"me Sports News — Dyas ee eater The New Basketball When the rule makers decided that the jump in basketball should be eliminated except as the opening play of the game and the starting play of the second half, they started something which promises to furnish more talk pro and con than any rule change that has been made in any sport that I can recall in many years. It had for years been felt that the jump placed too much of a premium on having,a tall center, and it was to eliminate this that the change was made. That there was, under the old rule, too much of a premium on having a tall center cannot be questioned, and we are quite in sympathy with doing away with that. phase of the game; but it begins to look as if the way this had been accomplished was not proving satisfactory to a majority of the coaches, and we base this assertion on the number of complaints which have been registered during the com- paratively short time the new rule has been in. effect. No Rest During Halves The new rule which is now in effect states that the team which has just been scored upon may take out of bounds immediately after the basket. has been made with the throw-in being made from outside court, the defender being required to stay at least py. star artist ' a Yard away. Now, so far as can be seen on : the surface, there is nothing which would seem to indicate such a radical change in the game as the rule really makes. The change has not only taken the premium off height, but it has increased the element of speed to a surprising degree. Basketball has always been a fast game and one of the most exacting as regards stamina; but, played under the new rule, it is even faster than ever before, and I am inclined to think that it is now faster even than hockey. Speed has for some time seemed to be one of the most attractive features of sporting events; but it now looks as if it had reached a point where it was overdone, and some way must be found to curb it, without giving up the good feature of the rule which eliminates the height premium. Two Suggestions of Merit Many suggestions which their advocates claim will fix things up are being proposed, and there are at least two which seem to contain con- siderable merit. One of them is to bring back the jump, but have the tip- - off men rotate. That is, each man on the team would perform that duty in rotation. And, on the assumption that all of the players would not be tall men, the inequality which has existed in the past would be equalized. The other. is to have the ball given to the referee after each basket and have him give it to the man who is to throw it in, and whistle when play is to be resumed. In this way the players would get.a breathing spell similar to that which used to exist between jumpoffs under the old rules. Under prevailing conditions, it will be necessary for a basketball team to consist of some 15 players if the game is not to slow up to a very unsatis- factory degree through the boys becoming too tired to keep going at top speed. se “Better Basketball” aeiatie Forrest C. Allen, head basketball coach at the University of Kansas, and a recognized authority on the sport, has just written a book on the game. It is entitled “Better Basketball.” Profusely illustrated with some 163 photographs and 86 diagrams of play, the reader is given a very clear idea of the points which the author makes in explaining various offensive and defensive plays. It is from the Whittelsey House press of the Mc- Graw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, N. Y., and sells for $4.