IN: Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 - February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record at that time.

Dean Smith's 1992-93 squad featured George Lynch, Eric Montross, Brian Reese, Donald Williams, and Derrick Phelps. The Tar Heels started out with an 8-0 record and were ranked #5 in the country when they met #6 Michigan in the semi-finals of the Rainbow Classic. The Wolverines, led by the Fab Five in their sophomore season, won 79-78 on a last-second shot. North Carolina bounced back with nine straight wins before losing back-to-back road games against unranked Wake Forest and #5 Duke. After seven more straight wins, the Tar Heels were ranked #1 heading into the last week of the regular season (their first #1 ranking since the start of the 1987-88 season). North Carolina beat #14 Wake Forest and #6 Duke to close out the regular season and clinch the top seed in the ACC tournament. North Carolina reached the tournament final, but they lost 77-75 to Georgia Tech without Derrick Phelps, who was injured. Nonetheless, North Carolina was awarded the top seed in the East Regional of the NCAA Tournament, defeating #16-seed East Carolina (85-65), #8-seed Rhode Island (112-67), #4-seed Arkansas (80-74) and #2-seed Cincinnati (75-68) to reach the Final Four in New Orleans.  In the National Semifinals, Smith's Tar Heels defeated his alma mater Kansas (coached by future North Carolina coach Roy Williams) 78-68. In 1991, the same two teams also met in the National Semifinals with Kansas prevailing and Dean Smith being ejected. The 1993 victory for UNC set up a rematch from earlier that season with #3-ranked Michigan in the Finals.  The 1993 national title game was a see-saw battle throughout, but is remembered best for Chris Webber calling a time-out that Michigan didn't have with seconds left and Michigan trailing by only 2. Michigan was assessed a technical foul and North Carolina ended up winning 77-71, giving Smith his second national championship due to an unforced error or intentional give-away by the opposing team. After a six-year investigation by the NCAA, Webber's association and financial dealings with Ed Martin determined that there had been a series of violations and direct payments to players and was termed "the University of Michigan basketball scandal" and resulted in Michigan pulling down all of its banners and titles from that era.
QUESTION: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
IN: Safin was born in Moscow to Tatar parents, Mubin ("Mikhail") Safin and Rauza Islanova. He speaks Russian, English, and Spanish as well as his native Tatar. His parents are former tennis players and coaches. His younger sister, Dinara, is a former world number one professional tennis player and silver medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

A succession of injuries hindered Safin's progress throughout his career.  In 2003, he missed the majority of the season due to a wrist injury.  During the 2005 clay-court season, Safin suffered a knee injury, which he played through all the way up to Wimbledon with the help of pain killers and anti-inflammatories. Safin was subsequently defeated in the early rounds of each of the seven tournaments he played between the Australian Open and the French Open, culminating in an early round defeat at the French Open. Safin made a surprise finals appearance at the Wimbledon tune-up tournament in Halle on grass. He lost the final narrowly to the defending champion, Federer. He only played one tournament in the summer hard-court season, in Cincinnati, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Robby Ginepri. He also missed the Tennis Masters Cup.  Injuries continued to bother Safin in 2006. Although Safin made appearances at the 2006 ATP Masters tournaments at Indian Wells, Miami, Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg, his ranking plummeted to as low as No. 104. He began to recover in time for the 2006 US Open, in which Safin defeated Argentine David Nalbandian, who was then world No. 4 in a riveting second-round match. Safin then lost in the fourth round to former world No. 2 German Tommy Haas, also in a fifth-set tiebreaker. Positive performances at the Thailand Open, where he was narrowly edged out by No. 7 seed, James Blake, and the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, the first all-Russian final at that event, losing to compatriot, Ukrainian-born Nikolay Davydenko, marked Safin's recovery. Despite the injury, Safin still posted 7 wins against top ten players in 2006, fourth-most on the ATP tour behind just Federer (19), Nadal (10), and Blake (8).
QUESTION: Did they prevent him from playing?
IN: Sir Wesley Winfield Hall (born 12 September 1937) is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969. Hall's opening bowling partnership with fellow Barbadian Charlie Griffith was a feature of the strong West Indies teams throughout the 1960s.

Hall was born in Saint Michael, Barbados--"just outside the walls of [HM Prison] Glendairy"--to a teenaged mother, his father a sometime light-heavyweight boxer. Hall began his schooling at St Giles' Boys' School and later obtained a place at the renowned Combermere School thanks to a free scholarship. At Combermere, he played for the school cricket team initially as a wicketkeeper/batsman. At the time the leading schools in Barbados played against grown men in the elite Division 1 of the Barbados Cricket Association and Hall was exposed to a high standard of cricket at an early age. One of his teammates at Combermere was the school groundskeeper, the West Indian Test cricketer Frank King.  After completing his schooling, Hall found employment with the cable office in Bridgetown. Hall played for the Cable Office cricket team and it was there that Hall took up fast bowling. In a match against Wanderers, Hall was asked to fill in when his team's regular opening bowler was absent. He took six wickets that day and decided that bowling would be his path to the West Indies team. His talent was soon recognised and in 1956 he was included in the Barbados team to play E. W. Swanton's XI in 1956. Hall, still very young and inexperienced, did not take a wicket in the match, his first-class cricket debut. Hall was unlucky, however, not to pick up a wicket having Colin Cowdrey dropped by Kenneth Branker at first slip. Despite the lack of success Hall did catch the eye of Swanton who marked him down as a bowler of "great promise".  Based partly on this promise, Hall was selected in the West Indian squad to tour England in 1957. Despite great enthusiasm, Hall struggled in the unfamiliar surroundings, unable to pitch the ball anywhere near the wicket. Hall remarked later "When I hit the softer wickets I was like a fish out of water." Hall did not play in any of the Test matches and in first-class matches on the tour as a whole took 27 wickets at an average of 33.55. Hall's lack of success in England saw him overlooked for the entire home Test series against Pakistan in 1957-58.
QUESTION:
When was he born?