SMU receives $100,000 grant from Mark Cuban

[PonyPride]

From SMU.edu:

SMU biomechanics experts team with Mark Cuban to research phony falls in basketball

Study will investigate the forces involved in basketball collisions and the possibility of estimating “flopping” forces from video data

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Margaret Allen

Biomechanics experts at Southern Methodist University have teamed with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to carry out a scientific study of the unsavory practice of player flopping in basketball and other sports.

Flopping is a player’s deliberate act of falling, or recoiling unnecessarily from a nearby opponent, to deceive game officials. Athletes engage in dramatic flopping to create the illusion of illegal contact, hoping to bait officials into calling undeserved fouls on opponents.

The phenomenon is considered a widespread problem in professional basketball and soccer. To discourage the practice, the National Basketball Association in 2012 began a system of escalating fines against NBA players suspected of flopping, including during the playoffs, “NBA announces anti-flopping rules for playoffs.”

The Cuban-owned company Radical Hoops Ltd. awarded a grant of more than $100,000 to fund the 18-month research study at SMU, Dallas.

“The issues of collisional forces, balance and control in these types of athletic settings are largely uninvestigated,” said SMU biomechanics expert Peter G. Weyand, who leads the research team. “There has been a lot of research into balance and falls in the elderly, but relatively little on active adults and athletes.”

The objective of the research is to investigate the forces involved in typical basketball collisions, said Weyand, an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

Study to look at force, motion in basketball collisions
Other members of the SMU research team include: research engineer and physicist Laurence Ryan; Kenneth Clark, doctoral student in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory; and mechanical engineer Geoffrey Brown.

The researchers will look at how much force is required to cause a legitimate loss of balance. They’ll also examine to what extent players can influence the critical level of force via balance and body control. They will also explore techniques by which the forces involved in collisions might be estimated from video or other motion capture techniques.

The research findings could conceivably contribute to video reviews of flopping and the subsequent assignment of fines, Weyand said. “It may be possible to enhance video reviews by adding a scientific element, but we won’t know this until we have the data from this study in hand.”

Weyand is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research integrating the biomechanical and physiological basis of athletic performance has advanced scientific understanding and stimulated evidence-based approaches to performance and training practices across the globe.

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For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

With this kind of research and research money it's just a matter of time until we are in the AAU!

Seriously though, we will get a lot of press out of this one.

[blackoutpony]

We'll get press just because it's Mark Cuban. Everyone loves knowing what he and his mounds of money are doing next

[LA_Mustang]

He needs to worry about getting the Mavs back to the NBA elite.

[ClassOf81]

To hell with that. He needs to focus on getting as much pub as possible for the only Div. I university in Dallas.

FINALLY, he's doing something that matters!

[ponyboy]

He needs to worry about getting the Mavs back to the NBA elite.

And I think he is, LA. It's a tough environment. Maybe we can get flopper Chris Paul a locker at AAC.

[LA_Mustang]

I would be thrilled with that, ponyboy.

[Tx_Mustang10]

I'm thrilled to have Cuban recognizing 'Dallas' team,' especially if this turns into a decent-sized news story. I imagine/hope/predict he will attend at least one basketball game this season. If we do well, and LB impresses, (and also if our biomechanics experts impress him with their studies), maybe Cuban will get behind the Mustangs. That would be a huge help in catching the attention of recruits AND fans. Perpetual optimism, don't fail me now.

[SMU2007]

He needs to worry about getting the Mavs back to the NBA elite.

Because donating $100k took up so much of his time