THE WEEK

MIDWEST

Notre Dame was not UCLA's only problem in the Midwest. The Bruins even had a little trouble stopping Loyola (2-11). The Chicago team threw a box-and-chaser at the Bruins, held Henry Bibby to one basket and seized a 31-27 lead. Then UCLA's big men surrounded 6'9" LaRue Martin, their only competition on the boards, and fouled him out. Said Loyola Coach George Ireland, "Once those guys get loose under the basket, you're out of business. You could hit 'em all with a club and they still wouldn't fall over."

Undefeated Marquette survived a scare from undersized, underdog De Paul. The Demons, leading at one stage by 12 points, were still ahead at halftime 35-33. But then the Warriors found the right warpath. They outscored De Paul 40-16 in the second half and won 73-51.

"To stay in it with Kansas you have to hit those 15-footers," Iowa State's Glen Anderson said. About 55% of them, he might have added. Or maybe 60. As it was, Kansas annihilated the Cyclones 83-57. Oklahoma State Coach Sam Aubrey subscribed to the same theory so thoroughly that he pulled even his frontcourt men outside, hoping to draw out Kansas mountains Dave Robisch and Roger Brown. That worked so well that Kansas won only 90-55, running up the highest point total ever scored against Oklahoma State. The Jayhawkers have now won 22 straight at home, the longest streak ever at the house Phog Allen built.

Drake defeated Louisville 81-78 in a big-football-game sort of finale. With four seconds to go and the score 78-all, Drake Coach Maury John was on his knees drawing a play with chalk on the floor. Time in. As Jeff Halliburton, throwing the ball in, faked a look in the wrong direction, Dave Wicklund, a seldom-used sub, broke into a perfect fly pattern. Halliburton hit him with the bomb, Wicklund laid it in just as he was clobbered and Drake won. In the melee that followed, all a dazed Wicklund could say was, "Did I make it? Did I make it?" Not only did he make it, when order finally was restored and the teams were brought back from their dressing rooms and the basketball from storage, he went to the foul line and made a foul shot, too.

1. MARQUETTE (14-0)
2. KANSAS (13-1)

WEST

Embroiled in the usual eye-for-an-eye warfare with arch-rivals Utah and Brigham Young, Utah State escaped near-gougings to roll on to a 15-2 record. Against Utah at Salt Lake City, the Aggies lost playmaker Jeff Tebbs with a ruptured eye blood vessel in the first four minutes and the Utes, who led by 13 points after 15 minutes, were shutting off the boards with their man-to-man. Then Coach La-Dell Andersen plugged in a spread-court offense and Nate Williams immediately hit some phenomenal shots. Williams scored 30 points, Marv Roberts 30, supersub Ron Hatch 20, and the Happy Valley folk of Utah State went home 102-92 winners.

BYU worked all week on a highly original defense, a triangle zone under the basket plus a man-on-man for Roberts and Williams that locked the running Utags into a tight defensive struggle. But Roberts scored 18, Hatch 16, and Williams swished a 30-footer with two seconds left. Final score: 72-70.

While USC was idle, Oregon (10-2) defeated Washington State 95-68, and Oregon State lost to Washington 93-86 in overtime.

Idaho State (7-8), using a full court press, led the Big Sky Conference after defeating Weber State 67-65. Weber also lost at Seattle 74-70 as Willie Sojourner, getting his usual 25 points, again looked lonesome.

1. USC (14-0)
2. UCLA (14-1)

EAST

In Philadelphia's noisy Palestra" unbeaten Penn downed 14th-ranked Villanova 78-70 for its 15th straight victory. As a standing-room crowd of 9,200 vibrated approval or dismay, the Quakers' stout offense, led by Guard Steve Bilsky, forced Villanova out of three different zones—a 1-2-2, a box-and-one and a triangle-and-two on Bob Morse and Dave Wohl. The win was the more impressive because Villanova shot 55.2% and led 39-34 at the half. But when the Quakers got the enemy into a man-to-man, it was their game. "I was almost amazed at the man-for-man," Bilsky said disdainfully. "Maybe they thought we'd hold the ball."

Shooting only 26 for 62, Penn also belted Temple, administrator of Fordham's only loss. Craig Littlepage, who had a lot of big nights in high school but found obscurity at Penn, scored six points at key moments (increasing his average to three per game) as his team won 62-48.

Villanova did beat St. Bonaventure soundly 80-67, even with Matt Gantt back in the Bonnies' lineup. Howie Porter, who pulled down 18 rebounds and scored 22 points, and Hank Siemiontkowski held Bonaventure's leading scorer, Greg Gary, to one field goal.

Massachusetts won its 11th without a loss by beating Boston U., but the Redmen finally fell to Providence by one point, 73-72, when they missed three shots in the last 18 seconds. One was by Julius Erving, the country's seventh leading scorer, who was held to 19 points. The Friars' sophomore guard, Ernie DiGregorio, scored 33 and set up numerous baskets.

Duquesne, beginning to look like the team it should have been two years ago, beat St. Bonaventure by a whopping 89-68 margin for the Dukes' sixth straight (including Monday's win in overtime over Notre Dame). Jarrett Durham led the Dukes with 25 points, 10 of them during a 16-point spurt that put the game away.

La Salle picked up easy wins over Niagara 96-79 and Lafayette 93-82.

1. PENN (15-0)
2. LA SALLE (12-1)

SOUTH

Murray State's Thoroughbreds, picked to show but never to win, handed Western Kentucky its second straight defeat 73-71 with 17 seconds left and broke an 18-game Hilltopper winning streak in the Ohio Valley Conference.

In white pin-striped coat, blood-red shirt and red bell-bottom pants to match, Furman's new head coach, Joe Williams, returned to Jacksonville to play the team he had taken to the NCAA finals last year. His squad was also in bell-bottoms, hoping, perhaps, to blind the Jacksonville players. But the much-taller Dolphins were hardly dazzled and Williams' former assistant, Tom Wasdin, had to scrape bottom to hold the score down to 94-60. Little Mercer University, however, cast as another of JU's joke victims, rallied to within six points with three minutes to play before dying 93-76.

With Jimmy England hitting 12 of 17 from the field and Don Johnson 9 of 17, Tennessee picked off Alabama at Tuscaloosa 79-62. Kentucky edged LSU at Baton Rouge 82-79, advancing its record to 11-3. LSU cut a 13-point Kentucky lead to one point with 31 seconds to play—and had the ball—but Al Sanders, otherwise a hero with 24 points, had a shot blocked with seconds to go. Kentucky recovered and sank two foul shots for the winning margin.

Virginia, entering the exam break with an 11-2 record, had the best overall record in the powerful Atlantic Coast Conference.

1. TENN (12-2)
2. JACKSONVILLE (12-2)