The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-20

l Wilby gym will be the scene of the | first Crosby Wilby basketball gams of the current season. Both teams are training hard for the coming contest, and a close, hard-foughi game is anticipated. Wilby, with a big, fast team will start a slight fa- vorite, as many students of basket | ball prefer the tall, rangy type of players who represent the Green and White, to the shorter type which are representing Crosby. On records to date, there is not so much to choose between the teams as one might believe.
 Crosby has played eight games. | winning six and losing two. The Schofieldmen have scored wins over the Alumni, Leavenworth, Ansonia, Gilbert, Torrington and Roxbury. and has lost the engagements with Hillhouse and Harding. Against Harding, the team simply broke , wide open and did not play up to the form of which it is capable. Against Hillhouse, the team was
 oaoly weakened by the absence from the lineup of Alderson. As the latter jumps center, his position IS a most important one, and his loss on that night was a severe one, especially as Hillhouse is unuues. | tionably represented by one of the strongest quintets in the state. That contest was really no criterion of Crosby's strength. Alderson is ex- pected to be ready to start against Wilby tomorrow night. which will permit Schofeld to throw in his full strength against the Leemen.
 Looked Good
 In the games against the Alumni
 Torrington, AnsOnia and Gilbert, crosby looked very good. The Alum. nj showed a fast aggregation of hoop-tossers, all of whom were play ing college basketball and were in good shape: Yet this years edition and inflicted crushing defeat on them. Against Torrington, Scho- fields team continued the same flashing style of game, and at one tlme held a 29-2 lead over Garey's team. Torrington is rather weak tnls year. nevertheless. no other team in the Valley League hung sueh decisive defeat on them as aid Crosby, in rolling up 54-19 score. This Crosby team is just a
 pit cratic. When they are bad, as they were against Harding, they are very bad, but by the same token, when they are good, they can hold their own with any of the school boy teams. Not So Good
 Wllby has played nine games to our Knowledge, winning five and losing four. Victories were scored over Gilbert, Leavenworth, Torring- ton, Harding, and St Mary's of Westfield, while the games with the Alumni. Lyman Hall. Central and Naugatuck were lost On records. there seems little reason why Wilbv should be installed favorite, and yet there is no doubt that she has been. After all, records do not always mean much. Wilby's losses were nearly all suffered early in the sea- son before the team seemed to have hit its stride. Once Lee got his men clicking. however. the story was different. Perhaps the reason why Wilby has been rated over Crosby, was due to the fact that Wilby quite easily defeated Harding by Alag count. while Harding stopped Cros- by by 34-21 score. The Wilby victory. however, was won on it's own floor. whereas Crosby was beat en on Harding's floor. Further more Crosby was admittedly way off against Harding, so perhaps too much weight should not be given to those comparative scores. If com pdrdtlVe scores are to be taken into account, consider this: Central whipped Wilby on Wilby's own court. but was unable to beat Tor rington in Torrington. This would indicate that Torrington is a better team than Wilby, and yet Wilby went up to Torrington and beat the latter team on it's own floor 26-11.
 It's Uncertain
 You just can't tell about this game of basketball. Very much depends on the breaks of the game. All teams and all players have nights when it seems as if every kind of a shot sinks, and likewise they expe- rience nights when the veriest
 sucker" shots are repeatedly
 missed. A year ago Crosby took the first game from Wilby and made Wilby look anything but good doing 1t. A month later. 8 re-vamped but decidedly inexperienced Wilby team defeated the same Crosby team, and did 1t as easy as anything.
 The element of chance has to be considered in basketball and a series Of three or four lucky shots has changed the complexion of many . game. turning team which was previously regarded as only "so-sos