BASKETBALL'S WEEK
WEST
1. UCLA (14-0)
2. SANTA CLARA (16-0)
3. NEW MEXICO STATE (16-0)
The Gringos, a Tijuana Brass-type band, were hired to replace the Arizona State pep group, and suddenly everything was upbeat. The Sun Devils, losers in five of six previous games, stopped Utah 93-88, then Brig-ham Young 109-94. Their victims had been tied for the Western AC lead. The back-to-back wins left State (2-1) directly behind new leader Arizona (3-0), which also beat Utah (90-64) and BYU (76-70). Wyoming lost to Colorado State 78-68 as the Kerr twins, Lloyd and Floyd, combined for 32 points.
In the Pacific Eight Washington beat Oregon 60-54 and Washington State won from Oregon State 61-60. Then Washington State upset first-place Washington 62-55. Oregon and Oregon State split two games, the Ducks taking the first 66-52, the Beavers the second 65-53.
Weber State's 12-game win streak was ended by Seattle 100-62. High-scoring Marv Roberts of Utah State (27.5 points) and Simmie Hill of West Texas State, averaging four fewer points a game, went at it. Roberts triumphed 43-36, but the Texans took the game 102-92. Busy Oklahoma City beat Abilene Christian 104-83, Arkansas 84-75 and SMU 96-74 before losing a rematch to the Mustangs 103-84. Rice surprised Florida State 83-80, and New Mexico State, still unbeaten, took Tennessee Tech 81-65.
MIDWEST
1. PURDUE (10-3)
2. OHIO STATE (11-2)
3. ILLINOIS (12-1)
Big Ten teams have mementos they distribute freely to all opponents: black and blue marks, bruised ribs and headaches. They are operating at optimum efficiency this season with their best-ever record against outsiders, 64-30. John Wooden, whose UCLA Bruins defeated Northwestern 81-67, was well aware of the mayhem. "Board play is a lot rougher than on the West Coast and there's much more body contact," he said, attempting to sound mild. Lew Alcindor of the Bruins got a liberal dose of body contact from 6'7" Jerry Sutton, a muscular 245-pound fill-in for ailing first-string Center Jim Sarno. Sutton gave Alcindor a taste of what life among the pros will be like, firmly establishing position and allowing Alcindor just two defensive rebounds in the first half. It took a stern talking-to by Wooden at half time to get his Bruins going. They had trailed 45-35—the first time this had happened to them all year—before Wooden aroused them by telling them he was ashamed of their defensive work on the boards. The Bruins came out loaded for Wildcats in the second half and scored eight straight points, easily pulling away. Alcindor proved he was far from outclassed, finishing with 16 rebounds and 35 points. The next night, with Alcindor getting 34 points, the Bruins took care of Loyola of Chicago 84-65.
Illinois put its muscle to use, stunning Notre Dame 91-57 as Greg Jackson, a 6'8", 255-pound center, forsook his early-season politeness. Said Coach Harvey Schmidt: "He really got with it. He started bouncing people around." In between bounces the Irish committed 29 turnovers. "It was," said Coach Johnny Dee, "a nightmare."
Ohio State, scoring in bursts, had two comeback wins on the road, beating Georgia Tech 73-66 and Cornell 96-78. In league competition Purdue, with its fast break working smoothly and with Rick Mount getting 34 points, disposed of Minnesota 102-79. Northwestern downed Michigan 100-85, but the Wolverines came back to defeat Michigan State 75-70.
Tulsa strengthened its grip on first place in the Missouri Valley Conference as Louisville's Cardinals knocked off No. 1 challenger Drake 84-70. Guard Butch Beard led the Cardinals with 27 points, 12 rebounds and six assists and he hounded Willie Mc-Carter so much that the Drake star sank only seven of 24 shots. Earlier Drake defeated Bradley 93-76. The loss to the Cardinals left Drake and Louisville tied for second with 5-2 records, a game and a half behind Tulsa, which had to score four points in the last 36 seconds to tie outsider Southern Illinois. Tulsa then beat SIU in overtime 85-82, Cincinnati took Memphis State 62-53; St. Louis defeated Bradley 83-82.
Miami of Ohio, which had used its zone effectively against Mid-American rivals, switched to a man-to-man and was upset by Western Michigan 71-66. Ohio U. moved into second place by beating Kent State in overtime 75-72, while Bowling Green upset Toledo 64-63.
After being tied or trading the lead 25 times in the first 25 minutes, Marquette beat Loyola 61-56 for its 11th in a row. Dayton won from Miami of Ohio 67-54, but lost to Western Kentucky, which scored 16 straight points late in the game, 70-65.
SOUTH
1. NORTH CAROLINA (13-1)
2. DAVIDSON (14-1)
3. KENTUCKY (12-2)
Davidson and Georgia owed their wins to a couple of players who came off the bench to score vital points. Senior Mike O'Neill, a reserve all season, got two starting assignments for Davidson when Jerry Kroll injured his ankle. In his first game, against Princeton, O'Neill led the Wildcats with 22 points and held high-scoring Jeff Petrie to eight—all in the first half—in a 71-54 victory. O'Neill was even more valuable against The Citadel, as he scored 19 points in an 80-72 win that boosted the Wildcats' Southern Conference record to 5-0. East Carolina solidified its second-place position (6-1) by beating VMI 83-75. As for Georgia, it won its Southeastern Conference game from Auburn 85-84 when Jerry Epling, who did not start the contest, sank a shot at the buzzer. Kentucky took a commanding lead in the SEC, holding off LSU 108-96, despite 52 points by Pete Maravich. Runner-up Vanderbilt was upset by Auburn 92-79. Tiger Sophomore John Mengelt, looking more like the big Ms of college basketball—Maravich, Murphy and Mount—scored 30 points in the Vanderbilt game and had 34 in the loss to Georgia. Tennessee also came up with an SEC win, beating Alabama 70-13.
Duke, using four sophomores in an effort to reorganize, led North Carolina State by 15 points midway through the second' half. The Blue Devils then went into their Mongoose Delay, which aims at working for layups rather than simply stalling. While the Blue Devils waited, the Wolfpack hurried back to a 77-74 win.
EAST
1. ST. JOHN'S (13-2)
2. COLUMBIA (13-1)
3. VILLANOVA (13-2)
Boston College Coach Bob Cousy announced he would retire at the end of this season, his sixth, because he was having nightmares again, four heart attacks a week and was getting ulcers. He saw his team beat Se-ton Hall 84-56 and Canisius 107-73, bringing his lifetime college record to 103-37. Billy Evans, his marvelous ball handler who has been kept out of action by injuries for much of the last two seasons, had 30 points against Canisius, 14 of them in a row.
Howard Porter and Johnny Jones scored heavily as Villanova beat Detroit 93-71 and DePaul 81-57. Porter had 28 points in the first game, 30 in the next, while Jones put in 37 against the Titans and 15 against the Blue Demons. La Salle was also a two-time winner, defeating Penn 78-64 and Temple 101-85 to bring its record to 14-1. Holy Cross, a three-time winner, overcame Colgate's stall 48-40 and beat Dartmouth 86-62 and Syracuse 88-80.
Niagara's zone held Bob Lanier to 13 points, but St. Bonaventure won 70-68 as Jim Satalin and Billy Kalbaugh shot over the top for 35 points. Calvin Murphy of Niagara had 27 points in that game, then put on his best spurt of the week when he scored nine points in 3½ minutes to defeat Buffalo 79-76 to end a seven-game losing streak. Rutgers brought its record to 7-3 by downing Lafayette 98-56. Penn State held off a West Virginia rally to win 64-62, then had an uprising of its own thwarted by Army 64-54. St. John's used its fast break to get past St. Francis 71-55.
Vermont took a Yankee Conference game from Connecticut 99-87 and Massachusetts beat outsider Providence 76-62. Princeton dedicated its new fieldhouse with a 74-62 Ivy League win over Penn.
HIGHLIGHT
Kentucky claims it, Kansas claims it and so does Oregon State. Each wants to be the first college basketball team to win 1,000 games. Whether any of them is legitimately entitled to the honor seems lost in the murk of old and often hoary records. But there is a rightful claim to 1,000 victories, and it belongs to a high school team, Wyandotte of Kansas City, Kans. Wyandotte once beat the Rainbow AC 234-2, a game the late Robert Ripley included as amazing fact in his Believe It or Not column. Counting up, however, the punctilious Wyandottes ignored that inglorious triumph. They could afford to. It occurred in the 1922-23 season, when the Bulldogs won 31 straight and beat Rockford (Ill.) High 43-21 for the national interscholastic title.
The thousandth win came against Wichita West last Friday, 78-34 in the opening round of the Wichita North Invitational and it extended Wyandotte's latest winning streak to 25. While Kansas has been totting up wins for 71 years, Oregon State for 68 and Kentucky for 65, Wyandotte has been at its winning ways for a mere 56 years. The present coach is Walter Shublom, a 45-year-old social studies teacher who became head coach at Wyandotte 14 years ago, and since then has won nine state championships, five of them in a row, from 1957 to 1961. He has seen the team through 284 wins and only 25 losses—a .919 percentage.
Shublom each year runs a Clinic of Champions. It is attended by some 400 coaches and only leaders of state championship teams are permitted to instruct. In rare losing years Shublom has had to exclude himself from the faculty of his own school and this season he is wondering if he will not have to do that again. Going for 1,001 in the finals of the Wichita North tournament, his Bulldogs lost to host team Wichita North—63-62. Oh, well, another 56 years and who cares?