TORONTO -- With their run to Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last spring, Raptors guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry received a detailed education in playoff basketball. En route to gold at the Summer Olympics in Rio, Torontos All-Star teammates got what coach Dwane Casey considers the best graduate course they could take.Now, as a new season approaches, DeRozan and Lowry hope theyll get a shot to finish at the top of the NBA heap and earn that coveted class ring.Me personally, I think its time, Lowry said as Toronto opened training camp Monday. I want a ring, I want to win a championship.Five years after going 22-60, the Raptors won a franchise-record 56 games last season and captured their third straight Atlantic Division title. They advanced in the playoffs for the first time since 2001 with a Game 7 victory over Indiana, then pushed past Miami in another Game 7 to reach the conference finals, winning Games 3 and 4 at home to even things up with eventual champion Cleveland.It taught us a lot about our basketball abilities, Lowry said of the deepest postseason run in Raptors history. It taught us the mental capacity we have to have, the physical strength and the body maintenance we have to have. It taught us a whole lot and it definitely prepared us for the upcoming season. Rio actually helped us even more. I know (DeMar) feels really good about his game and the level hes playing at, and I feel good about the level Im playing at.Its never being satisfied with `OK, we did this. Whats next? Weve got to find it. Weve got to figure out whats next and get to that next level.Besides his gold medal, DeRozan earned further riches with the five-year, $139 million deal he signed to stay in Toronto without testing the free-agent market. But all summer long, armed with his new understanding of the playoff blueprint, DeRozan burned to get back to work in Toronto.As crazy as it sounds, even during the Olympics as we were playing and practicing, at the same time I was working toward this season, understanding what I need to do to get better, DeRozan said. Working on my body, working on everything that needs to be done for me to be able to withstand another long season and get back to the point we were at. It was great having my teammate there at the same time and being able to talk about what we need to do to be better.Casey, who received a three-year, $18 million extension this offseason, continues to be impressed with the maturation of his two main stars.Theyre growing up, Casey said. Theyre men now. I can just see the confidence over the past few years, not just last year, of them establishing themselves as two of the top players in the league, establishing this team. No longer do they have to go out and prove that theyre two of the top players.Both Lowry and DeRozan struggled offensively at times during the playoffs, but each battled through tough stretches to provide key performances later on. Their will to win impressed forward Jared Sullinger when the Raptors came calling in free agency.These guys didnt care about stats, said Sullinger, who left Boston for a one-year deal with Toronto. What they cared about was winning and they found a way to win every freaking night. Thats what separates them from a lot of the teams that went out and tried to get me.Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who signed off on Torontos summer spending, considered it necessary after watching several conference rivals swap stars and restock rosters.The East got better, Ujiri said. People talk about the West and talk about the West. Well, the East is creeping up now. We recognize that its going to be harder. Melvin Frazier Magic Jersey .Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres have recalled forward Kevin Porter and defenceman Chad Ruhwedel from the minors as part of a five-player roster shuffle made by the NHLs worst team. D.J. Augustin Jersey . The recently retired Stern was elected Friday to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and will be enshrined with the class of 2014 on Aug. http://www.magicauthentic.com/kids-d-j-augustin-magic-jersey/ Penny Hardaway Magic Jersey . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. Evan Fournier Magic Jersey . It was Kerbers third final of the year after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia in Monterrey in April and to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in Tokyo two weeks ago. The 10th-ranked German improved her record in finals to 3-5. Indias Test debut, at Lords on June 25, 1932, started in dramatic fashion when they reduced a strong England side to 19 for 3 inside the first hour. There was to be no fairytale ending. Douglas Jardine, who by the end of the year had become a figure of hatred in Australia, twice bailed England out and India, hit by injuries as well, lost by 158 runs. Jardine, however, might have played a completely different role in the match.The politics of India at the time meant that the captain of the All-India side had to be from nobility, much as the England captain had to be an amateur. This narrowed the field considerably as while there were eligible candidates, none of them were good enough as players. But the game needed the money and patronage the nobility brought with them.In 1929 India were admitted to the ICC and Anthony de Mello, the secretary of the Indian board, suggested that perhaps an Englishman could captain India, mainly to act as a neutral who might be able to bridge and handle ethnic and religious divides. The man suggested was Jardine, Bombay born, from a family with strong links to the country, and reportedly on the verge of going to settle back there. The idea never came to anything, and Jardine ended up leading England against them at Lords. Other candidates included KS Duleepsinhji, despite his education at Cheltenham and Cambridge, but it is widely believed that Plum Warner talked him out of any such thoughts and persuaded him to play for England.New Zealand had made their Test debut in 1926 and West Indies in 1928, so India was sure to follow. It should have happened in 1930-31 but a tour by MCC was cancelled because of a civil disobedience campaign, and another attempt the following season was scrapped when threats to boycott all matches in Bombay were made.And so it was that India were scheduled to tour England in 1932, but even then it was far from straightforward. Although arrangements began to be made in the first half of 1931, as late as August there were doubts as some provinces objected and threatened to boycott the trip.On February 4, it was announced that the Maharajah of Patiala, a massively rich and generous benefactor and keen player, would lead the side. A driving force in Indian cricket, he was a natural choice. Kumar Shri Ghanshyamshinhji was named vice-captain and the deputy vice-captain was the Maharajah of Vizianagram, equally rich and keen but no cricketer, and a bitter rival of Patiala. Vizianagram had been expected, or more likely had expected, to lead the side but was usurped when Patiala stepped in.It was expected that the Nawab of Pataudi would be included but the release announcing the team said he had not been considered as he informed the Board of Control he could not participate in the tour. This bland comment disguised anger that he had turned his back on India at the 11th hour. Even the reserved Times editorial said his decision had caused soreness as he had definitely promised to play ...he took part in all of the trials and accepted the captaincy of one of the sides in the last match.There wwas some speculation whether foreigners - primarily Englishmen - living in India would be eligible, but it was decided not to go down this route.dddddddddddd It is, said The Times, a thing for young India. Some were certainly good enough. Reggie Hudson, described by Wisden as the best services batsman of the inter-war years, was scoring so many hundreds that one fellow officer said he was becoming a nuisance. He was in England anyway in 1932 and in a first-class match at The Oval in August scored 217 in 225 minutes for the Army against the RAF, the second hundred coming in 70 minutes.Patialas selection caused raised eyebrows in The Times. It noted he had played little cricket in the preceding two years and had preoccupied himself with leading a group of princes who regarded democracy and the likelihood of a new constitution with a nervous eye.The side left Bombay - huge crowds turned out to see them off - on April 4 but by then Patiala and Vizianagram had withdrawn. Vizianagram was the first to pull out, ostensibly through illness but more likely he was put out at not only being overlooked as captain but even as vice-captain. His move was unwise, as soon afterwards Patiala himself withdrew, again because of ill health. The Maharajah of Porbandar stepped into the void, but Vizianagrams behaviour as captain of the 1936 tour indicated that India had a lucky escape.Whereas Vizianagram insisted on playing all the Tests in 1936, to the teams detriment, Porbandar knew his considerable limitations and only occasionally took to the field. To him, it was inconceivable that he would captain them at Lords, and so on the eve of the Lords Test he told his side that CK Nayudu would captain them.Porbandar was woken in the night by several players who told him they would not play under Nayudu. His vice-captain, Ghanshyamshinhji, was not with the tour party at the time, and so Porbandar sent a cable to Patiala in India. The no-nonsense response came back. They were to play.So several of the Indians were hardly in the best state of mind as they took to the field the next morning. Not that Englands openers were in any better state of mind. Herbert Sutcliffe and Percy Holmes, who ten days earlier had set a world record in an opening stand of 555 at Leyton, only arrived in London in the early hours as Yorkshires match against Sussex at Leeds had only ended at 6pm the night before.Within ten minutes both were back in the pavilion and India were finally underway.Fifty-one years later, to the day, Lords was the scene of possibly Indian crickets greatest day when Kapil Dev lifted the World Cup.Is there an incident from the past you would like to know more about? E-mail us with your comments and suggestions.BibliographyA History of Indian Cricket Mihir Bose (Andre Deutsch, 2002)Douglas Jardine: Spartan Cricketer Christopher Douglas (Methuen, 2002)The Cricketer Wisden Cricketers Almanack Martin Williamson is executive editor of Cricinfo ' ' '