Pick A Ball, Any Ball ...
 

Duke-FSU Women's 1st half played with a Men's basketball.

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Nelson Eddy (1948) ...
 

Ah! Sweet mystery of life.
At last I've found thee.
Ah! I know at last the secret of it all.

“Knowing what will happen tomorrow ruins the whole mystery of life!” (Mehmet Murat İldan, Turkish writer and playwright)

Note: Raymond has every right to be frustrated with me. I get it and have no problem with him spoiling my little surprises, but it won't stop me.

I want to keep the FUN in FORUM ... Wait ... I'm being told ... No N ... Never mind.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump: The Forum is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

I am put off more by her comment as if it would it only happens in the Women's game. When the reality is this happened in a B1G game at Illinois like 15 years ago.

Here is the evidence.

Men's basketball game plays with the wrong ball

Peace

Very Embarrassed ...
 

JRutledge: Great memory and great research.

I once started a girl's game with a boy's ball. A player complained between the first and second period. I was the referee, and the tosser, and I was very embarrassed.

Yeah, that comment made absolutely no sense. NCAA women's teams have their own equipment staffs and NCAA women have their own officiating staffs. They deal with those balls all the time. There was at least one woman on that crew. I wonder if Ms Lawson would be willing to make that comment directly to that official.

How do no players on the court bring that up by the first media time out?

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I'm stunned that a player didn't notice quite early. I'm far, far from a skilled shooter, but when I shoot a women's ball, it just feels wrong in my hand. I would have thought a point guard or free throw shooter would certainly have noticed very early in the game.

Feels Wrong ...
 

I don't like dribbling the girl's ball, or shooting free throws with the girl's ball, but I do like shooting threes with the girl's ball.

One Size Fits All ...
 

Knowing that it happened in both an NCAAW Division I game and NCAAM Division I game makes it a little less embarrassing for me, but only just a little.

Back in ancient times, when the smaller girl's ball was first used, the first local guy to mix up the balls was a friend of mine, a great official. Even without any internet back then, word spread very quickly. He never lived it down. We were all still discussing it at his wake.

I recently told this story to a young official. He was completely unaware that in ancient times there was only one size basketball for both genders.

I'm getting old.

On the Rawlings balls, you can add one pixel dot on the 29.5 to make it say 28.5 if someone really wanted to. My test for size is trying to palm the ball. I can palm the 28.5 without really trying. The 29.5 I have to grip it just right.

My contribution to thi Thread can be found in the Comment #3 of the following Thread: https://forum.officiating.com/basket...onfession.html

MTD, Sr.

That's exactly what I do...well, in addition to reading what's printed on it, just to confirm exactly what ball it is.