Basketball's Week

THE EAST
1. PRINCETON (17-1)
2. BOSTON COLLEGE (12-1)
3. PROVIDENCE (13-3)

Princeton's Butchvan Breda Kolff will not commit himself but says things like "betterbalance" and "more cohesiveness" when people ask if his Tigers arebetter than the Bradley team of two years ago. Rutgers Coach Bill Foster thinksso, especially after the way Princeton manhandled his team 97-74 last week. JoeHeiser held Bobby Lloyd, the nation's third best scorer, to 17 points, slimJohn Haarlow threw in 25 and 6'9" Chris Thomforde played the boards as ifhe owned them. Dartmouth, which had lost to the Tigers by 74 points in Hanover,held the ball and the Indians escaped a drubbing. But they still lost 30-16.Strangely enough, Harvard, last in the Ivy League, gave Princeton the mosttrouble. The Crimson led 32-28 at the half but then Gary Walters took chargeand the Tigers won 66-59.

Rutgers came backto beat NYU 68-57 in Madison Square Garden and this time Lloyd, a pure shooterwith remarkable concentration, scored 33 points and dropped in 19 free throwswithout a miss for a Garden record. Two nights later he had nine for nine,including the winning two in a 72-70 victory over Bucknell, to set a newcollege record of 56 consecutive foul shots.

Boston College,returning after a 19-day layoff, was as sharp as ever. The Eagles, with littleBilly Evans handing off assists like Coach Bob Cousy, and Steve Adelman andTerry Driscoll firing in the points, trounced Seton Hall 90-75 and Holy Cross92-74. PROVIDENCE hardly worked up a sweat beating Gannon 92-66, whileSYRACUSE, thriving on George Hicker's shooting and Vaughn Harper's strongrebounding and slick passing, ended Penn State's 31-game home winning streak90-73. The Orange then beat Massachusetts 67-59. ST. JOHN'S squeaked throughagainst Temple 65-63 on Albie Swartz's last-second shot. MANHATTAN also tookthe Owls 82-72 for Coach Ken Norton's 300th victory, FAIRFIELD defeatedGeorgetown 93-82.

Things werelooking up in Philadelphia. LA SALE, finally playing the way it was supposedto, won over Creighton 88-83 in overtime and Loyola of New Orleans 125-80,while VILLANOVA beat Detroit 75-56 and St. Peter's 62-48. ARMY eased pastFordham 61-59 for its sixth in a row but PENN STATE surprised the Cadets 67-57.ST. BONAVENTURE shocked Canisius 97-58, and NIAGARA upset Dayton 80-74.

Connecticut'ssharpshooting Wes Bialosuknia had a gala week. He scored 23 points in a 66-59win over Massachusetts that gave the Huskies the Yankee Conference lead andthen he bombed Maine for 50 as Connecticut won 109-65.

THE SOUTH
1. NORTH CAROLINA (14-1)
2. WESTERN KENTUCKY (16-1)
3. VANDERBILT (15-3)

Nearly everyonehad conceded that the SEC race was between Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Thenstrange things began to happen, VANDERBILT barely made it past last-place LSU79-77 before FLORIDA's tall Gators got the Commodores in Gainesville.Rebounding from an 87-61 loss to AUBURN, the Gators hit Vanderbilt with astifling zone press and their big men took over the boards. Little Skip Higleyfired in 22 points, David Miller added 21 and Vandy went down 83-75. TENNESSEElooked good beating Mississippi State 67-45 and Georgia Tech 59-48, but thecautious Vols stumbled against MISSISSIPPI. Going nowhere, Ole Miss upsetTennessee 56-53 in overtime. It was enough to make an old campaigner likeKENTUCKY's Adolph Rupp wonder if his Wildcats still had a chance despite theirfive losses. What gave The Baron hope was the way Louie Dam-pier and Pat Rileywere shooting. They got 54 points between them in a 96-53 win over Mississippi,and then Kentucky trampled LSU 105-84 for Rupp's 761st victory. "It's beena great adventure," said Adolph.

North Carolina wasstill undefeated in the ACC. The Tar Heels beat Maryland 85-77, with 6'11"Rusty Clark and Larry Miller scoring 20 points apiece, but Coach Dean Smith wasnot happy about his team blowing a 22-point lead. "We can't standprosperity, I guess," he griped. Maybe what really bothered Smith was SOUTHCAROLINA's growing strength—the Gamecocks rolled over Maryland 80-53 and WakeForest 77-60. And DUKE was coming on, too. Bob Verga and Bob Riedy bombedVirginia for 51 points in a 100-77 victory, and the Blue Devils looked evenbetter beating West Virginia 91-75. The Mountaineers, who had just edgedDavidson 86-83, simply could not handle Duke's Mike Lewis. He got 33 points and19 rebounds. "Two areas hurt us, the boards and Lewis," said WestVirginia's Bucky Waters, "but that's the same thing, isn't it?"

Western Kentuckyhad a one-and-a-half-game lead in the Ohio Valley and 16 straight afterwalloping Austin Peay 101-59 and Middle Tennessee 95-62. VIRGINIA TECH ANDGEORGIA TECH were making a run for postseason consideration. VPI (13-3) downedWilliam and Mary 84-79 and Richmond 89-71, while Georgia (12-7) beat Mercer91-57 and Notre Dame 102-87. But Memphis State, another hopeful, lost twice, toMIAMI (Fla.) 88-63 and FLORIDA STATE 55-51.

THE MIDWEST
1. LOUISVILLE (18-2)
2. KANSAS (13-3)
3. TOLEDO (14-1)

Ohioans had beenmentioning Toledo and UCLA in the same breath. After all, they were the onlytwo unbeaten teams in the nation and Toledo had a 14-game streak. Then theRockets went to Huntington, W. Va. and MARSHALL shot them down 96-81 as"Big George" Stone fired in 31 points. "I've said all along weweren't that good a club," was Coach Bob Nichols' comment.

It was like afree-for-all with a ball when ILLINOIS and Northwestern got together inChampaign. Elbows flew and whistles blew all afternoon. Illinois' Dion Flessnerwas decked and carried off on a stretcher and seven players fouled out. Inbetween foul calls, the Illini's Dave Scholz and Jim Dawson each scored 26points to give Northwestern its first Big Ten defeat, 93-83. That made it arace again. INDIANA, after a non-conference win over De Paul 72-70, edgedMinnesota 82-81 to tie Michigan State for second, only a half-game behindNorthwestern. Iowa, beaten by LOYOLA of CHICAGO 98-87, and Illinois each hadtwo losses.

Earlier, whenMICHIGAN STATE and Notre Dame came to the end of regulation time in a 65-65tie, State's John Benington suggested to Notre Dame's Johnny Dee that theysettle for a tie and go home. But Dee stayed and the Spartans beat his team85-80 in overtime.

Louisville wasbeginning to worry about a Cincinnati hex. The Bearcats had beaten the Cardsthree straight and suddenly they were only four points behind with five minutesto go before 17,650 in Louisville's Freedom Hall. But Butch Beard threw in fourfree throws, Westley Unseld (who scored 19 points) began wheeling underneaththe boards and Louisville pulled away to win 65-57. TULSA and WICHITA STATE,however, were still hot on Louisville's trail in the Missouri Valley. TheHurricanes beat Drake 82-54 and North Texas 65-62 while Wichita took Drake71-60 and St. Louis 63-61.

The Big Eight wasfull of contenders—and surprises. OKLAHOMA, switching from a zone to man-to-manwhen Colorado's Pat Frink hit 10 of his first 11 shots, pulled itself togetherand upset the Buffs 71-66. NEBRASKA moved to the top by whipping Kansas State67-59 but KANSAS was only a half-game behind the Huskers after taking IowaState 68-50.

IndependentMARQUETTE beat touring Niagara 80-67 and St. John's 71-54 but the Warriors lostto DE PAUL 79-74. There was some consolation for the East, though. St. JOSEPH'Soutscored Xavier 87-80.

THE SOUTHWEST
1. HOUSTON (15-2)
2. TEXAS WESTERN (15-3)
3. SMU (13-4)

There was rarely adull moment when SMU and TCU tangled for first place in the SouthwestConference. TCU attacked with a frenzied full-court press, and the lead changedhands 18 times. But light-fingered Charlie Beasley kept slipping in among theFrogs and stealing the ball, and with five seconds to go sophomore LynnPhillips, who led SMU with 25 points, dropped in a free throw to put theMustangs three up. They won 89-88. Then RICE, in recent years an SWC also-ran,shocked TCU 89-81 and suddenly the race had a different look. The Frogs droppedinto a second-place tie with BAYLOR, which bombed Texas A&M 93-65, and SMU,an easy 91-75 winner over Texas Tech, had a 1½-game lead.

When NEW MEXICOstate, a have-not on the rise, upset Texas Western 68-55 with a scramblingpress and John Gambill's 24-point shooting, TW Coach Don Haskins figured he hadbetter do something drastic. So, for the first time since he has been coaching,Haskins put his Miners into a zone defense—1-2-2—against Tulsa. It held theHurricanes off, Nevil Shed scored 18 points, and TEXAS WESTERN pulled through61-58.

Houston andOklahom City, meanwhile, had it easy. The Cougars routed Nevada Southern 103-83as Elvin Hayes scored 42 points; OCU trounced Hawaii 116-62.

THE WEST
1. UCLA (17-0)
2. UTAH STATE (14-3)
3. PACIFIC (14-3)

USC Coach Bob Boydhad faced the Alcindor problem twice. The first time he had his team run withUCLA and he lost 105-90. Then he was licked 107-83 when he tried to double upon Alcindor. Last week he went for the stall—and it almost worked. While theTrojans dawdled, making each pass an event, Alcindor stood nonchalantly withhis hands on his hips or passed the time by bending over and touching the floorwith his palms. USC led 17-14 at half time. Then Coach Johnny Wooden decided heneeded more speed in his lineup. He benched Kenny Heitz and Lynn Shacklefordfor Don Saffer and sophomore Bill Sweek. They stirred things up, and LuciusAllen's two free throws gave UCLA a 31-31 tie. In overtime, Sweek stole theball twice, scored twice and the Bruins won 40-35. But Boyd proved his point:Alcindor got only four field goals and 13 points. "I'd do it again,"insisted Boyd. "We expected it," admitted Wooden, "and we expect alot more of it, too."

Brigham Young andUtah, the best in the Western AC, had their troubles with the area's goodindependents, UTAH STATE wrecked BYU 113-88 as Shaler Halimon scored 42 points.COLORADO STATE flushed Utah out of its zone with some slick shooting bysophomores Cliff Shegogg and Floyd Kerr, and the Aggies won 72-63 in FortCollins. But it was another story when UTAH got CSU in Salt Lake City. CoachJack Gardner came up with a new defense—a man-to-man with "zoneovertones," he called it—and it won for the Utes 78-68.

New Mexico wasback in form in the WAC. Coach Bob King went back to his "offensivedefense," and Arizona State tried to match it with a zone. But rookiesFrank Judge, Ron Sanford and Ron Nelson revealed new talent for outsideshooting, Mel Daniels roamed inside for 22 points and the Lobos coasted 88-48.Then New Mexico pounded Arizona 81-50. WYOMING also won twice, over Arizona75-73 and Arizona State 98-78.

Pacific broke thedeadlock in the West Coast AC, beating Loyola of Los Angeles 67-62 andPepperdine 82-81 for its 11th straight. But Seattle was upset by IDAHO STATE78-76 on Charlie Parks' two foul shots after the final buzzer.

PHOTO

MAKING SURE of his points, sophomore Forward Steve Mix stretches high and stuffs ball in Toledo's 78-62 win over Kent State