The Old-Fashioned Way

Hank Iba, basketball coach of the Oklahoma Aggies, is much too sly to be stampeded into using newfangled methods. When he takes his players to the big city, they play horse& -buggy basketball. There is no furious running or frantic shooting. Calmly and deliberately, they throttle the game down ; the Aggies seldom score many points and allow the opposition even fewer. Other coaches call it "slow death."

This season, Iba's "slow death" is more deliberate and painful than in previous years. Flashy Texas U. bucked up against the Aggies and bounced back with its horns twisted, 32-31. It was Texas' first defeat. St. Louis U. (TIME, Jan. 12) was rampaging along at a 64-points-a-game pace until Iba's men sat on them, 33-30. It was St. Louis' first defeat.

In Chicago fortnight ago, DePaul's coach decided to administer some of its own poison to Iba's Aggies. At one point in the game, a DePaul player knelt down on the floor and put the ball in front of him, and dared the Aggies to come after it; instead they stood in their defensive positions. With tactics like that, DePaul out-slowed the Aggies, 32-31. The defeat only convinced the Aggies that slow basketball is winning basketball. Last week the Aggies sludged past Tulsa (42-27), and gave arch-rival Oklahoma U. a lesson (45-30) in the waltz. It was victory No. 17 against two defeats.

Hank Iba insists that "firewagon basketball is only for a crew of firemen." He keeps hammering "ball control" into his players until they dream about it. Iba's first rule: "Never shoot unless you have the percentages with you that the shot will be good." There is only one ball in a basketball game, he likes to say, and as long as you have it the other team can't score.

In the trade, Iba's stalling technique (after getting a slim lead) is known as "the deep freeze." The play is turned over endlessly about 15 feet outside the foul circle. The trick : make them come out and get you. When they do, they will leave a lane open for you to break through. Iba insists that the old way, which is his way, is scientific basketball: "Anyhow, it's not indoor shinny."

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