Describes the history, key people, teams, important games, and mascots of the Atlantic Coast Conference of NCAA basketball.

The ACC plays a dynamic, high-scoring, hard-hitting style of football. This book captures that raw excitement and energy as it presents the conference's history, players, game highlights, rivalries, and statistics. In the rich tradition of sports journalism, this book is written with a reverence for the history, an enthusiasm for statistics, and a “you are there” style of reporting. The book's look and feel is as kinetic and active as the action it describes, and professional-quality photographs and archival images capture the dynamism of the game.

Since the inception of the Atlantic Coast Conference, intense rivalries, legendary coaches, gifted players, and fervent fans have come to define the league's basketball history. In ACC Basketball, J. Samuel Walker traces the traditions and the dramatic changes that occurred both on and off the court during the conference's rise to a preeminent position in college basketball between 1953 and 1972. Walker vividly re-creates the action of nail-biting games and the tensions of bitter recruiting battles without losing sight of the central off-court questions the league wrestled with during these two decades. As basketball became the ACC's foremost attraction, conference administrators sought to field winning teams while improving academic programs and preserving academic integrity. The ACC also adapted gradually to changes in the postwar South, including, most prominently, the struggle for racial justice during the 1960s. ACC Basketball is a lively, entertaining account of coaches' flair (and antics), players' artistry, a major point-shaving scandal, and the gradually more evenly matched struggle for dominance in one of college basketball's strongest conferences.

NCAA men’s basketball is always a hot sport because of the talented young players and exciting action on the court. However, history and tradition also play huge roles in the sport’s popularity. Basketball in the Big East Conference takes a closer look at the great teams, players, and coaches in the powerhouse Big East conference, as well as the heated rivalries and longstanding traditions that make the Big East conference among the best in college hoops.

"Historians, sports scholars, and students will refer to Benching Jim Crow for many years to come as the standard source on the integration of intercollegiate sport."ùMark S. Dyreson, author of Making the American Team: Sport, Culture, and the Olympic Experience --

In 1953, seven universities seceded from the NCAA's Southern Conference to form the Atlantic Coast Conference. Founding members Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and Wake Forest were soon joined by Virginia. Inspired by national academic and gambling scandals, and a bowl game crisis in 1951, the ACC's leaders hoped to reduce the commercialism and professionalism that permeated college athletics in the 1950s. This first ever full-length history examines founding of the ACC, the star athletes and coaches and football and basketball season highlights, along with the negotiations that led to the creation one of America's most successful athletic conferences.

Meet the coaches, athletes, and notable characters that laid the foundation for today's Gamecock Nation. The summer of 1971 was especially hot in Columbia and not just because of the weather. It was that year that a long-simmering conflict between the University of South Carolina and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) reached the point of boiling over. Frustrations over the ACC's recruiting and admission standards, and growing pressure from influential athletics director and head football coach Paul Dietzel, led the board of trustees to cast a vote in favor of leaving the conference that USC had helped to found eighteen years earlier. This vote would mark the beginning of a new independent era of Gamecock athletics, but few at the time could have imagined the resulting twenty-year odyssey. In A Gamecock Odyssey: University of South Carolina Sports in the Independent Era, Alan Piercy chronicles the significant events and describes the larger-than-life characters of the years following the university's departure from the ACC. The University of South Carolina experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows in its athletics history. Tales of interpersonal clashes between football head coach Paul Dietzel and men's basketball head coach Frank McGuire; the rise and fall of women's basketball coach Pam Parsons; George Rogers and his magical Heisman Trophy–winning season; the birth of USC's beloved mascot, Cocky; and other USC sports stories converge, stirring feelings of amusement, nostalgia, and pride. With colorful storytelling and Gamecock pride, Piercy gives college sports fans a behind-the-scenes tour of these raucous decades. He explains how South Carolina's independent era tells the broader story of NCAA sports conference realignment, Title IX, the impact of the civil rights movement on college athletics, the evolution of college sports media coverage, and the development of college sports into a multi-billion-dollar business sustained by TV broadcast and licensing rights. A Gamecock Odyssey captures the spirit of the time and shows the reader how those years influenced today's Gamecock culture and national obsession with college athletics.

Duke Blue Devils basketball tradition is filled with winning statistics. They have advanced to the Final Four 15 times and have won the ACC championship 19 times, among other titles and accolades. This action-packed volume digs deep into the history of Blue Devils basketball, with key information on some of the most important players and coaches who brought victory to the team. It includes some rare historical images of actual games, as well as a timeline for quick reference.

Basketball is now the second most popular sport world-wide trailing only futbol (soccer) in the number of participants, fans, and leagues. Its popularity is due to the fact that the game of basketball requires the most number of physical skills making basketball players the most complete athletes. The speed, grace and teamwork required to play the game combined with the athleticism required makes it beautiful to watch and fun to play. The United States has always been and always will be the greatest basketball nation. Although the rest of the world has been catching up with us (note the increasing number of international players in the NBA from all parts of the world) we invented it (thank you Dr. Naismith); we perfected it (thank you Coach Wooden, Bill Russell, Larry, Magic, Michael, Lebron, etc.); and we still have the highest concentration of excellence at all levels - high school, college and professional. Indiana has long been known to be basketball crazy. The image of a basketball goal on every garage, barn or any other place you can put one (including the governor’s residence) is based, as most legends are, on a ring of truth. Indiana has always been basketball crazy. Decades before “March Madness” became a national trademark, Hoosier Hysteria rippled through the entire state at tourney time. Other states can claim they are the “best” basketball state. Certainly North Carolina does and cases can be made for Kentucky, New York and California. This study provides overwhelming statistical evidence and so much anecdotal support that it is undeniable that Indiana IS the center of the basketball world.

From its beginnings at the turn of the 20th century to its pervasive presence in 21st-century America, basketball has grown into an undeniably important sport. The 575 entries in this biographical dictionary present concise narratives on the lives and careers on the most important names in basketball history. Entries include both classic players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bob Cousy as well as more recently established and up-and-coming stars such as Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James. Entries for coaches such as the Boston Celtics' Red Auerbach and Mike Krzyzewski from Duke University present the figures who have shaped the game from courtside, while the inclusion of female players and coaches such as Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, and Pat Summitt show that basketball is not just a sport for men. From its beginnings at the turn of the 20th century to its pervasive presence in 21st-century America, basketball has grown into an undeniably important sport. The 575 entries in this biographical dictionary present concise narratives on the lives and careers on the most important names in basketball history. Entries include both classic players such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bob Cousy as well as more recently established and up-and-coming stars such as Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James. Entries for coaches such as the Boston Celtics' Red Auerbach and Mike Krzyzewski from Duke University present the figures who have shaped the game from courtside, while the inclusion of female players and coaches such as Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, and Pat Summitt show that basketball is not just a sport for men. This volume is an ideal reference for students seeking easily accessed information on the greats of the game.