The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1937-12-23
s Sport
~ Wags

S~ " NXS
BY Chuck Rattle
Well, your columnist, in his own
humble way, has been busy the last
few days discussing this new bask-
etball game that has evolved with
some OF the old timers. The elm
ination of the center jump has
speeded the game UP so that the
boys who knew the game when are
frankly In q muddle and lost in the
chaos of the whole affair. From
some corners the howl that has
gone up on the changes in the
game has been greater than IL a
republican had been found in the
cabinet with apologies to Don APP
pert, st. Cloud Sentinel sage.)
$50
Primarily the heavy fouling has
them confused. Years ago 1t took a
slap on the kisser to get a foul call
ed. Today II you look cross-eyed or
stick out your tongue at the oppon-
emit, the ref slaps the finger on you.
Briefly there's this to keep in
mind: Any bodily contact Is a foul
II the ref calls them accurately and
according to the rules. OF course he
is allowed leeway, but basically
that Is the rule. Here's case in
point. A has the ball. He tries to
come up dribbling. Defensive men
are set, almost stationary. He
barges into them; it is a foul. A
craftsmanship conduct foul has al
so been added, by the way, though
up to now I've never seen 1t oper-
ate. If a man trips or pushes inten-
tionally the subject of his deliberate
advances will be awarded two
shots. One shot for the act of trip
ping, another for the unsportsman-
like conduct. And that holds even
If he fouls man not with the ball
in his possession.
Now then as regards the
game itself. The increased speed
is of course due to the elimina-
tom Of the center jump. As
soon as q team has taken q
shot, they should cover In case
Of q miss. But In case the shot
IL made, it's one mad scramble
to be back on the defensive
because the ball goes auto
matically out of bounds to the
heretofore defensive opponent
or the team just defending the
basket at which the shot was
taken.
This corner brings up the
suggestion that all games should
bew0rked with two referees.
With all the rulings the offic-
ial has TO watch, It's q diff
cult job for one TO handle.
Some were q bit perturbed by the
number OF fouls called by the refer
ZEE Thursday night, yet there were
some he missed, and no discredit
to him. Yet with the speed that
game started had he not called
them closely, the game would have
been out OF his hands. It's quite
generally admitted that the new
game called upon in this melee of
adjustment is somewhat over the
heads Of high school players. Their
experience is too limited for one
thing, and another they don't have
the mental poise to perceive the
situations that naturally arise from
so speedy a game. Yet it's to their
credit when they turn in good per-
founances.
While some coaches are beefing
about the changes and the firing
grind it demands of high school
players, Coach Toftness voiced the
opinion he liked it. It gives him his
best chance to develop the system
he has his team pursuing. He adj
mitted that it demands much of
high school players and that many
times it got out of the hands of
such young teams, but he likes it
anyway. For one thing it has devel-
oped as exciting and entertaining
a game of basketball as has ever
been. But this ten second ruling
that team is given to bring the
ball UP the floor and across the
mid court stripe, is the thorn in
the apple. He says it tends to COM
pei teams to play far down the
court and that many Of them ex-