Where did the Run and Shoot Go?

Sure, I love college basketball, and I have always had a passion for the competitiveness of the sport.

There is nothing more exciting than watching a guy from Texas hit a three-point shot, at the buzzer, to send a game with Texas Tech into overtime.

Defense in the college game is studied now as though mathematicians were developing a new system for numbers.

But, what ever happened to the old saying that the best defense is a great offense?

What ever happened to having a bunch of world class sprinters bolting down the court, shooting lay-ups from 20 feet, ashamed because they let the shot clock get down to 25 seconds?

What happened to the coaches in the league that did not want to play the game on earth, but in outer space, where teams shot the ball a hundred times a game, knew that just by scoring a hundred would be an automatic loss, and that winning was not about defense, but who had the most weapons on offense?

Where have those offensive geniuses gone -- those Billy Tubbs, those Paul Westheads, those coaches who weren't afraid to pour 180 points of medicine down their opponents' throats?

With the introduction of the three point shot in 1987 to the college game, many fans in the next several years thought the game would forever be changed. And those fans were right, briefly.

Coaches, such as Tubbs and Westhead, saw the three-point shot as a long lay-up, that instead of being a two point fast-break, were immediately credited with three.

Back in his glory days of playing basketball god in Lexington, Kentucky, Rick Pitino was holding mass three times a week in the church of Rupp, where all the congregation had to bring was their little blue threes. Sure, there were going to be miracles, there were going to be miracle treys raining down from the hands of Kentucky basketball legends, such as Richie Farmer, Rex Chapman, Deron Feldhaus and John Pelphrey.

Basketball was played utilizing all 94 feet of the court, where full court press defenses wore out opposing teams, and gave the offenses chances for steals, threes, steals, threes, dunks and excitement.

Chants of "Mookie, Mookie" were now being heard, not in Shea Stadium, but in a quiet town in Oklahoma, by the name of Norman. Daron "Mookie" Blaylock, who never entered the court without his five-finger discount, had burglarized so many teams, that he was wanted in all lower 48 states. No one could catch him, and the only evidence he left at every scene, was the swishing of a net, or a deftly delivered dish to the sweetest three-point shooting center the college game has ever seen, The King of Lefties, Stacey King.

The game was no longer simply dominated by tall, dunking centers, who could hit an arching hook-shot, but was controlled by in-shape, fast, small guards, who weren't afraid to steal the ball and drain a three pointer, when the lay-up was wide open.

From coast to coast, teams were trying to keep up with the new athletes and the fast paced evolution of basketball.

Westhead, who had won the NBA championship with the Lakers in 79-80, brought his up-tempo style to the Roaring Loyola Marymount Lions. With Bo Kimble, Hank Gathers and Jeff Fryer, all capable of scoring 40 points each, the question wasn't, how often are the Lions going to score 100 points, but when exactly are these athletes going to score 200 points.

They never did top that two century plateau, however, the Lions did Score 181 points in one game, a feat that seems absurd in today's offensively challenged basketball games, where overtime scores rarely even combine for 181 points. There was never more of a joy for me, than waiting up late on Friday night, so that I could watch the Lions sprint-show broadcast from the west coast, orchestrated by Westhead, performed by The Scoring Machine.

As for scoring, scoring, and scoring, simply for the love of points, I truly wonder if the college fans will ever see the magic that the introduction of the three-point shot gave to college basketball in the late eighties and early nineties.

College basketball has become such a big business, that it is very rare that the big programs are going to risk losing out on tournament revenue just to reward the fans with high scoring sprint festivals.

Basketball is about winning, not all-you-can-score buffets. As the level of playing evens out, and games become more competitive, and star high school players jump into the NBA for the promise of high dollar contracts and instant stardom, the fans of the run and shoot and high scoring basketball games will forever be left behind.

We are simply left with our memories.

Memories of the 50-point scoring clinics the freshman from LSU, Chris Jackson, taught.

The diverse scoring machines built into a singular weapon called "Lethal Weapon 3," fueled by Kenny Anderson, powered by Brian Oliver, and driven by Dennis Scott.

The relentless 800-horse-power offensive engines that blasted the Sooners out of Norman, Oklahoma, and into the 172-point sphere of outer space.

The 30 steals, 30 offensive rebounds, 100 shots a game performances from the players of Loyola Marymount that were indeed as hungry as Lions.

A guy playing for the small time school of Bradley, who averaged 37 points a game, and was the last man to ever score over 60 points in college basketball, Hersey Hawkins.

And, of course, now that Pitino coaches the University of Louisville, there are only traces in our minds of the sea of Blue Threes, parting just wide enough so that the Lexington faithful can watch a miracle trey dropped from behind a twenty foot arc into a metal goal with a net underneath.

My memories are all that I have left, and each year they fade a little more into the realm of mythic nostalgia. Hopefully, in the next 10 years or so, the Basketball Gods will bless us mortals once again, and allow the immortals of offensive prowess to be reincarnated, and then basketball will be able to take on the supernatural powers it held for me from the late eighties into the early '90s.

Until then, I can only pray...

Where oh where has the offense gone? Where oh where...