{"id":1597,"date":"2015-03-30T00:50:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T00:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=1597"},"modified":"2015-03-30T00:50:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T00:50:27","slug":"progress-from-the-1950s-is-clearly-evident-in-basketball-and-march-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/?p=1597","title":{"rendered":"Progress from the 1950s is clearly evident in basketball and March Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Terry<\/a><\/p>\n

TERRY MOSHER<\/p>\n

I view the march of time as a march of progress, although you couldn\u2019t convince me of that if you looked through the lens of ISIS, which is determined I believe to set back the Earth clock to the 1400s.<\/p>\n

I also believe that progress as we struggled through the informational age that allows us to view things in real time no matter where on Earth things are happening is racing us toward End Times. \u00a0End times for me will happen way before the real End Times as forecast in the Bible is delivered.<\/p>\n

Revolutions and evolutions in just about everything is happening at a faster and faster pace so much so that it\u2019s difficult to keep up with the new inventions that allow us to continue that march forward.<\/p>\n

Part of that progress is mirrored in sports. Since we are currently going through the final stages of March Madness I\u2019ll explain that in basketball sense. As I watch March Madness unfold, I continue to tell our teenage son that a move that we just saw on a hardwood floor would not be possible to be made when I was playing basketball as a young kid.<\/p>\n

Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s if your fumbled a pass that forced you to dribble the ball then that was the only dribble you were allowed. But if you look closely in today\u2019s game a player fumbles the ball, picks it back up and then dribbles. Back in my day that would be traveling.<\/p>\n

Also, if you drove to the hoop and took a step to deliver a shot, it was traveling. As soon as you lifted your pivot foot, it was traveling. Now you are allowed to dribble drive and take two steps before delivering a shot or a pass. Sometimes it seems the player is taking three steps, but I guess it really doesn\u2019t matter because the difference between when I played as a young kid and how they do it now is done in the name of progress.<\/p>\n

The real progress or evolution of the game is in the nature of the players who play the game. Back in my day you were taught to make two-handed chest passes and shoot the ball with both hands. In a column I recently wrote, I was kind of a maverick in that regard because I didn\u2019t always do it that way, and I didn\u2019t follow the accepted norm because I had to learn to play, as I wrote before, against older brothers who were very athletic and their friends who were also athletic and, of course much bigger because they were all older than me.<\/p>\n

As a result I learned to handle the ball quite well and on drives to the hoop to flip one-handed behind the back passes to open teammates. Often passes were done off the dribble by hitting the ball with the palm of my hand in the direction I wanted to pass the ball.<\/p>\n

I also had to learn to move to open spots there I could accept a pass and quickly get off a one-handed shot before older and bigger defenders soared in on me. That meant anticipating where the ball was going to do when an opponent shot the ball. So I learned court awareness at a very young age.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s game, though, is much more developed all in the name of progress. Besides the tweaks in the rules (two steps and then shoot or pass the ball, for example), players have gotten much, much better. If I had been in a time warp and fast forwarded from the 1950s to today, as good as I was back then, I would not even be allowed in the gym today.<\/p>\n

We as a people have progressed in physical development, although in the United States the average male has grown just over an inch since 1950. \u00a0However, more and more males who are much taller are being developed through various training programs to be faster, quicker, and stronger with basketball skills to match. So now you have 7-footers who can bring the ball up court like a point guard, can shoot the threes, and go inside and be physically tough around the rim lower blocks to defend or to dunk.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s created a new game as I discovered once again by extensively watching March Madness. The thing that surprised me the most is how much the rim is defended. Guys go up to dunk and are met at and above the rim by defenders who swat the ball away. It was amazing to watch.<\/p>\n

Probably the next step in that will be the offensive player expecting their shot to be rejected and for teammates to grab the rejected ball and go back to the hoop with it.<\/p>\n

Watching on TV doesn\u2019t give you an idea of just how big these guys are for what they are doing. Guys don\u2019t look that tall on TV, but if you are sitting courtside you get the real picture, and you can\u2019t help be amazing how athletic and how high these guys are jumping, and the speed at which they do it.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/a><\/p>\n

SAM DEKKER, WISCONSIN<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The progress of the three-shot is also remarkable. Some of these shooters are unconscious. You see them hitting 25-footers with a defender right in their face. Wisconsin\u2019s Sam Dekker, who is six-foot-nine, was unbelievable against Arizona. He nailed five threes, a couple of them that broke the back of Arizona, and scored 27 points to get the Badgers to the Final Four.<\/p>\n

Before I end this, I have to say I was disappointed in how Gonzaga played in losing to Duke. They made far too many mistakes and Duke, which I didn\u2019t think would get his far, sent the Zags back home to Spokane.<\/p>\n

Notre Dame played extremely well in losing by just two to Kentucky. The Irish with any Irish Luck should have, could have, won that game to end Kentucky\u2019s winning streak.<\/p>\n

So now, it\u2019s going to very interesting to see if Wisconsin can upend Kentucky at the Final Four this next weekend.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n

Be well pal.<\/p>\n

Be careful out there.<\/p>\n

Have a great day.<\/p>\n

You are loved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TERRY MOSHER I view the march of time as a march of progress, although you couldn\u2019t convince me of that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mosher","category-people","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1599,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1597\/revisions\/1599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sportspaper.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}