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from Photographers Blog:

Shooting the perfect dunk

Kids playing streetball or millionaires performing in a highly choreographed show? Sport or showbiz? Welcome to the NBA All-Star weekend slam dunk contest.

One of the most satisfying moves to watch in basketball, and one of the easiest to photograph is the dunk, as the player soars above the rim and jams the ball through the net.

The contest pits some of the most athletic NBA players against each other as they compete to execute the flashiest, most difficult, or original dunk.

We’re only given one floor photo position next to the basket, so the challenge is to capture the winning dunk from the best angle. Previous winners have leapt over other players, twisted 360 degrees in the air, extended the height of the basket with a forklift, and jumped over tables.

I mounted a camera with a 400mm lens in the catwalk in the roof of the arena, which I triggered with a Pocket Wizard radio transmitter, to give an overview of all the dunks. I positioned another remote camera on the floor to the side of the court with a wide-angle lens. I was sitting on the baseline to the right of the basket, Gary Hershorn was up in the stands with a 400mm lens and Danny Moloshok was shooting the action from the far end of the court.

Heat may need a big man to take pressure off Big Three

Now that all of the hype surrounding the Miami Heat’s season opener against the Boston Celtics is over, the question remains: how good is this team?

Clearly the Big Three, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, underperformed, especially the latter two, who combined for just seven of 27 shooting from the floor.

The highly publicised triumvirate also committed 15 of the Heat’s 17 turnovers in Tuesday’s 88-80 loss to the Celtics, last season’s Eastern Conference champions.

But Miami’s other two starters, center Joel Anthony and guard Carlos Arroyo, scored an underwhelming five points between them.

Those numbers are going to have to improve if the much-hyped Heat are to have any chance of living up to their lofty expectations.

Miami had decent production off the bench with Udonis Haslem scoring 11 of the reserves’ 16 points. But take away the three from center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and all of those points were from the outside.

Although the era of NBA teams needing a big center is clearly gone, the Heat might have trouble winning over the long haul with Anthony (2.6 career scoring average) and Ilgauskas (35 years old) in the paint. Bosh is 6-foot-11 (2.11m) but is not a true center, preferring the power forward position.

from Reuters Soccer Blog:

What’s behind Spain’s run of sporting success?

Spanish sports fans have never had it so good.

The Iberian nation is celebrating its latest triumphs after a month of success that local media have called a golden age.

On Sunday, Alberto Contador sealed his third Tour de France title, Fernando Alonso won the German Formula One Grand Prix, and Jorge Lorenzo roared to MotoGP victory in the U.S.

Pictures of Contador clad in the Tour winner's yellow jersey and Alonso in the red driving suit of Ferrari dominated the newspaper's front pages, chiming perfectly with the colours of the Spanish flag.

All that just two weeks after Spain secured its first World Cup soccer crown and three weeks after Rafa Nadal won Wimbledon for the second time.

It was enough to leave the daily Marca proclaiming Spain "the world's great sporting superpower".

When politics enters sports

For many people, watching a ball game represents a chance to escape the problems of everyday life.

Money problems melt away, at least for a few seconds, when watching LeBron James take off from the foul line and rip down a rim-rattling, backboard-swaying slam dunk. Watching Albert Pujols slug a three-run homer into the upper deck with two runners on in the bottom of the ninth can make one forget, albeit briefly, painful family issues.

That’s why the Phoenix Suns wearing “Los Suns” on their jersey for Wednesday’s playoff game against San Antonio crosses the line. The uniform change is not meant merely to support the Latino community but to slam a new controversial Arizona immigration law.

The law requires state and local police to determine people’s immigration status if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are in the United States illegally.

“The frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law,” team owner Robert Sarver said in a statement explaining the temporary jersey change.

Supporters say the law is needed to curb crime in Arizona, home to nearly a half-million illegal immigrants and a major corridor for drug and migrant smugglers from Mexico.

Pain is an afterthought during playoffs

Often casual fans define the toughness of a sport by the extent of injury that players are willing to play through.

While basketball is often overlooked, this year’s NBA playoff run is giving us several examples of players placing the goal of a team championship above their own individual bodies.

During Tuesday’s win by the Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James re-aggravated what has become a troublesome elbow injury.

“(The injury) has been going on for a few weeks. Hopefully it doesn’t continue to bother me as we move forward,” James told reporters.

James was criticized at the end of the season for sitting out several games in order to rest for the playoffs.

Despite the injury, he has been averaging almost a triple-double during the series against the Bulls (just over 31 points, nine rebounds and eight assists a game).

A Final Four To Remember

Despite concerns that the NCAA championship game will not feature an attention grabbing headline (Butler – West Virginia is not a ratings dream for CBS), this Final Four will be memorable, both on and off the court.

For starters, this might be the last year of the current format for March Madness. What started as speculation of expansion of the beloved NCAA Tournament from 65 (including the initial play-in game) to 96 teams is gaining further momentum. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany recently told USA Today that the likelihood of expansion of the tournament for 2011 is “probable”.

The motivation behind this decision is financial as the television revenue of a larger tournament could yield even more than the existing 11-year, $6 billion dollar agreement the NCAA has with CBS. Delany helped in the negotiations of the current CBS agreement. On the court, Saturday’s games appear to be a great reflection of the close games mixed with underdog flair we’ve seen all tournament. #1 Duke will face #2 West Virginia with the winner expected to cruise to a national championship.

The Duke seniors have seen this team move deeper in the tournament each of the last four years and would love to graduate with a national championship. This is West Virginia’s first Final Four since 1959. Winning the Big East conference tournament was an unexpected surprise for West Virginia based on the perceived strength of the conference this season. With their success in the tournament, the Mountaineers appear to be the only Big East team worthy of their high seeding.

Meanwhile the “other” game is being overlooked because it features two #5 seeds in Michigan State and Butler. Michigan State was in the championship game against UNC last season and while they have not been a dominant team, Coach Tom Izzo’s resume speaks for itself.

Butler has what could be a very formidable home-court advantage playing in Indianapolis. Butler defeated both #1 Syracuse and #2 Kansas State to earn their place in their first Final Four game and have the chance to win a national championship right in front of family, friends, alumni and students. So who wins? Michigan State has been getting a slight edge in predictions this week, but I have underestimated Butler all tournament and will correct that now.

I’m torn between Duke and West Virginia and think it will be a close physical game. I’m going with Butler and Duke with Butler taking it all before a hometown crowd. After all, one of the best parts of the NCAA Tournament is rooting for the underdog. Post your predictions in the comments section below.

Surprising Sweet 16

It might sound cliché, but who doesn’t enjoy rooting for the underdog? Unless you have a connection to one of the schools still involved or your bracket still has a chance at winning, who doesn’t want to see Northern Iowa, Cornell, or St. Mary’s College push deeper into the tournament?

As the Sweet 16 begins on Thursday there are still 11 conferences being represented (only 7 conferences represented in the Sweet 16 last year). Duke vs. Purdue is the only matchup pitting the two highest possible seeds against one another. My guess is that at least one surprise team will earn themselves a ticket to the Elite 8.

Let’s do a quick rundown of the games with some predictions. Post yours below in the comments section.

Midwest

#9 UNI vs. #5 Michigan State: The magical run for Northern Iowa continues. Panthers coach Ben Jacobson was rewarded today with a big raise as part of a new 10-year contract. There is a great chance for the magical run to continue as Michigan State will be without junior guard Kalin Lucas who ruptured his Achilles tendon and underwent surgery.

#6 Tennessee vs. #2 Ohio State: Ohio State’s Evan Turner, a potential top-3 pick in this year’s NBA draft, turned in a great performance against Georgia Tech. An upset is unlikely, but the Buckeyes will have to improve their poor ball control given Tennessee’s aggressive defense.

The stars of the NCAA Cinderella stories

We approach the Sweet 16 having witnessed magical runs by teams like Northern Iowa and St. Mary’s so let’s take a quick look back at two defining players that helped them get here. Tomorrow we’ll review the teams that are left and the possibility of an all mid-tier Final Four.

This year’s NCAA tournament opening weekend pulled out all the stops and set the stage for what could go down as one of the best tournaments ever. In particular there were the thrilling last second heroics of #9 Northern Iowa to defeat #8 UNLV and a dominating win by #10 St. Mary’s over #7 Richmond. Both teams followed up those wins with spectacular surprises against Kansas and Villanova to leap onto the national scene. It has been a good March for students, alumni and fans of both schools.

For some the story gets even better, especially if you are Ali Farokhmanesh. The senior guard for Northern Iowa, son of an Iranian volleyball pro, was minimally recruited out of high school and landed with the Panthers after attending two junior colleges. Northern Iowa assistant coach P.J. Hogan recently told Sports Illustrated that the player Farokhmanesh most reminds him of is “a towel boy”. I get the feeling that a few years from now we’ll be seeing a movie about this young man and his talented, balanced Northern Iowa Panthers team.

UNI started the tournament with a victory over UNLV thanks to a game-winning 3-pointer by Farokhmanesh with less than five seconds to play against UNLV. The win was the Panthers’ first NCAA tournament win in 20 years.

That shot alone would have written a fairytale ending to his collegiate career, but with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line, Farokhmanesh sank another clutch 3-pointer, this time with 30 seconds left against Kansas. The shot propelled Northern Iowa to a win that was instantly the biggest upset of the tournament, a 69-67 thriller over top seeded Kansas. It is no wonder that Sports Illustrated decided to place him on the cover of the upcoming March 29th edition.

Meanwhile over in the South region, Omar Samhan, the outspoken redshirt senior center for the St. Mary’s Gaels, was busy writing his own NCAA story.

After a dominating effort against Richmond (29 points, 12 rebounds), Samhan scored 32 points to upend #2 Villanova and eliminate the Wildcats from the tournament. The victory by St. Mary’s was only their second ever NCAA tournament win and the first since 1959.

Bracket busting in the year of the mid-Major

The madness of March continued today as we saw the fall of the top overall seeded Kansas Jayhawks to the #9 Northern Iowa. Additionally #2 seed Villanova collapsed against #10 St. Marys and #3 New Mexico lost to #11 Washington. Cinderella has arrived to the Sweet 16 and brought along some friends.

Brackets everywhere have been busted wide open.

Northern Iowa was not intimidated by Kansas and played solid all game long. Kansas fought back at the end, but the Panthers’ 3 point shooting solidified the upset. The Jayhawks are now the first #1 seed eliminated and the shocking loss is now the exclamation point on a growing list of surprises helping to establish this year’s tournament as a classic.

Villanova’s exit marks the sixth loss of the tournament for the vaulted Big East conference. There had been speculation heading into the tournament that the Big East might be overrated, but given the number of Big East teams ranked within the top 25 during the season, it was hard to argue against the depth or talent of the conference. Villanova now joins Georgetown, Notre Dame, Marquette and Louisville on the list of early losses. Syracuse (#1), West Virginia (#2) and Pittsburgh (#3) still remain in the hunt for the national championship.

The other day I questioned the cause for the widespread upsets this year. Is this a reflection of better coaching and recruiting at the mid-tier level? Is the newfound parity evidence of the evolution of the NBA Development League (D-League)? As the D-League matures into an equivalent of the minor leagues for the NBA, the risk to talented high school and collegiate players to enter the draft early has been reduced. However, this still does not explain why we are seeing an outstanding number of upsets and close nailbiters. What do you think?

PHOTO: Northern Iowa players Jake Koch (20) and Adam Koch (34) celebrate after upsetting Kansas in their NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament game in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 20, 2010. REUTERS/Bill Waugh

NCAA Tourney Begins with Fireworks

We didn’t have to wait long for the thrills and excitement of March Madness to capture the attention of college basketball fans everywhere.

In the first three games of the 2010 NCAA tournament we witnessed an upset, overtime and a double-overtime. Not a bad start.

The luck of the Irish was not on display as #6 Seed Notre Dame was shocked by #11 seed Old Dominion. Senior forward Luke Harangody who had been averaging over 20 points per game this season and was one of the best scorers in the country was limited to only 4 points and this poor showing will hurt his draft stock going forward.

Meanwhile #7 seed BYU is breathing a sigh of relief after pulling away in OT against #10 Florida. BYU deserves credit for collecting themselves at the end of regulation and pushing through to the next round. I don’t think they’ll be nearly as lucky against #2 Kansas State (assuming #15 North Texas doesn’t find additional motivation from #15 Robert Morris’s outstanding performance against Villanova and pull off an incredible upset).

Speaking of Nova-Robert Morris, this was an outstanding game… for Robert Morris. Villanova coach Jay Wright started the game with starting guards Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher on the bench. There was not much information available as to why. They entered the game after about 4 minutes. The Wildcats were behind most of the game finally tying the score with under a minute and a half remaining.

After an intense first OT, Robert Morris lost their third play via foul-out and just did not have the depth to compete. That did not stop the Colonials from giving it everything they had. A last second 3-point attempt that would have tied the game in double OT was off which sealed the victory for Villanova.

Nova leader Scottie Reynolds was solid from the free throw line, but had an absolutely horrible game otherwise, with 15 of his 20 points coming from the foul line (15-16). He shot 2 of 15 from the field and 1-8 from beyond the 3 point arc with only 2 assists. Everyone has an off game and perhaps being benched to start the game hurt his ability to get into the flow of the game but #2 seed Villanova can not survive long in the tournament without solid production from their seasoned leader.