Home-court advantage extends to brand of basketballs in MVC arenas

One conference, 10 schools, four brands of basketballs.

The uncertainty of playing on the road can extend to the game’s essential tool, the basketball. Home teams choose the brand, often pegged to their contract for uniforms. Six Missouri Valley Conference schools, including Wichita State, use Nike. Two use Adidas, with one each playing with Wilson and Under Armour.

In the NBA, every shooter shoots with Spalding. In college basketball, a shooter’s touch can vary from arena to arena.

“There is definitely a difference,” Wichita State junior Ron Baker said. “Some balls have bigger channels and the grip is a little different. A Wilson is a little more smooth than a Nike ball, where you can feel the dimples.”

WSU coach Gregg Marshall said he pays no attention to the type of ball used in games. Other MVC coaches treat the oddity more seriously. Most schools keep other brands handy for practice in the days leading up to a road game. No. 11 Wichita State (25-3, 15-1 MVC) plays at Indiana State (14-14, 10-6) on Wednesday with no adjustment needed. Both are Nike schools.

Indiana State coach Greg Lansing used to work under Steve Alford at Iowa. As a former shooter, Alford considered the brand of basketball part of the scouting report. Former Sycamores point guard Jake Odum could also be picky about the basketballs, so Lansing paid attention.

“(Alford) wanted to practice with the balls, so we had whatever somebody else would use,” Lansing said. “To me, it does not matter, but if matters to any of the players, you have to be ready.”

Drake coach Ray Giacoletti doesn’t talk about the differences, but the Bulldogs do practice with the home team’s choice before a road game. In addition to WSU, Northern Iowa, Illinois State, Loyola, Indiana State and Evansville play with Nike. Missouri State and Bradley use Adidas; Drake goes with Wilson and Southern Illinois with Under Armour.

“Good shooters can shoot it,” he said. “Guys that want to play mind games — ‘Oh, this doesn’t feel right’ — probably can talk themselves into anything.”

Teams that don’t practice with a different brand can get comfortable with a different in shootaround the day of the game and in warmups.

“Wilsons are famous for their grip,” Baker said. “You don’t want it to too grippy, because when you shoot it tends to stick in your hand and you don’t want it to mess with your release.”

Section 16 of the NCAA men’s basketball rule book requires the ball to be spherical and colored orange (Pantone Matching System 151), red-orange (173) or brown (1535). Circumference must be between 29 1/2 and 30 inches with a weight between 20 and 22 ounces.

“The home team shall provide a ball that meets the specifications listed in this section,” article 10 reads, before recommending that “the home team provide the visiting team with warmup balls of the same type as the game ball.”

“We always check on what balls they use and we always have a couple we use in practice that week,” Lansing said.

When the teams head to St. Louis next week for the MVC Tournament, everybody uses Nike. Wilson is the official ball of the NCAA Tournament. Tournaments bring new challenge because they often use new balls that can be uncomfortable, sometimes too slick or too tacky since they’re not broken in.

“Different guys complain about different things,” Lansing said. “Most guys don’t like the brand-new balls. I remember that Odum hated those brand-new ones.”

Does it matter? It depends on who you ask.

Former Colorado State coach Tim Miles, now at Nebraska, told the Associated Press that his CSU teams used Spalding for two seasons and that rarely-used brand bothered opponents. After Minnesota’s Ryan Hollins blamed Nebraska’s Adidas basketballs after a bad foul-shooting game, the Daily Nebraskan found that teams generally shoot free throws more poorly with a different brand of basketball than they use at home.

“It’s certainly a distinct advantage for the home team more than any other sport, in my eyes,” Miles told the AP.

If there is a pattern to WSU’s shooting accuracy on the road, it isn’t attached to the brand of basketball.

The Nike schools play better defense. In Ken Pomeroy’s defensive calculations, the top five schools in adjusted defensive efficiency and shooting percentage — WSU, UNI, Illinois State, Evansville and Indiana State — play with Nike. The Shockers are shooting 41.7 percent from the field at Nike schools and 47.7 with Wilson, Adidas and Under Armour basketballs.

Marshall in third round — Marshall is in fourth place in the third round of the Infiniti Coaches’ Charity Challenge. Voting ends Sunday.

He trails Purdue’s Matt Painter, Iowa State’s Fred Hoiberg and Michigan’s John Beilein in the round of 16.

Marshall finished in the top four last season and presented a check for $15,000 to the Wichita Children’s Home. He is representing that charity again in 2015. Fans can vote for their favorite coach or charity at www.espn.com/infiniti. The contest started with 48 coaches and runs for 10 weeks. Each coach earns at least $1,000 and the winning coach earns $100,000.

This story was originally published February 24, 2015 at 1:09 PM with the headline "Home-court advantage extends to brand of basketballs in MVC arenas."