The NCAA is many things. A concept. A brand. An organizing body that actually does some things well. But it’s also a business. Don’t ever forget that.
The NCAA always is willing to make a deal for money. Which explains why, during the NCAA Tournament, those basketballs on your television screen look so orange.
It’s not a technical, transmission issue. It’s a basketball issue.
The NCAA signed a contract with Wilson to provide the basketballs for the tournament, and at least in Big 12 country, and every territory I’ve noticed this basketball season, the teams used more traditional-looking leather balls.
An OU source told me that the browner balls are made by Nike and what most schools use. These orange balls are made by Wilson.
OU women’s coach Jennie Baranczyk said the Wilson balls have a little different texture, which means they could have a little different bounce.
'Just wish he was here to see it': OU's Taylor Robertson carries lessons from late father into NCAA Tournament
According to USA Today, the basketballs being used are new, the Wilson Evo NXT. A Wilson press release admits the grip of the ball is different, supposedly softer, making it easier to shoot from long range. Wilson calls it a “micro-touch cover, providing an extra layer of grip and moisture management, and a super soft core providing exceptional control and a softer feel.”
Well, count me a skeptic on the exceptional control. The amount of control of any basketball will be directly related to the quality of the ballhandler and the amount of pressure applied by the defense. No kind of technology is going to help a team stave off Texas Tech’s defense.
Wilson says it worked with the NCAA and schools to test and approve the new balls. And the bright orange color is on purpose.
“Evo NXT dawns a fresh color, in Electric Orange, delivering better on-court visuals and detection,” Wilson said. “You will not lose sight of the ball in dark backgrounds.”
I actually don’t mind the color, other than it’s just so different. But let’s not go overboard on “detection.” Brownish basketballs are not 1906 spitballs, baseball so gunked up that hitters couldn’t see the horsehide in the twilight.
USA Today reported that NCAA rules do cover the color of the basketballs, which in the Panton Matching System must be Orange 151, Red-Orange 173 or Brown 1535.
I looked up Red-Orange 173; it’s pretty dang red. I’ve never seen a basketball that color, unless you count those glorious old red, white and blue balls of the American Basketball Association. Poetry in motion.
I hope the ABA had a contract for those balls. Of course, the ABA didn’t have the business of the NCAA.
Tramel's ScissorTales: NCAA women's tournament needs more Cinderellas, and home sites hurt
What might have been at West Virginia
Let’s be honest. West Virginia basketball has been a Big 12 disappointment.
The Mountaineers have been competitive. They are 90-89 in conference play. But WVU has made the NCAA Tournament only five times in their 10 Big 12 seasons. To the Mountaineers’ credit, they’ve thrice made the Sweet 16 flying the Big 12 flag.
Still, more was expected. In WVU’s final eight seasons in the Big East, the Mountaineers were 82-56 in conference play and made the NCAAs seven times, reaching one Final Four, another regional final and two other Sweet 16s.
WVU was a powerhouse.
What has gone wrong? Well, it’s not that Bob Huggins hasn’t recruited great talent. It’s that Huggins hasn’t kept great talent.
Truth is, retention is in short supply everywhere.
Two of the stars of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday were Teddy Allen and Oscar Tshiebwe. Allen scored 37 points to lead 12th-seeded New Mexico State to a 70-63 upset of fifth-seeded Connecticut. Tshiebwe had 30 points and 16 rebounds for second-seeded Kentucky, which fell to 15th-seeded St. Peter’s 85-79 in overtime.
Allen started his college career at West Virginia. So did Tshiebwe.
This is no singular indictment of Huggins and the Mountaineers. College basketball is full of transfers, in and out of the NCAA Tournament. I’ve written extensively about former Sooners and former Cowboys dotting hoops rosters. Jenni Carlson profiled Brady Manek for the Thursday Oklahoman, and the four-year Sooner went out Thursday and produced 28 points and 11 rebounds as eighth-seeded North Carolina routed ninth-seeded Marquette 95-63.
Opinion: First day of NCAA men's tournament was filled with chaos, and it was beautiful
The key to college basketball is not necessary retention. The key is bringing in better transfers than you lose.
But with West Virginia, that’s been difficult, because the talent on the way out has been top shelf.
Allen is a strange case. He’s the brother of Texas’ Timmy Allen, who himself transferred from Utah. Teddy Allen grew up in Mesa, Arizona, with a troubled childhood. His stepfather persuaded him as a 16-year-old to go to the famed Boys Town High School in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where Allen developed into a basketball star.
Allen signed with West Virginia and averaged 7.0 points a game as a freshman in 2017-18. He scored 15 points at OSU in the Big 12 opener and the next week scored 20 points against OU. But his playing time dwindled, by February he went scoreless against both the Sooners and Cowboys, and Allen decided to transfer.
Allen went to Wichita State, thought he would be granted immediate eligibility but wasn’t, then was dismissed from the team after a domestic-violence arrest. Allen ended up at Western Nebraska Community College, then signed with Nebraska and averaged 16.5 points a game last season.
Allen used the transfer portal to land at New Mexico State and has been a star. The 6-foot-5 wing is averaging 19.9 points a game.
Tshiebwe has not been so nomadic. The 6-9 center was a budding star at West Virginia in 2019-20, averaging 11.2 points and 9.3 rebounds as a freshman. Tshiebwe had some monster games: 20 points, 17 rebounds at Pittsburgh; 19 points, 18 rebounds against Wichita State; 17 points, 17 rebounds at Kansas.
But Tshiebwe and Huggins butted heads the next season, and Tshiebwe left the team after 10 games. He ended up transferring to Kentucky and has become a first-team all-American.
And now Tshiebwe is out of the NCAA Tournament. At least he made it. West Virginia didn’t.
March Madness: Winners and losers from Thursday's NCAA Tournament games
Officiating criticism never wanes
The criticism of officiating, particularly in basketball, is like the poor. Always with us.
A friend of mine, a quite reasonable man, tweeted out Thursday night that there aren’t enough good referees to go around for a 68-team tournament.
I would counter that there aren’t enough good teams for a 68-team NCAA. Or maybe not enough good players. Either way you want to look at it.
Three things from last weekend really struck me about the criticism of officiating:
► I received some emails from OU fans, outraged about the calls in the OU-Tech game, won by the Red Raiders 56-55 in the Big 12 semifinals.
The game was physical. Very physical. Always is in the Big 12. Even moreso when Tech is involved. If you want to gripe about the referees, it’s not that they’re one-sided. It’s that they’ve let the game get too rugged.
Anyway, you remember the game. OU trailed 56-54, Sooner Jacob Groves was fouled with eight seconds left. He went to the line, his first shot was short, but the ball somehow skipped into the bucket. Then Groves compensated, shot long and the ball was tipped past midcourt. Tech wins.
Tech made eight of 11 foul shots. OU made 12 of 18. The officials didn’t cost the Sooners that game. The Sooners cost the Sooners that game.
► On the way out of town Saturday night, Ryan Aber and I stopped at Smokin’ Guns Barbeque for dinner. We sat next to a party of three Iowa State fans, all dressed in Cyclone apparel and clearly having come from the ISU-Texas women’s semifinal, won by the Longhorns in overtime.
As the Iowa State fans left, I spoke up and said, tough game, we were pulling for you. They were very nice, but the middle-aged woman felt it necessary to comment on the referees and said, “the Big 12 seemed to want Texas to win.”
Aber decided he couldn’t let it go. He reminded them that no way was the Big 12 predisposed to engineer a Texas victory.
First of all, conspiracy theories with officiating are the products of small minds. Even if you could fathom an economic benefit for the Big 12 with a Texas victory — which you can’t — the risk/reward makes it an absurd premise.
Engineering a Texas football victory in some situation would be madness, compared to the potential cost of your product. It’s nonsense.
And like I said, the Big 12 office clearly had a favorite in the Iowa State-Texas game. That favorite was the Cyclones.
Iowa State fans flock to Kansas City for the men’s and women’s tournaments. ISU fans outnumbered Texas fans probably 10-1, maybe more, in that semifinal. The Big 12 ideal was Iowa State in the women’s championship game, I promise you.
Also, there’s the little issue of the Texas and OU migration to the Southeastern Conference. The Sooners and Longhorns are personas non grata in the Big 12. The Big 12 wants to keep their presence as long as possible to reap the television-money bounty, but as far as on-field or on-court success? Uh, no. The Big 12 does not want Texas to beat Iowa State.
People, do not take leave of your senses.
► On the Kansas Turnpike en route home, we flipped on the KU-Texas Tech men’s title game. I thought it would be fun, listening to some new broadcasters, calling a game between two teams we know relatively well.
The game was good. Kansas ended up winning 74-65, but it was closer than that.
But all the way to Emporia, the Jayhawk announcers talked mostly about the officiating. How awful the calls were against KU.
I don’t know why I expected anything more. That’s what I hear around here. Easier to rip the refs, I guess, than to actually dissect what’s occurring on the court.
Late in the game, the KU crew gave us a statistical update. Kansas was 21 of 27 on foul shots. Tech was four of 10.
I had listened to literally an hour of KU complaining about the officiating, and the Jayhawks had shot 17 more foul shots than had the Red Raiders.
Come on people. We’re better than this. Criticizing officiating is for losers.
March Madness 2022: Men's NCAA Tournament schedule and results on the road to the national title
The List: Biggest bluebloods to fall as Goliath
College basketball has the best postseason in sports, and we were reminded why Thursday night, when 15th-seeded St. Peter’s shocked Kentucky 85-79 in overtime. Nothing makes March mad like David over Goliath.
St. Peter’s victory was the 10th by a 15th-seed over a No. 2 seed since the tournament went to the 64-team bracket in 1985. Plus, of course, we had 16-seed Maryland-Baltimore County’s shocker over top-seeded Virginia in 2018.
Here are those 11 games ranked by the historical status of the victim of the upset:
1. St. Peter’s defeated Kentucky 85-79 in 2022: The Wildcats probably have the sport’s grandest tradition.
2. Lehigh defeated Duke 75-70 in 2012: C.J. McCollum led the upset of the Blue Devils, the biggest shocker in Mike Krzyzewski’s four-decade career.
3. Middle Tennessee defeated Michigan State 90-81 in 2016: The Spartans are a new-school power, having really achieved blueblood status only in the 21st century. But once they joined, they became entrenched.
4. Richmond defeated Syracuse 73-69 in 1991: The first of the ultimate David victories. The Orange were a Big East power back when the Big East ruled.
5. Oral Roberts defeated Ohio State 75-72 in 2021: The Buckeyes, while not on the level of Duke or Kentucky, have a storied tradition going back 60 years.
6. Santa Clara defeated Arizona 64-61 in 1993: UofA was just becoming a national power.
7. Florida Gulf Coast defeated Georgetown 78-68 in 2013: The Hoyas were a national power in the 1980s, but their success since has been sporadic.
8. UMBC defeated Virginia 74-54 in 2018: The Cavaliers had good tradition but in no way were a consistent national power.
9. Norfolk State defeated Missouri 86-84 in 2012: Mizzou, back then, had a good basketball program but never had so much as been to a Final Four. Still haven’t been.
10. Coppin State defeated South Carolina 78-65 in 1997: The Gameco*ck glory years were under Frank McGuire in the 1960s.
11. Hampton defeated Iowa State 58-57 in 2001: ISU’s newfound basketball mania is relatively new.
Who is Saint Peter's?: Meet the No. 15 Peaco*cks, who upset No. 2 Kentucky in NCAA Tournament
Mailbag: Do the Browns owe Mayfield?
Baker Mayfield’s fractured relationship with the Cleveland Browns has OU fans rushing to Mayfield’s defense.
Brad: “Mayfield gets little-to-no credit for single-handedly making the Browns ‘relative’ for the first time since (Bernie) Kosar. Prime-time NFL telecasts galore. Attracted mega free agents to Cleveland. Major national ad campaigns. Merchandise flew off the shelves, U.S. and worldwide. And they won a darn playoff game. This was ALL Mayfield, nobody else. The Browns were cool again, for the first time in 30 years. I highly doubt they would have frequented Sunday and Monday Night Football like they did without Mayfield. He draws eyeballs. The Browns’ network schedule improved before Mayfield played one game with the Browns. Had he not gone No. 1 and been the personality that he is, no way NFL would have put Browns in prime time and continued to do so. They were one of most visible prime-time teams in the league over the past few seasons. Top five would be my guess.”
Tramel: We vastly overstate Mayfield’s impact on the Browns. I don’t know if he attracted free agents or not. We know he ran off one prominent free agent (Odell Beckham Jr., and I’m no fan of OBJ). The Browns did win a playoff game, in the 2020 season, and Mayfield deserves credit, but the Cleveland roster was vastly upgraded, much of it through drafting.
Merchandise sales? In February, the latest rankings came out. Mayfield was not in the top 10 (New England’s Mac Jones was) and sold fewer jerseys than other Oklahoma-connected players CeeDee Lamb and George Kittle. Oklahomans bought more Kyler Murray jerseys than Mayfield jerseys.
As for prime time, in Mayfield’s rookie season, Cleveland had ZERO prime-time games on NBC, ESPN or Fox. Over his four seasons, the Browns have had nine such prime-time games, tying Cleveland for 19th in the 32-team National Football League. If you throw out Mayfield’s rookie years, Cleveland still is in a five-way tie for 14th in the prime-time television slots. Which puts the Browns smack in the middle. Befitting a good but not great team.
Mayfield’s Progressive commercials are a hoot. They are popular because they are good. Not because Mayfield is popular.
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM-98.1. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Why are NCAA Tournament basketballs bright orange? Because of money
