We live in the land of 48 oz porterhouse and big gulp soft drinks, etc. I don't think things will change anytime soon. I agree with you, but see no solution.

borna, my favorite quote from that game, may have actually been on the same play, was something along the lines of,"They usually don't call that because he got his hand on the ball first."  The fact that a nanosecond after he touched the ball he had knocked the former possessor of the ball flat on his ass apparently didn't mean a thing.  It seemed to me that that whole game was called that way, and that this call was one of the few called right that night. I know some here thought it was a well-called game because "they let 'em play."  I thought much differently.  It seemed to me to be football without helmets and pads.  I agree with you that we need more emphasis on basketball-specific skills and less on brute force basketball.  One thing I'd like to see that would help a little bit in this regard is to move the basket up to 11 feet.  I remember years ago SI did a study of this and had some experimental courts set up with 11 foot hoops. Interestingly, not only did it reduce a little the advantage of the Big Manz underneath offensively, it also resulted in a lot more missed shots being rebounded by the guards because the angle of arc of the ball on shots at 11-foot basket sent balls off the rim on missed shots at a different angle that often ended up away from the big men underneath.  Now, this is just one rather unscientific study conducted by SI so that might not be what would happen in real life, but I think it's worth investigating. 

When I was in school back in the 70's at Muskingum, they had one of those in Cambridge called Bear Creek.  I knew some pretty big eaters and a few who went there with the munchies.  No one ever ate the whole thing.

Blow the whistle when there's traveling and palming.

THat's funny. Black and white TV.

I am not all that excited about raising the hoop but you think by getting the game closer to the fundamentals that produced higher scoring and involved greater skills we would be taking it back to somewhere in the 60's? No one is advocating four corner offenses or getting rid of the shot clock.....just making it more watchable and valuing BASKETBALL skills over turning the game into a wrestling match or giving the offensive player an undue advantage with the ability to freeze the ball and gain an advantage with a first step or extra steps or on the other side limiting the ability of the defender to hack and slap or bump without consequence.

The physicality of the game was evermore apparent to me in this year's NCAA Tournament.  Rougher than ever imo.  Basketball is a game of "skills"!  Probably baseball and basketball are 2 games that represent a game of many skills, more than others.  Just my opinion!  Why would we want to take the skills away from the game of basketball?  That's what the physical aspect is doing and IMO will ruin the essence of the game.  The game should be played to show off the necessary skill sets needed.  It is not a wrestling match - Thank God!

required knowledge here in grade school LOL. I kid....

Chicken wire/chain link was used to seperate fans from players up into the 1930s. Fans often impeded or went toe to toe with opposing players or more often threw stuff on the court. The cage was done away with when the oob rules changed and there were becoming a ton of injuries due to using the cage in the same way hockey uses the boards. THe cage actually had a functional use speeding up the game as there was no OOB lines and they played it off the screen IIRC.

I have an actual picture from here in Muncie taken before 1928 where fans are hanging over the balcony blocking shots from going in the basket. I will see if I can scare that one up sometime. It is in a book called Hoosier Temples written by a friend of mine.

nice find Jeff.

GLad that the coaches are realizing what change is doing to the game.

I think the game had a better flow in the days when teams had the freedom to work hard to get that 12-18 foot jump shot.  This is an oversimplification, but teams today tend to dribble drive and dish out to 20 ft for a three pointer. 

What would happen in football if teams got more points for a 40 yard FG than a 20 yard FG?  Can an analogy be drawn to the three point shot's effect on the game?  Maybe not, but it's an interesting question. 

Uh oh...