Sports 360: Basketball

By Kelly Kinas ‘16

You’ve heard of the 3 majors sports in the US: Football, baseball, and basketball. Other countries just make fun of us so much because our football isn’t the same as their football. But hey! We have other sports that we care about too! One sport that we all were forced to play in elementary school (and some of still enjoy watching) is basketball. Plus, with the Home USC vs. UCLA game coming up on February 4th at 7:30pm at the Galen Center, I thought i would be a necessary blog to go over the basics of basketball.

Now, I did play basketball in 8th grade. I was put in purely for defense because I get extremely competitive BUT I did make 10 points in one game. My name was said on the morning announcements the next day at school. Nobody else cared but it was quite an accomplishment for me. This is whole story is leading me to say that you can trust me and my knowledge of basic basketball. To add on to that trust, I also thought Like Mike was one of the best movies of 2002 and of Lil’ Bow Wow’s career.

Anyway…. BASKETBALL! LET’S LEARN!

QUICK FACTS ABOUT PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL (That you can say and make you sound like you know what you’re talking about)

• The NBA stand for the National Basketball Association (we’re starting easy)
  
• For other nations, they have different associations but we will focus on the USA (and one Canadian team)
  
• There are 30 teams in the NBA (and yes, you haven’t heard of most of them)
  
• It was founded in 1946 in New York, New York
  
• The Golden State Warriors won the Championship last year (in 2015) but the Boston Celtics have won the most overall (17!!!!)
  

AND NOW FOR QUICK FACTS WITH KELLY FOR COLLEGE BASKETBALL

• The governing body of college basketball (like all college sports) is the NCAA, National Collegiate Athletics Association.
  
• There are 3 divisions in the NCAA (Division I, Division II, and Division III) and Division I is the highest classification.
  
• The Division I playoffs is the biggest money maker for the NCAA (in any sport) and it’s March Madness (if you haven’t at least heard of that, I can’t help you).
  
• There are 347 Division I basketball teams and only 68 compete in March Madness (USC has a decent shot this year !!)
  
• Duke won the NCAA tournament last year (2015) but UCLA has the most championship wins (11)(I hate them too but that’s impressive)
  

FUN FACTS ABOUT USC BASKETBALL (This will be a short section….)

• USC made it to the Final Four twice (in 1940 and 1954)(we’re in a bit of a dry spell)
  
• We’ve appeared in the Championship Tournament (March Madness) 6 times since 2000 (the latest in 2011)
  
• We haven’t been the PAC-12 champions since 1985 and haven’t won the PAC-12 tournament since 2009 (the only time we have ever done that)
  
• BUT USC is doing is better than usual this year (we were ranked in the top 25 in the country earlier this season) hence why I’m writing the blog to get people out to this game (2/4 at 7pm at the Galen Center)
  

POSITIONS IN BASKETBALL (There 5 players on the court from each time at a time) AS THEY RELATE TO THE MEN OF HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL:

1. Point guard- super fast, organizes team’s offense, play maker (think Troy Bolton in High School Musical)
   
2. Shooting guard- Shoots the most and guards the guy who shoots the most on the other team (Chad from HSM)
   
3. Small forward- likes to cut to basket (pretend to shoot and then run closer to the basket and then shoot), tries to get rebounds and steals on defense. (They only gave us 4 named basketball players in HSM. I’m all out of guys).
   
4. Power forward- plays on offensive with their back to the basket (Jason from HSM because let’s be real, we never really see him play)
   
5. Center- Super tall guy, uses said height to make baskets on offense and to stop baskets on defense (Probably Zeke in HSM)
   

LET’S TALK ABOUT FOULS, CALLS, AND THE PEOPLE FANS GET MAD AT THE MOST (REFEREES)

• Traveling- You have to dribble the ball while you’re walking/running
  
• In response: the ball gets given to the other team
  
• Personal foul- you’re touching the other team too much (mostly called on the defense)
  
• In response: lose possession or free throws
  
• Flagrant foul- you really just forgot the rules (i.e. Unsportsmanlike foul, etc)
  
• In response: you can get ejected (IT IS UNNECESSARY AND EXCESSIVE, FOOL)
  
• Referees get a lot of heat in a game, especially from impassioned college sport fans (HE’S BLIND! HE’S DEAF! HE MUST BE A REF!)(Which is both rude and ableist #doublewhammy)
  
• You shouldn’t really blame the referees, they are trying the best they can.
  
• Unfortunately, they can’t see everything but they’re usually pretty good or else they would not be there.
  

Have you learned something? I hope so! Like I said this is very basic but let me end with the Wikipedia definition of basketball, because, as every college student knowns, Wikipedia knows all:

“Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.048 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end.”

Fight on!

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