Why Do NCAA Players Cut Down the Net? Divulging Into College Basketball’s 77-Year-Old Tradition

Now that the March Madness is near, fans will witness a tradition that has been followed for almost eight decades. The players along with the coaches will take part in an act that will make the already coveted NCAA win much more memorable for them. The tradition is a testament to a team’s exceptional performance in the tournament. It has coaches and athletes climbing the ladder literally after their metaphorical climb and cutting off the hoops used in the basketball game.

Surprisingly, the tradition does not always belong to the NCAA winners. Even if a team wins a conference tournament or advances to the Final Four, they can participate in cutting down the net. In short, if there’s a trophy involved, the situation can demand the coach and the players to cut down the net. 

A Symbol of Success

Very recently, the WNBA icon Sue Bird in her episode of ‘Sue’s Places’ went to Raleigh to meet the former NC State guard Dereck Whittenburg. NC State Wolfpack had clashed with Houston Cougars in the Finals and defeated them by a close margin of 54-52. The players then cut down the net as was the tradition.

The tradition of cutting down the net was first started by the Indiana high school basketball team during the 1920s and 30s. The convention was adopted by the NC State Wolfpack team in 1947 when they won the Southern Conference Championship under their head coach Everett Case. The coach asked his players to lift him up and cut down the net. He kept the net with himself as a souvenir of his victory. 

Everett Case is also said to have coached Indiana and cut down the net four different times. It was from here that other teams too started adopting the action and it soon became a tradition among college basketball teams. However, the method soon received its own share of idiosyncrasy.

Read More: Michael Jordan’s “Rebellion” Displayed Distrust in Patient Phil Jackson in 1990

NC State head coach Jim Valvano added a major twist to the custom. He trained his players to cut the net in order to shape their mentality as winners. The effect was evident in the Wolfpack as they went on an unexpected winning spree as the sixth-seeded team towards the NCAA Championship 1983, and they defeated Houston Cougars.

The act then caught wind of its own when the ‘Werner Co.’ started sponsoring the NCAA tournament. Werner Co. is a ladder manufacturing company that started providing ladders for climbing up to the hoop and cutting down the net.

So the next time, new basketball fans have a look at the tradition of cutting down the net in the upcoming games, they will already be familiar with the act and relish if it is done by their favorite team.