e v ”

12 THE CEDAR RAPIDS GAZETTE: Fri. April 14, 1944

Prepare for Drake Relays
Red Peppers _.

 
  

Hot Sport Chatter

It’s an awful thing to go
through life agreeing to every-
thing everybody says, which is
preliminary to the announce-
ment that this corner hereby
places its stamp of approval on
Phog Allen’s basketball views.
That, in turn, makes this cor-
ner almost unique since almost
nobody thus far has agreed with
Mr. Allen except, of course, Mr.
Allen and there are times even
when he might be willing to
take the other side just for the
sake of a lively argument.
After all, those long Kansas
winters get a little monotonous
and with gasoline rationed the
explosive, but always entertain-
ing, coach of Kansas U. basket-
ball doubtless has kept fairly
close to his own stamping
grounds.

* *
_ To get back to the point, how-
ever, Mr. Allen is the father of
fhe 12-foot basket idea. That

/ always did look good in this
corner, in the belief that the
plan was to make baskets 12
feet across.
Phog wants baskets 12 feet from
the floor which at first glance
seemed a horrifying proposal
unless the things were enlarged
at least 12 inches. But Phog
says higher baskets are easier
to hit even with no extension
in their waist lines. For proof,
he explains that they have had
baskets at Kansas 12 feet from
the floor for 15 years and have
staged exhaustive research.
And the records show con-
clusively that a higher per-
centage of shots go through the
12 foot baskets than is the case
with the conventional 10-foot
hoops now in use. It seems the
ball makes a higher arch and
comes down at a better angle.

 

 

It turns out that’

 

.

  
     
 

—By Tait

oratory of his loose a 12-foot
basket looks as essential as
rubber in girdles. He points out
that more than 80% of the
fouls in basketball take place
within a radius of something
like 18 feet of the goal. It is
there that the traffic jams de-
velop because players are driv-
ing hard for lay-up shots, or
hoping to draw fouls. The 12-

foot goals are too high for lay- —

ups, Allen says, it being virtu-
ally impossible to score directly
beneath baskets that high in the
air. So the traffic jam magically
disappears, fouls are cut down
in number and basketball be-
comes orderly. That’s as simple
as barring sailors from saloons
in the matter of keeping order.
* * *

What causes Allen’s red hair
to bristle is the fact that his
ideas are based on the findings
of serious research while the
bulk of other proposals which
are jammed into the cage rules
come because some coach wants
them to help his own team. He
cites the new rule against goal-
tending as an example of the
“selfish” approach to cage rules.

_Instead of taking advantage of

the Allen research and going to
a 12-foot basket, the cage rule-
makers got together and de-
cided. they would have to do
something about the lucky
coaches with “goon” centers
like Foothills Kurland of the
Oklahoma Aggies. If the ma-
jority of coaches were lucky
enough to have elongated cen-
ters, the rule would not have

. Allen maintains that’s a
silly way to go about improv-
ing a game. He favors doing it
on the basis of research and
facts. In that he is not only
100% right but way ahead of
his field.

   

Phog Allen”
Highlights
Y. Banquet

By TAIT CUMMINS.

“HHOG ALLEN Day” in Cedar
Rapids Thursday started with
a Lions club noonday appearance,
continued with a high school cage
clinic at the Y. in mid-afternoon
ma #4 and reached its
climax at the
annual Y.M.C.
A. All-Sports
dinner where
the colorful
Kansas U. bas-
ketball coach
spoke before a
capacity crowd
of 400.
Phog Allen,
. to. those who
don’t follow the
cage sport, is
Dr. Forrest C.
fam Allen. He also
serves Kansas
ee U. as athletic
director and is rated by many ob-

 
   

servers as the best cage strate-|.

gist in the country.

To that might be added the ob-
servation that Phog isn’t a bad
hand at “surrounding”
Given something less than a day
in Cedar Rapids, he left a whole
string of people ready and will-
ing to swear that the colorful Jay-
hawker is without a peer as an
after-dinner speaker, good - will
emissary and general all-around
good guy.

Volatile as a kettle of boiling
oil, Allen literally explodes his
views on basketball, most of which
have been publicized countless
times, But in contrast to the type-
written report of his ideas, the
spoken presentation not only

makes sense but seems so obvi-|:

ously needed that further delay
seems harmful to the sport. In oth-
er words, if Phog talks often
enough, he'll put his theories
across.

Ailen’s appearance at the Y. af-|

fair highlighted what is annually
a three-ring circus of sporting

 

awards and honors since it cli-

a town.|;

 

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