While everyone else was studying for mid-year exams, the coaches of the nation's top ten basketball teams stirred up a minor controversy, on the effectiveness of the new "one on one" rule. They all agreed it should go, but they weren't unanimous on just why.

The rule, instigated this season in an attempt to out down fouling, gives a player a second foul shot if he misses the first one.

Ken Loeffler, coach of the LaSalle team, thinks the rule has increased scoring. "Today, a player figures if he misses the first foul try he'll make it on the second; actually, however, when a player is careless shooting the first, it makes him more careless the second time," he said.

Fouling has increased under the new rule, according to Jack Gardner of Kansas State, who would rather return to the old one shot, with the right to walve a foul.

Various other coaches had slightly different objections, some, like Ed Diddle., agreeing about the mediocrity, while others, like Ray Meyer of DePaul, think the rule helps the Weak foul shooting team.

Norman W. Shepard's Harvard basketball team will undoubtedly not be classed in the top ten this season; yet his views are probably the soundest of all on the subject.

Said Shepard at the beginning if the season, "I can't tell if it is a good rule yet, the boys have only scrimmaged under it. But if it keeps down fouling it will help."

"The point of the whole rule," said Shepard yesterday, "is to cut down all this heavy fouling. Some coaches have proved that if you keep fouling the other team every time it gets the ball, you'll win. Fouling is strategically sound."

"So they tried to make the rule a little more severe on the fouler; only I don't think it's helped. The scores have gone up slightly, and it's probably helped the poor foul shooter. But as far as I can see, it hasn't cut down the amount of fouling."

"The other rule has helped," Shepard continued, referring to the rule which gives two shots for all fouls in the closing minutes of play.

Heaward Hobsen, Yale basketball coach, whose team will also be left off the list of the select ten, has a solution to the problem that Shepard likes. Hobsen suggested widening the foul lanes to twelve feet. This would cut down a lot of the fouling committed during scrambles for rebounds, but Shepard likes another aspect of it.

It would move the big man out from around the basket, and thus put less emphasis on him. Shepard feels that too much stress has been placed on the big man, and the game, consequently, has slowed down. He would rather see a faster game, with the big man just one of five players.