Common Sense In.
By Handley Cross Basket Ball

Ed McNichol, Famous University of Pennsylvania Player and
Coach, Talks About the Popular Court Game

course—every college, almost, has

pee: systems? Of

its basket-ball system,” said Ed

McNichol, University of Pennsylvania

varsity basket-ball coach, settling him-

self comfortably for a talk in the Red
and Blue’s athletic general headquarters
at Franklin Field, in Philadelphia. “But
there is something far more important
in basket ball than systems of play, no
matter how good those systems may be.
That something is common sense! And
common sense in basket ball means mak-
ing the best of your material—getting
the most out of your players. .

— “Take our 1928-1929 team as an ex-
ample. It wasn’t a really great team,
although it won the championship of the
Eastern Intercollegiate League. A
good team, yes—but not a great team.
If we hadn’t used our common sense,

_-and had tried to play the same brand of

basket ball that we used to play here at
Pennsylvania back in the years between
1918 and.1921, when we did have really
great teams, we would have finished
third or fourth in the league race. But
we did use our common sense, and that
meant using to the limit our most effec-
tive offensive weapon—‘Sharpshooter’
Joey Schaaf. Circumstances made it
‘_necessary that our strategy have just one
object—to work Joey Schaaf into posi-
tion to shoot for a basket, and then to
give him the ball. It wasn’t a one-man
team, because it took good teamwork by
the other players to get Schaaf into po-
sition to shoot, but it was a team built

around the scoring ghitty of one great
offensive player. And it was a team
good enough to win the league title.”

A BASKET-BALL FAMILY.

Ed McNichol is a member of a fam-
ily famous in the annals of University
of Pennsylvania basket ball. Seven

- McNichol brothers—Harry, Dan, Jim,

Joe, John, Frank and Ed—have helped
to make basket-ball history at Old Penn,
and between 1905, when Harry entered
college, and 1917, when Ed was gradu-
ated, almost every Pennsylvania team
that took the court had a McNichol play-
ing on it. In 1925 the. McNichol clan
gathered under its family banner and
defeated the Penn varsity team, 23 to
18. All of the brothers played in that
game, the starting line-up being Harry,
Dan, Jim, John and Ed, and Joe and
Frank acting as substitutes.

Ed McNichol played on his freshman
basket-ball team, and on the varsity for
three years, and also played varsity
baseball. He started coaching at Penn-
sylvania shortly after being graduated,

_and has been varsity coach for the past

ten years. He has been an outstanding
success. In those ten years Pennsyl-
vania has won the championship of the
Eastern Intercollegiate League four
times—in 1920, 1921, 1928 and 1929;
has finished second once; fourth, three
times; fifth, once; and last, once.
Penn’s victory in 1920 gave the uni-

_versity permanent possession of the