Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-09
WITH THE
RAH RAHBOYS
TlplNGS OF COLLEGE SPORT
EAST AND WEST
Vests Improvement in Basketball
Shown in Recent Games Between
Flves-Harvard Meets
Yale

There has been decided improve
ment in the present season in the
quality Of basket ball as played in the
colleges of the middle west, SO much
so as to call for wonderment. 1t was
not two seasons ago that eastern
teams were able to win more or less
certainly any game that was played
with a team from the conference Sec
ton 1t was explained at the time
thai the trouble was In the conflict OF
rules Out west two or three sea-
sons ago the game was strictly no-con-
tact. The strenuous blocking done on
eastern floors was not permitted and
the result was that attempts to throw
goals could be made practically from
a free territory. That is to say, the
western men could stand off some dis
lance from the person attempting to
intercept the pass or throw.
When the Wisconsin and Minnesota
teams came to the Columbia floor three
seasons ago it was an easy matter for
the eastern players to defeat them.
AT that time the difference in the
styles of play was easily observable.
1t was noticed particularly that Stein
metz, the Wisconsin player, put In
more of his time Directing to what he
called fouls than actually to playing
the game. When it came to an exam
ming the rules 1t was found that he
was justified and he was enabled to
shoot many foul goals. which made the
score more equal than 1t otherwise
would have been. The tendency on
the part of those who saw that game
was to lame Steinmetz for being rath-
er more of a lawyer than a basket ball
player, but a later view Of the sub
1ect showed that he was within his
rights.
1t became obvious at that time that
if the eastern and western teams were
to meet at all something like uniform
ity In the rules would have to be es-
tablished The fierce partlsanship of
the two sections rejected theN idea that
merely slight difference of regulations
O, the play could account for the diff
ferences In results of games, but the
players themselves realized that this
was exactly true. The result has been
that the quality of western basket ball
has picked up greatly.
West Is Improving
The games that Columbia played
against the western teams in the year
on the Columbia floor were
rather easy for the New Workers, TAX
ing them all in all, even though the
were rated high in their own
section The outcome of the games
played by Columbia and Yale on their
trips this season has been anything but
pleasing to those who believe that all
the best knowledge and play OF basket
ball exists in the section where the
game was originated.
In the game that Columbia played
some years dso, the close hlocking OF
bof Gtanf
of what has since come to be known IN
football as the basket ball pass enabled
them to win easily from the westerners.
However, the description of the games
that the Columbia men played on their
recent western trip shows that the con-
ference colleges have caught on to the
short nassing game and that the revis-
ion of the rules was the thing that en-
abled them to improve their game.
Columbia made trip through the west
last season and on that occasion had
no trouble In showing that as a general
thing they were better than the west
crn club teams which were beating the
colleges. Yale had an eminently sue
cussful trip last season, too. losing
only two games, and both of them
close.
This season, however, Columbia was
beaten twice by Minnesota and once by
Chicago, as we'll as twice by wabash
college. These defeats were enough to
show that the western teams We're SUI
nerior to the particular Columbia teams
that faced them. However, 1t is no ex'
cuse to say that previous Columbia
basket ball teams have been better than
the team of this season. The Yale team
was defeated many times on this trip
chiefly by the club fives, which, now
ever are generally able to defeat the
western college teams by about the
same margin as they defeated the New
Haven players. The Pennsylvania
team was rather more successful, but
did not meet a class of teams quite as
strong. on the whole, as the other two
colleges, nor was the trip so EXTENDED
as to tire the men all out, as the Yale
and Columbia trips undoubtedly were.
Indian at Syracuse
Antonio Lube, the captain of the Car
Isle Indian football team, mas entereo
syracuse, as was to have been eS-
nected from previous announcement.
Iubo says that he does not intend TO
fake mart in athletics because he did
not come to Syracuse with that end in
view. IL that Is true, II is partly TO
the credit of Syracuse, because 1t frees
that institution from the suspicion
that some persons have not hesitateu
to voice that the Syracuse people want
ed to corral a good football player re-
CARELESS of eligibility rules. However,
Il appears that under the Syracuse
rules Lube would hardly be able to
take part in football or other sports,
because he has exhausted his playing
years.
Rough College Sports
A man who took part in college
athletics of some years ago was dis
cussing the agitation about roughness
in sport. I He got finally on to the sub
iect OF the strain and risk of injury