IS IT TIME FOR NBA PLAYERS TO STOPPING GETTING HIGH? The Seattle-based CROSSCUT magazine reports on an experiment by local basketball players that may serve to uplift hoops fans in light of the deflating NBA Finals and now-intramural-esque nature of March Madness.

Excerpt: “Saturday afternoon at the University of Washington’s Hec Edmundson Pavilion, they’ll (local former college players and pros) play an exhibition game using what some would call heresy and others would call high time: an 11-foot rim instead of the traditional 10-footer.

The game’s promoter, Tom Newell (son of coaching icon Pete Newell), is completely non-committal about the ramifications of the rim-raised affair. But we all know what’s going on here - certain factions of the coaching community want to take back the game and re-instill fundamentals that have long deserted high- and low-profile players.

And lest you think this is a joke, Jim Harrick will coach one of the teams and there will be “live coverage of the 1 p.m. event on Fox Sports Northwest, with sports-talk radio KJR-AM (950) also airing the action.“