By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — Perfectly symmetrical with a circumference of 29 inches, the sphere is inflated to 20 ounces for proper bounce-back. The grainy surface is just right for grip and the black seams are well defined.
The color is a nice brown, but a bit drab.
Deduct two tenths for the hue and the score is 9.8. Is the medal ceremony at halftime and do the winners advance?
That’s what comes to mind every time an announcer says so-and-so is “scoring the basketball.” Not simply scoring or scoring with the basketball. Just maybe the confounding phrase is a derivative of the equally irritating and over-used “golfing his ball.”
Increased attention on college basketball is still 34 bowl games away, but there has been a sufficient amount of exposure to expand the list of pet peeves.
Some have been around for years. For instance, the close-up of a furious coach screaming at an official is accompanied by “He didn’t like that call.”
What a surprise.
Please provide a heads-up when a coach holds a postgame news conference to praise the officials for calling 18 fouls on his team. “We mugged ‘em all night and deserved more fouls,” would be news.
Another mainstay on the list is the use of the phrase “run,” and the over emphasis on outscoring an opponent over a particular period of time. There should be a minimum differential of 15 points to even be considered a run. Ten-to-two does not meet the criteria.
Even the so-called runs are not necessarily knockout blows.
Recently, North Carolina opened 9-2 over Kentucky and the Wildcats scored the next 16. From 18-11, Kentucky scored another 12 straight and the lead was 19. The final was Kentucky 68, North Carolina 66.
Attempts to keep viewers tuned in tend toward the dramatic.
There is the unranked so-and-so has No. 6 so-and-so “on the ropes” at halftime when the score is 40-34. With 40 or 50 possessions or more available in the second half, a proclivity for the 3-point shot, poor free throw shooting, and turnovers, a six-point lead can disappear in less than a minute.
A few days ago, playing at home, Alabama led nationally ranked Purdue by 16 in the second half. The Boilermakers won by eight.
The next time a young man hits a game-winning shot at the buzzer, there is no need to show him racing down the court, thumbs underneath his jersey, displaying the team name. Viewers know who won and who lost and let’s assume the player knows the name of his team.
Prohibition of all dunks by anybody taller than 5-foot-10 on a highlight show has a full-fledged endorsement. For appreciation of athletes who can really leap, let’s see some high jumper get his entire body over the bar at 8-feet.
Those of us who grew up trying to master the two-handed chest pass have some difficulty substituting dishing the rock and cleaning the glass for passing and rebounding.
Hitting a trifecta is much more difficult at the racetrack than on the basketball court, but can be worth much more than three points.
Broadcaster Marv Albert is credited with uttering “shooting well from downtown,” which has become part of the language. But, as somebody else said, if that means from far outside, shouldn’t it be “shooting well from the suburbs.”
Thank goodness for the mute button.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
