The Contemporary Culture of NCAA Men’s Hoops: The Social and Athletic Experiences of Men’s Collegiate Basketball Student-Athletes.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

NCAA Men’s Basketball student-athletes experienced heightened levels of public and private scrutiny (Satterfield et al., 2010), mental health disorders (Chang et al., 2020; Watson, 2006), and stereotyping (Haslerig, 2017). The purpose of this ethnography was to discover, illuminate, and understand the means and methods in which these young men navigated athletic and social experiences faced in their unique environment, as well as to investigate these student-athletes general sense of well-being. While the contemporary culture of men’s collegiate basketball served as a backdrop for these student-athletes, the tradition of positive psychology, specifically, Wong (2010)’s Existential Positive Psychology provided a framework for me to appropriately explore and focus the study on the experiences and outlook of these young men. As the researcher, I immersed myself within the walls of a collegiate basketball program in an effort to collect and observe their experiences while describing and presenting a breadth of different participants’ understandings concerning the student-athlete experience as well as challenges within the contemporary culture of high-major collegiate basketball (Bhattacharya, 2017). Questions I hoped to answer included how men’s basketball collegiate student-athletes manage, navigate, and cope with the athletic and social experiences of being part of an elite Division I program. The study also explored how the contemporary men’s basketball student-athlete navigated Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal in today’s collegiate landscape. Contemporary research is prevalent throughout the academy, especially regarding collegiate student-athletes, their well-being, and mental health (Castadelli-Maia et al., 2019; Hilliard et al., 2020; Prior et al., 2022; Simons & Bird, 2022; Stevens et al., 2024; Weber et al., 2023). However, while most research on collegiate student-athletes, football and other Olympic sports garnered the most attention, there was little to no attention given to men’s basketball. There existed scholarship related to minority student-athletes on college campuses (Kroshus et al., 2023). However, there remained a noticeable opportunity regarding qualitative research related specifically to the highly visible men’s collegiate basketball student-athlete. Over the course of this ethnography, I utilized methods of data collection that included daily active participant and environment observations as well as regular and consistent informal group and individual conversations and interviews. Findings from the study explored the social experiences of 1) coach impact, 2) transitions, including the transfer portal, 3) name, image and likeness, and 4) athletic expectations. Findings from the participants also discovered the social experiences of 1) expectations, including pressure, stigma and social media, 2) players social network, and 3) sacrifice. The implications of this study should inform university and athletic administrative collaboration and athlete-focused program development implementation in order to constructively impact men’s basketball student-athlete’s well-being. Findings from this study may also influence and inform student-athletes and their networks as they navigate the dynamic landscape of high-major collegiate basketball. It is my feeling that student-athletes, athletic staff and higher education administration, as well as coaching professionals are the audiences who need this information.