Univ. of Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon admitted that home teams "carry a certain 'edge' with their preferred brand" of balls, but he also "defended the Under Armour ball," which has come under fire from other schools' players, according to Roman Stubbs of the WASHINGTON POST. Turgeon said, "You’re not going to hear any excuses from me about balls. ... I don’t think it’s a story. We’ve played at Nebraska and Michigan with the Adidas balls and it took us a while to get used to it. It is what it is. It’s the way college basketball is set up. You go play here, you’ve got Nike balls, you play here it’s Sterling balls, you play there it’s Adidas balls. It’s the way the game is set up." He added of the UA balls, "It’s an edge for those teams that use it every day. It’s an edge for us here" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 2/12).
USING HIS PLATFORM: The issue of playing with different brands of balls resurfaced last week with some comments Wisconsin F Nigel Hayes made that also were critical of the NCAA's financial set-up. The Washington Post's Kevin Blackistone said Hayes' comments were "dripping in sarcasm, but he's pointing to ... how inequitable the system is when it comes to college athletes and the college campuses they labor for." The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan said, "He's got an opportunity to do this on a thing that matters a lot to him, because he is angry about the basketball. This gives him a chance to vent, make his point, the large point and make the specific point: The basketball stinks. He hates it, and by the way, he's going to have to play with it." The L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke noted Wisconsin "just signed a long-term deal with Under Armour for the next 10 years. If he were an NBA player, everybody would say be quiet. It makes you realize this guy is not being paid." Blackistone: "Congratulations to the University of Wisconsin and the basketball program for letting him speak his mind, letting him be an actual student on campus who is expanding his thoughts" ("Around The Horn," ESPN, 2/12).
