College Basketball Milestones

Basketball is a favorite pastime of kids and adults alike. American kids grow up with dreams of earning scholarships and reaching fame in the college league.

Basketball owes its origin to Dr. James Naismith, who invented the sport in 1892. Before long, the popularity of the game caught on and it was being played in American colleges. The first official game involving a college team was played between Geneva College and the New Brighton YMCA in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania on April 8, 1893. On February 9, 1895, the first intercollegiate game was played between the Minnesota State School of Agriculture and Hamline College. Minnesota won that game, 9 to 3.

The introduction of the five-player format was the next major college basketball milestone. This happened during an intercollegiate game in Iowa City on January 18, 1896. By the early 1900s, the basketball was being played in ninety colleges, mostly in the East and Midwest. This number continued to swell, and by 1914 as many as 360 colleges were playing college basketball.

In 1915, the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, the NCAA and the YMCA banded together to streamline the game. A committee was organized to frame rules and during this time, a number of regional conferences were formed.

The first NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship tournament was organized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and held in Evanston in 1939. A crowd of 5,500 cheering basketball fans watched the University of Oregon with the game. After this, the NCAA took over the national basketball championship tournament, and another college basketball milestone was realized.

In 1940, college basketball made it to the small screen. The first televised college game was played between Pittsburgh and Fordham at Madison Square Garden. This was the beginning of a national obsession with basketball and since then, the game has drawn huge crowds. The most-watched event in the United States is March Madness, when nearly 350 American colleges come together to compete for the NCAA basketball crown.

The NCAA tournament had relatively humble beginnings, with just eight teams competing against each other representing each of the eight NCAA districts. In 1951 the number of teams doubled to sixteen. In this format, ten conference champions qualified automatically, while the remaining six teams were chosen on the basis of their performance. In 1954, the number of teams went up to 24, and a 32-team bracket was adopted in 1975. Further increases saw the number of teams jump to 48 in 1980, and to 64 in 1985.

Over the years, college basketball has gone through remarkable changes. Many players have showcased their talents on campus courts and risen to become basketball superstars, and most NBA stars trace their origins to college basketball.

More than 120 years after it was first invented, the game of basketball is more popular than ever. Who knows what college basketball milestones lay ahead?

Daniel Thomas contributes to several online magazines, such as http://bivec.com and http://kesaw.com.

Commonly Asked Tennis Questions

With all the odd scoring and numerous rules surrounding tennis, it's no wonder that people sometimes confuse the rules. To that end, we've created this article to help you to know the answer to some of the most commonly asked questions regarding the game of tennis. All rules discussed in this article reflect the stance of the International Tennis Federation, a governing party of the sport.

Q: What happens when the ball bounces off of a line on the court?

A: When a ball bounces off of a line on the court, it is generally considered to be a bounce on the inside of the court that it is protecting. If your opponent hits a ball right around the outside line, and you cannot for sure determine that the ball is out, general rules stipulate that the opponent should be given the benefit of the doubt and they should receive the point.

Q: What happens if I hit a ball that hits the net post or another court entity and then bounces onto the opponents side of the court?

A: If you hit a ball off of either the net post, the scoring device, or any other outside entity besides the net before bouncing onto your opponent's side, you lose the point due to the fact that the ball hit a permanent fixture before landing on the opponent's side of the court.

Q: When should players change what side they are playing on?

A: Players should switch sides of the court after every six points and after a Tiebreak. During the tiebreak, the change must be made immediately with no opportunity for break or delay.

Q: What's a foot fault? How can one be called for a foot fault?

A: A foot fault occurs when a player's feet are at rest before hitting the ball, but they are moved before the shot so that a foot hits one of the following positions:

- the court, including the baseline
- any part of the imaginary extension of the outer mark
- anywhere beyond the imaginary extension found outside of the singles guideline or the doubles guideline, depending on the match type.

To avoid being called for a foot foul, you should ensure that your server is relaxed and stationary. This means that you should avoid any type of serve that involves more than one foot's movement to avoid being called for the foul.

Kadence Buchanan writes articles for http://thetennisstop.net/ - In addition, Kadence also writes articles for http://everythingaboutgames.net/ and http://erecreationstation.com/

Points To Consider

Internet Marketing

When you think about Marketing, what do you think of first? Which aspects of Marketing are important, which are essential, and which ones can you take or leave? You be the judge.

Millions of individuals are taking full advantage of the Internet these days. And they should considering how many great ways there are to earn extra cash. Some even make the decision to earn a living completely from home. Far too many folks are sick and tired of dealing with major companies and random lay-offs. You simply never know when it might be your turn to go. Therefore they begin making money online. Now, there are several ways one can go about this. Some people choose to start their very own Internet business, which can likely be ran from their home. While others dabble in adsense and make cash off of daily web traffic. Believe it or not, there is a great deal of money to be made this way.

It's crucial to consider what you need to avoid if your goal is making money online. Along with all the wonderful options at your fingertips, there are scams galore. I can't tell you how many scammers I've spotted online selling their hoopla. They pitch a great game about making money online. Virtually all of them will tell you how much can be made on the web if you do this and this, and then they proceed to pitch a product they're selling. Most likely it's a DVD or some sort of bogus software. This is where you have to stop and think for a moment. If they can really make so much cash doing what they're encouraging you to do, then why are they spending their time and effort pitching something to you? Wouldn't they be off making money online themselves? Instead they've chosen to sell a gimmicky product, which basically just amounts to some information. Obviously they weren't doing to well.

Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there's more to Marketing than you may have first thought.

When striving to earn cash via the web, avoid product pitches that guarantee riches. You can attain the crucial information you need for starting an online business, building websites and earning adsense revenue, or selling products via auctions, just by scouring the web. It's all free. Begin by contemplating how you want to start making money online and what aspect of web-business you'd excel at. The more time and effort you put into your online money-making, the more turn-over you'll surely see.

As your knowledge about Marketing continues to grow, you will begin to see how Marketing fits into the overall scheme of things. Knowing how something relates to the rest of the world is important too.

Warwick Motley is the webmaster of :-