Different basketballs?

[ACE]

Stu had an interesting tweet that SLU is practicing with adidas basketballs because that's what LaSalle uses - SLU uses Nike.

I never thought about that before. I guess I assumed every team used the same basketball. I get that athletic departments have their own individual contracts with athletic companies, but this seems strange to me. It would seem to make more sense for something like this for the NCAA to have a deal with every team using the same ball. I assume every team in the NBA and NFL use the same ball, correct? Ford says there is a difference in how they feel.

[slufanskip]

9 minutes ago, ACE said:

Stu had an interesting tweet that SLU is practicing with adidas basketballs because that's what LaSalle uses - SLU uses Nike.

I never thought about that before. I guess I assumed every team used the same basketball. I get that athletic departments have their own individual contracts with athletic companies, but this seems strange to me. It would seem to make more sense for something like this for the NCAA to have a deal with every team using the same ball. I assume every team in the NBA and NFL use the same ball, correct? Ford says there is a difference in how they feel.

I didn't know that either. I would have assumed everyone used the same balls. Different brands do feel and grip differently

[NH]

Yes, definitely an interesting topic. And a big deal for coaching staffs and managers to make sure players are practicing with the balls they will be playing with ahead of the game.

The NCAA uses a Wilson ball during March madness. Some schools use Nike balls, some Adidas. When I was in college I remember a friend on the team complaining about how Under Armor balls were the worst.

The ball in the NBA is standardized. They tried to change it 10-15 years ago and it went horribly, the players hated it.

[Matty Light]

What happened to Spalding? They dominated the market when I was young.

[BilliesBy40]

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28072023/the-hidden-disadvantage-facing-college-basketball-road-teams?platform=amp

[Matty Light]

7 minutes ago, BilliesBy40 said:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/28072023/the-hidden-disadvantage-facing-college-basketball-road-teams?platform=amp

I shouldn't be surprised Huggy Bear is still using the Spalding ball.

[almaman]

8 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

What happened to Spalding? They dominated the market when I was young.

used to get them @ Sears

[dlarry]

 

The NCAA should use these. 
These were all the rage when I was younger!

[Box and Won]

I'm surprised LaSalle doesn't use Great Value brand basketballs, or off-brand balls that fell off a shipping freighter from Kazakhstan.

[Compton]

I wonder if and how it affects player's shooting percentages. If, aggregated across all players, guys shoot better in away games against teams that use their home ball manufacturer.

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, ACE said:

Stu had an interesting tweet that SLU is practicing with adidas basketballs because that's what LaSalle uses - SLU uses Nike.

I never thought about that before. I guess I assumed every team used the same basketball. I get that athletic departments have their own individual contracts with athletic companies, but this seems strange to me. It would seem to make more sense for something like this for the NCAA to have a deal with every team using the same ball. I assume every team in the NBA and NFL use the same ball, correct? Ford says there is a difference in how they feel.

Kind of funny.  When I played in HS, the ball was round.  It was brown.  It was scuffed up.  No one had any idea who made it and no one cared. 

The object back then was to score more points than your  opponent.

[slufanskip]

1 minute ago, HoosierPal said:

Kind of funny.  When I played in HS, the ball was round.  It was brown.  It was scuffed up.  No one had any idea who made it and no one cared. 

The object back then was to score more points than your  opponent.

They don’t use peach baskets today either

[HoosierPal]

7 minutes ago, slufanskip said:

They don’t use peach baskets today either

At least we cut the bottoms out of ours!  Jump balls after every basket kind of got old.

[Matty Light]

41 minutes ago, almaman said:

used to get them @ Sears

And K-Mart had the Mcgregor probably. I know I always preferred Franklin batting gloves but the sporting good stores only sold Nike and Mizuno but good old Kmart always stocked Franklin, and at 1/3 the cost of Nike and Mizuno.

[RUBillsFan]

1 hour ago, NH said:

Yes, definitely an interesting topic. And a big deal for coaching staffs and managers to make sure players are practicing with the balls they will be playing with ahead of the game.

The NCAA uses a Wilson ball during March madness. Some schools use Nike balls, some Adidas. When I was in college I remember a friend on the team complaining about how Under Armor balls were the worst.

The ball in the NBA is standardized. They tried to change it 10-15 years ago and it went horribly, the players hated it.

NBA did change this season from Spalding to Wilson: https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/11/nba-wilson-spalding-basketball-paul-george-cj-mccollum

There was a lot of bitching about it and guys blaming the new ball for their shooting woes.  I can understand the upset to some degree, but in that situation it is the exact same change for everyone.

I can't imagine using a different ball every other game.  That's crazy.

I'm also really surprised that if the NCAA uses Wilson that schools don't just follow suit with that.  Similar to @Compton's thoughts, I wonder if any analysis has been done on schools that use Wilson & how they shoot in the NCAAs compared to the regular season versus schools that use some other brand.  Seems like the schools using Wilson could have a small advantage that would be tough to see in an individual game, but might show up aggregating data together.

[billikenfan05]

28 minutes ago, Matty Light said:

And K-Mart had the Mcgregor probably. I know I always preferred Franklin batting gloves but the sporting good stores only sold Nike and Mizuno but good old Kmart always stocked Franklin, and at 1/3 the cost of Nike and Mizuno.

Franklin is a weird sports brand, everything they do is pretty much considered cheap except for batting gloves. So weird.

[Pistol]

1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

Kind of funny.  When I played in HS, the ball was round.  It was brown.  It was scuffed up.  No one had any idea who made it and no one cared. 

The object back then was to score more points than your  opponent.

Careful, there are enough people in Indiana who'd say this with a straight face that you might be taken seriously.

[Pistol]

This is a subject I haven't thought about in a long time. I don't remember being told ahead of time which brand we'd be playing with at various CUSA arenas, just basically showing up and dealing with it there. One of the many underrated aspects of playing on the road.

[Compton]

2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

This is a subject I haven't thought about in a long time. I don't remember being told ahead of time which brand we'd be playing with at various CUSA arenas, just basically showing up and dealing with it there. One of the many underrated aspects of playing on the road.

And also another small sign of SLU doing both the big (new student-athlete excellence center) and little (opponent optimized practice balls) things to compete in the A10 and fit the P6 mold. Minor, but I think those things add up. I'm sure GJ, TJ, JNez, Yuri, etc... appreciate it.

[Cowboy II]

-if people don't understand why different schools use different balls then follow the money, we are a nike school and a nike ball we will use

-granted we have that technology with the chip in the ball to track shots so might be different now, but Pistol any idea how many balls the team got per season as part of the uniform deal? and were certain of the balls used only for games?

[basebill123]

Not surprised there are different balls but am surprised that it’s not standardized across the conference, I believe that’s how baseball does it.  One time we were at a neutral site game but were the ‘home’ team and we forgot to bring new balls to provide.  Picked what we could up from Walmart or sonething that fit the rules but I swear those were from the dead ball era, not sure a ball got out of the infield on a fly that day.  

[Pistol]

37 minutes ago, Cowboy II said:

-if people don't understand why different schools use different balls then follow the money, we are a nike school and a nike ball we will use

-granted we have that technology with the chip in the ball to track shots so might be different now, but Pistol any idea how many balls the team got per season as part of the uniform deal? and were certain of the balls used only for games?

No clue how it works now, honestly. Former managers from a more recent era would have to chime in (not sure of handles here, but look at replies/quote tweets of SLU's original tweet to see what they're saying). 

 

[almaman]

11 minutes ago, Pistol said:

No clue how it works now, honestly. Former managers from a more recent era would have to chime in (not sure of handles here, but look at replies/quote tweets of SLU's original tweet to see what they're saying). 

 

sounds like a shout out for podcast guest. we may have our own deflategate here

[Cowboy II]

17 minutes ago, Pistol said:

No clue how it works now, honestly. Former managers from a more recent era would have to chime in (not sure of handles here, but look at replies/quote tweets of SLU's original tweet to see what they're saying). 

 

-thanks, I was asking if you knew what the deal was when you were there, if more recent can give us info, even better

[Pistol]

9 minutes ago, almaman said:

sounds like a shout out for podcast guest. we may have our own deflategate here

Then you'll be very pleased with an upcoming guest.