THE TOURNAMENTS
In the interest of Olympic supremacy, a little of the luster was rubbed off the nation's two big postseason tournaments last week. No longer, announced Dutch Lonborg of Kansas, chairman of the Olympic College Basketball Committee, will the National Collegiate and National Invitation tournaments send their champions to the Olympic trials. Instead, a 14-man all-star team will be selected from colleges all over the nation to challenge one service and two AAU teams for the trip to Melbourne in November.
But Melbourne is still a long way off and mid-February remains, in the world of college basketball, a time to worry about mid-March and the 37 spots in the brackets of the NCAA and the NIT. The NCAA has room for 25 teams—16 conference champions and nine "at-large" selections; the NIT is seeking to fill a field of 12.
At week's end, with a month still to go before tip-off time in either tournament, the picture was beginning to come into focus. The NIT had already lined up Dayton, Duquesne, Seton Hall, Marquette, Xavier of Cincinnati and St. Francis of Brooklyn. The NCAA could almost claim as its own such heavy conference favorites as San Francisco, UCLA and Southern Methodist. But that still left a lot of spots unfilled—who, for example, would grab off the double handful of coveted at-large bids; who would survive such sizzling conference races as the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, Missouri Valley, Skyline and Big Ten?
South
Alabama mercilessly trounced Vanderbilt, unbeaten Southeastern Conference leader and the nation's third-ranked team 88-61, then beat Georgia to finish the week with a 7-0 record, a performance which left Alabama a slim lead over both Vandy and Kentucky, tied for second place at 8-1. But should Alabama win the title, it is almost certain to turn over its NCAA spot to the conference runner-up; all five 'Bama starters are playing their fourth varsity season and will be ineligible for NCAA postseason competition. Although neither the Atlantic Coast nor Southern conferences decide their champions until a postseason tournament, both were keeping in practice. In the former, probably the best-balanced league in the land, Duke, Wake Forest and North Carolina were all tied at 9-2; North Carolina State, with the best season record (18-2), was half a game back at 8-2. In the Southern Conference, West Virginia and George Washington continued their rivalry with identical 8-2 records. Louisville, a major southern independent which probably has its choice of either the NCAA or NIT, won No. 19 (against one loss) by beating Marquette 76-65.
Midwest
Illinois tightened its grip on the Big Ten lead (7-0) in two dissimilar victories: a come-from-behind 92-89 win over Indiana, and a record-setting 111-64 breeze past Ohio State, in which Robin Freeman was stopped at his lowest point production (12) in two seasons. Iowa remained within striking distance with a 6-1 record. In the Missouri Valley, where St. Louis entered the week apparently a shoo-in for the championship, Houston came out of the week with a 7-2 record and the league lead. St. Louis lost to both Oklahoma A&M, now in third place at 3-2, and Houston to make its record 6-2. Iowa State moved closer to Kansas State in the Big Seven by winning once while the Wildcats were splitting two games. Kansas State now leads with a 6-2 record, Iowa State has 5-2 and Colorado 4-2. Among the independents, Dayton ran its record to 18-1 with two victories; Oklahoma City U. kept hustling toward a tournament invitation by knocking off Wichita, and Xavier beat Cincinnati 79-72 in overtime.
Far West
San Francisco bored its fans—and even its coach—by winning victories No. 43 and 44 in the string which goes back to 1954, and UCLA personally took care of a most dangerous opponent in the Pacific Coast race by defeating Stanford twice on consecutive nights. UCLA now leads with an 8-0 record; Southern California, which also won twice, is second at 8-2. The Skyline battle between Utah and Brigham Young was apparently going all the way down to the wire for a decision; in their first meeting of the year, the Utes won handily 82-63, deadlocked the race at 6-2 and set the stage for a Feb. 24 showdown.
Southwest
Two weeks ago Arkansas tried to stop SMU with a zone defense and was riddled by Larry Showalter and the rest of the Methodists' hot outside shooters. Last week Texas tried to stop the unbeaten Southwest Conference leaders with a tight man-for-man, and big Jim Krebs shook loose under the basket for 50 points and a conference scoring record. The 109-96 victory left SMU with a 7-0 record; Rice, which beat Arkansas 86-65 at week's end, moved up into a second-place tie at 6-2.
East
Dartmouth, a favorite to win the Ivy League before the year began, has apparently waited too long. But the Indians were still having a lot of fun tearing up the records of others. They handed Columbia its first conference loss 71-70, then turned around and ended powerful Holy Cross's 11-game winning streak in a nonconference contest. Columbia, however, ended the week with its Ivy League lead still intact. The Lions (6-1) bounced back to beat Harvard 87-61 while weak Brown upset challenging Princeton 82-79 and dropped the Tigers back to 4-2. Temple ran its season record to 17-1 with three easy victories, and St. Francis of Brooklyn won its only start (84-77 over Bridgeport) to remain, with San Francisco, the only major unbeaten team in the nation.
[originallink:10466071:42727]
RESULTS OF 100 LEADING COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAMES
EAST
Brown 82—Princeton 79
Colgate 79—Pitt 68
Columbia 87—Harvard 61
Conn. 105—Rutgers 85
Conn. 109—Maine 96
Dartmouth 71—Columbia 70
Dart. 83—Holy Cross 67
Fordham 69—Georgetown 68
Holy Cross 100—Syra. 85
Manhattan 83—St. John's 81
Niagara 73—St. John's 64
Penn 79—Penn St. 72
Pitt 77—Army 67
Princeton 68—Harvard 55
St. Francis (N.Y.) 84—Bridgeport 77
St. Joseph's 84—Furman 82
Seton Hall 105—Iona 87
S. Hall 75—Loy. (Ill.) 67
Syracuse 86—Harvard 65
Syracuse 77—Colgate 70
Temple 63—Duquesne 48
Temple 88—Bucknell 50
Temple 77-Penn St. 58
West Va. 76—Penn St. 73
Yale 71—Brown 65
Yale 72—Cornell 60
SOUTH & SOUTHWEST
Alabama 88—Vanderbilt 61
Alabama 94—Georgia 69
Arkansas 36—Baylor 31
Auburn 77—Georgia Tech 74
Auburn 77—Florida 73
Baylor 85—Texas A&M 66
Duke 82—Maryland 70
Duke 74—Virginia 59
George Wash. 126—Furman 109
George Wash. 103—Rich. 84
Georgia Tech 79—Tulane 77
Kentucky 81—Florida 70
Kentucky 88—Miss. 49
LSU 100—Mississippi 76
Louisville 76—Marq. 65
Maryland 67—Geo. Wash. 46
Memphis St. 84—W. Va. 69
Miss. St. 75—Tennessee 58
Navy 81—Pitt 64
N.C. 115—Wm. & Mary 63
N.C. 83—Virginia 72
N.C. State 77—Virginia 76
N.C. St. 95—S. Carolina 68
Notre Dame 70—Navy 63
Rice 89—TCU 72
Rice 86—Arkansas 65
Richmond 103—Villa. 73
SMU 109—Texas 96
Texas 74—TCU 67
Tulane 110—Miss. St. 72
Vanderbilt 107—LSU 68
Wake Forest 81—Richmond 73
Wake Forest 96—S.C. 77
Wake Forest 80—Duke 77
West Va. 84—VPI 62
WEST
Butler 81—Notre Dame 74
Cinc. 119—Morehead 113
Dayton 86—Miami (O.) 73
Dayton 76—St. Francis (Pa.) 41
Houston 82—Bradley 70
Houston 67—St. Louis 66
Illinois 92—Indiana 89
Illinois 111—Ohio St. 64
Indiana 97—Michigan 73
Iowa 78—Wisconsin 74
Iowa 70—Northwestern 65
Iowa St. 87—Drake 71
Iowa St. 88—Missouri 85
Kansas 80—Nebraska 56
Kansas St. 66—Nebraska 52
Marq. 90—Michigan St. 81
Mich. St. 86—Michigan 76
Minnesota 77—Wisconsin 71
Missouri 85—Kansas 78
Okla. A&M 65—St. Louis 63
Okla. A&M 68—Oklahoma 42
Okla. City 63—Wichita 59
Wichita 76—Drake 70
Wichita 86—Bradley 59
Xavier (O.) 79—Cinc. 72
Xavier 92—St. Fran. (Pa.) 78
FAR WEST
BYU 92—Utah State 62
California 54—Idaho 44
California 67—Idaho 58
Colorado 71—Kansas St. 53
Col. A&M 66—Wyoming 55
San Francisco 77—COP 60
San Fran. 79—Fresno St. 46
UCLA 50—Stanford 48
UCLA 81—Stanford 72
USC 76—Washington St. 55
USC 85—Washington St. 54
Utah 82—BYU 63
Washington 68—Oregon 50
Washington 70—Oregon 61