How your basketball play style translates to the classroom

Blaise Noble-Schueller, Contributing Reporter

Picture this: there are 10 seconds left in your pickup basketball game, and you gather a monster rebound. With your eyes up and ball pounding down the hardwood, your team trusts you to take the final shot of the game. What’s your move? 

Do you take a James Harden step back? Do you pull up for the deep three like Stephen Curry? Maybe you fancy yourself the flashy type and do a sweet euro-step down the lane like Sabrina Ionescu. Whether it be a midrange floater or a vicious dunk, basketball players don’t all pull off the same move with the game on the line, and neither do us university students.

You might catch some of us living in our own version of the gym — the library — weeks before an exam, while others “study” by seeing if they can add up the Venmo tab after one too many margaritas. We all make different decisions on the court and in the classroom that determine who we are. Arguably the biggest of these decisions is what field of study to choose in college.

Some students have a way with words, while others want to learn the ins and outs of a business. For the people out there who spend more time on the ESPN app than the Canvas homepage, this questionnaire will help you make this looming life decision. All you have to do is decide how you play — or wish you could play the game of basketball by answering the quiz questions below, and we will tell you which school of study you should choose for your four years at Tulane University.

1. What’s your pregame snack?

  • a. PB&J
  • b. Last night’s Chipotle
  • c. Raisins
  • d. Carrots
  • e. A banana

 2. What’s playing in your headphones?

  • a. “Sweet Home Alabama” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
  • b. “Chicken Fried” – Zac Brown Band
  • c. “Mood Swings” – Pop Smoke
  • d. “Purple Haze” – Jimmy Hendrix
  • e. “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond

3. What shoes are you rocking?

  • a. Jordan 1s
  • b. Lebron 17s
  • c. Converse
  • d. Whichever ones I can find
  • e. Currys

4. How do you warm up before a game?

  • a. Practice my threes from the logo
  • b. Make sure everyone I’ve ever met is watching, then throw down a slam dunk
  • c. Uncontested midrange jumpers — gets my ego up before the game
  • d. Whatever my coach says we are doing
  • e. Make sure all my teammates have stretched and have their Gatorade ready

5. What’s your pregame routine?

  • a. Make sure I get to choose the game ball
  • b. Elaborate handshakes with my whole team
  • c. Smelling salts
  • d. Double knot laces
  • e. Lay down a killer pregame speech I’ve worked on in the shower since eighth grade

6. What’s your go-to isolation move?

  • a. Hold the ball. Wait for my defender to back off. Drain it right in their grill
  • b. Euro-step floater down the lane
  • c. Two dribbles across the free throw, then a pull up jumper
  • d. Back the opponent down. Fake one side and take the easy bucket when they jump
  • e. Drive to the basket. Pass to one of my open teammates so they have an open three

7. What’s your go-to fastbreak move?

  • a. Depends who’s guarding me. I know all their defensive tendencies
  • b. Throw my body into the defender and hope the referee blows his whistle
  • c. Spin move
  • d. Going to take a little bit of contact but finish with an easy layup
  • e. I’m dunking on this fool

8. What smack are you talking to your opponent?

  • a. Telling them their shoes are untied
  • b. Call their Mom ugly
  • c. My game is doing the talking
  • d. Tell them everything they did wrong on the previous possession
  • e. I don’t talk smack. Might ask how their day was

9. What’s your end-of-game celebration?

  • a. Mockingly tell the opponent how to beat my team next game
  • b. Make sure the guy heckling me all game gets a lifetime ban from his home arena
  • c. Tell the guy that couldn’t guard me to hit the weight room ASAP
  • d. Straight to the locker room to hit the showers
  • e. Hug all your teammates

10. What’s your postgame routine?

  • a. “Where’s the damn tequila? Let’s celebrate!”
  • b. Leave the locker room, so my teammates don’t hear me call my mom
  • c. Steak dinner and a nice glass of red wine
  • d. Ice bath. Four bottles of water and bed
  • e. *Tweets out* “Great team win guys, ready to get back to work tomorrow”

If you picked mostly As, you belong in the School of Liberal Arts. You know how people react and understand general trends in society. Knowing how people tend to behave helps your teammates and hurts your opponents. Someone like you is sure to add a ton of value to a team.

If you picked mostly Bs, there’s no better place for you than the A. B. Freeman School of Business. Let’s be real, you read the last question and wanted to say “A,” but you know deep down you’re calling your mom. You are a naturally smart person that somehow does half the amount of work as other students and still gets the same grade. Players like you drive opponents absolutely crazy, but your teammates adore you.

If you picked mostly Cs you belong in the School of Architecture. People like you are truly tough nuts to crack. No one knows if you like drawing, numbers, both or neither. You make sure that you are prepared for any circumstance and are always up for a challenge. You remain pretty level headed but occasionally pull out some quirky moves that everybody can’t help but question.

If you picked mostly Ds, the School of Science and Engineering is your calling. You don’t care what anyone thinks of you and are simply here to win. You are the first in the gym and the last one out. You always make sure to get a good night’s rest before a big day and make sure all directions are followed at all times. 

Last but not least, if you chose mostly Es, the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine is the path for you. People like you are hard not to love. You’re the teammate everyone can lean on and have a good cry with. You know how to make people feel better and you’re more interested in studying flies than hurting them, even if your life depended on it. 

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