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TRANSITION TO THE NEW TYPE BACKBOARD
By H. V. Porter, Secretary
National Basketball Committee

When the National Basketball Committee lesalized the new fan shaped back-
board last spring, there was much speculation as to how the action would be
received, Developments during the current season should be gratifying to those
who were advocates of the new board, The transition has been more rapid than
even its more ardent supporters had any right to expect. It has been more rapid
in some sections of the country than in others, This is to be expected, Prob-
ably the greatest number of the new tyve boards have been installed in the cen-
tral states although there is a healthy sprinkling of them on the Pacific Coast
and in the Atlantic states, Not so many have been reported in the southern st-
ates,

The transition has been especially rapid among the high schools, This is
partly because there have been so many new high school gymnasiums erected dur-
ing the last year or two and nearly all of the schoolmen who are getting new
buildings anticipated the possible change and installed the new type backboard
or arranged with the contractor to make the transition if and when the new ones
should be legalized, The action of last spring found these schools in an excel
lent position to take advantage of the smaller type board. Another reason why
the transition has been rapid in high schools is that they have been experimen-
ting during the last several years to determine the waste space on the larger
board and to find the advantages which are present when this waste space is eli-
minated,

The states of Kansas, Wyoming, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois have announced
that the new type backboards will be used in all state sponsored tournaments --
wherever the local manager finds it convenient to install them, In Wyoming,
Kansas and Illinois, announcement has already been made that all final tourna-
ments will be played on courts equipped with the new backboard, It is signifi-
cant that in the case of Illinois, the tournament committee decided in Septem-
ber that the state finals would be played with the old tyne board but between
September and December the transition to the new type among the one thousand
mémber high schools was so rapid that the state committee rescinded its former
action and announced that the new type board would be used in the finals,

The reports indicate that the new boards are very popular with players,
coaches and spectators, They improve the appearance of the court and statis~
tics show that there is a great tendency for players to make greater use of the
area behind the plane of the backboard, Plays tend to come in from all direc-
tions, Actual charts have been made to indicate the number of times a try for
goal or pass from or to the end area are such that the larger board would have
been an actual or mental hazard, “nough of these figures have been collected
to indicate that many of the claimed advantages are actually present and teams
are learning to profit by the greater freedom of movement which is permitted,
when the lower and outside edges of the old board are not present, There is
every reason to believe that this is one of the most popular changes that has
been made for a number of years, It is safe to preduct that apvroximately
half of the courts will be equipved with the new type board before the end of
next season,

NET TEAM BLANKED,--Minneapolis, January 31 (AP)--Mt, Olivet Lutheran's
basketball team lost the game last night but set a record around these parts—
by apt h ine to score a point, Knox Presbyterian won, 58-0,