The Times West Virginian

WVU Sports

January 28, 2010

HERTZEL COLUMN: Basketball a contact sport

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — Somewhere in the middle of the second half of West Virginia’s 62-46 victory over DePaul, Da’Sean Butler had a great awakening that almost put him to sleep.

The Chicago Tribune’s fine sports writer Brian Hamilton described it this way:

“As the horn blew for a timeout midway through the second half Tuesday, West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler lay in a heap on the Allstate Arena floor, collecting what remained of his consciousness.

“Krys Faber stood over him, the DePaul center confused about how his elbow met Butler’s face. Officials booted Faber from the game anyway. Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins meandered to midcourt, barking. The Blue Demons faithful in the seats raged.”

Whether the elbow was intentional or not will be left to you amateur officials, the professional ones having already expressed their opinion, but that is not the central point anyway.

The heart of the issue really is whether or not the sport of college basketball is becoming too physical.

Certainly, a case can be made for that, especially in the Big East, where they play the game with blood, sweat and tears, all in about the same quantity.

This DePaul-West Virginia game was a fine example of that.

“They played really hard, really physical,” Huggins said. “(Interim coach Tracy Webster) is doing what he needs to do to give his guys a chance to win.”

You never will hear Huggins complain about the physicality that has elbowed its way into college basketball, he being one of the main proponents of the style.

The ever observant Mr. Hamilton called it a “blood-boiling affair” and noted the limbs were flailing as 43 fouls were called out of who knows how many that could have been.

The Big East would have you believe it has a patent on physical play, but it does not. It is everywhere, in part because the players have outgrown the confines of the basketball court. The 10-foot basket was once a challenge to athletes, it is now something they simply look down their nose at.

The lane once was wide enough to keep the congestion away, but now there is talk of widening it, if for no other reason to open up space for a smaller man to operate.

See, they aren’t bigger just in the Big East. Even what they refer to as mid-majors face a similar situation and the coaches have come to accept it.

The name Jim Larranaga might be familiar. He led George Mason to a Cinderella run to the NCAA’s Final Four in 2006. This would tend to make you believe this veteran coach understands the game, and earlier in the day Tuesday, before Da’Sean Butler was introduced to Krys Faber’s elbow, the conversation on the Colonial Athletic Association coaches conference call turned to the physical nature of the sport.

Larranaga expressed the situation in basketball as well as anyone can.

“Basketball,” he began, “is a contact sport.”

There was no dancing around the reality there. If it once was set up to be a precision sport without contact, those days are gone.

“The whole battle is for space,” he said. “The offense is looking to get separation to get a shot off. The defense is looking to be as close as possible to stop that shot.”

As simple as that, Larranaga broke down the essence of the game and why there is contact.

But has it gone too far?

Blaine Taylor is an old cowboy out of Montana, coaching the Old Dominion Monarchs in the CAA, the team tied for first place and the pre-season pick to win the conference. His teams are very Hugginsesque, if you will.

The Monarchs are is ranked third in scoring defense in the NCAA, allowing only 55.5 points a game, and tied for 11th in rebounding margin, pulling down 7.6 more rebounds than their opponents.

Taylor plays a physical game and understands what is going on in the NCAA.

“The players are bigger, faster, stronger. There’s going to be a lot of contact,” he said. “The international kids come here and are amazed how physical it is.”

Some say the officials are at fault but Taylor disagrees.

“I wouldn’t want to point fingers at officiating. It’s a difficult game to officiate,” he said.

There are, of course, ways to cut back on the physical nature of the game and certainly officiating differently would help, but that would take away part of what makes the game as popular as it is, as artistically pleasing as ballet and as dangerous as a bullet.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.

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