Game will feature 11-foot baskets

SEATTLE – Tyler Besecker started near the bench, a foot off the court.

The 6-foot-7, one-time Stanford reserve launched into a sprint toward the basket, leaping to touch the rim.

He missed badly, by a good 3 or 4 inches.

“It’s kind of humiliating at first,” Besecker said.

Besecker will be one of the test subjects come Saturday, playing in an experimental basketball game using 11-foot baskets.

The mixologist changing the basic formula is Tom Newell, a one-time assistant in the NBA and son of former California coach and acclaimed big-man instructor Pete Newell. In Tom Newell’s opinion, basketball is becoming too individually oriented with fewer of the fundamentals needed to succeed.

Moving the 3-point line, widening the lane and tweaking the clocks have all been tried. The basket has always remained at 10 feet.

Newell started formulating the idea around the first of the year and found a cooperating partner in the University of Washington, where the game will be played. Earlier this week, the baskets at Washington’s on-campus arena were moved and secured on top of 1-foot-high rectangular wooden boxes.