PURPLES TO USE

ALLEN’S SYSTEM
Keith: Hopeful New: Plans Will Biodases.. tye
Defensive Strength Main Boys’ High Need —

By JOHN MARTIN

Dwight Keith, disciple of Phog Allen, this season hopes
to inject into his Boys’ High basketeers the same serum that
the good doctor uses to keep his Jayhawkers flying high at

Kansas.

Keith has read everything the
Kansas master has written. He
has recorded every word Allen
spoke. during his\\visit tc Georgia
early last fall and now he is ap-
plying his knowledge with a squad
of 30-odd Purples with the hope

of having a say-so in the forth- | 8

coming Big Seven chase.

THE PURPLES must go down
in pre-season rating as a dark-
horse. They will be better than
they were last year, when they
rose from the depths in Keith’s
first year at the helm.

“We are weak on defense,”
Keith said Tuesday. “We are still
looking for a coupie of rugged
guards who have poise enough to
handle the ball.”

This, he admitted, was his only
noticeable weakness. |

Keith will follow Allen’s prin-
ciples in everything except de-
fense. Rather then employ Allen’s
stratified-transitional man-to-man
plan with zone principle, he will
stick to a strict man-to-man sys-
tem. His offensive game consists
of short passes, pivots, dribbles
and short shots, with both the fast
break and the set screening plays
coming into practice.

“J AM NOT so worried over
our ability. to score,” Keith de-
clared.. “Gaston, Edelstein and
Doyle are accurate shots and give
us a nucleus at the forwards.”

1 of these are lettermen. Gas-
ton came fast at the tail-end of
the 1938 season and appears to be
on his way toe stardom.

Five reserves have shown prom-
ise as forwards in early drills. Mc-
Afee heads a group including Bob

 

Gaston, Weinkle, Hambrick and

W. Morris.
Footballers have the inside track
on the guard berths. Jack McKin-
ney, holdover from last year, has
been running with Chaffin, foot-

'
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ball manager, at the starting posts. |
Bill Bailey, Alfred Berman, Clint:
Castleberry and Cohen also are in.
the race for work in the defensive |

slots. There is a possibility that
Lofton Smith will return. He was!

DWIGHT KEITH,

a regular last year with McKin-
ney.

AT CENTER THE elongated
Deese is looking to a bigger year.
He is a certainty to get the call,
but will look to Cohen and Avery

for relief,
_ A sudden spurt by Deese would
just about set the Keith machine
in good running order. Should
he uncover a little speed and im-
prove his ball-handling he would
become the hub of an ambitious
outfit capable of bumping any of
their higher ranked opponents.

The Purples will drill during the
morning beginning Wednesday.
Three before-noon sessions will
be held before Keith dismisses his
squad for the holidays.

Practice will be resumed on the
afternoon of January 2.