Translated material
Week for statisticians
April began with a flurry of basketball records
Last week turned out to be extremely rich in various basketball records, achievements and even mystical coincidences. In the Israeli championship match, it took six (!) overtimes to determine the winner; three of the eight meetings in the quarterfinal series of the ULEB Euroleague ended with exactly the same score. Overseas, two players from the same NBA team (Vince Carter and Jason Kidd from New Jersey) achieved a triple-double in a match, which had not happened for 18 years. Dallas used the help of 44-year-old veteran Kevin Willis, who turned out to be the second oldest player in the history of the league. And finally, on Sunday, Elena Baranova became the first top-level basketball player in Russia to take to the court after giving birth to twins.Of the listed facts, of course, the most “delicious” is the never-ending match of the Israeli championship between “Irony” (Ashkelon) and Jerusalem “Hapoel”, which ended with a score of 151:146 in favor of the guests. In six additional five-minute periods, the teams scored almost as much as during the entire regular time, at the end of which the numbers 79:79 were displayed on the scoreboard. Hapoel head coach Dan Shamir, after three and a half hours of struggle, either jokingly or in all seriousness, put forward a proposal in the future to limit the number of overtimes and determine the winner in a series of free throws. Actually, in all other team sports this method is used: in hockey - shootouts, in football - penalties, etc.
The absolute record was set by American legionnaire “Ironi” Marcus Hatten - he was in the starting five and spent a total of 65 minutes on the court. out of 70 played. Another unique achievement by Mario Austin, well known to Russian fans - he scored 29 of his 35 points in extra time. Let us remember that before the start of the 2003/04 season, this American signed a contract with CSKA, but fell ill with pneumonia, so he never played for the “red-blues”.
For comparison, we note that the longest match in Russian basketball consisted of five overtimes. This happened on January 9, 2003 in the match of the men's teams of the major league (third division) Dynamo-Teplostroy (Chelyabinsk) - Alliance-Avtodor (Saratov). The result of the game is 134:127 (15:21, 19:11, 21:24, 21:20, 5:5, 11:11, 19:19, 12:5). In this meeting, Andrei Ivanov, a player of the current Russian national team, played as part of the Avtodora farm club. If we are talking only about European cups, the record here is the FIBA Euroleague match "Nymburk" (Czech Republic) - BC "Kyiv" (Ukraine) that took place on November 17, 2004 - 122:125 with four additional five-minute periods.
And yet, the main achievements in the statistical section “Number of overtimes in one game” belong to the United States. Most likely not even because protracted fights happen there most often. It’s just that Americans record various basketball incidents and curiosities with special care. In the NBA, we also somehow had to play six overtimes, but let’s not forget that there one period of regular time lasts 12 minutes, so on January 6, 1951, the Indianapolis Olympians and the Rochester Royals played 78 (48 plus 30) on the court. min. net time - 75:73.
Of the serious level fights, the most protracted one occurred in 1981, when in the first division of the US student championship (NCAA), the men's team of the University of Cincinnati defeated students from Bradley in seven additional five-minute matches. The score was recorded quite modest for 75 minutes. games - again 75:73. The same league holds the world record for women's teams. A month and a half ago, Drexel beat Northeastern University 98-90 in five overtimes in the Colonial Athletic Association Conference.
As for the most never-ending match, it had to be played by schoolchildren from Boone Trail and Angers educational institutions on February 29, 1964 - 56:54 after 13 overtimes. Moreover, this game took place in the Campbell University Carter Gymnasium, which is now to some extent a unique sports facility. It was built in 1952 and ranks second to last in capacity among the home arenas of NCAA Division I teams - 947 seats. The size of the basketball court here is even smaller than required by the regulations, but Campbell's team is allowed to host opponents on it as an exception. Construction of the new arena will begin next year.
We give second place in the ranking of achievements of the week to Dallas center Kevin Willis. The Mavericks, due to injuries to several leading tall players, were forced to resort to the services of a 44-year-old veteran who began his career in the overseas league in 1985. Willis, who did not play anywhere last season, signed a ten-day contract and entered the court on April 7 in a home match against Portland. In the 1947/48 NBA championship, 46-year-old Nat Hickey played one game for the Providence Steamrollers, who a year earlier was... the head coach of this team, but he never hit the target. Willis could become the oldest NBA player to score points, but in 1 minute. 17 sec. stay on the court and did not shoot at the Portland hoop.
Three matches played with a score of 80:58 in the quarterfinals of the Euroleague ULEB (CSKA - Maccabi, Panathinaikos - Dynamo, Barcelona - Unicaja) defy any other explanation other than a mystical coincidence. After all, according to probability theory, this can happen in one case out of millions. Although in Russia something similar took place in the national Cup. On January 16 and 17, 2004, Dynamo Moscow and the minor league club Okhrana (Novouralsk), by mutual agreement, played both matches in the capital, and the blue and white won them, as if a carbon copy, with the same score of 121:72.