Wisconsin Basketball: Nigel Hayes Slams Under Armour Basketballs

Nigel Hayes doesn’t like Under Armour’s basketballs

The Wisconsin basketball team travels to Maryland Saturday for a Big Ten matchup. To prepare, the Badgers have been practicing with Under Armour basketballs, trying to get used to the feel of the ball, which various players across the Big Ten have criticized.

Maryland, an Under Armor school, also has a deal with the company to make their basketballs. Northwestern also uses the balls in Bit Ten play, and players have said the balls have a different feel to them.

Talking to members of the media Thursday, Nigel Hayes said he doesn’t care for the feel of the Under Armour basketballs, and offered a potential fix for the situation.

"“It’s definitely different. 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.”"

Heavy sarcasm notwithstanding, Hayes makes a great point. Why doesn’t the league go to a universal ball that every school uses? The easy answer is money, as Hayes points out.