USF basketball coach Stan Heath stood courtside in the Sun Dome, closed his eyes, spun around four or five times and tried to walk to the Bulls logo in the middle of the court. A moment later, freshman guard Mike Burwell took off his basketball shoes, put on flippers and slowly walked the same route to midcourt. At one end of the gym, other USF players filled their mouths with marshmallows and tried to speak to their teammates.

Seems like an odd sequence of events, but the Bulls spent 45 minutes Thursday morning on the practice courts at The Corral with staffers from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. They learned how to spot symptoms that someone might be suffering a stroke, which remains the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. and a leading cause of disability.

The "relay" that USF's players and coaches went through is designed to remind you of signs of strokes -- the five words to remember are WALK (is their balance off?), TALK (is speech slurred?), REACH (is one side of the body weak or numb?), SEE (is vision all or partly lost?) and FEEL (is there a severe headache).

So the Bulls found themselves putting on eyeglasses coated in Vaseline and trying to identify pictures of ordinary things like stoplights and babies, or trying to use their non-writing hand to write a simple sentence. Then they talked with a woman who has suffered five strokes in the past six years, whose survival was possible by early detection of stroke symptoms and quick action to call 911.

In getting the message out about strokes, basketball teams are a smart target, in that African-Americans are nearly twice as likely to suffer strokes, and African-Americans who are between ages 35 and 54 have four times the relative risk for stroke. TNT commentator Kenny Smith is also involved in the campaign for greater awareness about stroke symptoms. The message was that strokes can happen at any age, so the key is in identifying symptoms and getting the person to the hospital as soon as possible.

For information about strokes, check out sites like Power to End Stroke and Giveme5forstroke.org. Thanks to Casey Wells from the AHA/AMA for the photos. The players in the Heath photo, from left to right, are Mike Burwell, Anthony Crater, Dominique Jones and Gus Gilchrist, along with former Bulls star Hiram Green. The second picture has center Alex Rivas Sanchez working on going to his left, with walk-on Ryan Kardok looking on.