1

MADE TO ORDER' BASKETBALL -
WINNERS COME FROM OLD WAREHOUSE.

Beodidivn - . It! Ss “just an old warehouse buried somewhere . -in the maze of
ee Brooklyn! $s helter skelter. street | system but. it’s "the. campus" oy a. made-
3 to-order basketball team that's one of: the’ nations..best. 4

_. the old warehouse -is Long Island University...
: Consider that thé little school's fanous Plackbirds. ‘gince 1935,
-- have set up two winning streaks of more thaa 40. eames each. Consider that
_. they have. played’ conference | winners RES the best: * " independents" zrQR: all
over the comtry,

Consider that after mapticlng on a fall floor better eae to
junior hich school, teams, tong Island meets its top-notch opponents on the
massive Madison Square Garden court where it's alndst’' a comtry mile from
basket to basket,

How can a team so ‘handicasped: sot w those amazing victory records?
It's a natural question,

The answer is 4 nervous little ian with ‘a menia for thoroughness in
his basketball teaching who regularly presents an offense and a defense

mede to order for the narticular ‘style-of play his. team is facing.

Clair Bee, because most of Long Island's op»osition comes from dis-
tant ‘points, Lay not know befdrehaad: what his toa! s going to be up against.

He didn't know exactly ab out Oregon last year's N,C,A,A; chaups.
Oregon swont Bee's comaratively inexporionced 1939-40 crew off the court
“in tho first half, But the six men who carefully watched Bee move brightly
colored spools around a minature court betwe en halves came back. and pulied
out from behind a 13 point es to wih by a poiRt in an extra period,

BEE GSTS THE MEN: :

Osi» Boe’ s toaghing with his flair for Sebiasoning an ree ee 40 hit
the opposition! s weakness are the’ chief reasons for 4 eg U's. great. court
success, The other reason is his material — put Bee! S respons} 5G, for
getting that material so the auswer is still Boe
: Bee and Long Island wiversity corotianan, 850) make no: oe owt
pulling | in. the best mon they can find. It's significant, though, that only
-two of Bee's varsity. performers in the last oicht 3 rears have lived farther
than ten miles - by Boo's estimate - from New York's Times. Square. -

A Blackbird basketeer snends his freshnuan year chiefiy on mastering
fundamentals. As a sophomore he gets seasoning with the reserves, To be a
regular in his junior year his has to be 3) fancy basi cothait ‘player: who is
a whiz at every phase of the game .

-: d&g an exarmle, he must be a master of. both weitere, and zone
defense, 5ce uses them both, drilling his team to switch from one to
anothor. at irregular intervals during a Binge game. to COnaueS: the. enony
offense. oy
: . Bee looks for snocialists, chance Ho ree spocd but. will sacrifice

it in one or two men for good set shot: artists. Ho's a firm believer in
the set shot and stresses, in a manval he's written called "Basketball,"
that o cager should shoot any time -he has a chance to_ get. set. for the shot.

Si Lobello, a six-foot, ‘three-inch forverd, is See's set-shot artist
this. year, Dolly ‘King, a husky Negro, plays a hustling agsressive center.
Cool Ossie Schectmann, young captain of the Slackbirds, plays .a forward,
and the bulletpassing pepper-upper. Suter Schrartz. and Joe rake are the
guards, Lou Simon, a speedy forward, is Joe's Wsnot- dae ma

SEES. "DISASTROUS, SEASON"; Clair says He'll ‘be: Lucky. to escape’ with something
short of a " disastrous season." Comting a disastrous season. as Bee does at
four or five games lost, he's protably right. The accounting teacher's team
this year hasn't the reserve nower that Cale from behind. to beat. Marquett te
and the New Mexico Agzies last year. : op ‘aie he ol!