The Physics of Basketball Bank Shots

Here in the US, the college basketball tournament is about to start - we call it "March Madness". Naturally, a lot of articles on basketball get produced and published around this time. I've mentioned a while back several articles on the physics of basketball, and the physics of the free throw shots. Now comes an article on the physics of banked shots in basketball.

After analyzing computer-generated 3-D simulations of more than 1 million basketball shots, a team led by NC State’s Larry Silverberg determined that, while it does vary, there are large, identifiable areas on the court where a bank shot can be up to 20 percent more successful than attempting a direct swish.

Don't think any of the players in the tournament would be interested in reading the paper, but for the rest of us armchair spectators, it adds another dimension of "understanding" to something like this.

Zz.