Basketball is a favorite pastime of kids and adults alike. American kids grow up with dreams of earning scholarships and reaching fame in the college league.
Basketball owes its origin to Dr. James Naismith, who invented the sport in 1892. Before long, the popularity of the game caught on and it was being played in American colleges. The first official game involving a college team was played between Geneva College and the New Brighton YMCA in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania on April 8, 1893. On February 9, 1895, the first intercollegiate game was played between the Minnesota State School of Agriculture and Hamline College. Minnesota won that game, 9 to 3.
The introduction of the five-player format was the next major college basketball milestone. This happened during an intercollegiate game in Iowa City on January 18, 1896. By the early 1900s, the basketball was being played in ninety colleges, mostly in the East and Midwest. This number continued to swell, and by 1914 as many as 360 colleges were playing college basketball.
In 1915, the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States, the NCAA and the YMCA banded together to streamline the game. A committee was...