Under Armour Balls

[longslowfade]

Mike and Mike are ridiculous these days. They think they are way too important and they drive me nuts....especially Golic.

Le Batard is the only sports show I can handle.

 

[PCHawk]

I hate people who say "don't make excuses". If I lose, there's always a good excuse.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Seems to be a common theme for anyone connected with ESPN. They stopped doing actual reporting around 1983 .

FIFY

 

[BrueCrew3]

What is used in the NCAA tournament, Nike, Wilson, Spalding ??

This

If I'm a college coach, i want to use whatEver is used by the NCAA during the tourney.

GO HAWKS!!!

 

[tm3308]

If the balls made any difference then Maryland would never shoot well on the road. Everyone else in the conference uses Nike balls. Jok's comment was exactly right. They are round and they bounce.

1. Maryland shot like **** that night, too.
2. Most of the conference uses Nike, but not all of the other 13 teams.
3. #2 makes it less of an issue for Maryland. They shoot with Nike balls all the time away from home. There are like 6 P5 schools that use UA balls, and this isn't the first time it's been brought up that they feel quite a bit different than pretty much any other ball that's used in the NCAA.

It's not a major issue, and I'm glad the team isn't using it as an excuse. But the ball can have a slight influence on the shot. Maybe the grooves are deeper/not as deep as they are on a Nike ball, or the material is a little heavier, or the leather is different. All of those things can have an affect on a shooter (albeit a minor one).

 

[tm3308]

You can't say "I'm not making excuses but..." and then mention the difference between the ball that was used compared to what you're accustomed to. That's an excuse and caveats don't change that. Fact is the Terps were the better team that night and that's that.

The players were asked about the differences between Nike and UA balls. They gave the differences and said those differences were irrelevant. That's the not same thing as just bringing it up out of the blue.

 

[atomicblue224]

Dom really reminds me of Dr.J when I see him playing ... Amazing!

 

[atomicblue224]

We're still #1 Seed .

 

[PCHawk]

So Wisconsin players are talking about how much they hate them too. It's funny how people say the type of ball doesn't matter but they spend the days leading up to the game practicing with those balls. Why would you bother practicing with them if they don't matter?

 

[BrueCrew3]

We could probably use the basketball as an excuse for the Indianna loss. After all, they use Adidas.

GO HAWKS!!!

 

[enniyc]

Each school has every type of ball to practice with the few days before playing said team. So, the few days before the Maryland game the Hawks will practice with UnderArmour basketballs, before Wisconsin its Sterling, before Nebraska and Indiana its adidas, before Michigan it's The Rock, before Northwestern its Wilson (I believe) and before every other conference team its Nike. Big 10 tournament is Spaulding and NCAA is Wilson. It is also the same for whatever opponent/tournament they will be playing at in the non-conference games as well.