OK, you wake up one morning and you’ve been crowned the King of Basketball not that convoluted game overpaid professionals play but the better varieties you prefer for high schools and colleges.
Whatta you gonna do?
I’ve a relatively short list that could make a lot of people angry. Yet it might give us more ballet and less bang-and-clang. Oh, finesse, where is thy wondrous sting? We’re stuck with a game once heralded for its flow and continuity rather than sweaty World Wrestling Federation mayhem.
Football once was labeled a contact sport while basketball was considered more refined. Now football is a collision sport and basketball is, at best, a contact conclave. The old “no harm, no foul” philosophy has deteriorated to “if a bare bone isn’t sticking out and the blood isn’t gushing, let ’em play!”
First thing I’d do would be to move the high school and college three-point shot line to the international distance of 20-6. It’s now 19-8 until you’re a pro, then it’s 23 feet. The 19-8 is too cheap.
That’d have more kids grow up learning how to shoot the ball better (maybe even at the foul line), inside the arc as well as outside . . . spending more time moving the ball for good shots rather than drooling over the chances for a hot-dog dunk. One thing that makes Kansas’s Jeff Boschee more of a threat is that he finally learned there also are points to be made inside the circle, including drives and 10-12-footers. That’s never been a problem for guardmate Kirk Hinrich an equal-opportunity scorer able to register from two inches to 20 feet.
Consider that two of the best plays KU has run this year had Boschee driving, then pitching out to Hinrich. Does that back-breaking three-pointer against Colorado ring a bell?
Next, I’d follow the advice of legendary player-coach John Wooden and give only one point for a dunk, two points for anything beyond the slam range and a triplet for a bomb from 20-6 or beyond. That might lessen the impact of some show-offs, especially those who can’t shoot a lick and can’t score much without the dunk.
A tentative Eric Chenowith wouldn’t be penalized much since he bungles so many crippie chances. He can shoot a little, but not from some of the spots where he’s fired of late. His comments about his Oakland Raider sympathies and the importance of toughness indicates he still doesn’t comprehend how much his underachievement is costing his team. Right now he’s neither fish nor fowl. He could be both.
Some quick plaudits for the wondrous Hinrich. He didn’t have one of his better games at Missouri and quickly blamed himself. Bear in mind he had the job of quarterbacking the team, covering the dangerous Clarence Gilbert and trying to orchestrate a lot of other operations, but no alibis. Here’s a mere sophomore taking the weight of the world on his shoulders when even the greatest can have an off game. The wondrous thing about Kirk is that he’ll be back better than ever.
So we’ve moved the trifecta line, and invoked a 1-2-3 scoring table. How about adopting one of those free-throw trapezoids where it’s 12 feet wide under the hoop and funnels down to 10 feet at the gift stripe? Or maybe just slap a 12-foot lane in all the way to keep the mastodons and brontosauruses from preventing shooters and passers from operating, now that they can’t hit as easily from a 19-8 arc?
Ah, yes, and then this business of palming the basketball the way virtually everybody does anymore. Make ’em dribble, really, no carrying of the ball, or give it up.
The atmosphere might be a little clearer by now under this Fat Old Guy Plan. But for an added layer of civility, keep getting tougher and tougher on incidental and illegal contact and negate those semi-sexual encounters where big men get hung up in and around the paint. Coaches ought to convince these contortionists that sex is a far better participation sport than a contact sport. And bench ’em or foul ’em out when they got too horny.
Kansas’s Roy Williams has led the charge to lessen the overly physical play in college ball and he’s drawn fire from guys who lack talented players but can make football coaches take notice. Foes say it protects stars. Stanford’s Mike Montgomery is right up my alley when he says: “Instead of players being in the right position, we’ve gotten sloppy and lazy and use physical means like grabbing and pushing to win games.”
USC’s Henry Bibby is an opponent, who replies: “It’s (foul-shooting marathons) good for the beer people. It means people stay there another 45 minutes.” Coach Wooden ought to box his ears.
“I don’t like to see the physical strength that has taken over the game,” says Wooden. “I, for one, don’t want to see the physicality. Basketball is a game of beauty, finesse and maneuverability. I’m not asking for it to become a non-contact game but people want to see it less physical.”
There can remain a premium on hustle and aggressiveness, but officials need to strike a balance between mugging-bullying and playing hard.
Open the court, change the scoring to reward finesse and return a little poetry to the motion. It can be an absolutely beautiful game but more people need to get onto the same page to make that the rule rather than the exception.
Bill Mayer can be reached at 832-7185 on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.
