Feed It to the Big Man

Feed it to the Big Man In the stands, the Texas A. & M. cadets bellowed in delighted astonishment. Down on the basketball floor their hopped-up team was running the lanky legs off Southern Methodist and an upset seemed in the making. S.M.U. was the solid favorite on the strength of its 11-1 record and its 4th-place ranking in the nation.

The hustling Aggies had one obvious goal: stop S.M.U.'s big (6 ft. 8 in., 225 Ibs.), high-scoring Jim Krebs. They surged about the outsized center like a pack of frantic terriers to seal him off from teammates' passes. But at half time. S.M.U. Coach E. O. ("Doc") Hayes deftly changed offense, told his players to shoot from the outside to force the Aggie defense away from Krebs and then, "when Jim is free, feed it to the big man."

The strategy worked. Early in the second half, with some elbow room for his long, gangling arms, Big Jim stuffed in five quick baskets, ended the evening with the heavy bag of 30 points, nearly half of S.M.U.'s winning total, 62 to A. & M.'s 53. Four days later, still stuffing baskets, Krebs led S.M.U. to a 79-63 victory over Texas Christian.

Krebs is the chief reason S.M.U. is the hottest basketball team the region has had in years, and S.M.U.'s hot record is the chief reason that the football-happy Southwest is taking a new look at the upstart sport of basketball. All around the conference, new field houses are bulging with fans of what many football coaches airily dismiss as "that round-ball game." Tangible proof of the new tradition at S.M.U. is the $2,250,000 field house off Mockingbird Lane completed this season. "We're not going to convert any dyed-in-the-wool football fans," explains Coach Hayes. "We're going to have to make our own fans. And we're starting."

Until he found a good big man eager to learn, Doc Hayes turned out second-rate teams in the Southwest Conference. Then Hayes spotted Krebs in a high-school all-star game, soon persuaded him and two other high-school stars from the St. Louis area to accept scholarships at S.M.U. by glowingly describing the rewards of building a winning tradition. Since then Krebs and his buddies have built tradition at a rapid clip. They won the Southwest Conference championship as sophomores and juniors, last year fought to the semifinals of the N.C.A.A. tournament before losing to top-ranked San Francisco.

This year, with Krebs improving in every game, S.M.U. looks better than ever using an attack that is deceptively simple: break fast and feed the ball to Krebs. "A lot of clubs run plays off the pivot man," explains Hayes frankly. "We don't. If we can get the ball to him and he can score, the green light is on."

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