Talk:College basketball
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
College basketball is part of WikiProject College Basketball, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to college basketball on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. |
| Start | This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.) |
| Top | This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale. |
Contents |
[edit] The color barrier and college basketball
Although more attention today is paid to Texas Western's 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship (thanks in part to the recent Disney movie "Glory Road"), it was the Loyola University-Chicago team's of the early 1960's that were actually responsible for breaking every color barrier that still remained in men's college basketball. This included breaking the longstanding gentleman's agreement by fielding four black starters for parts of the 1961-62, and the entire 1962-63 season, as well as being the first team in NCAA Division I history to place an all-black lineup on the court (Dec. 1962 vs. Wyoming). [1]
Coach George Ireland's 1963 NCAA Championship with Loyola, three years prior to Texas Western's, was for decades considered to be the pioneering achievement for racial equality in college basketball. Loyola's use of four black starters, and five black players for much of the game, to defeat two-time defending NCAA champ Cincinnati left no color barrier intact in men's college basketball, and was then considered to be the final and ultimate blow to racial inequality in college basketball.
In fact, the lack of historical significance given at the time to Texas Western's 1966 championship is well evidenced by these quotes, featured in Sports Illustrated following Texas Western's victory 1966, and the Lexington Herald Leader in 1991:
"The wrap-up of the championship weekend didn't even hint at any of this. It didn't even mention the fact that Texas Western was all-black." (Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated, "Go-Go With Bobby Joe,", March 28, 1966)
"I don't know, I was always surprised at the significance placed on that (1966 NCAA Championship) game," [Frank] Deford said. "The Loyola-Chicago team that won it a few years before was virtually all-black. That had been the big fuss. Not much was made of Texas Western being all-black at the time. It was sort of a discovery by the outside world that came a little bit late, as is often the case." - John Clay, Lexington Herald Leader, "The Runts: Still Special After All These Years," February 9, 1991.
How about talking about the integrated CCNY teams of the late 40's and early 50's? How can U.S.F. be ignored, winning two championships in the 50's with blacks leading the way. The integration of college basketball did not have a seminal event as did baseball. There was no first day, with Jackie Robinson going out to 2nd base. There was no Supreme Court decision, and no congressional legislation. It was a process, slow, bit by bit. Too mmuch emphasis on 1963 Loyola in this article. Mwinog2777
I agree that those teams were also important, and should also be mentioned. Perhaps you can add to the article? However, I disagree that there is too much of an emphasis on the Loyola teams, considering what they accomplished and the barriers they broke. CollegeSportsGuy 08:48, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/rupp.html
More information, including a complete game-by-game schedule with stats and audio from the historic 1962-63 championship season, can be found here: [2]
[edit] Incorrect statistic reverted
Quote:
- Only ten schools have reached the last eight Men's NCAA Division I Tournaments.
I have removed that statement because that is simply not correct as it stands. The official NCAA data indicates that 65 teams competes for a spot in the tournament, and of that 65, only 64 are actually seeded. Please provide evidence to the contrary that is well-sourced. Alternatively, if that was a less than optimally worded statement meant to mean something else, please modify it until it says exactly what was intended. Thanks! Dsf 01:59, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
- Umm, I don't think you're reading that statistic correctly. It's saying that those teams have made the last eight consecutive (i.e. ALL of the last eight!) NCAA tourneys. And it's actually correct. It says the same thing right here in my NCAA Tournament Men's Final Four book. So now that we've cleared that up, I'll go ahead and revert this accurate statistic. - CollegeSportsGuy 19:42, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
[edit] MVC A Major Conference?
Is the MVC really a major conference? Sure they have had a couple good seasons but they hardly constitute for a major conference. Perhaps a good mid-major.
It does appear that the editor of this page is extremely biased towards the MVC. They are clearly a mid-major, not a major, yet anytime someone fixes the page it gets thrown out and declared "vandalism." What's really funny is one of the citations is a link to the current top 25 of which no MVC team is member as of 1/5/2007. My guess is there is a dedicated group of kids at some MVC school who have mede it their objective to glorify the MVC. For an unbiased take on this issue, look here: mid-major.
Obviously it is someone from Illinois State, they have the main picture as well. Truly biased article.
[edit] Proportion
How is African Americans in College Basketball a larger section than History? I wish I knew enough about the topic to do something about this, but someone needs to. --Djrobgordon 06:39, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Undue Weight
The article currently seems to lead very heavily towards NCAA Division I. I think a more neutral tone would discuss all divisions and associations with equal weight. Perhaps someone could propose a lead that gives equal weight and then subsections could be developed to discuss the different associations (NCAA, NAIA, etc) and divisions (I, II, III). Absolon S. Kent (talk) 16:40, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Historical aspects
This article seems to fall short on historical aspects. Intercollegiate basketball was played well before 1939. Just throwing it out there as a suggestion for those that might be interested in contributing.CrazyPaco (talk) 01:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
