, a true consistent performer.
Click to expand...

Who manufactures the NBA ball. Spaulding? The Spaulding was the old go to ball when I was in HS in the 1980's.
 
N8theGr8 said:
After the Maryland game and remembering they play with different balls at home, I was wondering what impact the different balls might have on their play away from home. I found this ESPN article and was pretty surprised to hear how unregulated basketballs really are. All the NCAA rules state is that it be spherical, made of leather or composite, generally orange/brown, between 20-22 oz and 29.5-30 inches in diameter, and bounce straight up between 49 and 54 inches when dropped from 6 feet. Nothing about placement of logos, depth of stripes, tackiness of the ball, or even PSI is specified outside of this: "The air pressure that will give the required reaction shall be stamped on the ball".

Maryland is far from the only team to play with a weird ball too as NW plays with Under Armour as well, Nebraska and Indiana play with an Adidas ball, and Wisconsin plays with a Wilson ball (which should be mentioned is the official ball of the NCAA tournament). I believe the rest play with Nike balls. Those teams playing with non-Nike balls are a combined 4-13 away from home with 3 wins coming from Wisconsin who uses the NCAA standard ball and 1 win from NW. That single win away from home for NW? Against Boston College, another Under Armour school.

Is it a coincidence that Iowa's worst shooting night came with an Adidas ball? And that when Nebraska went to Indiana, they had their best shooting performance of the year away from home in an OT loss? And that Maryland can't shoot away from home?

Fran obviously thinks it's a problem in the article: "I don't think the players like it," McCaffery said. "I don't like it. I don't agree with it. But you start dealing with 'This school is with Nike, this school is with Under Armour.' I get it. We all get it. So I don't think it's going to change. But whatever the basketball that's used for the NCAA tournament, they should use that for games."

The reason I bring this up, we'll be playing with an Under Armour ball again in Evanston tomorrow night. I'm not saying it will be a deciding factor, but if we have another off shooting night I'll certainly be wondering how much of a factor it really was.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-b...dvantage-facing-college-basketball-road-teams
Click to expand...
Great post.
I was a 5'8 140 lb self proclaimed sharp shooter in HS and the Y in my early 20s. I for one can say the ball absolutely makes a difference. There's no doubt about it. To try and get used to something in a 10 min warmup line prior to a game isn't even close to what it'd take.

So here's what I feel coaches should do (since what's going on isn't most likely to change) Fran should have a rack of every other schools balls that they'll be playing against for the year. And in the immediate days of practice leading up to playing them only use those for it. Like we played Saturday and don't play NW till tomorrow night. So regardless of how many times you practice between only us Under Armour balls. Granted you'll have more and less time to prep throughout the year for each opponent but beyond that I'm not sure how else to do it.

Not being uniform on this is pretty dumb. What that ensures is that you won't be getting the best of all the players involved. It's not a level playing field. And it's just ridiculous to have a system setup in that way. It's like those that allow this have never touched a ball before let alone played competitively.

It's one thing to have shoes and apparel deals for schools to make their side hustle $. It's another to have it affecting games. NCAA should've stopped this from the git go. But who are they to do jack squat about anything when they should..
 
Different sport, but apparently it makes a difference here:
0ap3000000491539.jpg
 
Greg Brunner said these guys play enough basketball that the transition from one ball to another is/should be quick.

He hated Wisconsin’s heavy ball.


It’s stupid that there isn’t a uniform universal ball for the NCAA.
 
It's insane that they use different balls. How do they decide which ball gets used in the NCAA tournament or the big ten tournament? It's not the sites choice is it? That would be dumb as hell
 
mopkins said:
It's insane that they use different balls. How do they decide which ball gets used in the NCAA tournament or the big ten tournament? It's not the sites choice is it? That would be dumb as hell
Click to expand...

I believe the Big Ten Basketball Tournament uses Spalding balls and the NCAA's are signed on to use the Wilson balls for a few more years. Kansas and Wisconsin switched to the balls the NCAA tournament uses and are on record saying they'll switch when the NCAA does. Nike is far and away the most common in major college basketball though. Bo Ryan used to use Sterling balls at Wisconsin and people have attributed some of his home court success to that decision since basically no one else plays with Sterling balls.
 
I never realized they use different basketballs at different schools. I thought they used Wilson since it’s the official basketball of the NCAA.
 
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