First look: USF Under Armour basketball shoes

You guys are counting the hours to football season, so basketball is still in the distant future, relatively speaking, but there's an intriguing little bit of buzz on Twitter.com today, thanks to a pic on the Milwaukee Bucks' website, showing an Under Armour green-and-gold basketball shoe worn by rookie Brandon Jennings in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas on Monday night.

USF's basketball team is something of an NCAA pioneer in jumping to Under Armour for basketball and will make their UA debut in November. This could just be a protoype, but it's the first we've seen ...

Kudos to USF senior Andrew Green for spotting the photo in a Bucks gallery, then posting it on Twitter. Thanks for pointing us in the right direction ... Thoughts from my USF fashionistas?

(photo from NBA.com)

Comments

[greg geibs]

i like green and its cool

[greg geibs]

well thats a good dolor combination

[The Truth]

I love those shoes, but I bet they cost a lot of money.

Yes all basketball shoes are ugly, as well as all running shoes and pretty much any "real" athletic shoe.

The fashionable shoes look great, but they kill your feet if you actually use them to exercise and not just use your feet to get off the couch to get another beer from the fridge.

[Ken]

Look ugly to me.

[G.A.]

No problem. I like to get comments on wanting more coverage -- always good to know what readers want more (or less) of.

I just don't want you guys to think my thought process is "Should I write about shoes or soccer today?" ... I try to write about pretty much anything that seems vaguely newsworthy, and that certainly includes soccer from time to time.

[Timmy]

Awesome! Those shoes look sweet! I have to get a pair. Glad we are starting something that could be big.

[Soccer Steve]

Not to rehash this but I do think this warrants a response. Oh, and I am fully aware that I am in a very very small group that supports soccer.

GA, there is a huge reason why you are the only local reporter I read...everyday. Your coverage is second to none and I appreciate that someone cares enough to write about basketball shoes. I apologize I came off any other way. Thanks to you, I do know that we have a player in Europe and on the Gals, also three women playing for the Canucks (they play the US womens team on the 19th and 22nd, - though not the U20's).

I do hope those that comment about USF Soccer realize that they often draw better than Baseball...but we should support them all.

[Gary]

wrong gold. Thats OU Ducks yellow

[Andrew]

Greg, thanks for the update about why he was wearing the USF logo. I'm a big fan of Under Armour products and I knew they sponsored Jennings so thats what made me find the picture in the first place. However, it was a bit confusing to me why they had the USF logo even though UA does sponsor USF it was still weird.

But never the less it's awesome to see an NBA player wearing USF shoes for the Summer League!! GO BULLS!!

[Reality]

http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/2009-10-south-florida-basketball-preview-139-167006

CLUELESS

[Chalko]

Those are some damn ugly shoes!

[Byron]

Can you ask UA why the Orange logo on a Green & Gold color scheme?

[G.A.]

Talked to the Bucks today, and Jennings is wearing the shoes until his own model is completed -- the understanding was that he'll continue to wear them in the Summer League in Las Vegas. I have a call in to UA as well ...

[Mike Lakeland]

The shoes look supremely ugly. srsly.

[Miles]

Well, that clears things up, thank you Greg!

Pretty good publicity for our logo, I am fine with it!
Although I wish the shoes were green & gold and not yellow.

[G.A.]

Under Armour doesn't have a lot of basketball clients, but USF and Brandon Jennings are two of them. Jennings didn't play any college ball and endorses UA, and the Summer League is informal enough he was able to wear the new USF shoes ...

[DELdaBULL]

Why would Brandon Jennings be wearing USF shoes? I am very confused

[Steve Stacy]

I think a haiku is in order:

My god, I've never
seen such an ugly shoe/sight
not worn by a Knight

[Miles]

So Brandon Jennings is wearing a UnderArmour produced shoe with the USF logo on it? Am I the only one confused?

[Steve W]

Basketball and Football are the only two 'revenue-producing sports' in college athletics... That's a fact and that is why they are the most covered sports and all others will always take a back seat...

[Bull Daly]

USF has to be one of the first schools to use UA for basketball. Not sure that UA even ventured into basketball until just recently.

[Jerome]

Greg, you give awesome coverage to all USF sports. It's comical to have someone make a comment in a basketball post to call out for more coverage of soccer. An NBA player wearing USF shoes in a summer league game is unfortunately a bigger story any day of the week. Basketball is just a more popular sport in this country even if USF hasn't been the strongest in that sport. I love our soccer program, heck I used to work for the team when they went to the elite 8 in 1997 and under John Hackworth in 1998 and 1999. The soccer program is great at USF but let's get real people.

Greg, thank you for this interesting story about the shoes and for all the other coverage you consistently give all the other sports at USF. It's why I visit your blog multiple times every day.

[G.A.]

Soccer drew great crowds for big home games and Big East tournament. I just don't think there's much offseason interest in USF soccer -- look at previous posts and the lack of comments on them. It's not that I'm only writing things that generate comments, and it's not like I'm writing other things at the expense of soccer. I'll work some in, don't worry ...

[G.A.]

Didn't mean to suggest USF was the first college team to wear UA. Maryland and a few others are ahead of the Bulls, but I think it's only 3-4 if I remember right ...

[Steve O'Neal]

Brian, no slight on soccer, but face it, not much fan interest. Basketball gets fans in the thousands and soccer gets them in the hundreds. When and if the basketall team gets competetive and has more success, you can bet that the attendance will go way up. G.A. does do more soccer coverage than the others. Even then they generate few comments.

[Brian]

Steve W,

I find it kind of hard to believe our bball team produces enough revenue, bringing in those huge 0.5k crowds, to call out USF soccer.

[Steve W]

Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit is it dres?

As for soccer, when it becomes a revenue producing sport it will get post in similar stature... So I guess that means, don't hold your breath...

[G.A.]

Steve, I don't think there's the same interest in soccer there is in basketball, and even less so in July.

I've been the first to write this summer of the postseason honors for incoming freshman Hasani Sinclair, and that USF's women's team put three players on Canada's national under-20 teams. Same with updates on Jordan Seabrook and Yohance Marshall in their first pro seasons. Can you think of anyone else besides USF's official site that's touched on those things with any depth?

I will try to get George Kiefer on the phone to talk about his incoming recruits and who might be in position to contribute right away.

[Steve]

I'm putting all sarcastic comments aside and simply asking, why this and not a Soccer story?

USF soccer is ranked higher in the national rankings than USF bball is in the Big East.

[Steve O'Neal]

Thanks G.A. for giving all of us USF junkies our frequent fixes! This is what keeps us going until the FB season starts, beginning a whole new year in USF sports. Thank you.

[Norb]

What's the over-under on amount of time after first injury that bloggers start blaming UA shoes?

[Bull Hooper]

i hope the players like he shoes. i know from my own hoops days (yes i was terrible) that the quality of the shoe has a big impact on a player's performance.

i live for USF basketball.

[Dres]

Maryland is the true pioneer of UA GA...

[T. Bever]

Will they improve the team's FT percentage? :)