Portal:College basketball

The College basketball Portal

College basketball most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA.

Basketball was invented by James Naismith in 1891. The first intercollegiate game was played on February 9, 1895, when the Minnesota State School of Agriculture (now the University of Minnesota St. Paul campus) defeated Hamline College, 9–3. The first intercollegiate game involving the now familiar five-player format occurred in Iowa City, Iowa on January 18, 1896, when the University of Chicago defeated the University of Iowa, 15–12. Before that time, there were usually seven to nine players on each team.

By the turn of the 20th Century, enough colleges were fielding basketball teams that leagues began to form. The NCAA was founded in Chicago in 1906. The first NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship tournament was held before 5,500 fans in Evanston, Illinois in 1939. That year, Oregon beat Ohio State, 46–33, in the final game to win the national championship.

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The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States.

The 20-day tournament, colloquially known as "March Madness" or the Big Dance, has become one of the United States' most prominent sports events.

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Selected picture

Navy Midshipmen Nikki Curtis gets a shot off over an Army West Point cadet during the Women’s Army-Navy basketball game in Alumni Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy. Navy edged out Army, 75-73, as part of a double header which pitted both the men and women of the two academies against each other.

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Did you know...

... that University of Pittsburgh center DeJuan Blair grew up 600 yards (550 m) from the university's campus?
- ... that University of Notre Dame power forward Luke Harangody and his brother were banned from playing basketball in their backyard as children because their games regularly ended in fights?
- ...that when Drake University basketball player Adam Emmenecker was named 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, the conference called him "perhaps the most improbable Player of the Year" in its history?
- ...that a Spokane, Washington television station devoted the first 11 minutes of its Saturday evening newscast to the February 2007 arrests of Gonzaga University basketball players Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis?
- ...that George Mason University head coach Jim Larranaga motivated his players in their 2006 NCAA regional final by telling them their opponents from the University of Connecticut didn't know what conference they were in?
- ...that Hakeem Olajuwon was the last player to be named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA tournament while playing for a team that failed to win the title, earning the honor in the 1983 tournament?
- ...that Mike Gansey was the only men's player in NCAA Division I shorter than 6 ft. 5 in. to figure in USA's top 50 in field-goal percentage for the 2005-06 season?
- ...that basketball coach Bob Knight told a radio program that if he had not been fired from Indiana University in 2000, he would have fired his assistant Mike Davis, who replaced him as IU coach?
- ...that over 50 parents contacted Gonzaga University's athletic department on the first day that a Sports Illustrated issue featuring a story on Gonzaga player Adam Morrison (now with the Charlotte Bobcats) and his life with Type 1 diabetes was available at retail outlets?
- ...that the UCSB Events Center, the home of the basketball and volleyball teams of the University of California, Santa Barbara, is famous for a tortilla-throwing incident in a men's basketball game televised on ESPN?

Selected biography

Michael William "Mike" Krzyzewski (ʃəʃefˈskiˌ) (pronounced "shuh-shef-skee") (born February 13, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois), often referred to as Coach "K", is the head coach of the Duke University men's basketball team. The program has been one of the most successful of the 1980s to 2000s. He also was picked to coach the United States national basketball team, which includes the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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Related portals

Basketball Portal

College football Portal

College basketball news

July 26, 2007 - Skip Prosser (pictured), coach of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons college basketball team, dies of a heart attack at the age of 56. (FOX Sports)

Quotes

"Winning is only important in war and surgery," -- Al McGuire

"He was a magician, and he dedicated himself. That's exactly what he wanted to do, and he was great at it." -- Former LSU AD Joe Dean on Pete Maravich