The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-03-20

Macomb, Ill.,, Mar 20-- How to Eliminate the Stall in Bask-
 etba1l
 By Ray Hanson, director of athlet- ics, Western Illinois State Teachers cillege:
 First of all, if this method I am outlining is used 1t will bring back the type of basketball that we were used to before the coming of our huge field houses and gymnasiums. Basketball was originally intended to be a fast breaking game where the player had to use speed, agility, and cleverness. This was due to the fact that we had small gymnatiums. The popularity of the game was brought about by this speed.
 Some coaches claim that they in- augurated the semi-stall, slow break, or the full stall in basketball in order to be easy on their players. This, however, is an error. I do not believe that any coach devised the stall so that he could make 1t easier for his players. The only reason the stall was brought in was because he thought by using 1t he could win more basketball games.
 do not intend for this system to be used in our present game during the last three minutes of play be- cause the team that has an advan- tage and with three minutes left to play should be allowed to stall, but there is no reason why they should not be given this opportunity earlier in the game.
 Objectives of Basketball
 1. To put the ball through the hoops being the shortest possible route to get there.
 2. In all other sports there is no defensive until you have an offen- sive. All offensive is determined by the team that has the ball.
 3. There is penalty for delay in every sport except basketball. The pitcher must throw the ball within a certain time in baseball. In foot ball you have to be out of the hud- ale within a certain time then after you get out of the huddle you must act quickly putting the ball in play or there is penalty. This is also true in tennis. soccer, golf, hand ball, squash, croquet, pingpong, and even tiddle de winks. What if the pitcher in baseball decided to throw to third. second, first and then make his pitch? If the pitcher was allowed to hold the ball as long as he cared to you would soon find the crowd staying away fro mthe park.
 . 4. Whoever heard of putting the blame on the defensive team in any of our American sports especially when offensive action is desired.
 Realizing these facts and appre- ciating that something should be done to put basketball back where 1t belongs with a fast break-and scintillating offense we have worked out the following simple but effective plan to curatil the stall.
 Responsibility on Offensive
 Distinguish between offensive and defensive territory. In otherwords there is no reason why Q defensive team (the team that does not have the ball) should be made to chase the offensive team( the team with the balD all over the court:
 A. Throwing line across the cen- ter of the court parallel to the end line.
 B. Lay the blame for any delay on the team that has the ball as 1t is done in all of our American games then 1t is up to them to set the pace OL lHe DTedL lHQOOr game.
 c. As soon as the defensive team recovers the ball off the blackboard and has control of it (this control can be determined just as easily as control and possession of the ball in footbalD they immediately be- come the offensive team. Now they must play ball. They must go into the offensive territory within five seconds (counting to 25), and failure to do so will mean out of bounds at the intersection of the middle line and side line to the opponents. The offensive team may pass back over this line but must return it next time within three seconds( this time count to 15). They may pass back and forth over this line as often as they please although I doubt very much whether this will be done.
 D. The first cry of coach will be that this method is too compli- cated, needs more officiating-- and the officials have too much to handle now. This is an erroneous idea. The umpire will handle this and check by his count. We do not have any trouble with the system of checking In football in putting the ball in ply-so why should be in basket ball.
 Players Want Fast Game
 However. if the coaches feel this way about it-then let the timers handle 1t. You have two timers (one for each team). They could do 1t nicely by blowing the horn to signal for the delay.
 D. The boys themselves want to play the fast break and then there will not be any delay in this type of basketball. furthermore, we will revert to the old time basketball which was in vogue before we had the mammoth field houses and large playing floors and the desire for the coaches to win more games.
 Y. This has been worked out and proven to be satisfactory. We have used 1t in practice on several occa- sionS and found we only have to penalize a team once in tl1re prac- tice games. The team played and forgot all about the stall. further. more, played fast basketball, but not furiously.
 :. G: This rule will not be enforced the last three minutes of play as the offensive team should have the priv. neges of stalling if they 90 desire.
 Note: We want to make the game even faster than I would suggest in. stead of putting line through the exact center of the court---draw a line parallel to end line forty feet from end line and that will deter mine the offensive territory. Allow six seconds instead of Eve for team to get Into offensive territory.
 When the National Basketball Rules committee meets in New York March 2S and 20, 1t is understood