Champs of small ball

Jesuit lost in the state championship final but made a point

The highlight of my season as a basketball fan is the Oregon big school boys’ championship game, and I will remember last night’s game years after I’ve forgotten who ended on top in college or pro hoops. Barlow, a team I almost always root for, won 61-55, and earned every right to be considered the state’s best team.

But let me tell you about the Jesuit Crusaders, a squad starting no one over 6-feet-2 and no one deemed an elite college prospect. How do they do it? Great teamwork and coaching obviously. Coach Gene Potter has won seven states titles, with some teams also carrying underdog labels, and he knows what goes into his secret sauce better than anyone.

Here’s my thought: Perhaps height isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. While relatively short, the top Crusader players excel in another measurement—width. These guys have shoulders like loggers and manage to clear space for their attacks on the basket against defenders towering over them. Joe Stimpson (No. 10), Trey Cleeland (directly behind him) and Patrick Kilfoil (No. 1), in particular, are broad, strong and fearless.

The benefit of width can be seen in extra-wide NBA stars Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic, who are of typical height for their positions but lack the speed and athleticism one would expect of superstars.

Has basketball become a horizontal game? Think about this: To drive around a defender, a dribbler must get his head and a shoulder past the torso of his man to avoid a charging call. But once a big shoulder has cleared that corner, the defender finds himself pinned against an immovable object, giving the dribbler ample clearance to shoot with the opposite hand.

Jesuit attacked 6-foot-6 shot-blocking Brayden Barron all night, who picked up four fouls and didn’t swat a single shot. Barron led the tournament in blocked shots and had a great game in the finals with 17 points and 9 rebounds, but small ball worked even against one of the state’s best intimidators.

Check the video of the championship game on the Oregon School Activities Association website (osaa.org) and see what you think.

Height has always been a prime basketball number, and they often talk about length, but give width its due.