Filed under: Illinois
One would think, after spending a considerable amount of time with a specifically sized and weighted sphere, that a sphere without dimensions just so would feel awkward in one's hand.Not so, apparently.
Seven minutes into a game against Illinois in Champaign Wednesday night, Oakland guard Travis Bader informed a referee that the ball, for whatever reason, felt a little bit too light. It was then discovered that the ball that was being used was actually a women's ball, which is lighter and has a smaller circumference than a men's ball. At the time, Oakland held a 15-6 lead over No. 16 Illinois. The Illini found their stroke with the regulation ball, winning 74-63.
"I don't know how you start off the game with a women's ball," Oakland guard Reggie Hamilton told The Dagger's Jeff Eisenberg after the game. "At first it was working in our favor. Illinois wasn't making that many shots. Maybe we should have kept it."
It's amazing, really, that the realization took as long as it did. It seems that, upon controlling the tip or catching a pass or grabbing a rebound or inbounding the ball or shooting a free throw, at least one player would have been like, "nope, that's too light."
But, no. The teams played for seven minutes and scored 24 total points with the wrong basketball.
Illinois coach Bruce Weber blamed the mix up on the fact that a women's game was the last to be played at Assembly Hall -- an event that has occurred hundreds of times -- and the women's ball was not switched off the rack.
Source: http://ncaabasketball.fanhouse.com/2010/12/09/illinois-uses-womens-ball-badly-in-win-over-oakland/
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