1.
Atlantic 10 Conference
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The Atlantic 10 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associations Division I. Although some of its members are state-funded, half of its membership is made up of private, despite the name, there are 14 full-time members, and two affiliate members that participate in womens field hockey only. The Atlantic 10 Conference was founded in 1975 as the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League, at that time, basketball was its only sport. After its first season, it added other than basketball. However, despite its official names, it was known as the Eastern 8. Further membership changes saw the league expand to its maximum of 16 members, from 1997 through 2006, the league also operated a football conference, during that period, more than 20 schools were participating in A-10 competition in at least one sport. This ended when the A-10 football programs all departed to join a new football conference sponsored by the Colonial Athletic Association, in 2012, Butler joined the conference after leaving the Horizon League and VCU joined after leaving the CAA. Conference realignment in 2013 saw the departure of Temple to the American Athletic Conference, Butler and Xavier to the reconfigured Big East, george Mason joined from the CAA, and Davidson from the Southern Conference announced they would join in 2014. The league office headquarters has been located in Newport News, Virginia since the Fall of 2009, prior to that, the headquarters was in Philadelphia, within a few miles of member schools Saint Josephs and La Salle. The conference currently has media deals with ESPN, CBS Sports Network, ^ – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Richmond also played football within the A-10 from 1997 to 2006 after the Yankee Conference was absorbed. None of these institutions played football in the A-10 during their tenure as full members, membership dates include time in the Yankee Conference which merged into the A-10 in 1997. Notes Boston University dropped football after the 1997–98 season, connecticut moved to FBS after the 1999–2000 season, which eventually joined the Big East for that sport in the 2004–05 season. Hofstra dropped football after the 2009–10 season, Northeastern dropped football after the 2009–10 season. Villanova was originally a charter and full member of the A-10 during the 1976–77 through the 1979–80 seasons in all sports except football, Full members Full members Associate members Assoc. member Notes* - Virginia Tech did not participate in wrestling. There are a number of intense rivalries within the Atlantic 10, with rivalries that carry over from the Big 5 which includes Saint Josephs, La Salle, URI and UMass also have a long-standing rivalry. St. Bonaventure and Duquesne also maintain a rivalry that predates their affiliation with the conference, UMass and Temple also had a basketball rivalry while John Chaney was coaching Temple but it has died down a bit since, and even more so now that Temple has left the conference. Due to both sharing the Ram mascot, the Fordham - URI rivalry has increased in recent years as the competitions are heralded as The Battle of the Rams. The long-standing crosstown rivalry between Richmond and VCU, now known as the Capital City Classic, became a rivalry with VCUs arrival in the A10
2.
Philadelphia
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In 1682, William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia was one of the capitals in the Revolutionary War. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became an industrial center. It became a destination for African-Americans in the Great Migration. The areas many universities and colleges make Philadelphia a top international study destination, as the city has evolved into an educational, with a gross domestic product of $388 billion, Philadelphia ranks ninth among world cities and fourth in the nation. Philadelphia is the center of activity in Pennsylvania and is home to seven Fortune 1000 companies. The Philadelphia skyline is growing, with a market of almost 81,900 commercial properties in 2016 including several prominent skyscrapers. The city is known for its arts, culture, and rich history, Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The 67 National Historic Landmarks in the city helped account for the $10 billion generated by tourism, Philadelphia is the only World Heritage City in the United States. Before Europeans arrived, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape Indians in the village of Shackamaxon, the Lenape are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government. They are also called Delaware Indians and their territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and violent conflict with Europeans. Iroquois people occasionally fought the Lenape, surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and United States independence pushed them further west, in the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory under the Indian removal policy. In the 21st century, most Lenape now reside in the US state of Oklahoma, with communities living also in Wisconsin, Ontario. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony, in 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their defeat of the English colony of Maryland
3.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
4.
Hagan Arena
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The Michael J. Hagan Arena of Saint Josephs University is SJUs home court for Mens and Womens basketball. The new arena seats 4,200 which is 1,000 more than the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse seated, the renovation adds a concourse, larger offices and locker rooms, a Hall of Fame room, study rooms, basketball center, and practice facilities. 700 seats were added to the student section which puts the total at 1,700, Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse was a 3, 200-seat multi-purpose arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The arena, home to the Saint Josephs University Hawks basketball opened in 1949 and was inaugurated on November 26 with a loss to the University of Rhode Island, the first womens varsity home game was a loss to Immaculata University on January 17,1974. The building was dedicated to all college soldier-heroes on its dedication day, on October 26,1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to 3,400 people in the Fieldhouse. Today, a plaque in the lobby recognizes his visit. The Hawks won 34 consecutive games in Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse from the late 1950s through the early 1960s, in the mid-1970s and 90s, the Fieldhouse served as the practice home for the Philadelphia 76ers. There were over 125 sellouts over the last 15 years the Fieldhouse was open, the final game at the Fieldhouse was a win over #8 ranked Xavier University on March 5,2008. The sell-out crowd included Hawk legends Jameer Nelson and Jack Ramsay, during the 2007 season, it was announced that the Fieldhouse would be closed and transformed with a $25 million renovation project to provide a 21st-century facility for the quickly growing campus. The final game at the Fieldhouse was a win over #8 ranked Xavier University on March 5,2008, the sellout crowd included Hawk legends Jameer Nelson and Jack Ramsay. The Fieldhouse underwent extensive renovations and additions, with sections of the building being razed for expansion purposes. Work began in the Fall of 2007, the final product of the project added 1,000 seats to the arena, as well as the addition of a new basketball center, concourse, entrance and lobby on 54th and Overbrook and concessions. The arena was named after Michael Hagan, a 1985 graduate of Saint Josephs and Washington Crossing, the renovation is part of a larger project called With Faith and Strength To Dare, The Campaign For Saint Josephs University. The first game at Hagan was a win against Drexel University, ludacris Jay Sean LMFAO Keri Hilson Nappy Roots Mike Posner Chingy Lupe Fiasco Macklemore
5.
Saint Joseph's Hawks
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The Saint Josephs Hawks are the varsity athletic teams at Saint Josephs University of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. The Hawks compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, the school also has intramurals and extramurals, the latter of which compete with the City 6. The school is known for its mens basketball team. The Hawk became the mascot in 1929. It first flapped its wings at a game in 1956 in a win over La Salle University. The Saint Josephs school colors are crimson and gray, ‡ = Mens rowing is sanctioned by the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, not by the NCAA. Saint Josephs mens team competes as an independent, Mens basketball is the most popular sport at Saint Josephs University. The Hawks have competed in twenty one NCAA Tournaments and sixteen NIT Tournaments and they have made one Final Four, three Elite Eights, and seven Sweet Sixteens. The team is led by coach Phil Martelli. Throughout the schools history,29 different players have been drafted into the NBA, the Saint Josephs Universitys basketball team was ranked 43rd best of all-time by Smith & Streets magazine in 2005. The Hawks have won seven Atlantic 10 regular season titles and three A-10 tournament championships and ranks 33rd all-time in wins with 1,439 and 44th all-time with a.605 winning percentage, fans of the Hawks often chant The Hawk Will Never Die. Since the schools undefeated season, this chant has gained familiarity with the teams opponents, in 2003, Sports Illustrated listed that cheer among The 100 Things You Gotta Do Before You Graduate, calling it the most defiant cheer in college sports. During the 2003–2004 season, the Saint Josephs Hawks went perfect 27–0 during the regular season, the Hawks were led by a backcourt of Jameer Nelson and Delonte West, both of whom would end up as starters in the NBA. The Hawks ended the season with a No.1 ranking nationally. After losing to Xavier University in the Atlantic 10 tournament quarterfinal and they would finally lose to Oklahoma State in the last seven seconds of the game to end their remarkable run. Nelson was named National Player of the Year while coach Phil Martelli was named Coach of the Year, the Hawks most recently made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2016. They defeated Cincinnati 78-76 in the first round, but lost to #1 seed Oregon 69-64 in the second, historical rivals of SJU are the La Salle Explorers, being the only two Catholic universities actually in Philadelphia proper. For decades, though, the rival has been the Villanova University Wildcats
6.
Saint Joseph's University
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The University was founded in 1851 as Saint Josephs College by the Society of Jesus. Saint Josephs is the seventh oldest Jesuit university in the United States and it has 17 centers and institutes, including the prestigious Kinney Center for Autism Education & Support and Pedro Arrupe Center for Business Ethics. Saint Josephs has grown in size and scope since 2001 with the addition of the Maguire Campus, construction of new campus buildings. For the 2014 U. S. News and World Report rankings, in the Masters Universities category, the Saint Josephs University athletics teams are called the Hawks. The Hawks are a NCAA Division I program that compete in the Atlantic-10 Conference, the official colors of the University are crimson and grey. The school mascot is the famous Hawk, which never stops flapping its wings while in costume, approximately,100 Jesuits live on campus with 18 serving as faculty. The universitys Jesuit Community lives in the Loyola Center, directly across the street from Barbelin Hall, the Loyola Center joins Manresa Hall, which is the home of the infirm Jesuits, and features a Carriage House. Other Jesuit residences include St. Alphonsus House and Faber Hall, a few Jesuits also live in residence halls, the university president maintains an apartment in the Merion Gardens Apartment building. The university also uses its Jesuit identity in its branding. The university began The Magis campaign in 2013 to highlight this commitment to living greater, the Magis is taken from the motto of the society of Jesus Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, meaning for For the greater glory of God. The university also promotes the Jesuit principle of cura personalis or Care for the whole person, the university requires undergraduates to complete a rigorous general education program that focuses heavily on traditional liberal arts disciplines. Every general education class is titled 154, which stands for the year 1540 AD when the Society of Jesus was accepted by the Pope, on September 27,2015, Pope Francis, himself a Jesuit, made a stop at the University during his two-day visit to Philadelphia. The Seal of Saint Josephs University signifies many things that show the history, many of the symbols are not unique to Saint Josephs and appear on the seals of other Jesuit educational institutions. The wolves are over a pot to show the generosity of the Loyola family towards the poor. Tradition claims that the Loyolas provided so much food for their soldiers that even the wolves had enough to eat, IHM are the letters JES in Greek, which stands for Jesus. This symbol regularly represents the Jesuits, the stripes signify the 7 sons of the House of Loyola, who died defending their home from the Moors. The lily is used to represent Saint Joseph, wherever he is present. The seal is the graphical representation of Saint Josephs and its uniquely Jesuit identity
7.
National Collegiate Athletic Association
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non-profit association which regulates athletes of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals. It also organizes the programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2014, the NCAA generated almost a billion dollars in revenue. 80 to 90% of this revenue was due to the Division I Mens Basketball Tournament and this revenue is then distributed back into various organizations and institutions across the United States. In August 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships, generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently, the term Division I-AAA was briefly added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all, in 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision. Inter-collegiate sports began in the US in 1852 when crews from Harvard University, as other sports emerged, notably football and basketball, many of these same concepts and standards were adopted. Football, in particular, began to emerge as a marquee sport, the IAAUS was officially established on March 31,1906, and took its present name, the NCAA, in 1910. For several years, the NCAA was a group and rules-making body, but in 1921, the first NCAA national championship was conducted. Gradually, more rules committees were formed and more championships were created, a series of crises brought the NCAA to a crossroads after World War II. The Sanity Code – adopted to establish guidelines for recruiting and financial aid – failed to curb abuses, postseason football games were multiplying with little control, and member schools were increasingly concerned about how the new medium of television would affect football attendance. The complexity of problems and the growth in membership and championships demonstrated the need for full-time professional leadership. Walter Byers, previously an executive assistant, was named executive director in 1951. Byers wasted no time placing his stamp on the Association, as college athletics grew, the scope of the nations athletics programs diverged, forcing the NCAA to create a structure that recognized varying levels of emphasis. In 1973, the Associations membership was divided into three legislative and competitive divisions – I, II, and III, five years later in 1978, Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA in football. Until the 1980s, the association did not offer womens athletics, instead, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, with nearly 1000 member schools, governed womens collegiate sports in the United States
8.
NCAA Division I
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Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. This level was called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower level College Division. For football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A, Division I-AA, in 2006, Division I-A and I-AA were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision, respectively. FCS teams are allowed to award scholarships, a practice technically allowed. FBS teams also have to meet attendance requirements, while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements. Another difference is post season play, starting with the 2014 postseason, a four-team playoff called the College Football Playoff, replaced the previous one game championship format. Even so, Division I FBS football is still the only NCAA sport in which a champion is not determined by an NCAA-sanctioned championship event. All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender. Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well, there are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. Mens and womens teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams, for men, they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena. The NCAA has limits on the financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. Equivalency sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport, the term counter is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a counter as an individual who is receiving financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport. The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in sport is listed below. In this table, scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a point, for equivalency sports, they are listed with a decimal point. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport, participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football
9.
Philadelphia Big 5
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The Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is not a conference, but rather a group of NCAA Division I basketball schools who compete for the Philadelphia city championship, the Big 5 consists of the University of Pennsylvania, La Salle University, Saint Josephs University, Temple University, and Villanova University. All five schools are located in the Philadelphia area, Saint Josephs campus straddles the citys border, and Villanova is in a nearby Main Line campus. Big 5 schools represent some of the oldest and most successful basketball programs in the nation. Four of the five teams are in the top 40 for all-time Division I basketball victories, the Big 5 creed reads, They say theres no trophy for winning the Big Five. They must not be from Philadelphia, the Big 5 was formed in 1955 a year after La Salle won the 1954 NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Tournament. The group showcased Philadelphias basketball talent and helped pay for the upkeep on the Palestra, games were scheduled as double or triple-headers. All schools agreed to split ticket and concessions revenues equally once Penn was paid for upkeep costs on the Palestra, the arrangement promoted already intense inter-city collegiate basketball rivalries. During the heyday of the Big 5, many college programs. The round-robin series ended in 1991, in 1999, the Big 5 round-robin series was revived and has continued to this day. There are intense rivalries inside the Big 5, most notably the rivalry between Villanova and Saint Josephs, also known as the Holy War, the St. Bryants arm was fractured. La Salle considers Saint Josephs to be its biggest rival, as of 2016, at least one team from the Big 5 had made it into the NCAA Tournament for 39 straight years. La Salle and Villanova are the only Big 5 teams to have won the tournament. Each year the Herb Good Basketball Club selects All-Big 5 teams, as well as a coach of the year, some have suggested adding Drexel to the Big 5. These talks amplified during the 2006–07 season, as Drexel beat three of the four Big 5 teams it played, but no changes have been made, Drexel is a member of the City 6, which is an intra-city intramural competition between the six schools. All Big 5 mens basketball teams play each other once per season for a total of four games per team, there is no season-ending Big 5 Tournament, so a champion of the unofficial athletics group is determined by a round-robin tournament. Since 1956 there have been three instances of a tie among all member schools, which occurred in 1980–81, 1991–92. Although known primarily of an association of Philadelphia sports teams, students from the Big 5 also coordinate frequent student government meetings, the governments consist of La Salle, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Saint Josephs, and Drexel University instead of Villanova
10.
National Basketball Association
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The National Basketball Association is the major mens professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier mens professional basketball league in the world. It has 30 teams, and is a member of USA Basketball. The NBA is one of the four professional sports leagues in the United States. NBA players are the worlds best paid athletes by average annual salary per player, the league was founded in New York City on June 6,1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3,1949, the leagues several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1,1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, the first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that leagues 1948 title, Following the 1948–49 season, the BAA took in the remainder of the NBL, Syracuse, Anderson, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan, Denver, and Waterloo. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as arenas and smaller gymnasiums. The process of contraction saw the leagues smaller-city franchises move to larger cities, the Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, and then to St. Louis in 1955. The Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957, japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks. He remained the only player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships, to encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954. If a team does not attempt to score a goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, who already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, russells rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports. The 1960s were dominated by the Celtics, led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966
11.
Basketball positions
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The five basketball positions normally employed by organized basketball teams are the point guard, the shooting guard, the small forward, the power forward, and the center. While these position names are used, most modern teams use a point guard. The rules of basketball do not mandate them, and they are not used. Typically, the point guard is the leader of the team when on the court and this position requires substantial ball handling skills and the ability to facilitate the team during a play. The shooting guard, as the name implies, is often the best shooter and they are probably capable of shooting accurately from longer distances. Generally, they also have good ball-handling skills, the small forward often has an aggressive approach to the basket when handling the ball. The center is typically the larger of the two, during the 1980s, as team strategy evolved, more specialized roles developed, resulting in the five position designations utilized today. Team strategy and available personnel, however, still dictates the positions used by a particular team, for example, the Dribble drive motion offense and the Princeton offense utilize four interchangeable guards and one center. The point guard, also known as the one, is typically the teams best ball handler and passer, therefore, they often lead their team in assists and steals. They are often quick and are able to hit shots either outside the three-point line or in the paint, point guards are looked upon as the floor general or the coach on the floor. They should study the game and game film to be able to recognize the weaknesses of the defense, good point guards increase team efficiency and generally have a high number of assists. They are often referred to as dribblers or play-makers, in the NBA, point guards are usually the shortest players on the team and are mostly 6 feet 5 inches or shorter. The shooting guard is known as the two or the off guard. Along with the forward, a shooting guard is often referred to as a wing because of its use in common positioning tactics. As the name suggests, most shooting guards are good shooters from three-point range, besides being able to shoot the ball, shooting guards tend to have good ball handling skills and the ability to drive the ball to the basket, often creating their own shots off the dribble. A versatile shooting guard will have good passing skills, allowing them to point guard responsibilities known as combo guards. In the NBA, shooting guards usually range from 6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 7 inches, the small forward is considered to be perhaps the most versatile of the main five basketball positions. Versatility is key for small forwards because of the nature of their role and this is why the small forward and shooting guard positions are often interchangeable and referred to as wings
12.
Villanova University
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Villanova University is a private research university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in the United States. Named after Saint Thomas of Villanova, the school is the oldest Catholic university in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, U. S. News & World Report ranks Villanova as tied for the 50th best National University in the U. S. for 2017. The university is a member of the Augustinian Secondary Education Association, in October 1841, two Augustinian friars from Saint Augustines Church in Philadelphia purchased the 200-acre Belle Air estate in Radnor Township with the intention of starting a school. The school, which was called the Augustinian College of Vilanova, however, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of 1844 that burned Saint Augustines Church in Philadelphia caused financial difficulties for the Augustinians, and the college was closed in February 1845. The college reopened in 1846 and graduated its first class in 1847, in March 1848, the governor of Pennsylvania incorporated the school and gave it the power to grant degrees. In 1859, the first masters degree was conferred on a student, in 1857, the school closed again as the demand for priests in Philadelphia prevented adequate staffing, and the crisis of the Panic of 1857 strained the school financially. The school remained closed throughout the Civil War and reopened in September 1865 and its prep department later moved to Malvern, a town along the Main Line, and is still run by the order. The School of Technology was established in 1905, in 1915, a two-year pre-medical program was established to help students meet medical schools new requirements. This led to a four-year pre-medical program, the B. S. in biology, Villanova was all-male until 1918, when the college began evening classes to educate nuns to teach in parochial schools. In 1938, a laywoman received a Villanova degree for the first time and it was not until the nursing school opened in 1953 that women permanently began attending Villanova full-time. In 1958, the College of Engineering admitted its first female student, Villanova University became fully coeducational in 1968. During World War II, Villanova was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission, after World War II, Villanova expanded, returning veterans swelling enrollments and the faculty growing fourfold. Additional facilities were built, and in 1953, the College of Nursing, Villanova achieved university status on November 18,1953. Between 1954 and 1963,10 new buildings were built or bought on land adjacent to the campus, including Bartley, Mendel, during the 1970s and 1980s, Villanova worked to become a nationally recognized university. The quality of faculty and students improved dramatically and international studies programs were introduced, additional residential and recreational facilities were constructed, and efforts to increase the endowment were undertaken. In the 1980s, endowed chairs were established in theology, philosophy, engineering, and business, scholarship funding was increased, and the curriculum expanded and improved. An extensive building campaign created facilities for the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Commerce, and Finance, as well as student residences on the south, in 1985, the school also won the Mens NCAA basketball tournament, giving the school increased national exposure. Augustine High School in San Diego, which was established in 1922 with teaching staff dispatched from Villanova, Villanova University sits on 254 acres just 12 miles from Center City Philadelphia
13.
Temple Owls
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The Temple Owls are the athletic teams representing Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The schools sports teams are called the Owls, the current athletic director is Patrick Kraft. The owl has been the symbol and mascot for Temple University since its founding in the 1880s, Temple was the first school in the United States to adopt the owl as its symbol or mascot. The owl, a hunter, was initially adopted as a symbol because Temple University began as a night school for young people of limited means. Russell Conwell, Temples founder, encouraged these students with the remark, the Owls are primarily members of the American Athletic Conference. Since their football team participates in the NCAAs Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, the football program was a member of the Big East Conference until its expulsion after the 2004 season due to a variety of program shortcomings. Temple played a limited MAC schedule in 2005 and 2006 before becoming an affiliated football-only member and playing a full 8-game league schedule in 2007. The schools mens team is part of the Big Five. Temple considers the rivalry with St. Joes to be the most intense, St. Joes, however, considers this rivalry to be secondary to their rivalry with Villanova. The landscape of Temple sports has changed recently, thanks to a realignment of Division I conferences. Temple football returned to the Big East in 2012, and then became a member of the renamed American Athletic Conference in July 2013. Temple University was among the first institutions in the United States to sponsor extracurricular athletic activities for its students, both the football and basketball programs were inaugurated in 1894 under the direction of Coach Charles M. Williams. Temple has won four national championships. Louis Olympics, a Philadelphia-based team captured the gold medal in team competition for the United States. •1932 Los Angeles Olympics, Bill Hermann Jr. wins bronze medal for tumbling, •1948 London Olympics, Temple University gymnasts Marian Barone and Clara Schroth-Lomady help the United States win its first medal for women in team competition with the bronze. Schroth is also noted for holding two U. S. national gymnastics records – the most titles with 39 and the most consecutive championships with 11 straight on the beam between 1941-52. •1952 Helsinki Olympics, Bob Stout becomes the first gymnast ever to complete a back somersault with full twist when he landed the move during the floor exercises. •1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Temple mens assistant rowing coach, Mike Teti, •1988 Seoul Korea, Mens rowing assistant Mike Teti was a member of the bronze winning U. S. Mens Eight rowing team
14.
La Salle Explorers
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The La Salle Explorers are the varsity sports teams from La Salle University in Philadelphia. The Explorers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, the mens and womens basketball teams are also participate in the Philadelphia Big 5. The Explorers nickname derives from a mistake made by a local Philadelphia sportswriter. The writer thought the university was named after the French explorer Sieur de La Salle, the nickname caught on, however, and has remained ever since. The most recently added varsity sports are golf and mens and womens water polo. Notes La Salles teams have won two championships, the 1954 NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Tournament and the 1980 AIAW Field Hockey Championship. The school also won the 1952 National Invitation Tournament when that tournament was considered to be on a par with the NCAA tournament. La Salles major historic rival has been the Hawks of the Saint Josephs University, not only are both schools situated in Philadelphia, but they are also both Catholic, private institutions and are both members of both the Atlantic 10 and the Big 5. The mens basketball team has won eight City Championships, only Duke and UCLA have had more National Players of the Year than La Salle, which has had three--- Lionel Simmons, Michael Brooks, and Tom Gola. Tom Gola was listed on ESPNs Countdown to the Greatest College basketball players as #17, La Salle discontinued football at the end the 2007 season. In addition to its varsity sports, La Salle also sponsors a number of club sports and these include, Ice hockey Mens Lacrosse Mens Rugby Ultimate Frisbee Womens Rugby Wrestling Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame Sports in Philadelphia#Collegiate sports Official website
15.
University of Pennsylvania
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The University of Pennsylvania is a private Ivy League research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn is one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities, the university coat of arms features a dolphin on the red chief, adopted directly from the Franklin familys own coat of arms. Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities and it was also home to many other educational innovations. The first school of medicine in North America, the first collegiate school. With an endowment of $10.72 billion, Penn had the seventh largest endowment of all colleges in the United States, all of Penns schools exhibit very high research activity. In fiscal year 2015, Penns academic research budget was $851 million, over its history, the university has also produced many distinguished alumni. S. House of Representatives,8 signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, in addition, some 30 Nobel laureates,169 Guggenheim Fellows, and 80 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, have been affiliated with Penn. In addition, Penn has produced a significant number of Fortune 500 CEOs, in 1740, a group of Philadelphians joined together to erect a great preaching hall for the traveling evangelist George Whitefield, who toured the American colonies delivering open air sermons. The building was designed and built by Edmund Woolley and was the largest building in the city at the time and it was initially planned to serve as a charity school as well, however, a lack of funds forced plans for the chapel and school to be suspended. According to Franklins autobiography, it was in 1743 when he first had the idea to establish an academy, however, Peters declined a casual inquiry from Franklin and nothing further was done for another six years. Unlike the other Colonial colleges that existed in 1749—Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Franklin assembled a board of trustees from among the leading citizens of Philadelphia, the first such non-sectarian board in America. At the first meeting of the 24 members of the Board of Trustees the issue of where to locate the school was a prime concern. The original sponsors of the dormant building still owed considerable construction debts and asked Franklins group to assume their debts and, accordingly, on February 1,1750 the new board took over the building and trusts of the old board. On August 13,1751, the Academy of Philadelphia, using the hall at 4th and Arch Streets. A charity school also was chartered July 13,1753 in accordance with the intentions of the original New Building donors, June 16,1755, the College of Philadelphia was chartered, paving the way for the addition of undergraduate instruction. All three schools shared the same Board of Trustees and were considered to be part of the same institution, the institution of higher learning was known as the College of Philadelphia from 1755 to 1779. In 1779, not trusting then-provost the Rev. William Smiths Loyalist tendencies, the result was a schism, with Smith continuing to operate an attenuated version of the College of Philadelphia. In 1791 the Legislature issued a new charter, merging the two institutions into a new University of Pennsylvania with twelve men from each institution on the new Board of Trustees
16.
NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
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The tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was the idea of Ohio State University coach Harold Olsen. Played mostly during March, it has one of the most famous annual sporting events in the United States. The tournament teams include champions from 32 Division I conferences, and 36 teams which are awarded at-large berths, the 68 teams are divided into four regions and organized into a single-elimination bracket, which pre-determines, when a team wins a game, which team it will face next. Each team is seeded, or ranked, within its region from 1 to 32, after an initial four games between eight lower-ranked teams, the tournament occurs during the course of three weekends, at pre-selected neutral sites across the United States. The Final Four is usually played during the first weekend of April and these four teams, one from each region, compete in a pre-selected location for the national championship. The tournament has been at least partially televised since 1969, currently, the games are broadcast by CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV under the trade-name NCAA March Madness. Since 2011, all games are available for viewing nationwide and internationally, such as in the Philippines, as television coverage has grown, so too has the tournaments popularity. Currently, millions of Americans fill out a bracket, attempting to predict the outcome of all 67 games of the tournament. With 11 national titles, UCLA has the record for the most NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championships, the University of Kentucky is second, with eight national titles. The University of North Carolina is in place, with six titles, while Duke University. The University of Connecticut is sixth with four national titles, the University of Kansas and University of Louisville are tied with three championships. During that time Villanova, Michigan, UNLV, Duke, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Syracuse, the NCAA has changed the tournament format several times since its inception, most often representing an increase of the number of teams. This section describes the tournament as it has operated since 2011, for changes during the course of its history, and to see how the tournament operated during past years, go to Format history, below. A total of 68 teams qualify for the tournament played during March, thirty-two teams earn automatic bids as their respective conference champions. Of the 32 Division I all-sports conferences, all 32 currently hold championship tournaments to determine which team receives the automatic qualification. The Ivy League was the last Division I conference that did not conduct a tournament, through the 2015–16 season, if two or more Ivies shared a regular-season championship, a one-game playoff was used to decide the tournament participant. Since 2017, the league conducts their own postseason tournament, the committee also determines where all sixty-eight teams are seeded and placed in the bracket. The tournament is divided into four regions and each region has at least sixteen teams, the committee is charged with making each of the four regions as close as possible in overall quality of teams from wherever they come from
17.
National Invitation Tournament
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The National Invitation Tournament is a mens college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Played at Madison Square Garden in New York City each March and April, over time it became eclipsed by the NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament – known today informally as March Madness and The Big Dance. The NIT has since been regarded more as a tournament for teams that did not receive a berth in the NCAA tournament. A second, much more recent NIT tournament is played in November, formerly the Preseason NIT, it was founded in 1985. Like the postseason NIT, its final rounds are played at Madison Square Garden, both tournaments were operated by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association until 2005, when they were purchased by the NCAA, and the MIBA disbanded. Unless otherwise qualified, the terms NIT or National Invitation Tournament refer to the tournament in both common and official use. The first NIT was won by the Temple University Owls over the Colorado Buffaloes and this became the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association in 1948. Originally the tournament invited a field of 6 teams, with all games played at Madison Square Garden in downtown Manhattan. The field was expanded to 8 teams in 1941,12 in 1949,14 in 1965,16 in 1968,24 in 1979,32 in 1980, in 2007, the tournament reverted to the current 32-team format. Some conferences, such as the Southeastern Conference, were racially segregated, from its onset and at least into the mid-1950s, the NIT was regarded as the most prestigious showcase for college basketball. The winner of the National Invitation Tournament was regarded as more of a national champion than the actual, titular, national champion, several teams played in both the NIT and NCAA tournaments in the same year, beginning with Colorado and Duquesne in 1940. Colorado won the NIT in 1940 but subsequently finished fourth in the NCAA West Region, in 1949, some Kentucky players were bribed by gamblers to lose their first round game in the NIT. This same Kentucky team went on to win the NCAA, the champions of both the NCAA and NIT tournaments played each other for a few years during World War II. From 1943 to 1945, the American Red Cross sponsored a charity game between each years tournament champions to raise money for the war effort. The series was described by Ray Meyer as not just benefit games, the NCAA champion prevailed in all three games. The Helms Athletic Foundation retroactively selected the NIT champion as its champion for 1938. In 1943 the NCAA tournament moved to share Madison Square Garden with the NIT in an effort to increase the credibility of the NCAA Tournament. In 1945, The New York Times indicated that many teams could get bids to enter either tournament, the team played in the NIT instead, which it won
18.
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
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The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as the sports most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball, dedicated to Canadian physician and inventor of the sport James Naismith, it was opened and inducted its first class in 1959. As of the induction of the Class of 2016 on September 9,2016, the Naismith Hall of Fame was established in 1959 by Lee Williams, a former athletic director at Colby College. In the 1960s, the Basketball Hall of Fame struggled to raise money for the construction of its first facility. The Basketball Hall of Fames Board named four inductees in its first year, in addition to honoring those who contributed to basketball, the Hall of Fame sought to make contributions of its own. In 1979, the Hall of Fame sponsored the Tip-Off Classic and this Tip-Off Classic has been the start to the college basketball season ever since, and although it does not always take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, generally it returns every few years. In the 17 years that the original Basketball Hall of Fame operated at Springfield College, the popularity of the Basketball Hall of Fame necessitated that a new facility be constructed, and in 1985, an $11 million facility was built beside the scenic Connecticut River in Springfield. As the new hall opened, it also recognized women for the first time, with such as Senda Berenson Abbott. In 2002, the Basketball Hall of Fame moved again—albeit merely 100 yards south along Springfields riverfront—into a $47 million facility designed by renowned architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, the buildings architecture features a metallic silver, basketball-shaped sphere flanked by two similarly symmetrical rhombuses. The dome is illuminated at night and features 80,000 square foot, including numerous restaurants, the second Basketball Hall of Fame was not torn down but rather converted into an LA Fitness health clubs. The current Basketball Hall of Fame features Center Court, a basketball court on which visitors can play. Inside the building there are a gallery, many interactive exhibits, several theaters. A large theater for ceremonies seats up to 300, the honorees inducted in 2002 included the Harlem Globetrotters and Magic Johnson, a five-time NBA champion, three-time NBA finals MVP and Olympic gold medalist. As of 2011, the current Basketball Hall of Fame has greatly exceeded attendance expectations, despite the new facilitys success, a logistical problem remains for the Basketball Hall of Fame and the City of Springfield. Urban planners at universities such as UMass Amherst have called for the I-91 to be moved, in 2010, the Urban Land Institute announced a plan to make the walk between Springfields Metro Center and the Hall of Fame easier. Since 2011, the induction process employs a total of seven committees to both screen and elect candidates, since 2011, the Veterans and International Committees also vote to directly induct one candidate for each induction class. Contributor Direct Election Committee Note that other committees may choose to elect contributors, for example, the 2014 class included two contributors. However, each screening committee is limited as to the number of candidates it can put forth to the Honors Committee—10 from the North American Committee, any individual receiving at least 18 affirmative votes from the Honors Committee is approved for induction into the Hall of Fame
19.
Jack Ramsay
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John Travilla Jack Ramsay was an American basketball coach, commonly known as Dr. Jack. He was best known for coaching the Portland Trail Blazers to the 1977 NBA Title, and for his work with the Indiana Pacers, the Miami Heat. Ramsay was among the most respected coaches in NBA history and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and he was the winner of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2009–10 NBA season. Growing up in Milford, Connecticut, Jack Ramsay was encouraged to participate in sports in school by his parents, Anne. With his family moving to a Philadelphia suburb, Ramsay graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1942, years after playing basketball, baseball and soccer in high school, he was inducted into the schools Wall of Fame in 1979. Strongly encouraged by his mother to attend college, Ramsay entered Saint Josephs College, Ramsays college career was interrupted by three years of service in the US Navy during World War II. Ramsay played both basketball and baseball at St. Josephs, in his senior year, Ramsay was coached in baseball by Pep Young, a teammate of professional baseball star Ty Cobb. In 1949, Ramsay became the first member of his family to receive a bachelors degree. In 1962, Ramsay obtained his masters degree and in 1963 his doctorate degree in education, after graduation, Ramsay played six seasons of professional basketball in the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League. As a sophomore playing guard, he was the scorer for the Harrisburg Senators in Harrisburg. Ramsay averaged 14 points in his playing for the Senators. To supplement his income, he coached basketball at St. James High School in Chester, Pennsylvania and later at Mount Pleasant High School, 1953-4, in Wilmington. After coaching in the school and minor-league ranks during the early postwar years. Ramsay got the job after meeting the colleges moderator of athletics at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game. Ramsay was hired as coach for the 1955-56 basketball season for $3,500, in Ramsays first season at St Joseph, the Hawks went 23-6 to win their first Big 5 crown. This first season also marked the schools first-ever postseason playoff berth, at age 41, after leading his team to a 24-5 record in 1965-66, Ramsay was diagnosed with an edema on the retina of his right eye. Ramsay left his job with the Hawks on the doctors recommendation that he reduce stress. Ramsay finished with a record of 234-72 in 11 years and he would remain the winningest coach in St. Josephs history until current coach Phil Martelli passed him in 2005
20.
1977 NBA Finals
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The 1977 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1976–77 National Basketball Association season. The Western Conference champion Portland Trail Blazers played against the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers and their four regular season meetings had been split evenly, 2–2, with neither side winning away from home. The series was played under a format, so the first team to win four games would win the series. The 1976–77 NBA season started with the ABA–NBA merger, in the 1977 NBA Finals, five of the ten starting players were former ABA players. While it was no surprise that Philadelphia had made it to the series, having posted the best record in the east. The series quickly went 2-0 in favor of Philadelphia, but over the four games. The Portland Trail Blazers franchise entered the NBA as a team in 1970, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like all expansion teams, the Trail Blazers struggled, but in 1974, Bill Walton was drafted first overall by the Trail Blazers in the 1974 NBA draft. The Trail Blazers, though missing the playoffs, continued to add key pieces, such as Dave Twardzik, Lloyd Neal, Lionel Hollins. In 1976, Jack Ramsay was hired as coach, and with a healthy Walton, Portland made the playoffs for the first time in the 1976–77 season. The 3rd seeded Blazers would defeat the Chicago Bulls in three games, the Denver Nuggets in six games, and then swept the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the conference finals. The Philadelphia 76ers made it back to the playoffs in 1976, after missing the four years. They acquired former ABA All-Star Julius Erving, late of the New York Nets, the 76ers won 50 games the next season, something they hadnt achieved since 1969. Both teams split the series, each won by the home team. Trail Blazers win series 4–2 Game 1 started with a Dr. J windmill slam dunk off the tip, and never got much better for the Blazers. Erving scored 33 points and Doug Collins had 30, as the 76ers won 107–101, Walton finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds. Game 2 was a win for the 76ers at 107–89. In the final 5 minutes, however, Philadelphias Darryl Dawkins, Dawkins and Gross squared off and both benches cleared, including the coaches
21.
Middle Atlantic Conferences
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The Middle Atlantic Conferences is an umbrella organization of three athletic conferences that competes in the NCAAs Division III. The 18 member teams are in the Mid-Atlantic United States, the organization is divided into two main conferences, the MAC Commonwealth and the MAC Freedom. In 1912, the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletics Association was founded primarily as an association and had its first event. In 1922, it was reorganized as the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Conference, throughout its history, the organization has had at least 50 different members associated with it. The conference had as many as 37 members at one time in the late 1950s, a major reduction in the league occurred in 1974 after the NCAA created Divisions I, II, and III. At that time,11 members left to form the Division I East Coast Conference and by 1976, an additional 11 members left in 1992 to form the Centennial Conference, the football programs for eight of those schools had already left in 1981. In 1999, the current corporation formed with its three conferences, MAC Commonwealth, MAC Freedom, and Middle Atlantic, in May 2006, the organization offered membership to Arcadia University and Manhattanville College as part of the MAC Freedom. They replaced Juniata College, Drew University, Moravian College, Susquehanna University, and the University of Scranton, to offset the change in numbers, it was also decided to switch Lycoming College from the MAC Freedom to the MAC Commonwealth. Starting in the 2009–10 school year, Alvernia switched from the MAC Freedom to the MAC Commonwealth to balance both conferences with eight teams each, stevenson University and Hood College accepted invitations to join the MAC and MAC Commonwealth starting in July 2012 expanding the conference to 18 members. Upon completion of the 2013–14 academic year, Elizabethtown College moved to the Landmark Conference, the switch was effective July 1,2014. In 1958, the MAC began sponsoring football, the football conference essentially operated as two separate conferences with the larger schools playing a round robin schedule, and the smaller schools playing a separate round robin schedule. Although the upper division of the conference competed at the Division I level in other sports, following the 1969 season, the upper level of MAC football was disbanded as Temple dropped out to upgrade their football schedule. Rutgers had previously dropped out of the MAC for all sports, the lower division continued as MAC football, but Delaware, Lafayette, Lehigh, Gettysburg, and Bucknell operated as football independents for the rest of their tenure with the league. Numerous other MAC schools competed in football leagues throughout most of the leagues history. In 1983, the Centennial Football League was formed between 8 MAC members, eventually, those 8 schools and two others broke apart from the MAC for all sports, founding the Centennial Conference. Since the Centennial Conference break in 1991, all members that sponsor football have competed in the MAC Football Conference. ‡ — Conference records prior to 1946 are incomplete so years given are the earliest known that were officially recorded, ‡ — Conference records prior to 1946 are incomplete so years given are the earliest known that were officially recorded. Member teams currently compete in 24 sports,12 mens and 12 womens, with the addition of mens and womens ice hockey and mens volleyball in 2017–18, the only NCAA Division III sport not sponsored by the MAC will be womens rowing
22.
East Coast Conference (Division I)
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The East Coast Conference was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference. It was founded as the university division of the Middle Atlantic Conference in 1958, the MAC consisted of over 30 teams at that time, making it impossible to organize full league schedules in sports like football, basketball, and baseball. In 1958, the larger schools created their own mini-conference, consisting of 11 members, in 1974, the larger schools in the MAC officially formed the East Coast Conference. During the 1974-75 through 1981-82 seasons, the ECC enjoyed a consistent membership of 12 teams and that stability was rocked when St. Josephs, Temple, and West Chester departed in the summer of 1982, while Towson was added, trimming the league to 10 programs. Over the next two years, La Salle and American also said goodbye, cutting the roster to 8, the winds of realignment would sweep across intercollegiate athletics in full force as the next decade dawned. Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh left to form the Patriot League in 1990, while Delaware. Attempting to stem the tide, the ECC added UMBC and Central Connecticut in 1990, followed by Division I newcomers Buffalo, more erosion ensued as Rider, Towson, and UMBC moved to other leagues after the 1991-92 campaign, while Brooklyn suspended its entire athletic department. This reduced the ECC to just 3 members -- Hofstra, Central Connecticut, unable to move elsewhere themselves, that trio made one last salvage effort. Spreading far and wide, Chicago State, Northeastern Illinois, and Troy State were enlisted, finally, the ECC was absorbed by the Mid-Continent Conference in the summer of 1994, although Hofstra instead decided to join the North Atlantic Conference. None of the 5 ECC institutions which entered the Mid-Con at that time remain in the league today, according to the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporations web site, the East Coast Conference was not a successor to the MAC. June 4–6,1974 - The first major schism to be focused on this study occurs when the MAC University Division, with 12 members, loses 11 members, who leave to form their own conference. American, Bucknell, Delaware, Drexel, Lafayette, La Salle, Lehigh, Rider, St. Josephs, Temple, gettysburg, which opts to join the College Division, is the only University Division institution to remain
23.
Creighton Bluejays men's basketball
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The Creighton Bluejays mens basketball team is the NCAA Division I mens basketball program of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. They currently compete in the Big East Conference, the Bluejays have won a record 15 MVC regular season conference titles and a record 12 MVC Conference Tournament titles. The team has 20 appearances in the NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament, the Jays last played in the NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament in 2017. The Bluejays all-time record is 1, 444–964, the Bluejays play their home games at CenturyLink Center Omaha. Creighton finished sixth nationally in attendance, averaging 17,048 fans per home game in 2014–15. Before joining the Big East, Creighton had been a member of the Missouri Valley Conference until June 30,2013, the Jays participated as an independent from 1948 to 1977 before rejoining the MVC. Arthur Schabinger took over the program after Kearneys graduation and he guided the team into its first conference, the North Central Conference, in 1923. His teams would win 4 titles in the league, in 1928, Shabinger would again guide Creighton to another conference, the Missouri Valley Conference. Creightons winningest mens basketball coach for 75 years, Arthur A. Schabinger helped build the Creighton basketball program, Schabinger posted a 165-66 record as coach of the Bluejays from 1922 to 1935. Eleven of his 13 teams finished first or second in the league, Eddie Hickey took over the program for the 1935–36 season. Hickey was reared in small-town Nebraska and graduated from Creighton University School of Law in 1926, sawed-off at 55, Edward The Little Giant Hickey was a dynamic chunky man who had quarterbacked Creighton university football in the Roaring 20s. He was enamored more by the game he could if not, obviously lacking size. He was the coach of both the football and basketball teams at Creighton Preparatory for eight years before moving to Creighton University. Hickey was a master of the fast-break and winning and he immediately led the Bluejays to the Missouri Valley title in his first season. Their fast break – controlled fast break Eddie would emphasize sarcastically – featured an explosive movement that required the ball not to hit the floor. The Little Giant would take Creighton to new heights by the early 1940s, with 1943 Consensus First Team All American Ed Beisser in the middle, Hickey would lead the Jays to their first NCAA Tournament and two National Invitation Tournaments, including a Final Four in 1942. With his flair for run-sheep-run basketball, Hickey and his teams were a show in the Big Apple. World War II would briefly suspend Creightons basketball program and Hickey would return to coach for one year after the war before moving on to St. Louis
24.
DePaul Blue Demons men's basketball
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The DePaul Blue Demons mens basketball program is the NCAA Division I intercollegiate mens basketball program of DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. The team competes in the Big East Conference and plays their games in the Allstate Arena in Rosemont. DePaul was independent for much of its history and has enjoyed success with such great players as George Mikan in the 1940s. Ray Meyer coached at DePaul for over 40 years, from 1942 to 1984. After going to the Final Four of the 1979 NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Tournament, success continued with multiple NCAA appearances under his son, Joey Meyer, throughout the 1980s. DePaul joined the Great Midwest Conference in 1991 which later merged with the Metro Conference in 1995 to become Conference USA, the Blue Demons advanced to the second round of the 2004 NCAA tournament before being eliminated by eventual national champion Connecticut. DePaul left for the Big East Conference for the 2005–2006 season, the most recent mens basketball coach was Oliver Purnell, with Dave Leitao returning for the 2015-16 season in his second tenure as the Demons coach. The coach prior to Purnell was Jerry Wainwright, who joined DePaul in 2005, in the 2006–2007 season, the Blue Demons beat powerhouse #5 Kansas 64-57, pulling off one of the greatest upsets in school history. They also beat 2007 NCAA tournament teams California, Northwestern State, Marquette, Connecticut, the team made it to the NIT and lost in the bracket final to Air Force 52-51. The Demons opened up the 2008 season with two of their star players gone to the NBA, Four games into the 2007–2008 season, Wainwright logged his 200th career win as a head coach. The 2007–08 season saw the Demons with a 10–19 record, DePaul had upsets over Villanova, then ranked #15 nationally and ultimately a member of the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, and Northwestern. However, things took a turn for the worse during the 2008–2009 season, DePaul went 0–18 in Big East play, setting a school-record for longest losing streak. DePaul, however, has not had a record in any season since 2006-07. The Blue Demons have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 22 times and their appearances in the tournament from 1986–1989 have been vacated by the NCAA thus their official record is 15–21. * Vacated by the NCAA The Blue Demons have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament 16 times and they were NIT Champions in 1945. NCAA Mens Division I Final Four appearances by coaches NCAA Mens Division I Final Four appearances by school Official Site of DePaul Blue Demons Basketball
25.
Boston College Eagles men's basketball
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The Boston College Eagles are a Division I college basketball program that represents Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. The team has competed in the Atlantic Coast Conference since 2005, the Eagles have appeared in 18 NCAA Tournaments in their history, most recently in 2009. Home games have been played at the Conte Forum since 1988, the Eagles are currently coached by Jim Christian. In 1904, the first mens varsity team was sanctioned at Boston College, on December 26 of that year, BC played its first-ever game, losing 8–6 to Battery H of Navy. The team earned its first win that season against Tufts, 23–17, basketball, not a popular sport at the turn of the 20th century, suffered through years of weak fan support and lasted three initial seasons before being abandoned. A brief revival in the early 1920s brought the team back before being dropped again following the 1924–25 season. Through 2013-14, there have been 76 seasons of BC basketball, in 1963, BC hired Boston Celtics legend Bob Cousy as head coach and earned postseason berths in five of his six years in the role, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 1967. Boston College has hired several other notable coaches through the years, including Chuck Daly, Tom Davis, Gary Williams, one player, Rick Kuhn, was found guilty and served time in jail for his efforts in the fix. Before the 1979-80 season, Boston College basketball became a member of the Big East Conference. 1-ranked North Carolina in the 1994 NCAA tourney, Boston College left the Big East in all sports and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference after the 2004-05 season. Among Boston Colleges biggest non-conference rivals in basketball is the University of Massachusetts, the Eagles are 22–17 against their cross-state rival. The Boston College mens basketball team has made 18 overall appearances in the NCAA tournament, the team has played in the NIT10 times. BC has produced four players of the year, John Bagley 83, was the Big East Player of the Year in 1980–1981. Troy Bell 03 was co-Big East Player of the Year in 2000–2001, Jared Dudley 07 was the ACC Player of the Year in 2006–07. Additionally, the Eagles have had one conference rookie of the year, on March 26,1986, Jim OBrien 71 returned to his alma mater as coach of the Boston College Eagles basketball team. Boston College played its season in the Roberts Center in the 1987–88 season and were invited to the NIT, advancing to the semi-finals before being knocked off by regional rival UConn. BC returned to the NIT in 1992 and 1993, in 1994, the Eagles were defeated by Georgetown 81–58 in the first round of the Big East tournament. But, following its invitation to the NCAA, the basketball team went on one of its most historic runs
26.
2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
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The 2004 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of mens NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16,2004, and ended with the game on April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. A total of 64 games were played, the NCAA named, for the first time, the four tournament regions after regional site host cities instead of the East, Midwest, South, and West designations. It was also the first year that the matchups for the semifinals were determined at least in part by the overall seeding of the top team in each regional. The top four teams in the tournament were Kentucky, Duke, Stanford, had all of those teams advanced to the Final Four, Kentucky would have played Saint Josephs and Duke would have played Stanford in the semifinal games. Of those teams, only Duke advanced to the Final Four, Connecticut defeated Georgia Tech 82-73 to win their second national championship in as many tries. Emeka Okafor of Connecticut was named the tournaments Most Outstanding Player, as they had in 1999, Connecticut won their regional championship in Phoenix, Arizona. Two of the top seeds failed to make it past the opening weekend. Kentucky, number one seed of the St. Louis region, incidentally, both teams were defeated by schools from Alabama, as Kentucky fell to UAB while Stanford lost to Alabama. Due to their strong 2003-04 season, Gonzaga achieved its highest NCAA tournament seed until 2013 by receiving the #2 seed in the St. Louis region, Gonzaga would receive a #1 seed in the 2013 tournament. The team failed to advance beyond the first weekend of the tournament, Louis Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri April 3 and 5 Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas *Florida A&M University won the Opening Round game. The America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, CAA, Horizon League, Mid-Continent, Ivy, MAC, MEAC, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, and Sun Belt conferences all went 0–1. The columns R32, S16, E8, F4, and CG respectively stand for the Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and Championship Game. By contrast, all three of Dukes centers fouled out, including Shelden Williams, who committed his fifth foul with 3,04 to play, in addition, Duke went without a field goal for the last 4½ minutes until Chris Duhons meaningless three-pointer at the buzzer. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was denied his 65th NCAA Tournament victory which would have tied him with Dean Smith for the all-time record, Georgia Tech led for most of the game including a seven-point edge at halftime. However, Oklahoma State was able to tie the game on John Lucass three-pointer with 26.3 seconds left, Georgia Tech then milked the clock which set up Bynums game-winner. Georgia Tech advanced to their first ever National Championship appearance, Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton was denied yet another chance at an elusive national title. April 5,2004 Connecticut 82, Georgia Tech 73 The 2004 National Championship Game proved to be a coronation for the Connecticut Huskies as they handled Paul Hewitts Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
27.
Jameer Nelson
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Jameer Nelson is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association. He played college basketball for Saint Josephs University, where he was named National college player of the year in 2004, drafted 20th overall in the 2004 NBA draft, Nelson spent the first ten years of his NBA career with the Orlando Magic. He has also played for the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics, in 2009, he helped Orlando reach the NBA Finals and was named an All-Star. Nelson attended Chester High School in Chester, Pennsylvania and was a letterman in basketball, in 2000, he helped lead his team to the PIAA AAAA State championship. Nelson began his play at Saint Josephs University in the 2000–01 season and he had a breakout freshman season in which he was named unanimous National Freshman of the Year. During his junior season in 2002–03, he averaged 19.7 points per game,5.1 rebounds per game and he declared for the 2003 NBA draft, but later decided to remain for his senior season. Nelson led the Saint Josephs Hawks to a 27–0 regular season record in 2003–04, the Hawks first loss came in the Atlantic 10 Tournament to Xavier. Nelson and junior guard Delonte West formed what was considered the nations best backcourt. They advanced to the Elite Eight and were within seconds of the Final Four before Oklahoma State Cowboys John Lucas III hit a three-pointer with only a few seconds remaining, Saint Josephs finished with a 30–2 record, the best in the universitys history. Nelson averaged 20.6 points,5.3 assists and he received the Lowes Senior CLASS Award his final year, recognizing him as the nations top senior mens basketball player. He left the Hawks as the best player in the history, as its all-time leader in scoring, assists. Nelsons number was retired by the university on April 23,2004, Nelson was the first Atlantic 10 athlete to be on the cover of the magazine since Mark Macon in 1988. Nelson was selected with the 20th overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, though many speculated he would be a top 10 pick, he fell to number 20, and the Magic were able to acquire both Nelson and Dwight Howard in the same draft. As a rookie, Nelson served as the backup to the Magics All-Star point guard Steve Francis. Due to Nelsons impressive play, the Magic moved Francis to shooting guard to make room for Nelson to start at point guard and he was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, and garnered Rookie of the Year consideration. On February 22,2006, the Magic dealt Steve Francis to the New York Knicks, Nelsons play improved with the mid-season trade of Francis, finishing the season with averages of 14.6 points and 5 assists per game on 48. 3% field goal shooting. The following year, Nelson helped lead the Magic back into the postseason for the first time since 2003. He averaged 14.3 points,3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game during the NBA playoffs, during the 2008 All-Star weekend Slam Dunk Contest, Nelson assisted teammate Dwight Howard on several of his dunks, including the famous Superman dunk
28.
Delonte West
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He also played professionally for the Fujian Xunxing and Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association and the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League. Prior to playing professionally, West played college basketball for Saint Josephs University, West went to Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, where he excelled at basketball, teaming with fellow NBA player Eddie Basden. He led the Raiders to their first tournament appearance and they made it to the Maryland 4A championship, where Delonte had 22 points and 8 rebounds, but the Raiders lost 70–58. He was named Washington Post All Met Basketball Player of the Year due to his averages of 20.2 points,6.5 rebounds,3.9 assists and he scored double figures in all but one game his senior season. He then committed himself to Saint Josephs University, at Saint Josephs University he formed what was widely regarded as the best backcourt in the country along with Wooden and Naismith Award winner Jameer Nelson. West averaged 18.9 points and 6.7 assists per game, shooting 41% from three-point range and his efforts helped the Hawks to go 27–0 in the regular season, and earn an Elite Eight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Saint Josephs finished the season at 30–2, West chose to leave St. Joes after his junior campaign and was selected by the Boston Celtics as the 24th pick in the 2004 NBA draft. In his first season, he struggled with injuries, playing a total of just 39 games and he averaged 4.5 points,1.7 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. After making the transition to point guard in his rookie season, in 2005–06, West averaged 11.8 PPG,4.1 RPG and 4.6 APG. On February 12,2006, he was named to represent the Celtics on the team for the Rookie Challenge at NBA All-Star Weekend. Coincidentally, he replaced his college teammate Jameer Nelson, who withdrew because of injuries, West was moved to the shooting guard spot in the 2006–07 season, but showed signs of difficulty early in the season. He was later moved back to the point guard position, the Celtics would eventually win the game against the Nets. The next day against the Minnesota Timberwolves, West scored a career-high 31 points and made a career-high 12 free throw shots, West scored all 31 of his points in that game during the second half and the two overtimes. At the end of the 2006–07 season, he was sharing starting minutes with Rajon Rondo, on June 28,2007 the Celtics traded West to the Seattle SuperSonics, along with Jeff Green and Wally Szczerbiak in exchange for Ray Allen and Sonics 35th overall pick Glen Davis. On February 21,2008, West was part of a trade that sent him, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith. He was reunited with his Saint Josephs teammate Dwayne Jones, as a Cavalier, West played in 26 regular season games, and averaged 10.3 points,4.5 assists,3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals. He had a season high 20 points against the Boston Celtics only six days after his trade to the Cavaliers, for the entire season, West played in 61 games and averaged 8.3 points,3.8 assists and 3.2 rebounds. On April 27,2008, West made perhaps the most clutch 3-pointer of his NBA career with 5.4 seconds left in a game against the Washington Wizards
29.
Liberty Flames basketball
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, This is about the mens basketball team at Liberty University. The womens team is known as the Lady Flames and they play their home games at the Vines Center and are members of the Big South Conference. The Liberty Mens Basketball program began in 1972 under head coach Dan Manley, Liberty University is the second youngest school in NCAA Division I, founded in 1971. The Flames finished 13–14 in the inaugural season, as of the 2009–2010 season, the Flames have had 8 different head coaches of their Mens Basketball team. As of the end of the 2008–2009 season, the Flames had a record of 524–555. Liberty has reached post-season 3 times in its NCAA Division I history, the Flames fell to UNC in the first round of the 1994 NCAA Tournament after winning the Big South tournament. Liberty lost to St. Josephs in the 2004 NCAA tournament after crushing High Point to claim its second Big South Conference Tournament Championship, upon falling in the semi-finals of the Big South Conference tournament in the 2008–09 season, the Flames were invited to the inaugural CIT Tournament. Liberty defeated Rider in the first round before falling to the JMU in the quarterfinals, in 1972, Liberty University, known then as Lynchburg Baptist College, played its first game in the National Christian College Association under head coach Dan Manley. The team practiced at the City Armory and Lynchburg Christian Academy, lBCs first victory came against Southland College, winning 88–45. That season LBC would finish 7–1 and it was the following year in 1973 that LBC would play its first varsity schedule, finishing its first official season at 13–14. Lynchburg Baptist College became Liberty Baptist College in 1975, changing its colors from green and gold to red, white and that same year the Flames entered the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, Mike Goad became Libertys first basketball All-American. Dan Manley 5 Seasons Record, 58–74 Harley Skeeter Swift was named Libertys second mens basketball coach, mark Chafin was the second Liberty player to be named NCCAA All-American. Harley Swift 1 Season Record, 7–22 Dale Gibson became Libertys third mens basketball coach in 1978, Mike Goad, an assistant for Gibson at the time, became the first player in Libertys history to have his jersey retired. On November 30,1979, the Flames opened Liberty Gym against Mount Vernon Nazarene University with a 95–81 win, on December 8,1979, the Flames traveled to Lexington, Va to play VMI, their first NCAA Division I opponent, losing 106–58. In 1980, Liberty joined the NCAA Division II level as an associate member, the Flames won the NCCAA National Championship and posted a 28–11 record. Karl Hess and Ed Vickers were named NCCAA All-Americans, Hess was also named a CoSIDA Academic All-American. Dale Gibson 3 Seasons Record, 48–46 On March 25,1981, Liberty Baptist became a full member of the NCAA Division II level and also became eligible for NAIA postseason competition. The Flames Sports Network began with Jerry Edwards handling the play-by-play, LBC moved into the new Liberty Gym
30.
John R. Wooden Award
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The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding mens and womens college basketball players. The program consists of the mens and womens Player of the Year awards, the awards, given by the Los Angeles Athletic Club, are named in honor of John Wooden, the 1932 national collegiate basketball player of the year from Purdue. Wooden later taught and coached basketball at Indiana State and UCLA. Coach Wooden, whose teams at UCLA won ten NCAA championships, was the first man to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and his 1948 Indiana State team was the NAIB National Finalist. The award, which was given only to male athletes, was first given in 1977. Starting in 2004, the award was extended to womens basketball, additionally, the Legends of Coaching Award was presented first in 1999. The 2015 presentation was broadcast on ESPN2 and the show was presented by Wendys at Los Angeles Club Nokia on Friday, each year, the Awards National Advisory Board, a 26-member panel, selects approximately 20 candidates for Player of the Year and All-American Team honors. The candidates must be students and have a cumulative grade point average of 2.00 or higher throughout their college career. Players who are nominated must have made outstanding contributions to team play, the selection ballot is announced prior to the NCAA basketball tournament. The voters consist of 1,000 sportswriters and sportscasters representing the 50 states, the top ten vote-getters are selected to the All-American Team, and the results are announced following the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament. The person who receives the most votes is named the Player of the Year, the Player of the Year is awarded a trophy consisting of five bronze figures. The players school receives a trophy, as well as a scholarship grant. The other top four members of the All-American Team receive an All-American Team trophy, a jacket, each coach of the top five All-American Team members also receives a jacket. The All-American Team members ranked six through ten receive an All-American Team trophy and a jacket, the criteria for the womens Player of the Year award and All-American Team honors are similar to those for the men. For the womens award, the National Advisory Board consists of 12 members, the voters are 250 sportswriters and sportscasters. In contrast to the mens All-American Team, only five members are selected for the womens team, the Player of the Year receives a trophy, and her school receives a duplicate trophy and a scholarship grant. The concept for the trophy originated with Wooden Award Chairman, Richard Duke Llewellyn, work began on the trophy in 1975, and sculptor Don Winton, who had sculpted many top sports awards, was given the task of designing the model of the trophy. The figures are bronze plated and attached to a base plate
31.
Sports Illustrated
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Sports Illustrated is an American sports media franchise owned by Time Inc. Its self-titled magazine has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million people each week and it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. Its swimsuit issue, which has published since 1964, is now an annual publishing event that generates its own television shows, videos. There were two magazines named Sports Illustrated before the current magazine began on August 16,1954, in 1936, Stuart Scheftel created Sports Illustrated with a target market for the sportsman. He published the magazine from 1936 to 1938 on a monthly basis, the magazine was a life magazine size and focused on golf, tennis, and skiing with articles on the major sports. He then sold the name to Dell Publications, which released Sports Illustrated in 1949, dells version focused on major sports and competed on magazine racks against Sport and other monthly sports magazines. During the 1940s these magazines were monthly and they did not cover the current events because of the production schedules, there was no large-base, general, weekly sports magazine with a national following on actual active events. It was then that Time patriarch Henry Luce began considering whether his company should attempt to fill that gap, at the time, many believed sports was beneath the attention of serious journalism and did not think sports news could fill a weekly magazine, especially during the winter. A number of advisers to Luce, including Life magazines Ernest Havemann, tried to kill the idea, but Luce, the goal of the new magazine was to be basically a magazine, but with sports. Launched on August 16,1954, it was not profitable and not particularly well run at first, but Luces timing was good. The popularity of sports in the United States was about to explode. The early issues of the magazine seemed caught between two opposing views of its audience, after more than a decade of steady losses, the magazines fortunes finally turned around in the 1960s when Andre Laguerre became its managing editor. A European correspondent for Time, Inc, in May 1956, Luce brought Laguerre to New York to become assistant managing editor of the magazine. He was also one of the first to sense the rise of national interest in professional football, Laguerre also instituted the innovative concept of one long story at the end of every issue, which he called the bonus piece. His genius as an editor was that he made you want to please him, Laguerre is also credited with the conception and creation of the annual Swimsuit Issue, which quickly became, and remains, the most popular issue each year. Regular illustration features by artists like Robert Riger, high school football Player of the Month awards. In 2015 Sports Illustrated purchased a group of companies and combined them to create Sports Illustrated Play. The magazines photographers also made their mark with innovations like putting cameras in the goal at a hockey game, by 1967, the magazine was printing 200 pages of fast color a year, in 1983, SI became the first American full-color newsweekly
32.
George Washington Colonials men's basketball
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The George Washington Colonials mens basketball team represents George Washington University in the United States capital, Washington, D. C. It plays its games in the Charles E. Smith Center. The schools team competes in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The school fired head coach Mike Lonergan on September 16,2016 after an investigation found him guilty of verbally and emotionally abusing his players, the school named assistant coach Maurice Joseph interim coach for the 2016–17 season. On March 27,2016, the school removed the interim tag, Mike Jarvis was hired as head coach in 1990. Led by future NBA player Yinka Dare, the Colonials received a bid to the 1993 NCAA Tournament. GW advanced to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to the Fab Five Michigan team, the Colonials would also make NCAA Tournament appearances in 1994,1996, and 1998 under Jarvis. Jarvis would leave the school in 1998 to accept the coaching position at St. Johns. The school then hired recently fired Texas head coach, Thomas Penders, Penders would spend three years at GW, before resigning amidst accusations of NCAA rules violations. GW would then turn Karl Hobbs on May 2,2001 as head coach and that year, the mens basketball team went on to win the Atlantic 10 West title and the Atlantic 10 Tournament, earning an automatic bid to the 2005 NCAA Tournament. The team received a No.12 seed, losing to No.5 seed Georgia Tech in the First Round. The team began the 2005–06 season ranked 21st in the Associated Press poll, reaching as high as sixth in the polls, with a 26–2 going into the 2006 NCAA Tournament. They received a bid to the Tournament as a No.8 seed where they came back from an 18-point second-half deficit to defeat No.9 seed UNC-Wilmington. However, in the Second Round, they lost to Duke, J. R. Pinnock was drafted in the 2006 NBA Draft and two other Colonials from that team played in the NBA. Pops Mensah-Bonsu played for the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, the 2006–07 basketball season was considered by many to be a rebuilding year for the Colonials after graduating their entire starting front court and losing Pinnock to the NBA. Coach Karl Hobbs and Senior guard Carl Elliott led the team to a 23–8 record, winning the 2007 Atlantic 10 Tournament, the Colonials were received a No.11 seed and lost to No. On May 11,2011, Mike Lonergan, former coach of Vermont, was hired to replace Hobbs. The 2011–12 basketball season, Lonergans first with the Colonials, resulted in a 10–21 record, by the 2013–14 season, Lonergan had rebuilt the program and finished third in the Atlantic 10 with a 24–8 record
33.
2005 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
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The 2005 NCAA Division I Mens Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of mens NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 15,2005, and ended with the game on April 4 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. North Carolina emerged as the champions for a fourth time. North Carolinas Sean May was named the tournaments Most Outstanding Player, coach Roy Williams won his first national championship. For the first time since 1999, when Weber State defeated North Carolina, a #13 seed, Vermont, advanced by defeating Syracuse in the first round and a #12 seed, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the Chicago region. A total of 65 teams entered the tournament, thirty of the teams earned automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments. The automatic bid of the Ivy League, which does not conduct a tournament, went to its regular season champion. The remaining 34 teams were granted at-large bids, which are extended by the NCAA Selection Committee. Two teams played a game, popularly called the play-in game. This game has played at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton. All 64 teams were seeded 1 to 16 within their regionals, the Selection Committee seeded the entire field from 1 to 65. The 2005 regionals, along with their top seeds, are listed below, Chicago Regional Albuquerque Regional Syracuse Regional Austin Regional Each regional winner advanced to the Final Four, held April 2–4 in St. Louis. The 2005 play-in game was played on Tuesday, March 15, at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio, Louis, Missouri, hosted by the Missouri Valley Conference. The semi-final games were held on April 2 and the final on April 4,2005, Nevada 61, Texas 57 Down 57–53 with 2,24 to play, the Wolf Pack of Nevada came from behind to win despite a sub-par game from star Nick Fazekas. March 17, Wolstein Center, Cleveland Milwaukee 83, Alabama 73 The Horizon League champion Panthers pulled the upset behind 21 points apiece from Ed McCants and Joah Tucker. March 17, Taco Bell Arena, Boise UAB82, LSU68 UAB led throughout with Marvett McDonald scoring 21 points, Arizona 66, Utah State 53 Arizona started slow, but secured the win led by Channing Frye and Salim Stoudamire each scoring 17 points. March 18, Ford Center, Oklahoma City Southern Illinois 65, Oklahoma State 63, SE Louisiana 50 Oklahoma State jumped out to a 9-point halftime lead and built on it from there behind Ivan McFarlins 18 points. March 17, Taco Bell Arena, Boise Washington 88, Montana 77 Top-seeded Washington easily advanced, Pacific 79, Pittsburgh 71 Pacific nearly squandered a 15-point lead, letting Pittsburgh get within 5, but hung on to advance behind 17 from Christian Maraker and 15 from Mike Webb
34.
South Carolina Gamecocks baseball
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The South Carolina Gamecocks baseball team represents the University of South Carolina in NCAA Division I college baseball. Carolina is one of six schools in NCAA history to win back-to-back titles, since joining the Southeastern Conference in 1992, the team has competed in the Eastern division. Chad Holbrook is the current head coach, taking over for Ray Tanner and this follows a string of three consecutive appearances in the national championship series, including two consecutive national championships. Between 2010 and 2012 the Gamecocks set two NCAA records for success, the most consecutive NCAA tournament wins and the most consecutive wins in the College World Series. In 2013, Carolina set the record for consecutive home NCAA tournament wins, the team plays its home games at Founders Park, which opened on February 21,2009. South Carolina played its first intercollegiate game on May 2,1895 against Wofford in Spartanburg after the faculty agreed to let the athletic teams travel outside of Columbia. After decades of lackluster performance on the diamond, Carolinas fortunes quickly changed with the hiring of former New York Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson in 1970, since then, the Gamecocks have been regular NCAA Tournament participants, making 31 Regional and 11 College World Series appearances. Carolina owns a 32-18 all-time record at the College World Series and is 137-66 in NCAA Tournament play, Carolina holds the NCAA Tournament records for consecutive NCAA tournament wins, consecutive CWS wins, and consecutive home NCAA tournament wins. In 124 years of baseball, through 2016, Carolina has 2,533 wins,1,508 losses, Richardson led the Gamecocks to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1974, which set the stage for what would happen a year later. In 1975, South Carolina posted a 51-6-1 record, made the College World Series, Richardson left South Carolina after the 1976 season, finishing his tenure with a 221-92-1 record and three NCAA Tournament appearances. June Raines took over the Gamecocks in 1977 and picked up where Richardson left off, leading the Gamecocks to a 43-12-1 record, during the Raines era, South Carolina made 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and posted nine 40-win seasons. The 1980s saw the programs most successful run during Raines tenure, as the Gamecocks made eight NCAA Tournaments, in 1997, Ray Tanner was hired and quickly built upon the winning tradition that Richardson created and Raines had perpetuated. Under Tanner, the Gamecocks have made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, advanced to the Super Regionals 10 times, in addition, the Gamecocks won the 2000,2002 and 2011 SEC regular season championships, the 2004 SEC Tournament Championship, and six SEC East titles. In 2011, Coach Tanner led the Gamecocks to a share of the 2011 Regular Season SEC Championship before winning the 2011 NCAA National Championship at the new TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha. On July 13,2012, Coach Tanner accepted the position of director at USC. Chad Holbrook became head coach at the start of the 2013 season, South Carolina defeated Liberty 4-3 on a day honoring Tanner. Carolina reached the NCAA tournament in 2013,2014, &2016, in the 10 years from 2000–2009, South Carolina posted an impressive 468-201 overall record. The 468 overall wins ranked fourth in Division I College Baseball, the Gamecocks made the NCAA Tournament every season, advancing to seven Super Regionals and three College World Series
