Mr. R.’s World of Math

Just a few minutes later, we heard the engines stop, and we saw a metal tube come into the basketball and begin to suck up air like a vacuum cleaner. We looked for something to hold onto so we wouldn’t get inhaled by the tube, but there was nothing to grab. We all yelled in fear as we were sucked through the thin metal tube into a large clear chamber.
We looked out and realized we were in an arena and the seats were filled with strange people type of people, who were all cheering wildly, and waving green zucchinis over their heads!
“Where the heck are we?” asked Jake.
“I think we must be on that Zucchini planet,” said Josie.
“Yeah, and I don’t like the looks of it!” complained Carlos.
As we spoke, a spray began to spray into the chamber of the pump, and then a door slid open. We stepped out of the chamber and felt ourselves grow back to our normal size. We were standing in the middle of a basketball court.
When the fans saw us exit the chamber they began booing. 
An announcer’s voice came over the speakers of the arena.
“Representing the Planet Zucchini, are the intergalactic all-stars and forever champions, the Flying Zucchinis!”
We looked across the court and saw the other team. They were all like 7-feet tall, and had images of zucchinis’ on their uniform tops. There was a deafening roaring from the crowd.
The announcer continued,
“And now let’s introduce our the visiting team. The team who will be the next victims to eat zucchinis for all eternity…representing a tiny little far away planet called Earth are the 5-D Brick-Shooters!”
The fans all booed and started whacking their zucchinis on the back of the seats.
“Hey, I don’t shoot any bricks!” yelled Zander, just wait until I put my moves on these guys! They’re gonna’ go down!”
“Stop bragging and get ready to start playing!” yelled Jenna, as a referee blew a whistle, and then tossed a ball up for the opening tip.

If the circumference of the basketball was 29 inches, and the ball spun exactly 54 times after the referee tossed it, how many inches had it spun around in total?