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The Invention of Basketball
Basketball was invented because college physical education directors from all over the United States were upset that few students took physical education classes in the winter -
Basketball
In 1891, Naismith built two peach baskets put them at the opposite ends of a long court and used a soccer ball as the forerunner of today's basketball. -
College Basketball began
College basketball was conceived at Springfield College by James Naismith in 1891. -
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College Basketball Began
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James Naismith
The administrators met at Springfield College in 1890 and asked Naismith, a Springfield physical education instructor, to invent a sport that would make winter classes as popular as baseball and football made summer and fall classes. -
Girls Basketball
Women's basketball began in the winter of 1892 at Smith College. Senda Berenson, an instructor at Smith, taught basketball to her students, hoping the activity would improve their physical health. -
Instant Success
By 1900, numerous Eastern colleges had men's basketball teams that were playing each other, and Naismith was coaching Kansas. Games had far fewer points than 21st century games, partly because teams had an unlimited amount of time to shoot. -
Rules For Girls
Rules for women's basketball are the same as the rules for men's basketball with the exception of one rule: the circumference of the women’s basketball is 1in. smaller than the circumference of the size of the men's basketball. -
Rules For Girls Basketball
Also, in American professional basketball, the women’s three point line is slightly closer to the basket than men’s. In college basketball in the US, the women also have a closer three point line, use a 30 second shot clock instead of a 35 second clock, and do not have a 10 second back court rule. -
Basketball joins the olympics
Basketball enough to become a demonstration sport at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis -
Basketball becomes a popular sport
Basketball boomed in popularity in the 1930s because of doubleheaders in New York City, the 1936 Olympics and the start of two national postseason tournaments -
First Game
In the first doubleheader at New York City's Madison Square Garden in 1934, New York University beat Notre Dame 25-18 and Westminster beat St. John's 37-33. -
Shot success
Luisetti, a Stanford University freshman, scored 70 points in two games in 1936. This led to Stanford playing games attended by more than 17,000 people at Madison Square Garden -
More Schools Starts Playing Basketball
In 1936, several college players were on the U.S. team that beat Canada 19-8 in the first Olympics gold-medal game. -
First Tournament
In 1938, the National Invitation Tournament became the first national tournament. -
Shots
Bill Mazer credits Hank Luisetti with changing college basketball's low-scoring nature. Luisetti invented the running one-hand jump shot, which replaced the standing two-hand set shot as the most common shot. -
NIT
Every NIT was at Madison Square Garden. In 1939, the National Collegiate Athletic Association started an eight-team tourney, opting to play at a different site each year. Oregon won the first tourney in Evanston, Ill. -
Growth of Sport
The NIT tourney was as prestigious as the NCAA tournament for decades because college basketball was so popular in New York, reported Mazer. -
New York
In 1950, the City College of New York became the only team to win both tourneys in the same year. -
NCAA Tournament
In the 1970s, the NCAA tourney became stronger when it allowed second-place teams to compete. The field expanded from 25 teams in 1974 to 32 in 1975, 48 in 1980 and 64 in 1985. This meant that only teams unranked in Top 25 polls played in the NIT. -
UCLA
The NIT was helped by the NCAA tourney inviting only conference champions. The NCAA tournament gained popularity as super teams like the UCLA team that won 10 titles in the 1960s and 1970s made college basketball more popular outside the East. -
Recent women's basketball
By the 1970s the sport had attracted the notice the International Olympic Committee, which added women's basketball as an official sport of the Olympic Games in 1976. -
Rules
1.The ball may be thrown in any direction with one or both hands.
2.The ball may be batted in any direction with one or both hands, but never with the fist.
3.A player cannot run with the ball. The player must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, allowance to be made for a man running at good speed.
4.The ball must be held by the hands. The arms or body must not be used for holding it.
5.No shouldering, holding, pushing, striking or tripping in any way of an opponent. The first infring -
Rules
6.A foul is striking at the ball with the fist, violations of Rules 3 and 4 and such as described in Rule 5.
7.If either side makes three consecutive fouls it shall count as a goal for the opponents (consecutive means without the opponents in the meantime making a foul).
8.A goal shall be made when the ball is thrown or batted from the grounds into the basket and stays there, providing those defending the goal do no touch or disturb the goal. If the ball rests on the edges, and the opponent move -
Conferences
Mid-American Conference
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Missouri Valley Conference
Mountain West Conference
Northeast Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
Pacific-12 Conference
Patriot League
Southeastern Conference
Southern Conference
Southland Conference
Southwestern Athletic Conference
Sun Belt Conference
The Summit League
West Coast Conference
Western Athletic Conference -
Conferences
America East Conference
Atlantic 10 Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Sun Conference
Big 12 Conference
Big East Conference
Big South Conference
Big Sky Conference
Big Ten Conference
Big West Conference
Colonial Athletic Association
Conference USA
Great West Conference
Horizon League
Ivy League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference -
Relationship to professional basketball
In past decades, the NBA held to tradition and drafted players who had graduated from college. This was a mutually beneficial relationship for the NBA and colleges—the colleges held onto players who would otherwise go professional, and the NBA did not have to fund a minor league. -
National Champions
Uconn -
National Champion
Kentucky -
Kanas
Best Team in College Basketball
