Ballgate

[NJRedman]

To think there's any universality of balls in high school basketball is just absurd and completely false. Most schools don't even have complete universality with their own balls, let alone every program in their league, state, or country. That said, the under armour ball, like most of their equipment, is awful, but no reason for Hayes to make this a statement about his plight as a poor, unpaid college athlete, which I think is stupid anyway. You are getting a free education and get to play high level basketball every day. Cry me a freaking river.

I'm a fan of UA.

[FenwayFriar]

Was very excited to open this thread to see what controversy NovaBall had started this time. Disappointed it's a discussion about actual basketballs.

[sciencejay]

I applaud Hayes for speaking up and for the very reasons he states. College basketball is all about the money.

Ever wonder why your team doesn't shoot as well on the road as at home? Maybe it's the ball. It feels different--smoother/rougher/stickier/etc.

But you can see how this came about--individual schools sign marketing contracts with Nike/Adidas/UA/whomever and use their stuff. Coaches can't complain about having to use different balls too vociferously because if they do (and their school is contracted with Nike), and the NCAA decides to make it uniform and goes with Spalding, then the coach is going to have a hard time re-signing with Nike (because now no one is using Nike basketballs and they are pissed at that coach).

If only the NCAA weren't a gutless, nutless, feckless organization that could actually lead in important ways to maintain uniformity in collegiate competitions.......

Maybe they should play with the visitor's balls in the first half and the home team's balls in the second (no pun intended). Or a coin flip could determine which balls get used each half. That way the different manufacturers could still do their thing, but each team would be in a comfort zone for at least one half each game.

[stever20]

Was very excited to open this thread to see what controversy NovaBall had started this time. Disappointed it's a discussion about actual basketballs.

lol post of the day IMO....