THE WEEK
EAST
Injuries to its two superb guards served only to emphasize how many more guns Pennsylvania has in its arsenal. The unshaken Quakers brushed aside Steve Bilsky's pulled hamstring and made light of Dave Word's pulled back muscle as John Koller collected 18 points and Phil Hankinson connected on nine of 12 shots for 20 points against Cornell. With Corky Calhoun shifted to guard and Hankinson at forward, Penn at one stage reeled off 17 straight points. Final score: 79-46 plus one insult from Penn Coach Dick Harter. "We had a mediocre night, he said. Harter could hardly make that claim the next evening when his team made nonsense of Columbia's delusive title hopes 92-79. Forward Jim Wolf, averaging only 4.2 points a game, dropped in 18, and Bob Morse popped 23.
Syracuse, preempted from regional TV by the astronauts' moon trip, made green cheese out of nationally ranked La Salle. Syracuse offset its own poor shooting in the first half with a 2-3 zone defense that held La Salle to 35 points and a five-point lead. In the second half it spurted ahead 57-47 on rapid-fire bursts from Bill Smith and George Lee. When Ken Durrett led the Explorers back into a 59-59 tie, Orange Coach Roy Danforth coolly stuck with the zone and Smith showed equal self-control when he restrained himself from returning a punch by La Salle's Ron Kennedy. Kennedy was ejected, and Smith and Syracuse went on to win 75-68.
Villanova's Howard Porter celebrated Coach Jack Kraft's 200th career victory, a 99-82 coast past St. John's, by firmly taking a rim in hand, vaulting high over the basket, grabbing a late-game pass and ramming it down through the hoop. Officials looked the other way and Kraft said, "I was watching my guards."
West Virginia beat Pitt by an egg, 95-91. The Mountaineers went ahead to stay on a technical imposed on the Pitt crowd for flinging the egg. For the night, the crowd's production was three eggs, two firecrackers, a head of lettuce, several oranges and one fish.
1. PENN (18-0)
2. DUQUESNE (15-2)
SOUTH
"I've never seen anyone better," Auburn's Bill Lynn said after the massacre. "Never. Nowhere. No time." That was after Kentucky's 114-76 victimization of the perfectly respectable Tigers, an assault in which Rupp's rippers hit 72.2% of their shots in the first half, sank all 11 free throws and blazed to a 63-38 lead. "Nothing we could do could stop them," Lynn raved on. "We tried to zone them, just to see if we could stay with them, and they bombed us right out of the zone." Mississippi, whose last victory over Kentucky came Feb. 11, 1927, knew exactly how he felt. Johnny Neumann scored 46 and the Ole Miss defense held the Wildcats to a 33-32 lead 13 minutes into the first half, but Kentucky romped 121-86. The wins came immediately after Center Mark Soderberg, who quit the team three times before transfering to Utah, blasted Rupp's coaching methods. If this was dissension, maybe the Wildcats needed more of it. Harmonious Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt 65-60 but did beat Mississippi State 88-65.
In the Atlantic Coast Conference, home is where the heart is—and also the liver, kidneys and spleen of the visitors. To go on the road in the ACC is to get one's intestines tangled. It has happened in 23 of 30 games, including Duke's 82-71 slaughter of South Carolina. Duke sophomore Gary Melchionni defended against John Roche beautifully, on one play batting a ball out of his hands, diving to save the ball in-bounds and, prostrate, slapping it to Jeff Dawson for a layup. Roche refurbished his image by scoring a league-record 56 points as SC beat Furman 118-83.
North Carolina State ambushed traveling Maryland 71-61 while North Carolina and Virginia, both undefeated at home, stayed that way. The Tar Heels sacked Wake Forest 93-75. Virginia demolished Washington & Lee 92-70 and North Carolina State 79-53.
Western Kentucky eased past Middle Tennessee 87-73, and Jacksonville flattened two more patsies, South Alabama 102-83 and Oklahoma City 103-77.
1. JACKSONVILLE (16-2)
2. N.C. (13-3)
WEST
Utah State easily Pocketed its 17th win by beating Montana State 98-68, but a weekend battle at Las Cruces with the Aggies of New Mexico State left the Utags upended 93-90 in a game that had the visitors wondering what had hexed them. Utah State shot 67% from the floor and steamrolled New Mexico State's press, but still lost the ball 21 times. "Our turnovers," complained Coach LaDell Andersen "came through careless mistakes in nonpressure situations."
Oregon beat Oregon State twice, 64-62 and 67-57. "We won this game in any manner I can think of, and I don't care what the score was," Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller said after the first one. That will seem untrue in years to come, but Friday night, as the Corvallis team took powerful Oregon down to the last second, it seemed fair. Even though only six points were scored in the last 5½ minutes, State's Freddie Boyd twice tied the score and Oregon's Stan Love had only a second left when he put in Rusty Blair's pass. The Beavers, badly down for the series' second sellout in two nights, got only 57 points on 80 possessions.
"Duquesne's offense looks like a mob of women milling around at a bargain-basement sale," said one West Coast observer, which meant there was no place for the men of Santa Clara and San Francisco. After switching from a zone to man-to-man, Duquesne took Santa Clara apart 84-73 as 6'10" twins Garry and Barry Nelson led the fast break and Forward Mickey Davis scored 23 points. The Dukes also toyed with USF before winning 90-77, then added their 11th straight, 87-78 over Villanova.
1. UCLA (16-1)
2. USC (16-1)
MIDWEST
"No French pastry," said Coach Al McGuire, "just straight-off-the-shoulder basketball when you have the horses," and Marquette squashed two more cream puffs—DePaul 84-55 and Wisconsin 89-75. Gary Brell, who scored a career-high 30 points against Wisconsin, also turned in the play of the game—maybe of the year—after losing his shoe when someone stepped on his heel. He was running downcourt with the shoe in one hand when Bob Lackey, unaware of his problem, threw him a pass. Brell caught the ball, dribbled it, passed to Dean Meminger, put his shoe on, broke for the basket and scored on a return pass.
Kansas almost took Kansas State too casually. Coach Ted Owens arose late the morning of the game, played a paddle ball match—and lost. Kansas partisans sang Old MacDonald Had A Farm to the former Kansas Aggies—but failed to note that the State players were so little bothered that they sang along. The Kansas defense held Kansas State to 10 shots in the first 13 minutes—but State hit all 10. Meanwhile, the Purple zone was forcing the Jayhawks outside, where they were helpless. Kansas, leading only 67-64 with 2:59 to go, spurted to five points in eight seconds, and that was the difference in the 79-74 win.
Illinois, rated 15th and fresh from upsetting Notre Dame, mistook the Iowa Hawkeyes for doves and lost 92-84. Iowa's Fred Brown, in 31 minutes, hit 13 of 21 shots and made all 10 of his free throws for 36 points. "Brown is a better shot outside than Austin Carr, a better ball handler and dribbler and decidedly better on defense," Illinois Coach Harv Schmidt said. The Illini rebounded to beat Minnesota 93-78.
Facing Indiana and fast-rising Michigan the same week, Purdue got hammered by the Wolverines 85-69. John Orr's fun-loving wrecking crew of Henry Wilmore & Co. is now 12-4 and the only team undefeated in Big Ten play after snapping Purdue's own seven-game winning streak. Then Michigan barely squeaked past poor Northwestern 82-81. Purdue did manage to beat Indiana 85-81 in its other big game.
Notre Dame unsurprisingly beat Creighton 102-91, and Miami floated to the top of the Mid-American Conference, taking care of Toledo 64-49 and Bowling Green 75-63. Drake handled DePaul 93-80 but lost to Memphis State 73-72.
1. MARQUETTE (18-0)
2. KANSAS (16-1)