‘Preposterous thing’: College basketballs are not created equal, forcing Boise State to cope
Editor’s note: Because of outdated information provided to the Idaho Statesman from Colorado State, an earlier version of this story had the Rams using an Under Armour basketball. They use Wilson. The story has been updated.
It’s an essential piece of equipment, but it is rarely given a second thought by fans.
College basketball players will tell you a different story. The basketballs themselves vary by brand, and knowing what ball will be used before a game is an important component of preparation — one the Boise State men’s basketball team takes very seriously.
Attention to detail matters.
“Shooters get affected by weird things,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “... They have to have a good feel for (the ball) and it has to feel good in their hands. ... Sometimes if the ball feels weird in your hands or slippery, it gets in your head, and you don’t want any thoughts like that in your head if you’re a shooter.”
The basketballs used at colleges across the country are dependent on each school’s apparel contract. In the Mountain West, there are currently two brands used for games: Nike and Wilson.
“When you go on the road, that’s when you really become aware of it,” Boise State senior Abu Kigab said. “You go into another team’s arena and they’re using a whole different ball than the one you’ve been used to the whole year, you have to make that adjustment.”
The Idaho Statesman spoke with Boise State players, coaches and a team manager about the variations from one basketball to the next. Here’s what we learned.
Most schools plan ahead in practice
The Statesman surveyed all 11 men’s basketball teams in the Mountain West about their preparation. Seven schools confirmed they practice with the specific brand of ball that will be used for their upcoming game. Three schools don’t do that in practice, and one school declined to share its game-prep strategy.
More than half of the schools in the conference have contracts with Nike, which means they use the Oregon company’s basketballs. Boise State is among that group, along with Air Force, San Diego State, Utah State, New Mexico and UNLV.
Wyoming, Fresno State, Nevada and San Jose State all have contracts with Adidas; those schools use Wilson basketballs, which are the brand used in the NCAA Tournament.
Colorado State is the only school in the conference that has Under Armour apparel, and the Rams previously used a UA basketball. Beginning in 2020-21, they switched to Wilson.
“That’s a head-scratcher thing that I can’t believe we can’t get fixed in the NCAA,” Rice said. “Why doesn’t everybody use the ball that we use in the NCAA Tournament? It’s ridiculous to shoot with your ball all year long and then you go somewhere else and you shoot with somebody else’s ball.”
The NCAA rulebook addresses stipulations for basketballs only in terms of size, shape and weight. It says nothing about the manufacturer.
“The ball shall be spherical. Spherical shall be defined as a round body whose surface at all points is equidistant from the center except at the approved black rubber ribs (channels and/or seams),” the rules state. ”The ball must also have a circumference of 29.5 to 30 inches. It must weigh between 20 and 22 ounces. Any ball that meets those standards is legal, even if the seams and stitching vary.”
Nike: ‘My favorite ball’
Kigab loves the Nike Elite championship basketballs the Broncos use for their home games.
Nike balls are also used for the Mountain West Tournament, so it’s important that teams are comfortable with them.
“I really like the feel of the ball, how it feels when you dribble it, how it comes off the rim,” Kigab said. “This is my favorite ball, and most teams in the country are going to be playing with a Nike ball.”
According to Kigab, the Nike ball’s only downside is that it can become a bit slick to the touch when there’s sweat on it.
This year’s Nike ball, made of durable composite leather, has deeper channels than previous versions, and the lettering is done in gold rather than silver. The channels are textured to improve grip, and the imprinted logos are also nonslip.
Since the 2019-20 season, all Mountain West basketballs — regardless of brand — are equipped with “ShotTracker” sensors, which provide teams with instant statistics and analytics during games. That technology has improved over time.
“They did a better job with the ShotTracker in them. Sometimes when you’d bounce them on the ShotTracker, they’d bounce a little bit differently than on the regular side of the ball,” said Boise State team manager MicGuire Monson, who is in charge of getting the Broncos’ equipment ready for practice. “This year, they bounce a little bit easier. I think they’re just a better ball in general than previous Nike balls.”
Wilson: NCAA Tournament ball
Wilson is widely used by high school and AAU teams across the country. The Mountain West teams with Wilson deals are currently using an older Evolution ball, but their newest ball called the Evo NXT, will be the ball of choice for this year’s NCAA Tournament.
The older ball has more of a reddish color, while the newer one is a bright orange.
Wilson balls feature composite channels that are pebbled instead of smooth, creating a consistent texture over the entire surface.
Kigab liked the new Wilson ball so much during a recent interview that he was almost tempted to vote it his favorite over the Broncos’ Nike basketball, he said.
With microfiber composite leather and a cushioned core, some players feel the Wilson has better grip, even when wet.
“It’s the easiest ball to palm, just because of how nice the leather is,” Monson said. “Our guys like them the most.”
Under Armour: ‘A little bit harder ball’
Because Colorado State was the only team in the Mountain West using an Under Armour basketball, most players have little familiarity with it.
The company says its basketballs are made with “Gripskin” composite for “ultimate grip and feel.” Kigab, however, said this ball is the hardest and most roughly textured of the three brands.
“The bounce and the feel is obviously a lot different than the Nike and Wilson,” Kigab said. “Out of the three, I’d probably say this is my least favorite one, just based off the feel and the touch. It’s a little harder ball, it’s almost like a lacrosse ball. I’m definitely thinking there’s gonna be a lot more long rebounds when we’re playing with an Under Armour, but the shooter also plays a factor in where that ball goes.”
Like the Nike ball, the Under Armour can be a bit slicker when damp from sweaty hands.
“You jam your finger on it more than any other ball,” Monson said. “Hardest ball to dribble, hardest ball to catch.”
What about the footballs used in the Mountain West?
The footballs used in the Mountain West do not follow the same rules as in basketball. Each team provides its own football for offense and kicking — home or away — and the brand of football depends on the school’s apparel contract.
Football players, especially quarterbacks, are particular about their equipment, the same way basketball players can be. The Statesman learned in 2019 that every football used at Boise State has its own unique name written on the white stripe.
When new Nike footballs arrive at Boise State, they aren’t ready to go out of the bag. The footballs must be washed and broken in a little bit, so the equipment staffer who does the work gets to name the ball.
“It got to the point where I felt like I had a nice relationship with every ball, because I knew them by name,” former Boise State quarterback Brett Rypien told the Statesman in 2019. “It’s really true that no ball is created equal, and there were always a few I liked more than the others.”
What does the NBA use?
Wilson basketballs are used in the NBA, WNBA and G League, but they are made with genuine leather, unlike the synthetic leather used at the collegiate level.
The NBA made the switch to Wilson this season after using Spalding for the previous 37 years. In 2006, the NBA briefly used a microfiber Spalding model that drew complaints from players.
Messing with the equipment for pros seems to be taboo.
Inglasco, based in Quebec, has provided NHL game pucks since 1986. Since the NFL’s inception in 1941, the league has used Wilson footballs, and for more than 40 years, Rawlings has been the exclusive supplier of baseballs to Major League Baseball.
“The best athletes in the world can tell you the subtle differences in ways that you have to measure with a micrometer and equipment,” Skip Horween, president of Horween Leather Company, which has made Wilson basketballs for four generations, told the Los Angeles Times.
“They can just feel it.”
Should NCAA go to single brand of basketball?
Rice would like to see the NCAA simplify the matter by using a single brand of basketball across the board.
That way, his Broncos wouldn’t have to worry about the equipment they’d be using on the road.
“There was a school in this league, and I won’t mention the brand or whatever, but they used an off-brand basketball,” Rice said. “It was like something if you were at the park and a buddy brought it and said, ‘Let’s play with this ball.’ You’d be like ‘no’ and kick it over somebody’s fence so you didn’t have to play with it. Or you’d kick it in the street and hope a car ran over it. They were so bad.
“It’s just a preposterous thing that you use different balls. I don’t know that there’s any other sport that does something as weird as that when you really think about it.”
UP NEXT: UNLV AT BOISE STATE
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: ExtraMile Arena (12,380), Boise
TV: Fox Sports 1 (David Gascon, Richie Schueler). That’s DirecTV channel 219, DISH channel 150 and Sparklight channel 146.
Radio: 670 AM (Bob Behler, Abe Jackson)
Records: Boise State 18-5, 9-1 MW; UNLV 14-10, 6-5 MW
Series: Boise State 13-10
Last meeting: Boise State swept last season’s series by scores of 78-66 and 61-59 in Boise.
Vegas line: Boise State by 8
KenPom rating: Boise State 29, UNLV 101
KenPom & ESPN predictions
Ken Pomeroy, who created the popular college basketball statistical website KenPom.com, ranks every Division I team using an adjusted efficiency margin, which Pomeroy defines as the difference between a team’s offensive and defensive efficiency.
According to Pomeroy’s detailed statistical analysis, Boise State has a 79% chance of beating UNLV. His score prediction is a 69-60 Boise State victory.
ESPN’s College Basketball Power Index: Boise State has an 83.9% chance of winning with a predicted point differential of 10.2.
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
