Saturday, March 14, 2009

When you have a height advantage, "the farther away you get from the basket, the shorter you get"

My sister in Dallas emailed me a note from the Texas State 2A boy's basketball semifinals. (Texas runs from the huge 5A schools to the smaller Class A and 2A schools.)

Ponder High School, one of the 2A semifinalists, is led by 6-foot-5 Scott Gregg (pictured here).

Ponder's opponent, Santa Rosa, doesn't have a single starter over 5-foot-10.

Ponder's coach made it clear before the game that he planned to take advantage of the mismatch in height.

"You're 6-5, so we're going to make you 6-5. We're going to make sure [Gregg and another tall Ponder player] don't get too far from the basket. The farther away you get from the basket, the shorter you get."

Ponder won the game, 77-54, with Gregg leading the way with 26 points.