The Holy Land of Hoops

Just saw this story on CBS website:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... onsistency

Something hadn't thought of before- but wow it makes a lot of sense......

someone did a segment on this recently. I think ESPN maybe. They went through some of the differences of the balls. They also seemed convinced it was not going to change.

I love this quote. Bolded for emphasis.

"Personally, we don't like it too much. I don't like the Under Armour ball whatsoever. But that's the way this amateur sports league is set up. We're supposed to be having fun, but all the money is in these basketballs that colleges play with. But it's an amateur sport, we're just here for fun. It's not really that serious. So I guess any ball should be OK.

“Maybe we should have a universal ball like the NBA. You don't go to the Clippers' stadium and play with a Nike and then go to Golden State and play with a Rawlings. But in this amateur sport of college, where money isn't the goal — it's the student education and experience that you get — we play with a million different basketballs.”

Doge McDermott wrote:I love this quote. Bolded for emphasis.

"Personally, we don't like it too much. I don't like the Under Armour ball whatsoever. But that's the way this amateur sports league is set up. We're supposed to be having fun, but all the money is in these basketballs that colleges play with. But it's an amateur sport, we're just here for fun. It's not really that serious. So I guess any ball should be OK.

“Maybe we should have a universal ball like the NBA. You don't go to the Clippers' stadium and play with a Nike and then go to Golden State and play with a Rawlings. But in this amateur sport of college, where money isn't the goal — it's the student education and experience that you get — we play with a million different basketballs.”

Are high school and AAU balls universal? If not then it's not something new to play with different type of balls for each game. He just doesn't like the UA ball.

You want universal balls then it's just another revenue stream for the NCAA.

NJRedman wrote:

Doge McDermott wrote:I love this quote. Bolded for emphasis.

"Personally, we don't like it too much. I don't like the Under Armour ball whatsoever. But that's the way this amateur sports league is set up. We're supposed to be having fun, but all the money is in these basketballs that colleges play with. But it's an amateur sport, we're just here for fun. It's not really that serious. So I guess any ball should be OK.

“Maybe we should have a universal ball like the NBA. You don't go to the Clippers' stadium and play with a Nike and then go to Golden State and play with a Rawlings. But in this amateur sport of college, where money isn't the goal — it's the student education and experience that you get — we play with a million different basketballs.”

Are high school and AAU balls universal? If not then it's not something new to play with different type of balls for each game. He just doesn't like the UA ball.

You want universal balls then it's just another revenue stream for the NCAA.

I think HS and AAU balls are a lot more universal than you would think. Way more than you would think.....

stever20 wrote:I think HS and AAU balls are a lot more universal than you would think. Way more than you would think.....

How in God's green earth would you have ANY idea about this? You are a piece of work.

TrueBlueJay wrote:

stever20 wrote:I think HS and AAU balls are a lot more universal than you would think. Way more than you would think.....

How in God's green earth would you have ANY idea about this? You are a piece of work.

I have coached in AAU and worked with HS ball for years. Most of the time it's the Wilson Evolution ball or Spalding TF ball. Every once in a while you'll get an outlier, but those are few and far between.

The funny thing is it's only coming from B1G schools about Marylands balls. Many other schools like SJU, Seton Hall, Notre Dame and many others are also UA schools and we aren't hearing complaints from the schools they play.

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.