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.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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