basketball Page 453 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Recruiter In UCF Scandal Tries To Clear His Name With Bizarre YouTube Explanation
The University of Central Florida football and men's basketball teams were hit with one-year postseason bans Tuesday for allegations that both squads conducted under-the-table business, primarily with a man named Ken Caldwell, that basically amounted to shady recruiting tactics between a third par...

After The Expected Ass-Kicking, A Tunisian Player Had Kobe Bryant Autograph His Shoe
The U.S. overcame a slow start to thrash an unexpectedly tough-playing Tunisian team 110-63, which meant the usual courtesies extended to the losing side of handshakes, hugs, and the occasional picture. Tunisian forward Mohamed Hdidane—who surprised a lot of us with basketball we didn't expect fro...

The Tunisian Basketball Coach Slapped The Shit Out Of One Of His Players In The Huddle
As we told you earlier, the Tunisian men's basketball team were 54-point underdogs heading into their preliminary game against Team USA. The stress of facing such daunting odds may have gotten to Tunisia's coach (the bald man at the center of the video above), as he unleashed a vicious slap into t...

Frank Martin Is A Big Fan Of Pitbull And That Is Weird
South Carolina men's basketball coach Frank Martin is some kind of walking contradiction. On the one hand, he's got a haircut befitting a goon in the inevitable Dick Tracy reboot, and when he screams at his players he looks exactly like kind of guy who relished voting for Nixon....

Team USA Is A 54-Point Favorite Against Tunisia Tonight
Hot off the presses, from online sportsbook Bovada (formerly Bodog): the men's basketball team is favored by a whopping 54 points tonight. Poor Tunisia....

Australia Forced Overtime Against France With A 55-Foot Buzzer-Beater
Australia's Belinda Snell hit a buzzer-beater from beyond half court to force overtime today against France in early-round women's basketball action. The contested shot kept the Australians alive against world-beaters France, which defeated Brazil over the weekend....

U.S. Men's Basketball Players Get Hugs From Michelle Obama Despite Not Beating France By 75
Of course, much of this is self-inflicted with all the Dream Team comparisons but it is silly nonetheless. At no point during this "game" against France did anyone with a skull full of working parts think the outcome was in jeopardy. But if the U.S. doesn't look flawless while its opponent simulta...

Oh Look, Another Awesome Summer League Dunk
This one's from the South Carolina Pro-Am League, where last night UNC-Wilmington product Dominique Lacy just straight pushed some guy's shit in. Lacy last played with the unfortunately named Luxembourgian team BC Mess, so someone please give him a job in America. Is Slamball still around? [Slam]...

Neil Reed, Former Indiana Basketball Player Once Choked By Bob Knight, Has Died
That's according to the Santa Maria (Calif.) Times, which cited faculty members at Pioneer Valley High School, where Reed coached basketball and golf:...

Science! Says The 2008 Squad Was Actually The Best Olympic Basketball Team Of All Time
Paul Bessire, creator of the Predictalator, ran every men's hoops team from 1992 through 2012 through his machine, simulating each roster playing 50,000 games against every other edition. And to everyone's surprise, neither the '92 Dream Team nor the current squad in London came out on top. Winning ...

Why Would An Olympic Basketball Player Not Want To Lead His Team In Scoring? To Avoid Drug Testing.
Thanks to Grant Hill, another interesting piece of Olympic basketball lore has risen to the surface. Yesterday, Hill went on the Dan Patrick Show, and talked about how nobody on the 1996 Olympic basketball team wanted to be the team's leading scorer, because that person would automatically have to ...

This Photo Of Team USA Sleeping On An Airplane Is The Best Thing Today
Kevin Love surreptitiously snapped this and posted it to Instagram, as Team USA flew from Barcelona to London last night. From right to left, front to back, that's LeBron James, Chris Paul, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Deron Williams, Anthony Davis, and even Mike Kryzyzewski, back in business cl...

Kevin Durant, James Harden, And Deron Williams Are On A Segway Tour Across Europe
Durant posted this picture of himself and a couple USA basketball teammates on Segways this morning with the caption, "Barcelona." The 1992 Dream Team partied with the locals 'til all hours; the 2012 version of USA Basketball Instagrams photos of themselves on Segways, wearing helmets....

USA Vs. Spain: Let's Discuss
The US men's basketball team is set to tip off its exhibition match against Spain in just a few minutes. Earlier, we wrote about what this game could mean, and now we want to yak about it with you as it unfolds (4:30 ET, ESPN2 and WatchESPN). Please report to the discussion section below with all o...

Today's USA-Spain Basketball Game Could Mean Everything Or Nothing
The last time the United States and Spanish Olympic basketball teams met each other, they gave us one of the greatest basketball games that nobody watched. That was the 2008 gold medal game in Beijing, which the USA won 118-107 after being up by only four points with under three minutes to play. It...

Playing Basketball For Team USA Sure Seems Like Fun
From USA Today Sports, which has its own Pinterest board(!), comes this sunny photo gallery of Team USA basketball players practicing in Spain. We'll never know if this iteration of the Olympic team could have beaten the '92 Dream Team, but I think it's safe to say that the 2012 team has the edge i...

This Summer League Dunk Required Massive Balls
You may never hear the name Angelo Sharpless again, but for two seconds and an eternity on Youtube, he was The Man. He plays guard for DII Elizabeth City State University, and pulled off this massive throwdown at the Ben Wallace Pro-Am league in Richmond, Va. (Like all summer league dunk videos, i...

Ever Wondered Where Rebounds Are Rebounded?
Kirk Goldsberry is back with another graphical look at the unappreciated stats of basketball, and this is really, really fantastic. He's put together an interactive chart: hover your mouse from any spot on the court, and it'll show you where shots from that spot end up getting grabbed for rebounds....

Perry Jones III Can Jump 38.5 Inches, But Does It Matter?
Perry Jones' pre-draft measurements listed his maximum vertical jump at 38.5 inches, but according to the blog Hardwood Paroxysm, Jones only jumped that high twice in his entire college career. The observation inspired NPR's Mike Pesca to ask whether or not it even matters for a player of Jones' s...
