The Washington times., 1937-01-02
BASKETBALL OFFICIAL FROWNS ON "WHZSTLLN(
bennett SAYS
T0otS Bore
Spectators
BY FRANK BUCK" O'NEILL


mer basketball star at United
States Naval Academy, and one of
the outstanding officials Of the
court game, is another Of the in
creasing number of referees who
are against constant blowing the
whistle. footing on a whistle ac-
complishes little beyond boring the
spectators and unsettling the play
ers, bennett will tell you. The
character of the game rather than
the number of fouls called pretty
well determines the roughness Of a
contest.
Players will commit fouls un-
Intentionally because of aggreS-
Siveness of spirit" bennett told
the writer this morning. "SOme
times they become tired and in
their fatigue commit minor of.
fenses that they would not "Om-
init if they were fresh.
"Then some fouls are COM
mitted which do not affect the
development of q play. Fouls of
that nature may well be over
looked in the interest of speed.
/ think the crowds come to see
the game and not to hear the
whistle.
MINOR INFRACTIONS
"DOn't misinterpret that
statement" said Lieutenant
bennett. 81 don't mean that
fouls should be ignored, nor
that games should be under.
Officiated any more than I
think that they should be over
Officiated. Minor infractiOnS
crop up frequently, and if you
stick too closely to the letter Of
the rules you will drive the
players into a mad house, and
drive the crowd out to the
streets.
"The officials of the Big Ten
Conference have the right
idea," bennett said. "They are
more liberal in their rule inter
pretatiOnS than some Of the
Eastern officials. This tends
to increase crowd interest, and
detracts nothing from the
game. More liberal interpre-
tatiOn Of the rules is found
preferable to strict adherence to
the letter of the code.
"The crowds in the Middle
West are greater than in this
sector, because of the gymnaSia
available. Butler, for instance,
has a gymnasium that will seat
nearly 10000 spectators. There's
. little town of MartfnSville
out there; town of 5000, and
it has gym to seat the entire
population of the city. That's
better than we have here"
Fred MeSmer came home with a
broad grin upon his face. For the
second consecutive year the HoyaS
trimmed the sheets of New York
University on the basketball courts.
HOyas Thrill Gotham
New York city thrilled to the
play Of a Georgetown club that
knew all the angles of the court
and all the answers to the problems
Of the game. It is said in New
York that some of the Violets were
sick. But the probabilities are that
Georgetown could beat the VioletS
any time the teams met.
Ed Kurtyka showed more basket
ball after he went into the game
as a replacement than he has
shown at any time this season.
He found the basket with unerring
skill,
New York is still reeling under
the shock of the defeat of Long
Island University at the hands of
Stanford. The Cardinal Injuns
from Palo Alto swung into action
and before long the crowd was
roofing for the Native Sons to
swamp the Blackbirds. Well, win
ming by score of As to 81 may
not be swamping rival, but it
gives them a pretty clever sort Of
q cleaning.
Leads Indians
That stalwart youngster, Luisetti
led the Stanford team in fine
style. He was all over the court.
Sanford specialized in one handed
shots for the basket, and in the
preliminary warm up, lot of the
crowd pegged the Indians as
fancy Dams" who would shortly
come to grief.
But as the game wore along, the
unusual style of the visitors
proved to be sound as we'll as at
tractive.
Georgetown had an opportunity
to practice with the Cardinal In
juns, and gained much out of the
experience. AS a matter of fact,
the Hoyas used a few Stanford
developments against New York
University with signal success.