[M T]

Excuse the math, but I always wondered what was the impact of the different sized balls for the men and the women.  Please correct me if I screw up here.

Inside diameter of the hoop is 18".  Women's ball has a circumference of 28.5 to 29" ( 9.07 - 9.23" diameter) and weighs 18 to 20 oz.  Men's ball has a circumference of 29.5 to 30" (9.39 - 9.55" diameter) and weighs 20 to 22 oz.     For a ball entering at a 60 degree downward slant, the 18" is the hypotenuse of the 30-60-90 triangle, so to be a swish, the ball has to go through an ellipse with a minor axis of 18 * cos (30deg) = 15.59"  and a major axis of 18". (Minor axis corresponds to front-to-back; major axis is side-to-side.) To be a swish, the path of the center of the ball has to go through the smaller ellipse with the diameter of the ball subtracted from both axes.
For the women's ball (29"), that is 6.36 x 8.77" which has an area of 175.2 sq inches.
For the men's ball (30"), that is 6.04 x 8.45", which has an area of 160.3 sq inches.

So, the women have 9.3% bigger target to hit to get a swish.  (This is applicable to any swish shot, but assumes a downward angle that I would associate with 3pt shots.  It is not applicable if the ball touches the rim.)

[M T]

Excuse the math, but I always wondered what was the impact of the different sized balls for the men and the women.  Please correct me if I screw up here.

Inside diameter of the hoop is 18".  Women's ball has a circumference of 28.5 to 29" ( 9.07 - 9.23" diameter) and weighs 18 to 20 oz.  Men's ball has a circumference of 29.5 to 30" (9.39 - 9.55" diameter) and weighs 20 to 22 oz.     For a ball entering at a 60 degree downward slant, the 18" is the hypotenuse of the 30-60-90 triangle, so to be a swish, the ball has to go through an ellipse with a minor axis of 18 * cos (30deg) = 15.59"  and a major axis of 18". (Minor axis corresponds to front-to-back; major axis is side-to-side.) To be a swish, the path of the center of the ball has to go through the smaller ellipse with the diameter of the ball subtracted from both axes.
For the women's ball (29"), that is 6.36 x 8.77" which has an area of 175.2 sq inches.
For the men's ball (30"), that is 6.04 x 8.45", which has an area of 160.3 sq inches.

So, the women have 9.3% bigger target to hit to get a swish.  (This is applicable to any swish shot, but assumes a downward angle that I would associate with 3pt shots.  It is not applicable if the ball touches the rim.)