1.
Basketball
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Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking. The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable. Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
2.
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
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Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is pronounced as in British English with emphasis on the second syllable /kɑːrˈlaɪl/. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,682. Including suburbs in the townships,37,695 live in the Carlisle urban cluster. Carlisle is an exurb of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to the east, Carlisle is the slightly smaller principal city of the Harrisburg−Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Cumberland, Dauphin, and Perry counties in South Central Pennsylvania. In 2010, Forbes rated Carlisle and Harrisburg the second-best place to raise a family, the U. S. Army War College, located at the Carlisle Barracks, prepares high-level military personnel and civilians for strategic leadership responsibilities. Carlisle Barracks ranks among the oldest U. S. Army installations, Carlisle Barracks is home of the United States Army Military Heritage Museum. Carlisle also hosts Dickinson College and Penn State Dickinson School of Law, aholds U. S. headquarters are in Carlisle. American pioneer John Armstrong Sr. laid the plan for the settlement of Carlisle in 1751 and he fathered John Armstrong Jr. who was born in Carlisle in 1758. Scots-Irish immigrants settled in Carlisle and farmed the Cumberland Valley and they named the settlement after its sister town of Carlisle, Cumbria, England, and even built its former jailhouse to resemble The Citadel in Carlisle, Cumbria. In 1757, Colonel Commandant John Stanwix—for whom Fort Stanwix in upstate New York is named—–made his headquarters in Carlisle, Stanwix had sat in Parliament as Member for Carlisle during the 1740s. Later during the French and Indian Wars, the Forbes Expedition organized in Carlisle in 1758, and Henry Bouquet organized an expedition there for Pontiacs War, Carlisle served as a munitions depot during the American Revolutionary War. The depot was developed into the United States Army War College at Carlisle Barracks. Revolutionary War legend Molly Pitcher died in the borough in 1832, a hotel was built in her honor, called the Molly Pitcher Hotel, it has since been renovated to house apartments for senior citizens. Carlisle was incorporated as a borough a few years after the war on April 13,1782, a decade later, during the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, the troops of Pennsylvania and New Jersey assembled in Carlisle under the leadership of President George Washington. While in Carlisle, the president worshiped in the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Hanover Street, one of the colleges more famous alumni, the 15th U. S. president, James Buchanan, graduated in 1809. The Dickinson School of Law, founded in 1834 and affiliated then with Dickinson College, ranks as the fifth-oldest law school in the United States, a general borough law of 1851 authorized a burgess and a borough council to administer the government of the borough of Carlisle
3.
North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball
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The North Carolina Tar Heels mens basketball program is the intercollegiate mens basketball team of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. North Carolinas six NCAA Tournament Championships are third-most all-time, behind UCLA, the program has produced many notable players who went on to play in the NBA, including three of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, Billy Cunningham, Michael Jordan and James Worthy. Many Tar Heel assistant coaches have gone on to head coaches elsewhere. From the Tar Heels first season in 1910–11 through the 2016–17 season, the Tar Heels also have the most consecutive 20-win seasons with 31 seasons from the 1970–71 season through the 2000–2001 season. On March 2,2010, North Carolina became the college basketball program to reach 2,000 wins in its history. The Tar Heels are currently ranked 3rd all time in wins trailing Kentucky by 33 games, the Tar Heels are one of only four Division I Mens Basketball programs to have ever achieved 2,000 victories. Kentucky, Kansas, and Duke are the other three, Carolina has played 160 games in the NCAA tournament. The Tar Heels have appeared in the NCAA Tournament Championship Game 11 times, the Tar Heels have made it into the NCAA tournament 45 times, and have amassed 116 victories. North Carolina also won the National Invitation Tournament in 1971, additionally, the team has been the number one seed in the NCAA Tournament 16 times, the latest being in 2017. North Carolina has ended the season ranked in the Top-25 of the AP Poll 43 times, further, the Tar Heels have finished the season ranked #1 in the AP Poll 5 times and ranked #1 in Coaches Poll 5 times. In 2008, the Tar Heels received the first unanimous preseason #1 ranking in the history of either the Coaches Poll or the AP Poll, in 2012, ESPN ranked North Carolina #1 on its list of the 50 most successful programs of the past 50 years. North Carolina played its first basketball game on January 27,1910, in 1921, the school joined the Southern Conference. The 1924 Tar Heels squad went 26–0, and was awarded the national championship by the Helms Athletic Foundation in 1943. Overall, the Tar Heels played 32 seasons in the Southern Conference from 1921 to 1953, during that period they won 304 games and lost 111 for a winning percentage of 73. 3%. The Tar Heels won the Southern Conference regular season 9 times, in 1953, North Carolina split from the Southern Conference and became a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The title game was the triple overtime final game in championship history. In 1960, the Tar Heels were placed on NCAA probation for improper recruiting entertainment of basketball prospects, as a result, they were barred from the 1961 NCAA tournament and also withdrew from the 1961 ACC Tournament. Following the season, Chancellor William Aycock forced McGuire to resign, as a replacement, Aycock selected one of McGuires assistants, Kansas alumnus Dean Smith
4.
San Antonio Spurs
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The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the leagues Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its games at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. The Spurs are one of four former American Basketball Association teams to remain intact in the NBA after the 1976 ABA–NBA merger, the Spurs five NBA championships are the fourth most in history behind only the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Chicago Bulls. The Spurs currently rank first among active franchises for the highest winning percentage in NBA history, in their 40 NBA seasons since 1976–77, the Spurs have won 21 division titles. With their 50th win in the 2016–17 season, the Spurs extended their record for most consecutive 50-win seasons to 18. Thus, since the 1997–98 season, the Spurs have had 20 consecutive seasons with a percentage of.610 or greater during the regular season which is also an NBA record. Only the teams current head coach, Gregg Popovich, who had been the general manager before replacing Bob Hill in 1996, has had a longer tenure with the Spurs. The Spurs are the only team in any of the four major U. S. professional sports leagues. Since 2003, the team has been forced on a road trip for much of February since the AT&T Center hosts the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. This is informally known as the Rodeo Road Trip, the Spurs have consistently posted winning road records during this period, including an NBA-record longest single road trip winning streak. When the Spurs have won the NBA title, the victory parades have been boat trips on the San Antonio River Walk. The San Antonio Spurs started out as the Dallas Chaparrals of the version of the American Basketball Association. Coached by player/coach Cliff Hagan the Dallas Chaparrals were one of 11 teams to take the floor in the season of the upstart ABA. The Chaps second season was a bit of a disappointment, as the finished in 4th place with a mediocre 41–37 record. In the playoffs the Chaparrals quickly fell to the New Orleans Buccaneers, the team suffered from poor attendance and general disinterest in Dallas. While the Chaparrals had been successful on the court, they were sinking financially by their third season. After missing the playoffs for the first time in their existence in the 1972–73 season, a group of 36 San Antonio businessmen, led by Manager/Angelo Drossos, Chairman of the Board/John Schaefer and President/Red McCombs, worked out a lend-lease deal with the Dallas ownership group
5.
Shooting guard
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The shooting guard, also known as the two or off guard, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. A shooting guards main objective is to score points for his team, some teams ask their shooting guards to bring up the ball as well, these players are known colloquially as combo guards. A player who can switch between playing shooting guard and small forward is known as a swingman, notable swing men include Jimmy Butler, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Joe Johnson, Andre Iguodala, Andrew Wiggins, Evan Turner and Tyreke Evans. In the NBA, shooting guards usually range from 64 to 67, the Basketball Handbook by Lee Rose describes a shooting guard as someone whose primary role is to score points. As the name suggests, most shooting guards are good long-range shooters, typically, shooting guards are taller than point guards. Height at the position varies, many bigger shooting guards also play small forward, Shooting guards should be good ball handlers and be able to pass reasonably well, though passing is not their main priority. Since good shooting guards may attract double-teams, they are frequently the teams back-up ball handlers to the point guard, Shooting guards must be able to score in various ways, especially late in a close game when defenses are tighter. They need to have a free throw percentage too, to be reliable in close games. Because of the level of offensive skills shooting guards need, they are often a teams primary scoring option. Good shooting guards can usually play point guard to a certain extent, Lee H. Rose ISBN 0-7360-4906-1 Media related to Shooting guards at Wikimedia Commons
6.
East Tennessee State Buccaneers basketball
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The East Tennessee State Buccaneers are the basketball team that represents East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. ETSU currently competes in the Southern Conference as of July 1,2014, the team last played in the NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament in 2017. ETSU has been playing Division I basketball since the 1958–59 season when they joined the Ohio Valley Conference, in the 1979–1980 season ETSU joined the Southern Conference and after the 2004–2005 season they left the Southern Conference for the Atlantic Sun Conference. On July 1,2014, they re-joined the Southern Conference, commonly referred to as The Glory Days of ETSU basketball, between 1989 and 1992, ETSU won 4 straight Southern Conference titles while compiling 99 wins. During this 4-year period ETSU had wins over programs such as Arizona, NC State, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, BYU, Xavier, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Tennessee. ETSU also suffered their most famous loss when they lost by 1 point to top ranked Oklahoma as a 16th seed in the 1989 NCAA Tournament. When Les Robinson left for NC State after the 1990 season, the team was ranked as high as 10th in the nation during the 1991 season and finished the year 17th in the AP poll and 15th in the Coaches poll. In the 1992 NCAA Tournament ETSU upset the Arizona Wildcats in the round, but eventually fell in the second round to the Michigan Wolverines. In 1996 Ed Dechellis replaced Alan Leforce who resigned after the 1995–1996 season, in 2001 Dechellis led ETSU to their first regular season conference title since the 91–92 season. In 2003 Dechellis helped ETSU win their first Southern Conference Tournament title, ETSU faced Wake Forest University in the first round where they lost in the final seconds 73–76 after having a chance to win the game with the last shot. After the 2003 season Dechellis left for Penn State, Dechellis complied 105–93 record at ETSU but is mostly remembered for bringing prominence back to the ETSU basketball program that had struggled after the 1993 season. In 2003 ETSU hired Murry Bartow after Ed Dechellis took the coaching position at Penn State. ETSU had another close call in the 2004 NCAA Tournament when they lost to Cincinnati 77–80 in the closing seconds, in the 2005–2006 season ETSU left the Southern Conference to join the Atlantic Sun Conference after the school dropped football. During his time in the Atlantic Sun ETSU has received 4 postseason bids, Back to Back NCAA tournaments in 2009 and 2010, the NIT in 2007 and the CIT in 2011. The Buccaneers rejoined the Southern Conference as part of reinstating football in 2016, after Murry Bartow was fired, Steve Forbes became the 16th head coach in ETSUs 95-year history on March 30,2015. He served two seasons as an assistant coach at Wichita State Shockers mens basketball where he helped take the Shockers to the Sweet 16 the past season before taking the ETSU job, the Buccaneers have appeared in the NCAA Division I Tournament nine times. They will make their 10th appearance in 2017, the Buccaneers have appeared in the NCAA Division II Tournament one time. The Buccaneers have appeared in the NAIA Tournament three times, the Buccaneers have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament two times
7.
Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball
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The Vanderbilt Commodores mens basketball team represents Vanderbilt University in the Southeastern Conference. The Commodores have won three SEC regular season titles and two SEC Tournament championships and they have competed in thirteen NCAA Tournaments, making it to the Elite Eight once and the Sweet Sixteen six times. Vanderbilt has played in eleven National Invitation Tournaments, winning it in 1990, the Commodores play their home games in Memorial Gymnasium. Memorial Gymnasium was built in the early 1950s and it was dedicated as the campus memorial to students and alumni killed in World War II, a plaque commemorating those who died is displayed in the Gyms North lobby. Consequently, the floor was built up above its surroundings. This necessitated the placement of the benches at the end of the court, in addition, each goal was anchored by two far-reaching beams attached to support columns, with extra support coming from cables stretching all the way to the gyms ceiling. In the case of a backboard shatter or beam fracture, replacing these goals would be highly difficult, Memorial Gym is well known for its unusual design. Note, Fansonly. com reports Vanderbilts overall record in 1937–38 as 9–12 and he averaged the most points per game in school history and the balconies on the south end of Memorial Gymnasium are commonly referred to as the balconies that Clyde built. Perry Wallace #25 – The first African-American scholarship athlete in the Southeastern Conference, Vanderbilt is one of only three teams to make a 3-point field goal in every game since the rule was implemented in the 1986–87 season. The other two teams to do so are Princeton and UNLV, the Commodores have made a 3-point shot in 998 consecutive games as of March 11,2017. The Commodores have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 15 times, the Commodores have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament 12 times. They were NIT champions in 1990, Source, VUCommodores. com Source, VUCommodores. com Jeff Turner- won the gold medal in mens basketball as a member of Team USA at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. M. Newton – SEC Coach of the Year,1988 and 1989 Wayne Dobbs – SEC Coach of the Year,1979 Roy Skinner – SEC Coach of the Year,1965,1967,1974, Source, 2015–16 Vanderbilt Commodores Media Guide Official website
8.
South Carolina Gamecocks men's basketball
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The South Carolina Gamecocks mens basketball team represents the University of South Carolina and competes in the Southeastern Conference. The program also won the 1997 SEC championship, National Invitation Tournament titles in 2005 and 2006, most recently, the Gamecocks won the 2017 NCAA East Regional Championship, reaching the Final Four for the first time in school history. Frank Martin is the current head coach, and the plays at the 18. South Carolina achieved a measure of prominence during its tenure in the Southern Conference, winning regular season championships in 1927,1933,1934. The program also won the tournament championship in 1933. During World War II, the teams success was partially attributed to being assigned outstanding athletes by the U. S. Navy as part of the V-12 program. However, the Navy leaders kept the focus towards the war effort. The hiring of Frank McGuire before the 1964-65 season propelled South Carolina to its most successful period to date, McGuires 16-year tenure was highlighted by an undefeated ACC regular season in 1970, an ACC Tournament championship in 1971, and three consecutive Sweet 16 appearances from 1971 to 1973. USC also posted a 69-16 overall record from 1968 to 1971, in November 1968, the Gamecocks began playing at the 12,401 seat Carolina Coliseum, which became known as the House that Frank Built. As an Independent, the program gradually declined, and the University sought entrance into an athletic conference and this proved problematic because most conferences required schools to have a single athletic director, and South Carolina had multiple directors at the time. McGuire served as Athletic Director for the program, and he would not relinquish his position. The University made several attempts to obtain McGuires resignation, but ultimately honored his contract through 1980, McGuire finished with a 283-142 overall record at South Carolina and continues to be held in high regard by Gamecock fans. His six consecutive 20-win seasons from 1969 to 1974, which produced a 137-33 record, in 1983, the University became affiliated with the Metro Conference. The basketball program was placed on probation by the NCAA in the spring of 1987 for two years because of recruiting violations and the sale of complimentary player tickets. From 1987 to 1991, George Felton led the Gamecocks to an 87-62 overall record, which included a 1989 NCAA Tournament appearance, for three of Feltons five seasons, Tubby Smith served as an assistant coach before leaving to join Rick Pitinos staff at Kentucky. South Carolina joined the SEC before the 1992 season and initially struggled, eddie Fogler was hired away from Vanderbilt before the 1994 season and within a few years returned the Gamecocks to respectability. Under Fogler, South Carolina posted an impressive 66-28 record during the 1996-1998 stretch, the 1997 Gamecocks posted a 15-1 record in SEC play and defeated league rival Kentucky twice, but lost in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. Fogler stepped down after the 2001 campaign, going 123-117 in eight seasons as the Gamecocks head coach and his tenure included two NCAA Tournament appearances and two NIT appearances
