Nigel Hayes grills NCAA over Under Armour basketballs, and rightfully so

Troy Machir

Nigel Hayes grills NCAA over Under Armour basketballs, and rightfully so image

On Saturday, the Wisconsin Badgers will try to extend their winning streak to seven games when they take on the No. 2 Maryland Terrapins in College Park. But Mark Turgeon's squad and the hostile atmosphere at the Xfinity Center won't be the only things the Badgers have to worry about.

Under Armour — Maryland's primary apparel provider — also supplies game balls, and several players in the Big Ten have criticized the balls for having a heavy feel and poor touch.

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Wisconsin junior forward Nigel Hayes took criticism of the ball to the next level, bringing in fundamental issues with NCAA structure as it relates to student-athletes. 

"Personally, we don’t like it too much. I don’t like the Under Armour ball whatsoever. But that’s the way this amateur sports league is set up," Hayes told reporters on Thursday, via Madison.com. "We’re supposed to be having fun, but all the money is in these basketballs that colleges play with. But it’s an amateur sport, we’re just here for fun. It’s not really that serious. So I guess any ball should be OK."

Hayes, one of the most astute and self-aware players in the country, lays on thick sarcasm. The NCAA wants us to believe it's all for fun, that nobody is in this for the money. Thankfully, a player like Hayes has decided to speak up and let people know that the NCAA's shtick doesn't work.

“Maybe we should have a universal ball like the NBA. You don’t go to the Clippers’ stadium and play with a Nike and then go to Golden State and play with a Rawlings. But in this amateur sport of college, where money isn’t the goal — it’s the student education and experience that you get — we play with a million different basketballs.”

It's the height of irony that Hayes says exactly what the NCAA wants to hear — that he is in it for the education and the experience — all while ridiculing the organization for being so opaque.

Playing with different basketballs is not new. Wilson basketballs are used for the NCAA Tournament, while Spalding balls are used for the Big Ten Tournament. With Wisconsin recently agreeing to a 10-year agreement with Under Armour, the last thing the school wants to hear is a player criticizing the brand.

But that's the thing. The athletic departments, the brands, the NCAA, they need to hear this. Even though they seem to have no issues taking advantage of student-athletes, they should at least be aware that the people they are using to rake in piles of cash are aware of their ploy.

Nigel Hayes doesn't get paid, and he isn't buying it.

Troy Machir