Thesis advisor: Ana M. Martínez Alemán / Through a qualitative case study of Butler University, this study seeks to understand how high-profile athletic success—in this instance, a Cinderella run in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament—can be leveraged to develop other institutional functions and elevate the profile of the university as a whole. The story of Butler’s investment in men’s basketball, culminating in two successive trips to the Final Four in 2010 and 2011, spans nearly three decades and offers an extreme yet instructive case of the potential synergy between a serious academic institution and a big-time college sports program. Through interviews with faculty and administrators, document analysis, and field observations on Butler’s campus, a picture emerges of the Cinderella story as a university resource that can be developed and managed through the decision-making of administrators in a variety of offices, including admissions, advancement, athletics, and marketing and communications. At Butler, the narrative begins in 1989 with the intentional decision to build men’s basketball into a flagship program for the institution, peaks with the twin Final Four appearances, and then consists of efforts to leverage this success as part of the university’s pursuit of a national profile after a long history as a regional institution. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

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This project examines imagery use and its effect on basketball free throw shooting. It analyzes the literature on imagery and free throw shooting, in order to understand the actual effects that imagery has when used with free throwing shooting.

The objectives of this study was to obtain data on five aspects of officials qualification practices presently used in Utah and to make some justifiable conclusion. 1. Qualification Data requested. a. Physical Qualification b. Mental Qualification c. Previous Experience as an Official and Player d. Other Related Athletic Experience e. Basketball Officiating and some existing Problems The survey compiled was sent to all head coaches of class "A" high schools, in Utah, which included 40 coaches in all, and to 60 class "A" high school officials of Regions 1, 2, and 4. The officials were chosen at random from the Utah High School Activities Association certified officiating bulletin issued yearly. From the Analysis of the Data the following conclusions were made: (a) Coaches and officials need to recognize what qualifications are presently used and what has to be done to improve these practices. (b) Physical qualifications as a requirement is only an assumption, not a must. (c) The knowledge that one must receive to make him mentally alert appears to be strong in some areas of the state, while in others it only involves reading the rule book and passing the written test. (d) All the athletic experience that one obtains prior to becoming an official, does have the sanction of all offiicials and coaches , for without it a person who wants to become an official can only hope for limited work, or assignments. (e) Any athletic sports activity that a person is associated with has many carryover advantages in the overall performance of an official. (f) Officiating problems as expressed by the data received are extensive . A few examples of the problems are listed below: 1. Crowd reaction 2. Coach reaction 3. Judgment and consistency , etc

Dynamical systems theory represents a prominent theoretical framework for the investigation of movement coordination and control in complex neurobiological systems. Central to this theory is the investigation of pattern formation in biological movement through application of tools from nonlinear dynamics. Movement patterns are regarded as attractors and changes in movement coordination can be described as phase transitions. Phase transitions typically exhibit certain key indicators like critical fluctuations, critical slowing down and hysteresis, which enable the formulation of hypotheses and experimental testing. An extensive body of literature exists which tested these characteristics and robustly supports the tenets of dynamical systems theory in the movement sciences. However, the majority of studies have tended to use a limited range of movement models for experimentation, mainly bimanual rhythmical movements, and at present it is not clear to what extent the results can be transferred to other domains such as discrete movements and/or multi-articular actions. The present work investigated coordination and control of discrete, multi-articular actions as exemplified by a movement model from the sports domain: the basketball hook shot. Accordingly, the aims of the research programme were three-fold. First, identification of an appropriate movement model. Second, development of an analytical apparatus to enable the application of dynamical systems theory to new movement models. Third, to relate key principles of dynamical systems theory to investigations of this new movement model. A summary of four related studies that were undertaken is as follows: 1. Based on a biomechanical analysis, the kinematics of the basketball hook shot in four participants of different skill levels were investigated. Participants were asked to throw from different shooting distances, which were varied in a systematic manner between 2m and 9m in two different conditions (with and without a defender present). There was a common significant trend for increasing throwing velocity paired with increasing wrist trajectory radii as shooting distance increased. Continuous angle kinematics showed high levels of inter- and intra-individual variability particularly related to throwing distance. Comparison of the kinematics when throwing with and without a defender present indicated differences for a novice performer, but not for more skilled individuals. In summary, the basketball hook shot is a suitable movement model for investigating the application of dynamical systems theory to a discrete, multi-articular movement model where throwing distance resembles a candidate control parameter. 2. Experimentation under the dynamical systems theoretical paradigm usually entails the systematic variation of a candidate control parameter in a scaling procedure. However there is no consensus regarding a suitable analysis procedure for discrete, multiarticular actions. Extending upon previous approaches, a cluster analysis method was developed which made the systematic identification of different movement patterns possible. The validity of the analysis method was demonstrated using distinct movement models: 1) bimanual, wrist movement, 2) three different basketball shots, 3) a basketball hook shot scaling experiment. In study 1, the results obtained from the cluster analysis approach matched results obtained by a traditional analysis using discrete relative phase. In study 2, the results from the method matched the a-priori known distinction into three different basketball techniques. Study 3 was designed specifically to facilitate a bimodal throwing pattern due to laboratory restrictions in throwing height. The cluster analysis again was able to identify the a-priori known distribution. Additionally, a hysteresis effect for throwing distance was identified further strengthening the validity of the chosen movement model. 3. Using eight participants, hook shot throwing distance was varied between 2m and 9m in both directions. Some distinct inter-individual differences were found in regards to movement patterning. For two subjects clear transitions between qualitatively distinct different patterns could be established. However, no qualitative differences were apparent for the remaining participants where it was suggested that a single movement pattern was continually scaled according to the throwing distance. The data supported the concept of degeneracy in that once additional movement degrees of freedom are made available these can be exploited by actors. The underlying attractor dynamics for the basketball hook shot were quite distinct from the bistable regime typically observed in rhythmical bimanual movement models. 4. To provide further evidence in support of the view that observed changes in movement patterning during a hook shot represented a phase transition, a perturbation experiment with five participants was performed. Throwing distance was once again varied in a scaling manner between 2m and 9m. The participants wore a wristband which could be attached to a weight which served as a mechanical perturbation to the throwing movement. Investigation of relaxation time-scales did not provide any evidence for critical slowing down. The movements showed high variation between all subsequent trials and no systematic variation in relation to either the mechanical perturbation or the successive jumps in throwing distance was indicated by the data. In summary, the results of the research programme highlighted some important differences between discrete multi-articular and bimanual rhythmical movement models. Based on these differences many of the findings ubiquitous in the domain of rhythmical movements may be specific to these and accordingly may not be readily generalized to movement models from other domains. This highlights the need for more research focussing on various movement models in order to broaden the scope of the dynamical systems framework and enhance further insight into movement coordination and control in complex neurobiological systems.

<p>The purpose of the study was to investigate what factors affect the young athletes in the transition from junior to senior sport. The study’s secondary purpose was to find out what the athletes do to cope with the transitions and the final purpose was to revile what indicates the end of the transition to the athletes. The interview guide had three parts with questions about background information, personal experience related to the transition from junior to senior sport and finally the transition’s effect on the athlete’s career, life outside sport and lessons drawn from the experience. The study consisted of nine interviews, with four male and five female athletes. The data was analysed by using sentence categorisation. Quotations were used to underline the results. The results were divided into several categories, namely: demands, resources, barriers, coping, indicators and long-term effects. The results implicate that the participants felt that it was a big step to take that involved changes in demands both in the sport and in the life outside sport. The participants also felt that social demands, demands on the self, school and planning caused the biggest barriers during the transition. The results also imply that the resource most commonly mentioned by the participants were social factors (such as team cohesion) followed by individual factors. The coping strategies mainly involved mental strategies while the long-term effects show effects of evolving mental skills. Finally the indicators most commonly mentioned were objective and involved an increase in responsibility and better statistics. It is discussed in which way the results of this study can be further strengthened by the results of earlier studies and theories.</p>

The research examines and explores the differences and similarities between how the social media platform of Facebook is used in the context of the basketball industry. The research centers on the respective Finnish and Swedish basketball leagues. More precisely, the study scrutinizes nine basketball teams social media representatives – four Finnish and five Swedish – perceptions on how their respective sport clubs act on the medium of Facebook, through the use of relevant marketing theories. “How do Swedish and Finnish basketball clubs manage their brands and fan clubs on Facebook?” In the recent years sport marketing has been researched extensively, however the research on sport marketing has focused solely on more established sport leagues (e.g. National Basketball Association, Premier League among other bigger leagues). The major emphasis in sport marketing has been on bigger leagues; this research focuses on the smaller and less established leagues of Finland and Sweden. There is a limited or no literature to be found of sport marketing, which specifically focuses on smaller national leagues. Additionally, the study adds knowledge to a relatively new and evolved way of marketing. Social media marketing research is at its infantry stage, at least when considering research done in more traditional marketing, thus the research could add knowledge to this young marketing sphere. The study is based on a social constructivist approach, where the social actor creates reality. The teams’ social media representatives had their own unique interpretations of team’s actions on the social media platform of Facebook. Moreover, the primarily reason for the study was to create understanding of the perceptional Facebook practices used by two countries basketball teams. The main research question was divided into three research objectives to get more accurate results. Relevant theories of branding and customer relationship management, where emphasis is on relationship marketing, were used to answer the three more specific research objectives. More specifically the theory of relationship marketing is used to identify the teams’ relationship management practices on the social media platform of Facebook and the theory of brand equity was used to understand how the teams’ build their brand image on the medium. Additionally, appropriate organizational definitions are used to recognize the underlying reasons why the sample teams are motivated to use the platform of Facebook. The results indicated that there were both similarities inside the examined country’s teams’ perceptions of Facebook activities and differences between these perceptional practices. However, the differences were of a lessening degree than similarities. Similarly, the country comparison showed that there were only minor differences between Facebook practices used by two countries’ club practices. The study gives a sound general view of smaller and less established sport league teams, thus the study could give a good foundation for further studies on other smaller and less established countries sport league clubs. Furthermore, it could also be used as a building block for a more extensive study, where perceptions of multiple club key stakeholders could be compared with each other to find similarities and differences between their perceptions gaps.

The purpose of the study was to investigate what factors affect the young athletes in the transition from junior to senior sport. The study’s secondary purpose was to find out what the athletes do to cope with the transitions and the final purpose was to revile what indicates the end of the transition to the athletes. The interview guide had three parts with questions about background information, personal experience related to the transition from junior to senior sport and finally the transition’s effect on the athlete’s career, life outside sport and lessons drawn from the experience. The study consisted of nine interviews, with four male and five female athletes. The data was analysed by using sentence categorisation. Quotations were used to underline the results. The results were divided into several categories, namely: demands, resources, barriers, coping, indicators and long-term effects. The results implicate that the participants felt that it was a big step to take that involved changes in demands both in the sport and in the life outside sport. The participants also felt that social demands, demands on the self, school and planning caused the biggest barriers during the transition. The results also imply that the resource most commonly mentioned by the participants were social factors (such as team cohesion) followed by individual factors. The coping strategies mainly involved mental strategies while the long-term effects show effects of evolving mental skills. Finally the indicators most commonly mentioned were objective and involved an increase in responsibility and better statistics. It is discussed in which way the results of this study can be further strengthened by the results of earlier studies and theories.

The aim of the research is to explore the influence of preliminary basketball games that are played during basketball lessons to the seventh form students, learning basketball motions by the methodology that is oriented to this age adolescents. 89 seventh form students from Telšiai Krantas Secondary School participated in the educational experiment that was enacted from January till April 2004. The following research methods were applied: the theoretical analysis of the existing material on the subject, educational experiment, poll in the written form, testing of physical training, educational observation and mathematical statistics. The applied program of physical education was evaluated approvingly by the most of E1 group. The results of the basketball motions were most improved by the boys and girls of the group E1. During the period of the experiment the viewpoint of different groups and sexes to the basketball lessons has changed, however more positive direction to E1 group.