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By EVERETT MORRIS
Te men who write and do nothing but talk besketbell from December
throush Nerch are split into two, camps today, just because Paul Mooney,
Columbia's forthright coath, had en idea, The idea, in case you don't
rend "The Saturday Evening Post," is to remove the dackboards and return
basketball to the game of skill it once was but is no longer, according

to Nr, Mooney and-his amamuensis, Stanley Frank, , eh ,

It's about time, says the Columbia coach, in-effect, ve got rid of
these gribbine Carneres ‘tho Clutter uo the court and who do little toward
nlaying, basketball except tep in a rebound occasionally or-tap. out a
shot by the opnosition, Bliminate‘ the backboord, he says, and you elimi-
nate the rebound; eliminate the rebound arin minimize the importence
of abnormal height; eliminate abnormal height and you five the eeme back
to all the boys. instead of leaving it in the hands of the few whe heve
overactive thyroid #lands, neon BOD SAT To. Ite | ;

At the risk of being called'a diehard and a reactionary, this ob-
server finds » rood deal of merit in what Mooney says. It's settine a
Little tiresome to try to keev up with a froun of nrancine Gareantuas who
rush uo and dorm the court hell vent for basket. The deft feint, the
quick thrust at an ovenins, the skill that made vasketbrll the greatest
of indoor sames, are commletely absent except in cases rate esnourh to be
notable, Basketball has become notoriously rageed, and heizht means just

about everything,
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BASKATBALL HAS DRFENDER

A besketb:.11 fau who has followed the fane more than ». quar'er of
p -antury stens forward to defend the vresent style of nls.

WDon't leu them tell you the vresent came of basketb.il is +. sissy
sport, or anything like it," writes Lerry Krierer, "T heve been a court
fan more than 25 years, 1% was ny orivilege to see the teams in actior
back in the das when they vere Surned ‘oose «mn a cxf, as your Phila-
delvohia Oldtimer remarked.

"Basketball today is mich fester, ond it is riticulors for the Ola-
timer to clain science has been removed from “he sport, Tas'setball ana
all other sports must be controlled, I am willing %o admit that over-
zealous officials sometimes svoi’. the same, but on vhe whule I should
say the officiating today is satisfactory. ope ott os .

"The elimination of the center jap has been one of she greatest
penefits. There is far moro speed offered the fans as a “~esult,. I dare
say the players of today are fer from ocing sissies, as claimed. Many of
tne vlayers I saw in action 25 years aro could not ixeep up with many of

the star athletes of this era." ;
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SIX FECT FOUR LIIIT ON NAVY BASKSTBALL SUL

| Annapolis, Dec, 29--(A2)--Poss the ermine tove. to Johnnie Wilson,
Navy beskethall coach--he really hes e moan coning, While other corches
scour the hinterlanés for players tovering six feet seven snd-un, Wilson
has to set alons with youths no more then six feet four. Because of
low transoms on shins ‘and other standard equirment in the navy, youths
taller then six feet four inches sre berred from tho navel acecomy.

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