March 26, 2012--Outside the Arc
Outside the arc is 19.75 feet if you're a high schooler; 20.5 feet if you're a woman; 20.75 if you're a guy; and 22 feet even if you're a pro . . . in the NBA.
The arc is the 3-point line. If you can manage to keep both feet and all your toes beyond or outside it, and shoot the ball through the net hanging from the basketball rim, you get 3 points.
In my day, there was no such line and the only way to score 3 points was to hit your shot, get fouled in the act of shooting, and make the free throw.
But to the basketball gods, this was too boring, what with baseball trying to become more entertaining by juicing the ball so steroided-up sluggers could hit more home runs. Small ball, which emphasized hitting behind the runner so he could advance to second or third base or sacrificing yourself with a well-placed bunt to accomplish the same result was deemed to be too stodgy.
Too boooorrrring.
For basketball, too, the old rules were thought not to be jazzy enough. So they devised the 24-second clock during the 1954-55 season which required NBA teams to shoot the ball within that time frame so they no longer could slow the game down by what was then called "freezing" the ball.
But this too was too boooorrrring.
So then during the 1979-80 season the NBA established the 3-point shot.
I am reminded of this because during the past couple of weeks I have found myself watching more basketball than is healthy for a normal adult. I have become sort of swept into March Madness, that three-week period that comes, like the spring, every March when the best college basketball teams compete for the national championship. The madness commences with 64 teams, then gets cut in half to 32, after that to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, the Whatever Two (there is not as yet an alliterative name for the semifinalists), and then the overall winner.
I said "sort of" swept into the tournament because I have very little interest in college basketball, only marginal interest in the NBA version; but this year I have been watching because a very sick friend from North Carolina is passionate about his Tar Heals. I watch them especially so my friend and I have something to talk about other than CAT scans and chemo. He, more than I, wants respite from the real madness he is enduring.
To give me something else to think about while hoping that UNC's talented point guard, Kendall Marshall, will be able to play in spite of a broken hand, I have been thinking about my own short-lived basketball career (it ended after high school). Especially about how we tried to play like a team, always moving without the ball; always looking for the open man (really boy); weaving the ball, as it was described at the time; not worrying about the clock; all the while attempting to keep the score low so we could could steal a win even if my team, the Rugby Rockets, managed to score only 25 point. In total--not in a quarter or a half.
Needless to say there was no 3-point line.
Boooorrrring!!!
Watching this past few weeks, it appears that most of the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight are obsessed with 3-pointers.
In games this past weekend, for instance, Kansas, which beat NC State (not my friend's UNC), scored a total of 60 points, attempted 21 3-pointers, making 6, so that 18 of their points were from outside the arc.
And Louisville, which defeated Michigan State by a score of 57-44, attempted 23 3-pointers, made 9 of them; and thus 27 of their 57 points--or 47 percent--were from 3-point land.
To me, boooorrrring!!!
But I have a solution.
Keep the 3-pointer, but change the rule for their use. Restrict them to the final five minutes of each half for college games and to the second and fourth quarters of NBA games. Thereby, when a team is trailing by a wide margin they can potentially catch up more quickly than if only 2-pointers are allowed. This rule change would make ends of quarters and halves and games more exciting.
Fuddy-duddies like me would be happy watching more team play and those seeking high scores and thrilling long-distance shot-making would also have their version of fun.
I think I'll run this idea by my friend after his next chemo treatment. My guess--he'd get rid of 3-pointers altogether. He's that wonderfully old fashioned.
Note--Kendall Marshall was unable to play and UNC lost to Kansas.
The arc is the 3-point line. If you can manage to keep both feet and all your toes beyond or outside it, and shoot the ball through the net hanging from the basketball rim, you get 3 points.
In my day, there was no such line and the only way to score 3 points was to hit your shot, get fouled in the act of shooting, and make the free throw.
But to the basketball gods, this was too boring, what with baseball trying to become more entertaining by juicing the ball so steroided-up sluggers could hit more home runs. Small ball, which emphasized hitting behind the runner so he could advance to second or third base or sacrificing yourself with a well-placed bunt to accomplish the same result was deemed to be too stodgy.
Too boooorrrring.
For basketball, too, the old rules were thought not to be jazzy enough. So they devised the 24-second clock during the 1954-55 season which required NBA teams to shoot the ball within that time frame so they no longer could slow the game down by what was then called "freezing" the ball.
But this too was too boooorrrring.
So then during the 1979-80 season the NBA established the 3-point shot.
I am reminded of this because during the past couple of weeks I have found myself watching more basketball than is healthy for a normal adult. I have become sort of swept into March Madness, that three-week period that comes, like the spring, every March when the best college basketball teams compete for the national championship. The madness commences with 64 teams, then gets cut in half to 32, after that to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, the Whatever Two (there is not as yet an alliterative name for the semifinalists), and then the overall winner.
I said "sort of" swept into the tournament because I have very little interest in college basketball, only marginal interest in the NBA version; but this year I have been watching because a very sick friend from North Carolina is passionate about his Tar Heals. I watch them especially so my friend and I have something to talk about other than CAT scans and chemo. He, more than I, wants respite from the real madness he is enduring.
To give me something else to think about while hoping that UNC's talented point guard, Kendall Marshall, will be able to play in spite of a broken hand, I have been thinking about my own short-lived basketball career (it ended after high school). Especially about how we tried to play like a team, always moving without the ball; always looking for the open man (really boy); weaving the ball, as it was described at the time; not worrying about the clock; all the while attempting to keep the score low so we could could steal a win even if my team, the Rugby Rockets, managed to score only 25 point. In total--not in a quarter or a half.
Needless to say there was no 3-point line.
Boooorrrring!!!
Watching this past few weeks, it appears that most of the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight are obsessed with 3-pointers.
In games this past weekend, for instance, Kansas, which beat NC State (not my friend's UNC), scored a total of 60 points, attempted 21 3-pointers, making 6, so that 18 of their points were from outside the arc.
And Louisville, which defeated Michigan State by a score of 57-44, attempted 23 3-pointers, made 9 of them; and thus 27 of their 57 points--or 47 percent--were from 3-point land.
To me, boooorrrring!!!
But I have a solution.
Keep the 3-pointer, but change the rule for their use. Restrict them to the final five minutes of each half for college games and to the second and fourth quarters of NBA games. Thereby, when a team is trailing by a wide margin they can potentially catch up more quickly than if only 2-pointers are allowed. This rule change would make ends of quarters and halves and games more exciting.
Fuddy-duddies like me would be happy watching more team play and those seeking high scores and thrilling long-distance shot-making would also have their version of fun.
I think I'll run this idea by my friend after his next chemo treatment. My guess--he'd get rid of 3-pointers altogether. He's that wonderfully old fashioned.
Note--Kendall Marshall was unable to play and UNC lost to Kansas.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:13 AM
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