The Game -- Pregame -- Basketball, Poetry, and All Things Beautiful - Todd Davis and J. D. Scrimgeour -- First Quarter -- Hidden Talents Fail to Materialize - Jim Daniels -- Basketball and Poetry: The Two Richies - Stephen Dunn -- Two Things You Need Balls to Do: A Miscellany from a Former Professional Basketball Player Turned Poet - Natalie Diaz -- The Simple Rhymes of Defense - Gary Fincke -- Basketball and Poetry: Strange Bedfellows - Margaret Gibson and David McKain -- Basketball and the Immigrant Faith - Patrick Rosal -- Secound Quarter -- Spinning in My Hands - Mary Linton -- Against All Odds - Linda Nemec Foster -- The Ball Goes in Clean - Todd Davis -- Hard - Peter Sears -- In Praise of Bad Boys and the Evolutionary Leap - Therese Becker -- Why I Wrote the "Magic" Johnson Poem - Quincy Troupe -- Halftime -- The Art of the Cheer - Debra Marquart -- Third Quarter -- Fast Break - William Heyen -- Tipping Off - Lauren (Jentz) Jensen -- Off the Rim - Adrian Matejka -- Courting Risk: Thoughts on Basketball and Poetry - Patricia Clark -- Basketball, Failure, and Amateur Pleasure - Jeff Gundy -- My Two Obsessions: Basketball and Poetry - Marian Haddad -- Fourth Quarter -- "More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell": A Poet's Education in SouthernBasketball - Bobby C. Rogers -- Blessed - Ross Gay -- It Was Easier to Say, "I'm a Basketball Player" Than It Is to Say, "I'm a Poet" - Jack Ridl -- Reading Sebastian Matthews - James McKean -- Going Exactly Where We Want to Go - Marjorie Maddox -- Squeak from Shoes - Richard Newman -- Overtime -- Announcing My Retirement - J. D. Scrimgeour -- Team Roster -- Acknowledgments.