10 Interesting Facts About College Basketball
Basketball is not an easy sport — it takes endurance , team spirit and great skills to outscore opponents and win the game . There ’ s more to basketball than just a court , a ball and a referee . Here are some interesting facts you probably don ’ t know about the sport of basketball .
1 . James Naismith invented basketball
Asked in 1891 to invent an indoor winter activity by his boss at a YMCA in Springfield , Massachusetts , James Naismith is credited as the founder of basketball . Naismith , a physical education teacher , also wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program .
2 . Basketball was played with a different ball As bizarre as it sounds , basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and peach baskets , with referees having to retrieve the ball each time a player made a basket . In 1900 , the string baskets we know today were introduced to the game and , later , backboards were attached to prevent spectators from blocking a shot .
3 . Dribbling wasn ’ t allowed
Players never could advance the ball . Instead , each player had to throw it from wherever he caught it . The first team credited with advancing the ball by dribbling it played at Yale in 1897 , and the official allowance for the dribble , just one per possession at first , were adopted four years later .
Another important basketball move , the slam dunk , was banned just before the 1967-1968 season until the 1976-1977 season .
4 . More players per side The number of players per side was never specified . Naismith invented an indoor winter activity and wanted a game flexible enough to include whoever wanted to play . For a while , the total number of players was a default 18 , nine per side , the same number that showed up for the very first game .
5 . Fouls played
Shouldering , holding , pushing , tripping or otherwise striking an opponent was never allowed . However , such offenses were never considered fouls until 1910 , with the advent of a rule disqualifying a player for committing four of
them . That total was raised to five in 1946 , in the inaugural rules of the Basketball Association of America ( the original name of the National Basketball Association ), and to six the next year .
6 . Referees used watches
That is because one of the official duties of early refs was timekeeping . Then again , there wasn ’ t that much time to keep : the 24-second shot clock wasn ’ t instituted until 1954 , to combat stalling tactics NBA teams had begun to employ .
7 . The game was much shorter Naismith proposed two 15-minute halves , with five minutes of rest in between .
8 . The 1979 NCAA tournament was the start of basketball greats
College basketball remains one of the most popular sports , but spectators remember the Michigan State versus Indiana State college basketball game of 1979 during the NCAA tournament , which is one of the best-rated games in the sport ’ s history . As a matchup between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird , who had never played each other prior to this tournament , this game marked the beginning of having basketball greats and NBA stars .
9 . Possession rules changed in 1913
The game as we know it gives possession of an out-ofbounds ball to the player who last had contact with it , but that wasn ’ t always the case . Prior to 1913 , a referee would pick up and throw an out-of-bounds ball down the court , and the first player to touch it retained possession . The rules eventually changed because of the increase in the number of player injuries .
10 . Michael Jordan paid fines for wearing his shoes
You probably connect Michael Jordan with his legendary Air Jordans , a now-iconic shoe because of its record sales numbers . What you may not know is that these shoes used to be against NBA dress code . Michael Jordan paid an NBA fine each time he wore them rather than play the game without them . Eventually , the NBA allowed the shoes on the court .
94 - 2022-2023 College Basketball Season Preview