Best posts made by 5yardfuller

Drew Gooden and Nick Collison were back-to-back NABC POYs.

No theory, just some notes…

The quote first appeared in the Indianapolis News on March 28, 1936 as “basketball really had its beginning in Indiana which remains today the center of the sport.” He reportedly said it the day before at a dinner at the YMCA in Indianapolis. Naismith was in town to speak at the dinner and to attend the state high school tournament.

The article went on to say, “Enlarging on his statement, Dr. Naismith pointed to the early organization in 1911 of an Indiana high school basketball tournament and to the success enjoyed by this tourney during the intervening twenty-six years.” “Yes, Indiana’s leadership in the game today is unchallenged, especially in high schools,” he said, "but as for skill – that is to be seen.”

The Indianapolis Star also covered the dinner but does not mention any such quote by Naismith.

The quote jaybate gave has a slightly different wording using the word origin instead of beginning and eliminating the word today. This version of the quote is much more widespread.

@JayHawkFanToo I think it seems fairly clear that the rule change for free throws was instigated by Tex Winter because he thought Chamberlain could do it. Below is a link to a Bill Mayer column from March 28, 1956 which gives some details.

As to whether Chamberlain ever did do it, Dick Harp said no in the Mayer column. I found another article from the Des Moines Tribune also from March 28, 1956 which said, "Harp laughed when asked if Wilt could dunk a free throw. “I’ve heard that story,” he said, “but I’ve never seen him do it, either in practice or a game. I think that’s one rumor you can lay to rest.”

Mayer column

The headline is a mistake. The article does not say anything about POY. POY hasn’t been announced yet.

mayjay said:

@Texas-Hawk-10 I think you are seriously understating Indiana’s successful history that is not just primarily associated with B Knight. They had two HOF coaches before him. In fact, they fit pretty much every criteria I set out above except they “only” have 8 F4s. Since they won 5 championships, however, that pretty much makes up for it.

Incidentally, two other cool facts about Indiana in the Wikipedia article: glass backboards started there, and, of course, the last undefeated team (1976).

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Hoosiers_men’s_basketball

Edit: The coach who won the 2 titles before Knight was elected as a player, but his record sure looks like he would have gotten in as a coach.

The claim of Indiana having the first glass backboards in 1917 is completely bogus. Naismith had glass backboards installed in Robinson Gymnasium when it was built in 1907 and KU used them for many years. Indiana wasn’t even the first in the their own conference to use glass backboards, Illinois and Purdue were already using them.