Virginia announcer provides stunning additional details about deflated balls vs. Louisville

Tom Brady wasn’t in the building for the Louisville–Virginia game on Wednesday night, but that hasn’t prevented controversy surrounding a deflated ball being used during the game.

Virginia wasn’t happy with the ball used during the second half of the Cavaliers’ close win over Louisville. Throughout the half, Virginia players can be seen going to the ball. That included Ben Vander Plas showing the ball to a referee and Kihei Clark showing head coach Tony Bennett.

You can see Clark handing Bennett the ball, after it doesn’t bounce, here:

LOLouisville pic.twitter.com/zpwlwMyn11

— BDF (@BDF4) February 16, 2023

The ball was measured about seven minutes after the game ended. It came in at 2.8 PSI, according to Virginia radio announcer John Freeman. That’s extraordinarily low. NBA basketballs are inflated between 7.5 and 8.5 PSI.

“The ball was just sitting there. [I] asked if I could pick it up and it was super flat. The people at the table were surprised, so they had a gauge that they keep and they put in and it was 2.8 PSI,” Freeman said.

“My guess is that the ball just started spilling air at the very end of the game and by the time I got to it, even more had leaked out. But man, it was super flat.”

Notably, measurements were taken after the officials for the game had already left the court. Louisville head coach Kenny Payne even admitted that the ball looked a little flat.

Now, the question is, why was the ball flat? Everyone used the same ball, so it shouldn’t have been an advantage or disadvantage to anyone. At the same time, how could this happen in an ACC basketball game?