The first shot in a
revolution that drastically changed the face of college basketball
was fired 20 years ago and the Southern Conference was at the
forefront of that revolution. On Nov. 29, 1980, Western Carolina's
Ronnie Carr drilled a three point field goal, the first in
the history of college basketball. Few rule changes have
ever impacted the college game the way the introduction of
the three point field goal did 20 years ago. And without
the SoCon'ss leadership role in testing the experimental
rule, the trey might not exist today. Carr's basket was made
at 7:06 p.m. with 16:09 to play in the first half as Western
Carolina hosted Middle Tennessee State at Reid Gym in Cullowhee, N.C.
A crowd of 2,750 was on hand to witness the 23-foot bomb from deep
in the left corner that helped the Cats go on to post a 77-70 win over
the Blue Raiders. Carr, a sophomore at the time, finished the game
with 30 points on 14 of 30 shooting from the floor. The ball, a photograph
of the shot and a video tape of the play were all send to the Basketball
Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. The revolution began in
July, 1980 when the National Collegiate Athletic Association granted
the Southern Conference permission to experiment with the three point
field goal during the 1980-81 season. The 22-foot line would be in
effect for all 72 regular season SoCon games as well as 18 selected
non-league contests. Reaction from the SoCon coaches was mixed at first.
Then-Citadel head coach Les Robinson, now the school's athletics director,
said "It does distract from the
game to a degree. It goes against the teaching of most coaches who tell their
players to work for only the high percentage shot. But I'm for it. The players
today are getting so much bigger, we need something to spread things out a little
more. The three point goal is designed to open things up on the inside."
Furman head coach Eddie Holbrook got right to the point: "It's a coach's nightmare
and a spectator's delight.”
Bobby Cremins, the head coach at Appalachian State during the '80-81 season,
said "The first time out, I took a shot and made it. It must be too close."
Up until the 1980-81 season, the three pointer had been
used with success in the old American Basketball Association
and had been introduced the previous season in the National
Basketball Association on a trial basis. The only other
time the long distance shot was used in college basketball
was during a 1945 game between Fordham and Columbia.
That contest in '45 was the brainchild of Howard Hobson who had lobbied college
basketball to adopt the three point field goal for dozens of years. The former
head coach at the University of Oregon when the Ducks won the first NCAA championship
in 1939, Hobson is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame after winning 495
career games.
Over the course of the 1980-81 season, SoCon teams combined to make 146 of 467
field goals for a 31.3 success rate. In contrast, during the 1999-2000 season,
10 of 12 Southern Conference teams made at least 146 three's while the league
as a whole made 2,082 treys in 6,074 attempts. The percentage in 2000 rose slightly
from 1980 to 34.3 percent. Marshall led the SoCon with 100 successful three pointers
as a team in 1980. In 2000, the late Rufus Leach of Appalachian State led the
SoCon with 103 while Wofford as a team led the SoCon with 214.
In 1980, Davidson made just 12 of 26 three pointers over the course of the entire
season. Against the University of California on Jan. 2, 2000, the Wildcats made
16 three's, the most by a SoCon club last season. In '80-81, no SoCon team made
more than six triples in a single game. In 2000, Leach, Wofford's Ian Chadwick,
and Chattanooga's Rashun Coleman all made seven or more in at least one game.
The experimental rule focused a great deal of national attention on the Southern
Conference during the '80-81 season. Sports Illustrated devoted nearly two entire
pages to the experiment. The Sporting News ran a nearly full page story on the
new rule. Basketball writers from across the country flocked to SoCon games to
witness first hand this new gimmick. Mediareaction, like that of the coaches, was mixed at first. The experiment prompted
one writer to call the SoCon a "guinea pig." Others called it "earth-shaking," and "a
booster shot.”
"There's no question that exposure is one of the paramount reasons we are doing
this," Furman head coach Eddie Holbrook told Roger Jackson of Sports Illustrated.
The league's coaches took different approaches to incorporating the three into
their offensive schemes. Western Carolina's Steve Cottrell and Marshall's Bob
Zuffelato made it a normal part of their offensive game plan. But Zuffelato
did so reluctantly.
"I'm basically a conservative," Zuffelato told Stan Olson in February, 1981. "I
think college basketball is unique, the most exciting brand of basketball there
is. And I don't think it needs gimmicks like the three point goal, the 30-second
clock or the 11-foot basket. The shot is a low percentage one, which is just
the opposite of what we teach and preach.”
Most coaches used the triple as a comeback tool and it worked: seven SoCon
games went into overtime as a direct result of three point field goals.
While a proponent of the rule, WCUs Steve Cottrell said early in the season "I
bet I'll lose a game on it before the end of the year." Two days later, the
Catamounts led Furman for most of the second half before the Paladins' Michael
Hunt began firing three's. He made five three pointers in a row to tie the
game and send it into overtime where the Paladins won, 85-81. That was one
of three games Furman won in 1980-81 as a direct result of the new shot. Mel
Daniel tossed in a 25-footer against Chattanooga to tie the game and send it
into overtime where the Paladins prevailed, 96-90. Furman also won an overtime
contest with Marshall after the Herd's George Washington had hit a three with
nine seconds left in regulation to send the contest into an extra period.
Robinson, who went on to coach at East Tennessee State and North Carolina State
before returning to The Citadel this fall, still likes the long shot." The three point
shot has done one-half of what it was supposed to do," said
Robinson this week. "Yes, it has created more excitement and it has helped
sell more tickets, but it has not cleaned up the post play and it hasn't altered
the post defenses as much. It is good for comebacks, and has had a similar
effect on the game as a dunk, but there's much more skill involved with the
three pointer as compared to the dunk.
Personally, I like the three point shot and like where it is today (19'9").
In all my meetings with the (NCAA) Basketball Committee, there has never been
any talk about doing away with the three pointer."
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