FanPost

Different basketballs used in the BTen.

Ran across this post at BHGP and thought it interesting...it was posted after Maryland stunk it up vs Iowa in Iowa City:

"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?

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery 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

This FanPost created by a registered user of Corn Nation.