THE WEEK
EAST
"It's a different game, big boy, I when you go inside. All sorts of things happen to you." That was the advice given 6'9" sophomore Joe Newman of Temple by Assistant Coach Jay Norman. Working inside, Newman hit six of seven shots, wound up with 14 points, 11 rebounds and helped the Owls upend St. John's 79-65. Also instrumental was the defense ordered by Coach Harry Litwack. He had four of his Owls play a sliding zone while junior Mike Jones took high-scoring Mel Davis man-to-man. Jones held Davis to three field goals and 11 points.
There were rumors Rhode Island Coach Tom Carmody would be fired. Carmody had other ideas. He held a long meeting with his team and summed it up by saying, "We came out feeling like we were a family unit." The Rams held together at least through the Duquesne game, which they won in an upset 91-83. Providence also came on strong, effectively switching defenses to beat Niagara 89-79 while St. Bonaventure lost to Canisius 73-70.
Lafayette won three games, including an 87-83 upset at West Virginia in which Tracy Tripucka had 29 points and Walt Kocubinski 27. Fordham won at Princeton 79-75. A full-court press caused the Tiger offense to sputter, while the Rams kept their attack going by working the ball inside to Tom Sullivan, who had 21 points.
Dartmouth beat Harvard 94-86 as Bill Raynor hit on 15 consecutive free throws and had a total of 35 points. Penn, seeking revenge for its 43-point loss to Villanova last year in the NCAA regionals, won easily 74-64. Corky Calhoun got the game ball, the first time in 17 years that Coach Chuck Daly had awarded a ball to a player. Seldom a shooter, Calhoun drove time after time, scoring 20 points. Better, he was a devil on defense.
1. PRINCETON (14-3)
2. PENN (10-2)
SOUTH
Past-performance charts were useless in the South, where established powers became losers and well-known losers became winners. Georgia Tech, winner of only two of 10 games, beat Notre Dame 82-62, Tulane 94-78 and had Florida State in a tizzy before losing 71-69.
North Carolina was stunned by Duke 76-74 when Robby West sank a 20-footer with three seconds remaining. The Blue Devils made nine fewer field goals but won because they sank 32 of 41 foul tries to the Tar Heels' 12 for 18. South Carolina won twice, rallying from huge deficits both times. The Gamecocks trailed St. Bonaventure 17-1 before winning 61-59. Against another Eastern visitor, Niagara, they were behind by 17, then Kevin Joyce got 26 of his 33 points in the second half, and they prevailed 80-69.
Sporting its new TNT offense, Tennessee downed Florida 61-50 and looked in fine shape after Georgia, with 27 points, 13 rebounds and rugged defense from Tim Bassett, beat Kentucky 85-73. But then Kentucky dropped Tennessee 72-70 and LSU, which had lost nine games, upset Georgia 69-68 as Tommy Hess stole the ball in the final 21 seconds, drove the length of the floor, double pumped in midair and passed to Fig Newton, who made the winning basket.
Vanderbilt disposed of Cornell and Davidson avenged an earlier loss to West Virginia—both by scores of 101-80. Dwight Lamar had 48 points to lead Southwestern Louisiana over Louisiana Tech 107-86.
1. N. CAROLINA (12-2)
2. S. CAROLINA (10-3)
MIDWEST
In Crete—Nebraska, that is—Doane College (enrollment 705) is celebrating its centennial, and not even a 79-42 loss to New Mexico can bring a frown. Playing against big-timers like the Lobos, Coach Bob Erickson felt, would help recruiting, especially when the word got around that the Tigers flew commercial jets. So elated was Erickson that after his team made more turnovers (14) than points (13) in the first half, and one player said, "We can come back," he responded, "That's probably what Custer said."
Marquette Coach Al McGuire was less ready with the quip in victory. "Everybody's trying to score 20 points," he grumbled after his team had 21 turnovers in beating Loyola of Chicago 80-70. "They want to win with glory and firecrackers and all that baloney." The Warriors also played sloppily against DePaul, almost wasting away a 17-point bulge before winning 70-61.
The big gun once again for Ohio State was Allan Hornyak, who had 36 points as the Buckeyes beat Indiana 80-74. Minnesota, the only other unbeaten team in Big Ten competition, won twice, first stopping Wisconsin 65-59, then—with Clyde Turner getting 31 points—Michigan State 67-57.
Right from the outset South Carolina knew it would be a long night. The first three times the Gamecocks tried to get the ball to their 7-footer, Danny Traylor, it was either blocked or stolen by Iowa's 7-footer, Kevin Kunnert. Kunnert blocked eight shots, grabbed 14 rebounds and had 20 points as Iowa won 91-85. The top scorer was 6'3" Rick Williams of the Hawkeyes, who scored 40 points.
Trailing Louisville by 14 points with 5:50 to go, Drake came on to tie the score when Bob Whitley made the first part of a one-and-one foul try. Cardinal Coach Denny Crum called two successive time-outs obviously attempting to worry Whitley about his shot. Success. Whitley missed, and the game went into overtime. He finally hit from the floor to put the Bulldogs up by four points with 1:17 left, but Jim Price of the Cardinals made two improbable shots to tie the score, then won the game 79-77 with a 40-footer. It was Louisville's eighth straight victory on the road.
1. MARQUETTE (14-0)
2. LOUISVILLE (12-1)
WEST
Defending Southwest Conference champion TCU lost 91-81 to SMU, which got 26 points and 17 rebounds from Ruben Triplett. Martin Terry scored 46 points, an Arkansas record, as the Razorbacks beat Texas A&M 100-89. And a layup at the buzzer by Larry Robinson gave Texas a 77-75 win over Baylor while Texas Tech tied the Longhorns for first place by beating Rice 89-85.
Texas-El Paso squirmed past New Mexico State 65-63. Earlier the Aggies won 91-89 from California, which also lost to San Jose State 86-83. Not even 35 points by Bill (Bird) Averitt of Pepperdine could keep Hawaii from winning another home game 94-85. Utah won a battle of zone defenses from Utah State 66-59. George Price of Colorado State was the week's best clutch shooter. He beat Denver 47-45 with a field goal in the last two seconds and then stopped Wyoming 68-66 when he hit on a jumper with six seconds left. Brigham Young got 31 points from Bernie Fryer in beating Utah State 101-82.
All of which leads up to the Santa Clara stall, and Denver's run-and-gun. Neither worked against UCLA. The Broncos had just 13 points at halftime and lost 92-57; the Pioneers succumbed 108-61. Washington's Steve Hawes, possibly the best big man north of UCLA's Bill Walton, had 23 points and 12 rebounds as the Huskies beat Oregon 85-55.
1. UCLA (14-0)
2. LONG BEACH STATE (15-1)
