Iowa team thrives on 3-pointers // Small Palmer High hits new peaks on long shots

In Palmer, Iowa, they're nuts about shooting a basketball fromdowntown. This season, the rest of the nation's high schools willfind the joy and sorrow of playing with the 3-point shot.

"We're a little crazy. We overuse it," said Palmer coach AldenSkinner, whose team averaged nearly 20 3-pointers a game last year,and made more than half of them.

But you can't argue with success. Palmer has won the last twosmall school Iowa state championships and had a 52-game winningstreak entering this season.

The 3-point shot has been an option at the high school level fortwo years. Some states have been experimenting with it for up tofive years.

Iowa was one of nine states to use the 3-point shot in the1986-87 season. So did North and South Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming,Alaska, Montana, Connecticut and Utah.

Last spring, the rule was expanded nationwide use for boys andgirls by the basketball rules committee of the National Federation ofHigh School Athletic Associations in Kansas City, Mo. It's the same19-foot, 9-inch distance used in college basketball.

"Everybody likes it except the coaches," said Dave Bones, aToledo, Ohio, scout who runs a collegiate recruiting service forcoaches that evaluates 3,000 high school players each year.

Palmer, where 20 of the 22 boys in school went out forbasketball this year, averaged 19.8 shots from 3-point range percontest last season, making 210 of 396 3-pointers for 53 percentaccuracy. Plenty of long shots

About a third of Palmer's shots this season will come from3-point range.

"We're a very small school, and consequently, have not had awhole lot of size," Skinner said. "We play a lot of perimeter. We'vebeen very fortunate, we've got some tremendous shooters."

"It's really an equalizer for the smaller kids and the smallerschools," Skinner said. "I disagree with a lot of the people thatinsist it does away with a lot of skills. Those are the same peoplewho want the dunk."

Willie West, who has coached Crenshaw High School in Los Angelesto nine city championships and three state championships, likes the3-point rule but doesn't expect to mold his team around it.

"We're a pressing team, and we're still going to try to do thethings we try to do," he said.

West predicts the 3-point rule will help teams that don't have atall center. But it also could give teams with the big man an addedadvantage because it forces defenses to spread out, giving the centermore room to work.

Others argue that the rule is only as good as the coach who usesit.

"Some coaches are saying they're just going to use it at the endof the game if they're behind and need to catch up, but I thinkthat's a mistake," said Bert Jenkins, coach at Gulfport, Miss., HighSchool, the defending state Class 5A champion.

"They have to practice it as part of their offense and use it aspart of their game," he said. "I don't think they can achieve luckout of desperation." Shows up coaching

The 3-point rule will magnify bad coaching, Bones said.

"The teams that are not disciplined teams now are going to takebad 22-foot shots rather than bad 17-foot shots," he said.

The rule also will force changes in defense, said Jenkins, whois nearing his 800th coaching victory.

"It may cause teams to extend their defenses out a little bit orgo more to a man-to-man," he said. "Some of the teams that aresitting back in their zones are going to have to do somethingdifferent now."

In Indiana, where small schools play big schools and only onechampion is crowned in basketball, 76 percent of coaches felt highschools weren't ready for the 3-point shot.

"They're not sure 19-9 is the correct distance," said BillStearman, coach at the 2,040-student Columbus, Ind., North HighSchool and a former member of the national federation rulescommittee.

The small school-big school matchup "gives the little schoolsthe opportunity to upset the big school. They talk about that inlittle communities for the next 10 years," Stearman said.

Thus, the 3-point shot is a disadvantage to smaller schools, hesaid.

"The little schools normally have to gamble on the outsideshot," he said. "If they can get through a game where the big schoolisn't hitting on the 3-point shot, fine.

"As a coach at a big school, I'm going to take advantage of it." Recruiting factor

The new rule also will add a dimension to college recruiting.

"I can see that coaches are taking their fifth recruit as aguard with great range," Bones said.

"Last year, they discovered the 3-point rule has opened a lot ofavenues. No one wants to get caught without a 3-point expert.There's a real movement toward that."

Bones also sees the 3-point shot sparking a comeback in theone-hand set shot.

"Some of the kids don't have the strength to shoot the jumperfrom outside," he said.