West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated in NCAA Division I consisting of ten member schools across the states of California, Oregon and Washington. All of the current members are private, faith-based institutions, seven members are Catholic Church affiliates, with four of these schools being Jesuit institutions. Pepperdine is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ, Brigham Young University is an affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The conferences newest member, the University of the Pacific, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, during the massive upheaval of conference affiliations in the 1990s, the WCC remained very stable. Before the 2010 realignment that eventually led to Brigham Young joining the conference, the last change of membership was in 1980, at the time, only the Ivy League and Pac-10 had remained unchanged for a longer period. The league was chartered by five northern California institutions, four from the Bay Area and one, Pacific and it began as the California Basketball Association, playing its first game on January 2,1953.
After two seasons under that name, the conference expanded to include Los Angeles-area schools Loyola and Pepperdine in 1955, after more than three decades as the WCAC, the name was shortened in the summer of 1989, dropping the word Athletic. The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be one of the better mid-major conferences in the country, the conference sponsors 13 sports but does not include football as one of them. San Diego and Brigham Young are the only schools fielding a football team, the rest have all dropped the sport, some as early as the 1940s, before the conference existed, and one as late as 2003. Historically, the WCCs strongest sports have been soccer and tennis, the conference has made its presence felt nationally in mens basketball. San Francisco won two national titles in the 1950s with all-time great Bill Russell. Although the WCACs stature declined in the 1960s, San Francisco was reckoned as a basketball power until the early 1980s. Also of note was Loyola Marymounts inspired run to the Elite Eight in 1990 following the death of Hank Gathers during that seasons WCC championship tournament.
As San Francisco was from the 1940s to the early 1980s, Gonzaga has gained recognition as a basketball power. In 2016-17, the Bulldogs advanced all the way to the national championship game--the deepest run by a WCC team since San Francisco went to three consecutive Final Fours from 1955 to 1957. Saint Marys has made marks for the conference as the Gaels appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005,2008,2010,2012, and 2013. On May 28,2009, NBA referee Violet Palmer was hired as coordinator of basketball officials for the West Coast Conference and will remain with the NBA. Eventually, with the 2010 realignment opening up new avenues for expansion, the conference decided that it would only seek out private schools, but would not limit its search to faith-based institutions
Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball
The Tulsa Golden Hurricane mens basketball team represents the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, in the U. S. state of Oklahoma. The team participates in the American Athletic Conference, the Golden Hurricane hired Frank Haith from Missouri on April 17,2014 to replace Danny Manning, who had resigned to take the Wake Forest job after the 2013–14 season. The team has long been successful, especially since the hiring of Nolan Richardson in 1980, many big-name coaches previously worked at Tulsa, like University of Kansas coach Bill Self and Minnesota coach Tubby Smith. The Hurricane have been to the NCAA Tournament 14 times in their history, in addition, they have won two National Invitation Tournaments, in 1981 and 2001, and one CBI tournament. In 2005, Street & Smiths named the University of Tulsa as the 59th best college basketball program of all time, Clarence Iba, brother of Henry Iba, helped to springboard Tulsa to success when named the head coach in 1949. He coached at the school for 11 years, the longest tenure of any Tulsa coach and he became the first coach in NCAA history to win 50 games in his first two seasons.
In the 1990s and 2000s, a succession of Tulsa coaches went on to big name programs across the country, including Tubby Smith, Buzz Peterson, the team remained successful throughout the string of coaches. Doug Wojcik, coach from 2005 to 2012, is the all-time winningest coach at the school with 140 wins, notable assistants in the programs history have included Billy Gillispie, Flip Saunders, Kevin O’Neill, Tom Izzo, Mike Anderson and Ron Jirsa. Tulsa has had a series of players at the program. Among those who did make it to the NBA, James King, who came back to coach the program after his NBA career, and Bingo Smith had the greatest success. King was selected to the 1968 NBA All-Star Game, and Smith scored more than 10,000 points in his career, bergen in 1907, when the school still went by the name Kendall College. It went 1–1 in its first season, following the 1908–09 season, the team went on hiatus for several years before restarting for the 1913–14 season under Harvey Allen. The team hit hard times and achieved occasional modest success until the arrival of Clarence Iba in 1949, of special note is the 1942–1943 winless squad under Mike Milligan, whose team went 0–10.
Under Iba, Tulsa reached the post-season for the first time in the 1953 NIT, in 1955, Iba led the Golden Hurricane to their first Missouri Valley Conference title and NCAA tournament appearance. Joe Swank succeeded Iba in 1960 and it was under Swank that the color barrier was broken in the Tulsa basketball program. Swank had some winning seasons, but the program would be without real success until the arrival of Nolan Richardson, Nolan Richardson’s hiring helped to usher in a new era of success at Tulsa that has remained fairly consistent since then. He led the team the NIT Championship in the 1980–1981 season, Richardson won two MVC regular season and two MVC tournament championships in his five season tenure. His flamboyant personality made him popular, his teams adopted McFadden & Whiteheads Aint No Stopping Us Now as their theme song during the Richardson years
Bnei Herzliya
Bnei Herzliya is a professional basketball club based in Herzliya, in central Israel. The club plays in Ligat HaAl, the top division of Israeli basketball, the club was created by the merge of Maccabi Raanana and Bnei Hasharon in 2002. The merge has been made because of Maccabi Raananas financial problems, at the end of 2010–11 season, the merge ended and the team started playing only for the city of Herzliya
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is New Mexicos flagship research institution, the largest post-secondary institution in the state in total enrollment across all campuses as of 2012, founded in 1889, UNM offers bachelors, masters and professional degree programs in a wide variety of fields. Its Albuquerque campus encompasses over 600 acres, and there are campuses in Gallup, Los Alamos, Rio Rancho, Taos. UNM is categorized as an R1 doctoral university in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the University of New Mexico was founded on February 28,1889, with the passage of House Bill No. Two years later, Elias S. Stover became the first president of the University, the third president of UNM, William G. Tight, who served from 1901–09, introduced many programs for students and faculty, including the first fraternity and sorority. Tight introduced the Pueblo Revival architecture for which the campus has become known, under David Ross Boyd, the universitys fifth president, the campus was enlarged from 20 to 300 acres and a 200, 000-acre federal land grant was made to the university.
In 1922, the university was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges, under Zimmerman, many new buildings were constructed, student enrollment increased, new departments were added, and greater support was generated for scientific research. Among the new buildings constructed were Zimmerman Library, Scholes Hall, the first student union building and this period saw the foundation of UNMs branch facilities in Los Alamos and Gallup and the acquisition of the D. H. Lawrence Ranch north of Taos. During the early 1970s, a series of protests were held at the university, on May 5,1970, a protest over the Vietnam War and the Kent State massacre occupied the Student Union Building. The National Guard was ordered to sweep the building and arrest those inside, on May 10,1972, a peaceful sit-in protest near Kirtland Air Force Base led to the arrest of thirty-five people and was pushed back to UNM, leading to eight more arrests. The following day, tear gas was used against hundreds of demonstrators on campus, New programs and schools were created in the 1970s and the university gained control over the hospital on North Campus.
At the end of the decade, the university was implicated in a recruiting scandal dubbed Lobogate by the press, subsequent investigation turned up a manufactured college seal from Mercer County Community College in New Jersey, along with blank transcripts and records of previous forgery. Further investigation uncovered alleged incentives like cars and apartments doled out to prime players, the scandal forced Ellenberger to resign and defined the term of William E. Davis, UNMs eleventh president. The university has continued to grow, with expanding enrollment and new facilities, in the 1980s, dramatic expansion occurred at the medical center, business school, and engineering school. The Centennial Library was constructed, during the 1990s, an Honors College was founded, and the university completed construction of a new bookstore and Dane Smith Hall. The Research Park at South Campus was expanded, by this point, the university had one of the largest student and faculty populations of Hispanics and Native Americans in the country.
A study released in 1995 showed that the number of full-time Hispanic faculty at UNM was four times greater than the national average, the schools of law and business had some of the largest Hispanic student populations of any university in the country. In the first decade of the 2000s, major expansion began on medical facilities on North Campus, the current visitor center, a new engineering center, and George Pearl Hall were constructed
Point guard
The point guard, called the one or point, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position, point guards are expected to run the teams offense by controlling the ball and making sure that it gets to the right players at the right time. A point guard, like other player positions in basketball, specializes in certain skills, a point guards primary job is to facilitate scoring opportunities for his/her team, or sometimes for themselves. Lee Rose has described a point guard as a coach on the floor and this involves setting up plays on the court, getting the ball to the teammate in the best position to score, and controlling the tempo of the game. A point guard should know when and how to instigate a fast break, point guards are expected to be vocal floor leaders. A point guard needs always to have in mind the times on the clock and the game clock, the score. Among the taller players who have enjoyed success at the position is Magic Johnson, other point guards who have been named NBA MVP include Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Derrick Rose and two-time winners Stephen Curry and Steve Nash.
In the NBA, point guards are usually about 65 or shorter, having above-average size is considered advantageous, although size is secondary to situational awareness, speed and ball handling skills. Shorter players tend to be better dribblers since they are closer to the floor, after an opponent scores, it is typically the point guard who brings the ball down court to begin an offensive play. Passing skills, ball handling, and court vision are crucial, speed is important, a speedy point guard is better able to create separation and space off the dribble, giving him/herself room to work. Point guards are often valued more for their assist totals than for their scoring, another major evaluation factor is Assist-to-Turnover ratio, which reflects the decision-making skills of the player. Still, a point guard should have a reasonably effective jump shot. The point guard is positioned on the perimeter of the play and this is a necessity because of the point guards many leadership obligations. Many times, the point guard is referred to by announcers as a coach on the floor or a floor general, in the past, this was particularly true, as several point guards such as Lenny Wilkens served their teams as player-coaches.
This is not so common anymore, as most coaches are now solely specialized in coaching and are non-players, former Suns head coach Mike DAntoni had often allowed Steve Nash to freelance when leading the Suns offense, even letting him call his own plays at times. Even point guards who are not given this much freedom, are extensions of their coach on the floor. John Stockton is widely considered to be the point guard. He used the pick and roll maneuvre with Karl Malone, along with leadership and a general basketball acumen, ball-handling is a skill of great importance to a point guard
Texas State University
Texas State University is a public research university located in San Marcos, United States. Established in 1899 as the Southwest Texas State Normal School, it opened in 1903 to 303 students and it has 10 colleges and about 50 schools and departments, including nationally recognized programs in Geography, Criminal Justice and Music. Texas State is classified as a university with higher research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, faculty from the various college have consistently been given Fulbright Scholar grants resulting in Texas State being recognized as one of the top producing universities of Fulbright Scholars. The 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B, graduated from the institution in 1930. Texas States main campus consists of 245 buildings on 492 acres of land along the San Marcos River. The university operates the Science and Advanced Research Park, the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State is the largest forensics research facility in the world.
Texas State Universitys intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known as the Bobcats, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, the Southwest Texas State Normal School was proposed in a March 3,1899, bill by State Representative Fred Cocke. Cocke represented the citizens of Hays and surrounding counties where the school was to be located. While there was opposition to the bill, with the support of State Senator J. B. Dibrell, it was passed and signed into law on May 10,1899. The schools purpose was to provide training and teach domestic sciences. Any students earning a diploma and teaching certificate from the school would be authorized to teach in the public schools. In October 1899, the San Marcos City Council voted to donate 11 acres of land at what was known as Chautauqua Hill for the school to be built on. It was not until 1901 that the Texas legislature accepted this donation, the building now known as Old Main was completed and the school opened its doors to its first enrollment of 303 students in September 1903.
The San Marcos East End Ward School, comprising the first eight grades of the district, was moved onto the Southwest Texas State campus in 1917. On November 8,1965, the schools most famous alumnus, returned to his alma mater to sign the Higher Education Act of 1965, which was part of his Great Society. The campus has grown substantially from its original 11 acres in 1899, during the first 40 years of the schools history, the campus was expanded to accommodate 18 buildings around the original Main Building. These buildings included academic buildings, a library, buildings to house the San Marcos school students, dormitories, a dining hall, the university bought the property in 1994 intending to use the land as a research and education center
University of Texas at Austin
Founded in 1881 as The University of Texas, its campus is in Austin, Texas—approximately 1 mile from the Texas State Capitol. The institution has the nations seventh-largest single-campus enrollment, with over 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students and over 24,000 faculty, UT Austin was inducted into the American Association of Universities in 1929, becoming only the third university in the American South to be elected. It is a center for academic research, with research expenditures exceeding $550 million for the 2014–2015 school year. J. Pickle Research Campus and the McDonald Observatory, among university faculty are recipients of the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, the Wolf Prize, the Emmy Award, the Turing Award, and the National Medal of Science, as well as many other awards. UT Austin student athletes compete as the Texas Longhorns and are members of the Big 12 Conference and its Longhorn Network is the only sports network featuring the college sports of a single university. The first mention of a university in Texas can be traced to the 1827 constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas.
Although Title 6, Article 217 of the Constitution promised to establish education in the arts and sciences. On April 18,1838, An Act to Establish the University of Texas was referred to a committee of the Texas Congress. On January 26,1839, the Texas Congress agreed to set aside fifty leagues of land towards the establishment of a publicly funded university, in addition,40 acres in the new capital of Austin were reserved and designated College Hill. In 1845, Texas was annexed into the United States, the states Constitution of 1845 failed to mention higher education. On February 11,1858, the Seventh Texas Legislature approved O. B,102, an act to establish the University of Texas, which set aside $100,000 in United States bonds toward construction of the states first publicly funded university. The legislature designated land reserved for the encouragement of railroad construction toward the universitys endowment, Texas secession from the Union and the American Civil War delayed repayment of the borrowed monies.
At the end of the Civil War in 1865, The University of Texas endowment was just over $16,000 in warrants, the more valuable lands reverted to the fund to support general education in the state. The legislature additionally appropriated $256,272.57 to repay the funds taken from the university in 1860 to pay for frontier defense, the 1883 grant of land increased the land in the Permanent University Fund to almost 2.2 million acres. Under the Act of 1858, the university was entitled to just over 1,000 acres of land for every mile of railroad built in the state. On March 30,1881, the legislature set forth the structure and organization. By popular election on September 6,1881, Austin was chosen as the site, having come in second in the election was designated the location of the medical department. On November 17,1882, on the original College Hill, smite the earth, smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth
Rick Majerus
Richard Raymond Majerus was an American college basketball coach. He coached at Marquette University, Ball State University, the University of Utah, Majerus most successful season came at Utah in the 1997–98 season, when the Utes finished as NCAA national runners-up. Majerus graduated from Marquette University High School in 1966 and attended Marquette University and he did not play for Marquette, but stayed on as a student assistant. He graduated in 1970 with a degree in history and he began coaching eighth-graders at St. Sebastian Grade School in Milwaukee, coached freshmen boys at Marquette University High School. He was an assistant coach with the Marquette Warriors for 12 years under mentor Al McGuire, until 1977, after three years as head coach at Marquette, and a 56-35 record, he became an assistant coach with the National Basketball Associations Milwaukee Bucks for the 1986–87 season. He coached at Ball State University for two seasons where he had a record of 43-17 during that span and he lead the team to the NCAA tournament in the 1988-89 season.
That 1988-89 team holds the record for best mens basketball won-lost mark in Ball State University history and he definitely had Ball States program on the upswing before his departure to Utah in 1989. He was an assistant coach under Don Nelson for the US national team in the 1994 FIBA World Championship, Majerus led Utah to the Final Four in 1998, eventually losing to Kentucky in the National Championship Game. He was greatly affected by the loss, and claimed to be able to recite the last six minutes of play of the game second by second. In January 2001, Majerus announced that he would sit out the season to recover from his own health problems and he handed over the team to assistant Dick Hunsaker, who guided the team to a 19-10 record and an NIT appearance. Majerus returned to Utah in the fall of 2001 and he left Utah in January 2004 after 15 seasons and 323 victories in part to get control of his health, he underwent seven vessel bypass surgery to his heart in 1989. Majerus was known to berate and verbally abuse his players, allred transferred after the 2001-02 season, but Majerus was cleared of any wrongdoing.
His contract was scheduled to pay him $5 million over five years, Majerus gave an energetic and humorous press conference on the day of his hire, but noted I hope I die here. I hope I coach here the rest of my life, in order to take the position, he needed to buy himself out of his contract as an analyst for ESPN. However, Majerus unexpectedly resigned five days in a somber. I came to that conclusion myself, i’m not fit for this job by my standards. Majerus worked as a game and studio analyst for ESPN from 2004 to 2007, Majerus was a fan favorite and cult figure around college basketball, known for his portly, rotund figure and his quirky, jovial personality. He enjoyed bratwursts, a popular in his native Wisconsin
Rebound (basketball)
In basketball, a rebound, colloquially referred to as a board, is a statistic awarded to a player who retrieves the ball after a missed field goal or free throw. Rebounds are given to a player who tips in a shot on his teams offensive end. Rebounds in basketball are a part in the game, as all possessions change after a shot is successfully made. A rebound can be grabbed by either a player or a defensive player. The majority of rebounds are defensive because the team on defense tends to be in position to recover missed shots. Offensive rebounds give the team another opportunity to score whether right away or by resetting the offense. A block is not considered a rebound, a ball does not need to actually rebound off the rim or backboard for a rebound to be credited. Rebounds are credited after any missed shot, including air balls, if a player takes a shot and misses and the ball bounces on the ground before someone picks it up, the person who picks up the ball is credited for a rebound. Rebounds are credited to the first player that gains possession of the ball or to the player that successfully deflects the ball into the basket for a score. A rebound is credited to a team when it gains possession of the ball after any missed shot that is not cleared by a single player, great rebounders tend to be tall and strong.
Because height is so important, most rebounds are made by centers and power forwards, the lack of height can sometimes be compensated by the strength to box out taller players away from the ball to capture the rebound. For example, Charles Barkley once led the league in rebounding despite usually being much shorter than his counterparts, some shorter guards can be excellent rebounders as well such as point guard Jason Kidd who led the New Jersey Nets in rebounding for several years. Great rebounders must have a sense of timing and positioning. Great leaping ability is an important asset, but not absolutely necessary, players such as Larry Bird and Moses Malone were excellent rebounders, but were never known for their leaping ability. Bird has stated, Most rebounds are taken below the rim, the action can be called blocking out. A team can be boxed out by players using this technique to stop the other team from rebounding. Because fighting for a rebound can be physical, rebounding is often regarded as grunt work or a hustle play.
Overly aggressive boxing out or preventing being boxed out can lead to personal fouls, statistics of a players rebounds per game or rebounding average measure a players rebounding effectiveness by dividing the number of rebounds by the number of games played
Basketball
Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, passing, dunking, shot-blocking.
The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable.
Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, within the U. S. state of New York. Since 1914, the Bronx has had the boundaries as Bronx County, a county of New York. The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a section in the west, closer to Manhattan. East and west street addresses are divided by Jerome Avenue—the continuation of Manhattans Fifth Avenue, the West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County in 1914, about a quarter of the Bronxs area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the boroughs north and center. These open spaces are situated primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north. The name Bronx originated with Jonas Bronck, who established the first settlement in the area as part of the New Netherland colony in 1639, the native Lenape were displaced after 1643 by settlers.
This cultural mix has made the Bronx a wellspring of both Latin music and hip hop. The Bronx, particularly the South Bronx, saw a decline in population, livable housing, and the quality of life in the late 1960s. Since the communities have shown significant redevelopment starting in the late 1980s before picking up pace from the 1990s until today, the Bronx was called Rananchqua by the native Siwanoy band of Lenape, while other Native Americans knew the Bronx as Keskeskeck. It was divided by the Aquahung River, the origin of Jonas Bronck is contested. Some sources claim he was a Swedish born emigrant from Komstad, Norra Ljunga parish in Småland, who arrived in New Netherland during the spring of 1639. Bronck became the first recorded European settler in the now known as the Bronx and built a farm named Emmanus close to what today is the corner of Willis Avenue. He leased land from the Dutch West India Company on the neck of the mainland north of the Dutch settlement in Harlem. He eventually accumulated 500 acres between the Harlem River and the Aquahung, which known as Broncks River or the Bronx.
Dutch and English settlers referred to the area as Broncks Land, the American poet William Bronk was a descendant of Pieter Bronck, either Jonas Broncks son or his younger brother. More recent research indicates that Pieter was probably Jonas nephew or cousin, the Bronx is referred to with the definite article as The Bronx, both legally and colloquially. The region was named after the Bronx River and first appeared in the Annexed District of The Bronx created in 1874 out of part of Westchester County
