basketball

Last month, a video of a Jacob Tucker pulling off a series of spectacular slam dunks became a viral hit. What made the video so striking is that Tucker, a guard for Division III school Illinois College, is white and under six-feet tall -- both traits that aren't typically associated with the dunk. The purpose of the video was to convince the public to vote Turner into the NCAA's annual slam dunk

If you've been watching pro basketball lately, you've probably seen one of the NBA "Encouragement" promos, in which fans go back in time and tell younger versions of players like Steve Nash, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant all about their subsequent basketball careers. In this two-minute video, the technology behind the Steve Nash spot is explained.

The first week of the NCAA Basketball Tournament has been put to rest.  Here are the highlights:

In workplaces all over America, folks spent Thursday morning scrambling to get their NCAA tournament brackets filled out before it was too late. Not so at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut.  That's because employees at ESPN -- which had been promoting its bracket challenge front and center on its website  -- are banned from any bracket activity while at work...

The Big East snagged a record 11 spots for the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, including a one seed in the Southeast region for Pittsburgh, who had been the Big East's  regular season champions. Rounding out the top seeds were the defending NCAA champions Duke Blue Devils in the West, Ohio State in the East, and Kansas in the  Southwest...

NCAA's Final Four is coming to Reliant Stadium in Houston during the first weekend of April. Houston is also hosting a weekend JamFest featuring concerts and events, including a free show by Kenny Chesney!

Congratulations to the Tatum Eagles basketball team!! They will be playing Saturday afternoon at 2 for the Class 2A State Championship against Idalou.

Congratulations to the Tenaha Tigers basketball team as they have now advanced to the state championship game in Division 1 of Class 1A in Austin. The Tigers didn't have to rely on late game heroics this time as they dismantled the tournament's number one seed Thursday morning.

Jacob Tucker attends Division III Illinois College, and, at 5'11, stands about a foot shorter than slam dunk champion Blake Griffin.  Yet, judging from this video, the guard with the amazing 50-inch vertical leap can match just about any of Griffin's award-winning dunks...

Taiwan isn't exactly a basketball power, but that could all change if the rules of the game are amended to allow giant robot seals onto the court. For some reason, Taiwanese engineers have constructed a robotic seal that can throw a basketball through a hoop with 99 percent accuracy from ten feet out. The video is below the jump (and begins where the robot seal starts hitting two-pointers). Read M