SPORTS
The three has changed basketball
One of the biggest introductions to a sport at all levels was the adoption of the 3-point line in basketball.
With roots dating back to 1945, it was the rival professional basketball league to the NBA, the American Basketball Association that made it popular throughout its nine year history from 1968-1976. The NBA adopted it later for the 1979-80 season.
College basketball flirted with it for most of the 1980s, with several conferences featuring it only during conference play. It wasn’t until the 1986-87 season where it was adopted along all of college basketball.
That same year was also when it was adopted at the high school level across the nation.
Current Lindsay boy’s basketball coach Chris Cornelison was a player at Bowie during that time and remembers the attitude towards the shot was the prevailing strategy for decades to come.
“I don’t think we really looked at it as a gimmick, but we definitely had players that where quality perimeter shooters,” Cornelison said. “Having played for Coach (Gayno) Shelton my freshman through junior year, you definitely had to earn the right to take those shots. Coach Shelton’ players were very well disciplined and you new what shots you were expected to take. I think that during that time as well you were either an inside player or a perimeter player and it was not considered a high percentage shot, especially for the post players.”
Shelton remembers heading into the season not being too worried about it.
“It was okay with me,” Shelton said. “I remember I got a call from the Wichita Falls Times Record News sports writer. The question he was asking me was do you think it will change the game? Do you think this and that. I said, I don’t think so. I said what we will use it for is for defensive reference on how we are going to cover this team. But was I wrong? Did it change the game? Well, it surely did.”
The game was dominated by tall, large post players for most of its history.
Now at the highest level only one is usually required and the ability to move their feet in space on defense in order to not give up open shots is a requirement to get important minutes.
Post ups used to be a feature of most offenses. Nowadays at the highest level, post ups are saved for when a player gets a favorable mismatch on a significantly shorter player since defenses use a switching style defenses in order to not give up open shots from the perimeter.
The dominant tall players now are rarely just planted in the post. They are more skilled then ever, with the ability to handle the ball, shoot from the perimeter as well as score from the post.
While it wasn’t an overnight change, the biggest change in philosophy has come in the last decade. At the professional level, 3-point attempts were at 18.4 a game 10 years ago to almost doubling that this past season at 35.2 attempts a game. Despite almost every player at every position shooting them now growing up, the percentage has hovered around a 35 percent average since the mid 1990s.
The answer to why is as simple as math according to Prairie Valley boy’s basketball coach Seth Stephens.
“The simple way to look at it is, if you can shoot 35 percent from three, you’re already at 1.05 points per possession,” Stephens said. “That’s a significantly lower percentage than the 50 percent you have to shoot from inside the arc to get to just one point per passion.”
In other words, a team shooting league average from the 3-point line will score as many points as team making half of its shots from inside the arc. One is easier to achieve than the other.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
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