Update - 2008 Summer Olympics Mens Basketball Qualifiers

The next week basketball be an exciting and very important one for basketball players in many countries of the world. That is because it is time to decide who the last 3 teams are that will participate in the Mens Basketball tournament in the Beijing Olympics.

The remaining teams that will be completing for sports over the next week at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men in Athens Greece are Cameroon, Cape Verde, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Canada, Lebanon, Korea, Greece, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, and New Zealand. The tournament will go as follows:

The teams are divided into 4 groups with 3 teams in each group. Group basketball contains Brazil, Greece, and Lebanon. Group B contains New Zealand, Cape Verde, and Germany. Group C contains Slovenia, Korea, and Canada. Group D contains Cameroon, Croatia, and Puerto Rico. Each team will play both of the other teams in its group. The winning team will be awarded 2 points while the losing team is awarded 1 point. The top 2 teams in each group will then advance to a single elimination tournament.

The two teams that win the semifinals of the tournament advance to the Olympics. The two teams that lose in the semifinals will play each other and the winner will fill the last spot in the Olympics.

The three teams that advance in the qualifying tournament will join Angola, USA, Argentina, Iran, Russia, Lithuania, Australia, Spain, and China for the Mens Basketball tournament in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Best of luck to all of the participating teams May the best teams advance.

!!Update: The tournament is now over and the teams that advanced the tournament are Greece, Croatia, and Germany!!

Wade Boden is the Artwork Director of Robbins Sports, an Online Vendor of Basketball Uniforms and Portable Scoreboards

Kobe Bryant Does These Workouts to Jump Higher - Do You?

Have you ever wondered how the pro NBA players jump so high and dunk so well? NBA stars are on a very strict jump workout that they do every day. The workout is very simple and can be done by basketball player of any skill level, whether you are a high school player who needs a few more inches to dunk or a college star that wants to win a dunk contest. Here are the key elements of the NBA jump training.

1. Jump Squats! Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands behind your head. Bend your knees and crouch so that your legs are parallel with the floor. Now jump as high as you can, keeping your back straight and your hands behind your head. Instantly when your feet touch the ground, repeat the whole process. Do about 20 jumps, basketball times or until you cannot do anymore.

2. Stairs! This is easy and effective. Start by simply running up the stairs and walk back down. Then run up the stairs skipping a stair with each step. Then Hop with both feet up the stairs. Ten Hop on 1 foot up the stairs. All of these exercises work your calves tremendously, which is a huge part in jump height. Do these basketball every day.

3. Sprints! Sprints are much more effective in improving jump height than long distance running. Sprints force your muscle to become much more explosive. Do at least 5 sprints, 100 yards long, every day. You will see your quickness begin to skyrocket and you will start jumping higher in no time.

For a complete jump training program, check out The Jump Manual. This is the absolute best jump training program available.

College - Duke University

Located basketball Durham, North Carolina, Duke University is a premier private research college. Duke University's undergraduate basketball graduate programs are highly regarded. Duke is also especially well known for its research, especially in natural sciences and health. The university is divided into nine schools, in which the undergraduates would enroll in either Pratt School of Engineering or the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. The graduate and professional schools to attend are the Divinity School, the School of Law, Graduate School, the School of Nursing, School of Medicine, the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and the Fuqua School of business. Recently, 19,358 students applied to become part of the incoming undergraduate class of 2010. Of these students, 3778 were admitted.

Although Duke University was official founded in 1924, what is known today as Duke University started as Brown's Schoolhouse, a private subscription school founded in 1838 in Randolph County, North Carolina. The state legislature granted a rechartering of the academy as Normal College in 1851 and gained privilege of granting degrees in 1853. To keep the school operating, the trustees agreed to provide free education for Methodist preachers in return for the churches' financial support and in 1859 the name was changed to Trinity College. In 1892, Trinity opened in Durham, as it became more involving with research instead of recitation. It was in 1900 when Trinity College became the first white institution of higher education in the South to invite Booker T. Washington to speak and that same year graduated its first Native American student. Soon after, Trinity College had developed into one of the leading liberal arts colleges in the southern United States. When 1924 came around, Duke University was born out of the establishment of the Duke Endowment, which was a $40 million dollar trust fund. The university grew quickly and within the next 20 years it had such additions as the Medical School and hospital, the Religion and Graduate School, the School of Nursing, School of Forestry and the Law School.

Besides the universities fine academics, it has 26 varsity sport teams known as the Blue Devils. Within the 26 teams is the very successful men's basketball team under 25 years of coaching by Mike Krzyzewski. Their successes include becoming the only team to win three national championships since the tournament field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985. In addition to winning the championships, they have reached the "Final Four" of the tournament ten of the past twenty years. Many of the players of Duke have gone on to become popular players of the National Basketball Association and make millions of dollars on top of that. In recent years, the women's golf team has also become dominant, winning three championships.

There are many great things to see at Duke University, such as the huge William R. Perkins Library or the Nasher Museum of Art. The indoor athletic games are held at the Cameron Indoor Stadium while the football games are played at Wallace Wade Stadium. Despite the recent controversies at Duke University involving the lacrosse team, Duke is a great university but is difficult to be admitted into without a doubt.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to College