UA19/2 Hoop Happenings on the Hill, Vol. I, Issue III

Newsletter published by the WKU Basketball office to promote the team and game attendance

Assessing and working to overcome perceived barriers to women’s participation in basketball in Lincolnshire

Basketball is sport where the prevalence of patriarchal power relations gives men more opportunities to participate and to monopolise positions of power(Hargreaves, 1992: Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sports. London: Routledge.). In the UK, women’s participation in basketball in 2008 was only one third of the rate seen among men (Sport England: Active People Survey, 2008). This suggests a gender divide in accessibility to basketball. Moreover, there is a lack of sociological understanding of the needs and perceived barriers among women who wish to participate. Inclusive policies are needed to reduce ethnic, cultural, religious, political and economic barriers among women. This will help to meet the legacy aims of London 2012 (The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd, 2008: Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. LOCOG: London.). The principal aim of the present study is to assess women’s perceptions of the sociological barriers to participation in basketball, with a view to developing further competitive and recreational opportunities in a city in the East of England. In the study location there are few opportunities for community-dwelling women to participate in basketball. The only club offering competitive basketball is 33 miles away, creating large restrictions to those with small income and travel restrictions. The project will seek to i. assess perceived barriers to participation current female basketball participants in the area, and then ii. to set up the first all female Basketball team in the study location by offering a free taster session, followed by a series of training sessions. Quantitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, will be conducted to assess their pre-conceptions about accessibility, opportunities and negative experiences within basketball. These data will inform subsequent actions and deliver basketball sessions. Critical success factors include attendance rates and participant satisfaction. Researchers will work alongside the coaches delivering the sessions, the participants, the Lincolnshire Basketball Association and the Basketball Development Officer to create better access and local opportunities

NBA 2K

The NBA 2K games have come a long way from an emerging basketball game to now becoming the biggest basketball game ever created. From its graphics, gameplay, community, and many more reasons why the game became so successful today, NBA 2K has evolved into the best basketball game by improving its overall structure every year-round

Gender Differences in Competitive Balance in Intercollegiate Basketball

This paper adds to the literature on competitive balance in college sports by comparing men's and women's NCAA basketball. Using data from the Division I National Championships, we find evidence consistent with the idea that women’s college basketball is less competitively balanced than men’s college basketball. We argue that this difference may be explained by a theory of player ability borrowed from evolutionary biology first promulgated by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and subsequently utilized in Berri (2004). An implication of this idea is that competitive balance in women’s NCCA basketball will naturally improve over time. This is good news for those who are concerned with the long term success of the sport to the extent that competitive balance in women’s college basketball impacts fan demand. Nevertheless, we discuss why there may be reason to believe that women’s college basketball may not reach the same level of balance as men’s college basketball.College sports, competitive balance, women’s sports, basketball

Walking Basketball Program: : Evaluation Report for Basketball Victoria

Modified sport programs were initially developed for young children and were aimed at providing an opportunity to participate in a modified version of the adult-based sport. This involved modifying the sport to suit young participants and included changing the equipment, rules and/or physical space, in an effort to make sport more accessible and enjoyable for young children. In the past seven years, this concept has been further developed to cater for adults and older adults, by accommodating those with reduced physical capabilities, such as injury rehabilitation, or for those seeking to re-engage with sport. The most popular iteration has been walking sports. Walking football (soccer) was first developed in the U.K. in 2011, before rugby, netball and basketball organisations similarly modified their rules and game structure, to make sport more accessible for those who do not engage with sport in its traditional format. In most of these walking sport programs, the participants tend to be older adults. The aim of this report was to, firstly, understand current older adult participation trends in basketball, using the Sport and Recreation Spatial project data. The second component of this report was to evaluate Basketball Victoria’s walking basketball program, by evaluating two current programs in the Melbourne metropolitan area. The evaluation involved interviewing the program facilitators and conducting focus groups with the program participants

1980 Program

1980 Men\u27s Basketball Programs, George Fox College

2005 Program

2005 Women\u27s Basketball Program, George Fox Universit