They're Foursquare For The Four-corners

From 1966 through '72, Carolina protected leads in 107 games with the four-corners and won all but two of them. Smith figures the Tar Heels increased their lead while using the delay in 81% of those games. Ford is only the latest of a long line of masterful four-corners operators at Carolina; the offense has been run about as successfully by Yokley, Dick Grubar, Charlie Scott, Eddie Fogler, George Karl, John Kuester and Walter Davis. Ford was not even the chaser at Rocky Mount ( N.C.) High. Boo Boo Alston was, and Ford learned how to protect the ball while dribbling by watching Boo Boo.

"People don't realize it, but the four-corners is a minute part of our philosophy," Smith says. "I guess we will always be identified with it, but I'd rather be known for our defense or the 86 points we've averaged over the last decade. We are a running team." Nonetheless, the Tar Heels once did use the delay offense from the opening tap, in the 1966 ACC tournament against Duke, which had beaten them 88-77 and 77-63 during the regular season. This time Carolina came closer—21-20.

The only barrier to using the four-corners for the entire game—provided the delaying team does not fall behind—would seem to be basketball tradition, which tends to disdain such tactics. But, as St. Ambrose's recent successes indicate, even that prejudice may be disappearing. However, if the full-game delay comes in, a lot of paying customers might well go out.

The four-corners is designed to utilize a team's three best ballhandlers outside while hiding its other two players in the baseline corners. The chaser usually works around the top of the key, with the two wings along the sidelines near midcourt. The chaser thus has the middle of the floor open for one-on-one maneuvering against his man. Patience, plus the ability to dribble, pass and make pressure free throws are prerequisites for a successful four-corners. The chaser must also be alert enough to recognize double-teaming and cool enough to pick out the teammate who has been left unguarded. A chaser who performs these tasks proficiently, as Ford does, robs the defense of its best hope against the four-corners, which is to force the chaser to pass, and then put pressure on a lesser ballhandler who is more likely to commit a turnover.

According to a book that Smith has been writing since 1966, the four-corners is intended to produce points, and it regularly provides five sorts of scoring opportunities. One of them is the free throw, because defenders made anxious by the delay game are more likely to foul. Another is the one-on-one drive by the chaser past his man, down the open lane and to the basket for a layup. The remaining three options involve passes from the chaser to a cutting cornerman when the defense double-teams the ball-handler or attempts to cut off his normal passing lanes.

In some ways, the most difficult aspect of the four-corners is deciding when it is the right time to employ it. "That's a seat-of-the-pants decision," says Smith. "I can tell you one thing: when it works—about 90% of the time—you are a genius: when it fails, you're a bum."

Tom Feely, coach at the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, has a four-corners timetable. If the number of points by which his team is leading coincides with the number of minutes remaining, he holds up four fingers. Thus, if St. Thomas has a six-point lead with six minutes left or a five-point advantage with five to go, Feely delays. But as Neil McCarthy of Weber State has found out, there is no need to wait until the end of the game. McCarthy's Wildcats got into early foul trouble last December during their 71-61 upset of Utah. "Two of our starters drew three personals within the first six minutes," McCarthy says. "We went to the four-corners strictly to survive—to make the game shorter."

McCarthy is typical of the coaches who have adopted the four-corners in the past couple of years. The Wildcats had only been toying with it in practice until they found themselves on the defensive end of a four-corners clinic—a 75-54 loss to North Carolina in the final of last season's Far West Classic. "They were ahead by 10 points with 12 minutes left when Smith called for it," says McCarthy. "We chased Ford the rest of the game, and they kept shooting foul shots and layups. After that we stopped experimenting with it and won 13 of the 14 times we used it in games."

Testimonials have come in from all over the country. Seattle's Bill O'Connor saw a North Carolina game on television and decided to try the four-corners. "We went to it for an entire game against Nevada-Las Vegas, because it was the only way we could spread their defense," O'Connor says. Don Haskins of Texas-El Paso used the four-corners to upset No. 10-ranked Arizona last season. "We didn't have a chance in the world of rebounding with them." he says. "But we didn't stall; we tried to score off layups and jumpers around the key every chance we got. I doubt if we held the ball for more than 30 seconds at any time." Notre Dame's Digger Phelps says, "We have used it with as many as 12 minutes left and scored 30 points with it. We did that last year to end San Francisco's 29-game winning streak."

Obviously the four-corners is hard to beat. The simplest way is to get a lead on a team that likes to use it, and that is exactly what Wake Forest's Tacy did last week. But he has also been successful with other tactics against the Tar Heels; he had two victories over them in 1976-77, even though Carolina used the four-corners. "You have to have talented defensive players, and you've got to practice a lot," he says. "We double-team the ball, rotate our other defensive players to prevent layups and go for the steal. At times we'll play the three outside guys man-to-man and the two cornermen in a zone. Stopping layups and not fouling are musts." As for controlling Ford, Tacy adds, "He is a great ballhandler and always a threat to penetrate all the way to the basket. We pressure him and like to see him give up the ball, so we can play the others."