a.
66 HOG” ALLEN has made

P basketball his life and his

profession so it’s not at all
surprising that his enthusiasm has
resulted in a method of rating that
probably will be followed by all
coaches in years to come. As
“Phog” says:

‘T get my. kick, and I
know other coaches do, out of
figuring out new ideas, see-
ing them used gradually and
finally being in a position to
say: ‘Well, I helped pioneer
that, ”

The University of Kansas bas-
ketball coach described his rat-
ing system at a session of the
physical education meeting Fri-
day. He’s quite frank in his ad-
mission that the purpose is to help
himself and all coaches who use
it by providing the players with
deeper motives than those of
point scoring alone. Study of the
system reveals encouragement for
team play and, most of all, for
fundamentals.

Coach Allen calls it bas-
ketball batting and fielding
averages—“every kid knows
baseball and has a respect: for
batting and fielding averages.
In no sense is it an out and
out rating system. Yet by
giving points for certain of-
fensive and defensive maneu-
vers and deducting for lapses,

I have found the boys look

forward as eagerly to the

compilation of their averages
as baseball players do to their
records.”

Briefly, the system gives so
many points for certain offen-
sive gestures and so many for
defensive .work. Likewise, errors
are penalized by deduction of
points. Perhaps you'd get a better
idea of the system if I ran the
-| points used:

(Positive are plus and negative

minus, of course).
OFFENSIVE
Positive Items:
Field zoals
Free throws
Immediate assists
Secondary assists
Recovers ball off own back-
board
Recovers teammate’s jump ball
Recovers opponent’s. fumble
Good pass to a teammate .... 1
Catches teammate’s pass ......
Negative Items:
Error of omission
Held ball forced by opponent
Fumbles ball and it goes out
of bounds
Fumbles ball and ft is  ob-
tained by opponent ........ :
Taps ball out of: bounds
Wild pass out of bounds .,....
Wild pass “to an opponent ....
Violation of rules :
Offensive personal foul .....'.+
EFENSIVE
Positive Items;
. Blocking opponents shot
+ Recovery —_ from opponent's: :

Se rere te RUT SOO E ON 020

ve

Lized« history of the- contest,

 

backboard
3. ee opponent’s drib-
OR eae alee be sae pos g 3
5. Foreiny held ball with op-

MOAN: oid wie eeag aot ee ae ae 2

6. Batting ball from opponent’s
hands and recovering ........ 2

%. Batting ball from opponent’s
hands and not recovering .... 1

8. Cuts off opponent’s pass, but
mot recovering ..........,e0% i

Negative Items:

. Fouling opponent with ball .. 8
. Fouling opponent without ball . 8

Coach Allen conceived the idea
in 1937 and. since that time, has
used it in 17 home games played
by the Jayhawkers. Correct evalu-
ation of technique requires a fair-
ly large staff of helpers Ret
“Phog” says:

“It’s always possible to draft
some former player or some red
hot fan, a basketball nut in other
words. At Kansas, I used 12 men
—six to check and six to write the
points. Of course, three of each
group checked the offensive work
and three defensive.”

The averages for the 17 games|y

seem reliable for there’s no great
variation between seasons.

The coach detected a drop in
negative offensive tabulation
points indicating that the team
made fewer mistakes this season
than last.

“It is possible,” he said,
“that the team summary post-
ed in the dressing room the
day following each game
made the individual players
-more conscious of their mis-
takes.”

It will be noted that the pen-
alty for a personal foul is almost
as great in points as the: reward
for a field goal. The reason:

“The penalty should be high
because if a player commits a
foul, he immediately gives the
opponents a chance to make five
or 10 positive offensive points.”

So there’s more to basket-
ball than an arching shot
from midfloor or from under
the mesh. Coach Allen ad-
mits that research of this type
depends to a great extent up-
on the accuracy of the observ-
ers but evidently, he made
careful selections for he has
come to the conclusion that
the system is foolproof. He
cites these factors that give
the study considerable merit:
“Tt points out the mistakes dur-

ing a game, thus causing the
players to be more conscious of
them. Besides providing an item-
the
plan stresses the importance of
game fundamentals and makes
possible a more accurate means of
comparing individuals and teams.’’| ;