COLLEGE BASKETBALL INTELLIGENCE TEST
DIRECTIONS: This test is designed to test your intelligence as it relates to the game of college basketball. This test does not measure your knowledge of college basketball, but rather, your innate ability to understand and comprehend the finer points of the game. This test has been rigorously designed and tested by our research institute in Lawrence, Kansas, to ensure that it is knowledge-neutral, and therefore measures your college basketball IQ regardless of your exposure to or knowledge of college basketball.
Answer each question to the best of your ability. There may be one or more answers that appear to be correct; select the BEST answer among the given choices. Generally, it will be best to answer with your “gut reaction.” Again, since this test is designed to measure your innate basketball intelligence, second-guessing is likely to only lower your score or give you a less-accurate result.
PLEASE NOTE: you may have taken a previous version of this test in the past. Previous versions of this test were structured in a manner which required test takers to correctly answer each question to proceed to the next. Questions were organized in order of ascending difficulty to help gauge the taker’s intelligence level. However, due to an abnormal number of local test takers who were failing to advance past the first question, the test has been reformulated and restructured. You now must complete every question.
This is a time-sensitive test. You have an average of 35 seconds to complete each question, except for the essay portion, for which you have 10 minutes.
Good luck.
THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, LAWRENCE, KANSAS.
QUESTION 1:
Which of the following terms most properly describes a college basketball program that has won a single national title since Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president?
A. Elite.
B. Very good.
C. Pretty good.
D. Good.
QUESTION 2:
Ed Manning was:
A. A highly-qualified college coach and NBA scout.
B. Danny Manning’s dad.
C. A pretty lucky truck driver.
QUESTION 3:
TRUE or FALSE: Committing to the University of Kansas increases a recruit’s ability or talent to play basketball.
QUESTION 4:
Which of the following is the most legitimate reason for a team seeded fourth or higher in the NCAA tournament to fail to advance past the first round?
A. A weak conference failed to properly prepare the team for the tourney. (NOTE: for the purposes of answer choice “C” to question 5, the conference should not be considered weak.)
B. The right players for the system aren’t yet in place.
C. The players are too young to understand how to play together yet.
D. The opposing team was underseeded and started five future lottery picks.
E. All of the above.
QUESTION 5:
Which of the following factors is most important in determining whether a college has an “elite” national basketball program?
A. Number of national titles.
B. Number of recent national titles.
C. Number of conference titles and whether your first coach was considered the “inventor of basketball.”
QUESTION 6:
Referees hired by the Big XII conference:
A. Generally call a good game, but occasionally require “gentle correction” from fans with a better understanding of the game.
B. Call games in Allen FieldHouse in a completely different way than they call games anywhere else in the Big XII.
C. Suck.
QUESTION 7:
Which of the following lines is the most famous?
A. “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright.”
B. “Four score and seven years ago…”
C. “Et tu, Brutus?”
D. “Rock chalk, Jayhawk, Go K.U.”
QUESTION 8:
From 1989-2003, most experts agreed that the best way to achieve success in the NCAA tournament would be by slowing down the game and playing a half-court game with big, physical players. From 2003-the present, most experts agreed that the best way to achieve success in the NCAA tournament would be by running a fast-paced, transition-oriented game. Explain in the following space why this shift in philosophy occurred among these experts.
QUESTION 9:
Which of the following is the classiest thing to do at a basketball game?
A. Wear a shirt that says “Muck Fizzou.”
B. Boo the referees.
C. Boo the other team as they take the court.
D. Throw newspapers and other available items at supporters of the visiting team.
E. Yell “F--- you!” at an opposing player following the game.
QUESTION 10:
NOTE: When this test was reformulated, Question 10 was included to measure the test taker’s grasp of the ethics related to college basketball, as it was once believed that running a “clean program” reflected on the level of basketball intelligence. However, in late 2006, experts determined that ethics were not relevant to the determination of basketball intelligence, and so this question is no longer included in the test.
