Five of seven MWC teams that use Nike balls have seen their effective field-goal percentage fall this seasonGETTY IMAGES
The Mountain West Conference this season partnered with ShotTracker to "provide its teams with 'smart' sensor-embedded basketballs," but when teams began playing with the new smart balls manufactured by Nike, their "shooting percentages fell sharply," according to Laine Higgins of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. As part of the five-year partnership, ShotTracker works with several equipment companies, including all three that provide basketballs for the 11 MWC teams -- Nike, Wilson and Under Armour -- but "no such decrease in accuracy was apparent" in league games played with the other two manufacturers’ smart balls. Five of the seven conference teams that play with Nike basketballs saw their "effective field goal percentage fall" in games played through Sunday. Players "complained that the Nike balls felt greasy and appeared to have shallower grooves that made them difficult to handle." ShotTracker co-Founder and President Davyeon Ross said that both the company and its manufacturers do "rigorous quality control testing, though ShotTracker doesn’t 'necessarily address anything that doesn’t have to do with our sensors.'" Nike did "not provide details on its manufacturing process or say whether the exterior of the ball changed from last season to this one." San Diego State AD John David Wicker in late January "requested a waiver from Nike to play its home games with Wilson balls embedded with ShotTracker sensors." MWC Senior Associate Commissioner Dan Butterly said that the league "will play its conference tournament with Nike basketballs" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 2/19).
