1.
Gary, Indiana
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Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States,25 miles from downtown Chicago, Illinois. The population of Gary was 80,294 at the 2010 census, from the middle of the twentieth century to the present, Gary has experienced drastic population loss, falling by 55 percent from its peak of 178,320 in 1960. Gary is adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and borders Lake Michigan, the city is known for its large steel mills, and for being the birthplace of The Jackson 5 music group. Gary, Indiana, was founded in 1906 by the United States Steel Corporation as the home for its new plant, the city was named after lawyer Elbert Henry Gary, who was the founding chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. Gary was the site of civil unrest in the Steel Strike of 1919, on October 4,1919, a riot broke out on Broadway, the main north-south street through downtown Gary, between striking steel workers and strike breakers brought in from outside. Three days later, Indiana governor James P. Goodrich declared martial law, shortly thereafter, over 4,000 federal troops under the command of Major General Leonard Wood arrived to restore order. The jobs offered by the industry provided Gary with very rapid growth. At that time,19. 3% of the population was classified as foreign-born, Gary was also becoming increasingly racially diverse, with 17. 8% of the population classified as black, and 3. 5% as Mexican. Garys fortunes have risen and fallen with those of the steel industry, the growth of the steel industry brought prosperity to the community. Broadway was known as a center for the region. Department stores and architecturally significant movie houses were built in the downtown area, in the 1960s, like many other American urban centers reliant on one particular industry, Gary entered a spiral of decline. Garys decline was brought on by the growing overseas competitiveness in the steel industry, the U. S. Steel Gary Works employed over 30,000 in 1970, declined to just 6,000 by 1990, and further declined to 5,100 in August of 2015. As the city declined, crime increased, rapid racial change occurred in Gary during the late 20th century. Non-whites were primarily restricted to live in the Midtown section just south of downtown, Gary had one of the nations first African-American mayors, Richard G. Hatcher, and hosted the ground-breaking 1972 National Black Political Convention. Since the 1930s, Gary had developed a reputation as a city due to rampant political corruption, racial violence & segregation, labor unrest. In the 1960s through the 1980s, surrounding localities such as Merrillville and Crown Point experienced rapid growth, including new homes. Owing to white flight, economic distress, and a perception of skyrocketing crime, many middle-class, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Gary had the highest percentage of African-Americans of U. S. cities with a population of 100,000 or more, 84%. This no longer applies to Gary since the population of the city has now fallen well below 100,000 residents, as of 2013, the Gary Department of Redevelopment has estimated that one-third of all homes in the city are unoccupied and/or abandoned
2.
Richmond, Virginia
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Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond Region and it was incorporated in 1742, and has been an independent city since 1871. As of the 2010 census, the population was 204,214, in 2015, the population was estimated to be 220,289, the Richmond Metropolitan Area has a population of 1,260,029, the third-most populous metro in the state. Richmond is located at the line of the James River,44 miles west of Williamsburg,66 miles east of Charlottesville. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, the city is located at the intersections of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64, Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west and Mechanicsville to the northeast. The site of Richmond had been an important village of the Powhatan Confederacy, and was settled by English colonists from Jamestown in 1609. The present city of Richmond was founded in 1737 and it became the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the American Civil War, Richmond served as the capital of the Confederate States of America, the city entered the 20th century with one of the worlds first successful electric streetcar systems. The Jackson Ward neighborhood is a hub of African-American commerce. Richmonds economy is driven by law, finance, and government, with federal, state. Dominion Resources and MeadWestvaco, Fortune 500 companies, are headquartered in the city, in 1737, planter William Byrd II commissioned Major William Mayo to lay out the original town grid. The settlement was laid out in April 1737, and was incorporated as a town in 1742, Richmond recovered quickly from the war, and by 1782 was once again a thriving city. A permanent home for the new government, the Virginia State Capitol building, was designed by Thomas Jefferson with the assistance of Charles-Louis Clérisseau, after the American Revolutionary War, Richmond emerged as an important industrial center. The legacy of the canal boatmen is represented by the figure in the center of the city flag, on April 17,1861, five days after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the legislature voted to secede from the United States and joined the Confederacy. Official action came in May, after the Confederacy promised to move its capital to Richmond. It became the target of Union armies, especially in the campaigns of 1862. The Seven Days Battles followed in late June and early July 1862, during which Union General McClellan threatened to take Richmond, three years later, as March 1865 ended, the Confederate capitol became indefensible. On March 25, Confederate General John B, gordons desperate attack on Fort Stedman east of Petersburg failed
3.
Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball
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The Illinois Fighting Illini mens basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at the State Farm Center, located on the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaigns campus in Champaign, the team is currently coached by Brad Underwood, hired on 18 March 2017. Through the end of the 2013–14 season, Illinois ranks 13th all-time in winning percentage, prior to World War II breaking out, the Fighting Illini mens basketball program had achieved a status which it had never seen prior. Under the direction of coach and athletic director Douglas R. Mills. Through his first five seasons as coach, Combes led the Fighting Illini to three NCAA Final Four appearances in 1949,1951, and 1952. During his tenure as coach, Combes increased the Fighting Illinis offensive output by changing their style of play, Combes implemented Full-court press defense, causing turnovers at a high rate which translated into Fast break points. During the 1957–58 season, Mannie Jackson and Govoner Vaughn were inserted into the lineup as the first two African-Americans to start and letter in basketball at Illinois. Combes also oversaw the Illinis move from Huff Hall to Assembly Hall in 1963, however, the Illini lost to eventual national champion Loyola in the Elite Eight of the 1963 NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Tournament. The following 1964–65 season, saw several upset victories over defending national champion UCLA Bruins and national powerhouse Kentucky Wildcats at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Henson would lead the Fighting Illini back to their glory after having a number of difficult years following the Illinois slush fund scandal. In 21 years at Illinois, Henson garnered 423 wins and 224 losses, the 214 wins in Big Ten games were the third highest total ever at the time of his retirement. At Illinois, Henson coached many future NBA players, including Eddie Johnson, Derek Harper, Ken Norman, Nick Anderson, Kendall Gill, Kenny Battle, Marcus Liberty, Steve Bardo, and Kiwane Garris. In 1981, Illinois made strides in its return to the spotlight with a 21–8 record, a third-place Big Ten finish. The team received a bye in the NCAA Tournament and beat Wyoming, 67–65, in Los Angeles to advance to the regionals in Salt Lake City. During this season, the Fighting Illini led the Big Ten in scoring for the consecutive season and were again led by Eddie Johnson. Guards Craig Tucker and Derek Harper arrived to add backcourt punch, the top-seeded and top-ranked 1989 Illini were upset 83–81 in the Final Four on a last second basket by Michigans Sean Higgins, ending the schools deepest run in the tournament at that time. Illinois had beaten the Wolverines by 12 and 16 points in two meetings that season. The 1988–89 Illinois Fighting Illini team gained the moniker Flyin Illini by Dick Vitale during an ESPN broadcast that season, the early 1990s Illini were dominated by players such as guards Andy Kauffman, Richard Keene, and Kiwane Garris, as well as centers Shelly Clark and Deon Thomas. Thomas was at the center of a report of misconduct by Iowa Hawkeyes mens basketball assistant coach Bruce Pearl, the Illini were suspended from postseason play for one season for unrelated violations uncovered during the investigation
4.
NC State Wolfpack men's basketball
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The NC State Wolfpack mens basketball team represents North Carolina State University in NCAA Division I mens basketball competition. The Wolfpack currently competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference, of which it was a founding member, prior to joining the ACC in 1954, the Wolfpack was a member of the Southern Conference, where they won seven conference championships. As a member of the ACC, the Wolfpack has won ten conference championships, States unexpected 1983 title was one of the most memorable in NCAA history. Since 1999, the Pack has played most of its games at PNC Arena. Prior to 1999, they played at Reynolds Coliseum, NC State began varsity intercollegiate competition in mens basketball in 1911. The teams all-time record is 1, 697–1,055, the program saw its greatest success during the head coaching tenures of Everett Case, Norm Sloan, and Jim Valvano. NC State has produced some of the ACCs best players, including Tom Burleson, Rodney Monroe, Monte Towe, David Thompson, who led the Wolfpack to its first NCAA title in 1974, has been recognized as one of college basketballs greatest players. The Wolfpack has won a total of 17 conference tournament championships and 13 regular season conference titles, State has appeared in the NCAA Tournament 26 times, with three Final Four appearances and two national titles. The Wolfpack also appeared in the Final Four of the 1947 National Invitational Tournament, in 1910 Guy Bryan formed a special committee that proposed to the university administration the organization of the schools first basketball team. The program played its first official basketball game on February 16,1911 against a much more experienced squad from Wake Forest. NC State, then known as the North Carolina A&M Farmers, lost, the two teams met again five days later in Raleigh, with A&M earning its first-ever victory, 19-18. The following year, the schools athletics council officially recognized basketball as a sport, before the 1920–21 season the university changed its name from North Carolina A&M to North Carolina State College. At that time the nickname was the Tech. That season the program joined the fledgling Southern Conference as a charter member, State College changed its nickname yet again in 1923, this time to the Red Terrors. The name was drawn from a combination of the play of Rochelle Red Johnson, also in 1923, State opened its first basketball facility, Frank Thompson Gym. The gym, named in honor of an athlete from the school who died in action during World War I. During the first years of the program, the team had no practice facility and was forced to practice on a field in nearby Pullen Park. Gus Tebell took over the team as head coach in 1924
5.
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
6.
Duke Blue Devils men's basketball
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The Duke Blue Devils mens basketball team is the college basketball program representing Duke University. The team is fourth all-time in wins of any NCAA mens basketball program, Duke has won 5 NCAA Championships and appeared in 11 Championship Games and 16 Final Fours, and has an NCAA-best.755 NCAA tournament winning percentage. Eleven Duke players have named the National Player of the Year. Additionally, Duke has 36 players named All-Americans and 14 Academic All-Americans, Duke has been the Atlantic Coast Conference Champions a record 20 times, and also lays claim to 19 ACC regular season titles. Prior to joining the ACC, Duke won the Southern Conference championships five times. Duke has also finished the season ranked No.1 in the AP poll seven times and is second, behind only UCLA, in total weeks ranked as the number one team in the nation by the AP with 121 weeks. Additionally, the Blue Devils have the second longest streak in the AP Top 25 in history with 200 consecutive appearances from 1996 to 2007, since that designation, Duke has won two additional national titles in 2010 and 2015. The January 30 issue of The Trinity Chronicle headlined the new sport on its front page, trinitys first game ended in a loss to Wake Forest, 24–10. The game was played in the Angier B, Duke Gymnasium, later known as The Ark. The Trinity team won its first title in 1920, the championship, by beating the North Carolina State College of Agriculture. Earlier in the season they had beaten the University of North Carolina 19–18 in the first match-up between the two schools, Trinity college then became Duke University. Billy Werber, Class of 1930, became Dukes first All-American in basketball, the Gothic-style West Campus opened that year, with a new gym, later to be named for Coach Card. The Indoor Stadium opened in 1940, initially it was referred to as an Addition to the gymnasium. Part of its cost was paid for with the proceeds from the Duke football teams appearance in the 1938 Rose Bowl, in 1972 it would be named for Eddie Cameron, head coach from 1929 to 1942. In 1952, Dick Groat became the first Duke player to be named National Player of the Year, Duke left the Southern Conference to become a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. The Duke team under Vic Bubas made its first appearance in the Final Four in 1963, the next year, Bubas team reached the national title game, losing to the Bruins of UCLA, who claimed 10 titles in the next 12 years. Bob Verga was Dukes star player in 1967, the basketball program won its 1000th game in 1974, making Duke only the eighth school in NCAA history to reach that figure. Gene Banks, Mike Gminski and Jim Spanarkel ran the floor, Mike Krzyzewski has been at Duke since 1980
7.
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
8.
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
9.
Atlantic Coast Conference
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The ACC sponsors competition in twenty-five sports with many of its member institutions athletic programs held in high regard nationally. ACC teams and athletes have claimed dozens of championships in multiple sports throughout the conferences history. Generally, the ACCs top athletes and teams in any sport in a given year are considered to be among the top collegiate competitors in the nation. Also, the conference enjoys extensive media coverage, the ACC was one of the six collegiate power conferences, which had automatic qualifying for their football champion into the Bowl Championship Series. With the advent of the College Football Playoff in 2014, the ACC is one of five conferences with a contractual tie-in to an access bowl, the additions in recent years extended the conferences footprint into the Northeast and Midwest. The most recent expansion in 2013 saw the additions of the University of Notre Dame, the University of Pittsburgh, in 2012, the University of Marylands Board of Regents voted to withdraw from the ACC to join the Big Ten Conference effective July 1,2014. On November 28,2012, the ACCs Council of Presidents voted unanimously to invite the University of Louisville as a full member, replacing Maryland effective July 1,2014. Seven universities in the South Atlantic States were charter members of the ACC, Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, previously members of the Southern Conference, they left partially due to that leagues ban on post-season football play. After drafting a set of bylaws for the creation of a new league, the bylaws were ratified on June 14,1953, and the ACC was created, becoming the second conference formed by schools collectively withdrawing from the SoCon, after the Southeastern Conference. On December 4,1953, officials convened in Greensboro, North Carolina, and admitted Virginia, in 1960, the ACC implemented a minimum SAT score for incoming student-athletes of 750, the first conference to do so. This minimum was raised to 800 in 1964, but was struck down by a federal court in 1972. In 1971, South Carolina left the ACC to become an independent, the ACC operated with seven members until the addition of Georgia Tech from the Metro Conference on April 3,1978. The total number of member schools reached nine with the addition of Florida State, also formerly from the Metro Conference, on July 1,1991. The expansion was controversial, as Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia filed lawsuits against the ACC, Miami, and Boston College for conspiring to weaken the Big East Conference. The ACC Hall of Champions opened on March 2,2011, next to the Greensboro Coliseum arena, on September 17,2011, Big East Conference members Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh both tendered formal written applications to the ACC to join its ranks. The two schools were accepted into the conference the day, once again expanding the conference footprint like previous expansions. Because the Big East intended to hold Pitt and Syracuse to the 27-month notice period required by league bylaws, however, on July 16,2012, the Big East and Syracuse came to an agreement that allowed Syracuse to leave the Big East on July 1,2013. Two days later, the Big East and Pittsburgh reached an identical agreement, on September 12,2012, Notre Dame agreed to join the ACC in all sports except football and hockey as the conferences first member in the Midwestern United States
