Photos from UCLA vs. Arizona (Better Late Than Never Edition)

(I had a huge reply typed out but I lost it checking a link…fml. I’ll try to recreate it.)
Sure, I don’t mind— it’s no big secret. I use a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR coupled with a Nikon D5000 (admittedly the weak link of the setup). ISO and shutter speed vary by venue (I’ve found that Honda Center is a little darker than the Sports Arena, but similar to Old Pauley. Hopefully, New Pauley will be brighter) but I try not to go slower than 1/160" shutter speed or exceed ISO800. Ideally (if I had the remote for the stadium strobes), I’d be shooting around 1/200"@f/2.8-4, maybe ISO400. To illustrate, this is the same lens, 1/200"@f/4, ISO400 (click for big/info):

Unless I absolutely need extra depth of field, I shoot wide open f/2.8. It gives me enough DOF to get the player and the defender sharp, and that’s usually all you need. Also, those extra stops of aperture came at a premium, so you bet I’m using them— I don’t like pumping up the ISO, especially on this camera. The downside of shooting that wide at long focal lengths is that the margin for error is razor thin— any AF errors will pretty much guarantee a crappy shot. I end up deleting about half of the pictures I shoot at these games before they get posted here, because they’re just bad.

To specifically answer the question— you either need a lens that opens up wide (f/2.8 and below), a camera that can do high ISO (800, 1600, and beyond) and not look awful, or some combination of the two to freeze action indoors like this. Before I bought the 70-200, I was using the consumer Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6 VR, and I was regularly using ISO1600 and ISO2000 just to get shutter speeds that would freeze action at f/5+. I would also shoot in RAW, underexpose the shots, and hope to save them (from both the underexposure and the grain from using ISO1600+) in Photoshop/Lightroom. For example, this (1/160"@f/5.6, ISO1600):
From MBB vs. Cal
Notice how much darker in general the picture is, and that’s after Photoshopping. I’m not saying it’s not doable on consumer lenses, because I’ve done it, but it sure is a pain in the ass. If I was still using the 55-200, I wouldn’t post even a quarter of the pictures I post for each game, because it’d just be too much work.

P.S. I don’t strip the EXIF data from my photos before uploading them, so if you want to know specifics for any given shot, you can click it to get the enlarged version, and look to the right of the image— the relevant info should be there.