THE WEEK
WEST
UCLA did not play last week. Mark that up as a merciful dispensation of preholiday goodwill. Among those who did compete were Long Beach State, which journeyed to Tacoma to win the Daffodil Classic by ho-humming its way past Portland State 102-66 and Puget Sound 102-70.
John Boro, a 6' guard who is San Francisco's sixth man, led the Dons to victory in the Cable Car Classic. After they had blown 18 points of a 19-point bulge over La Salle in the opening round, Boro sank two foul shots with seven seconds to go for a 74-73 win. In the title match he made good on eight foul tries in the last five minutes as the Dons rallied to beat Duke 72-68.
Although the season is young, it was already showdown time in Albuquerque, where New Mexico ambushed New Mexico State. The Lobos might not have done so, however, had Coach Norm Ellenberger not misread the halftime statistics. Thinking that his team had been outrebounded, Ellenberger had a few stern words to say in the locker room. The chastised Lobos, down by a point, charged out, scored the first 13 points of the second half and won 88-67.
Arizona used four freshmen in dumping Southern Cal 71-69. The Trojans made just half of their six foul shots while the Wildcats made all 13 of theirs, freshman Jim Rappis sinking the last two with 11 seconds left. And Al Fleming, a 6'8" newcomer, grabbed 13 rebounds and had 21 points.
Utah, playing with four freshmen, performed well, yet came up a three-time loser—65-59 to Kansas State, 81-70 to Weber State and 78-67 to Utah State.
Only two active major college coaches have won more often than Washington's Marv Harshman, who has a knack for turning ordinary players into winners. In all, he has won 421 games and his Huskies raised this season's record to 5-0 by beating Seattle 68-56 and Seattle Pacific 86-66. Among Harshman's starters are a 6'7" center, John Quigg, who is scoring fewer than two points a game, and a walk-on guard, Ron Williams.
1. UCLA (3-0)
2. LONG BEACH STATE (3-0)
EAST
It was visitors' week in the East. For the first college game ever in Long Island's new Nassau Coliseum, who should play? Why Michigan and Brig ham Young, of course. Michigan built a 44-35 halftime lead, then was bedazzled by the well-traveled Kresimir Cosic, the Yugoslav Yo-Yo. Cosic went everywhere in the second half, finishing with 27 points and 15 rebounds to pull off an upset for the Cougars 83-77. Shining for the Wolverines was Campy Russell with 23 points.
Air Force, California and Nebraska all flew to Morgantown, W. Va. for the Mountaineer Classic. There, with John Coughran dropping in 25 points and clearing the boards 19 times, California won the championship game from West Virginia 63-51.
Philadelphia's Palestra also had visitors for a tripleheader, only one of whom went away a winner. That was Oregon State, whose coach, Ralph Miller, confessed he became a "raving maniac" as he watched his boys blow all but one point of a 10-point lead before regrouping for a 56-50 win over Temple. In the other games, La Salle held off Biscayne 69-67 and Penn put down The Citadel 67-34. La Salle prevailed, thanks to the improved shooting of Frank Doyle, who sank eight of 14 shots after correcting a hitch in his jumper. As for Penn, it overcame a stall by The Citadel, which kept the score down to 6-6 after the first 7:12 before committing nine quick turnovers.
Upstate New York teams had mixed results. Cornell toppled Penn State 74-65 for its first home victory in a year, then was brushed off by Colgate 77-68. Despite 40 turnovers, Maryland enjoyed its visit to Canisius, where Tom McMillen accounted for 32 points in a 107-80 romp. St. Bonaventure beat Thomas More 98-87 and Bowling Green 83-70 but lost 73-70 to Georgetown in overtime. The touring Falcons then played Niagara, and the light-fingered Purple Eagles stole the ball 17 times en route to a heavy-handed 100-77 win. Earlier, Niagara lost 67-62 to Villanova, which rose to 3-0, outbattling tough Philadelphia Textile 69-59. American U. took a 20-9 lead over Syracuse, then wilted away 84-73.
Bill Kapler of Princeton did not take a shot against Rutgers but he had a large hand in the Tigers' 51-47 victory. Kapler repeatedly blocked shots by high-voltage freshman Phil Sellers, who missed 13 of 18 and wound up with 17 points.
LIU ended little Bentley's 28-game regular-season victory streak 82-78, Iona stopped Army 82-64, Harvard took Spring-field 122-98 and Fordham beat Yale 95-81. Providence got 25 points from Ernie DiGregorio as it opened with a 94-58 laugher over St. Francis of Brooklyn, and Fairfield, the area's most improved team, remained undefeated with wins over two St. Francises, of Brooklyn and Loretto, Pa.
1. PROVIDENCE (1-0)
2. PENN (3-0)
MIDWEST
Following Tennessee's 56-30 loss at Marquette, Vol Coach Ray Mears said he felt the Warriors were capable of beating anyone. "Their pressure defense is better than anything I've seen UCLA play," Mears said. But the Warriors were less impressive against Memphis State, nearly wasting away a 16-point lead before hanging on 72-69.
Evangelist Oral Roberts forgot the benediction at the dedication ceremonies for the Titans' new $11 million arena. As for the players, they almost forgot how to win, though they did take all three games at home, beating Wisconsin 90-76, Idaho State 95-82 and Murray State 79-78. Wisconsin led the Titans by 12 points, only to have David Vaughn rally his team with 17 straight points. Idaho State outrebounded the Titans, who led the nation in that department a year ago, but Richard Fuqua salvaged that game with 31 points.
John Brown of Missouri did it all. In a 55-second span against Purdue, he broke open the game by sinking a hook shot, driving in for a layup and then picking up a loose ball, and putting in another. Brown finished with 35 as the Tigers won 84-75. Later against Ohio State, the 6'7" Brown brought 7' Luke Witte to earth, outscoring him 24-9 as the Tigers won their fifth in a row 69-62.
Allan Hornyak scored 12 second-half points to help prevent another Buckeye loss. Notre Dame led 67-59 with six minutes left but OSU battled to a 69-69 tie. Hornyak added six more in the overtime for an 81-75 win.
Several other Big Ten teams looked strong. Indiana beat Kansas 72-55 and gave Kentucky its second loss in a row, 64-58. Kevin Kunnert scored 19 points in the second half—and 23 overall—as Iowa put down Kansas 69-56. Substitutes helped Minnesota and Purdue to win. Dave Winfield came off the Gopher bench to sink 11 of 13 shots in a 79-60 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And Rick Risinger, who scored just 22 points the past two seasons, connected on four of five tries as Purdue blitzed TCU 101-70. Michigan won twice, downing Oregon State 68-57 and Dayton 81-78. The Beavers held Campy Russell scoreless, but he came back against the Flyers with 25 points.
Another highly rated freshman, Walter Luckett of Ohio, did not score against Northwestern, but Bill Brown had 24 points as the Bobcats won 74-69. Gary Dees also had 24 points as Miami of Ohio jolted Cincinnati 63-61.
Colorado lost to Houston 77-72 but beat Tulane 97-86 and New Mexico State 87-77. Paving the way to the upset of the Aggies were Dave Logan, who was not even on Colorado's preseason roster, and Lee Haven, called Harpo because of his moppy hair. Logan had 20 points and Haven 21.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Loyola of Chicago won in spite of their coaches. Wisconsin's Charlie Parsley told Harold Lee he was wasting his time taking 40-foot shots in practice, but he could not complain when Lee hit one of those long ones in the last five seconds to upset Bradley 74-72. A month ago Loyola's George Ireland cut Brian Hayden from his squad. But the 6'2" Hayden refused to go and against St. Mary's of California he came in to subdue 6'8" Bill Rozenski and help the Ramblers win 92-88.
1. ORAL ROBERTS (3-0)
2. MARQUETTE (3-0)
SOUTH
In Mason-Dixon country it was not the intruder in the dust but the home team—Kentucky and Western Kentucky, for two. Iowa upended Kentucky 79-66, only the third time since 1926 that had happened to the Wildcats in a home opener. The Hawkeyes rattled them with a pressing man-to-man defense. After years of obscurity in the NAIA, West Georgia this year became an NCAA small-college team. The Braves won their first four games, all against small-college foes, and then, stepping above their new class, shocked Western Kentucky 89-88. And they did it in Bowling Green, Ky. in front of 9,600 onlookers, which is roughly the population of Carroll-ton, Ga., home of the Braves and land of Pat Magley, who had 30 points. Western also lost the finale of the Vanderbilt Invitational to the host Commodores 103-88.
One intruder that bit the dust was Texas. The Longhorns could not have been more surprised if they had lost to Mississippi State, which is what they did 80-69.
Dale Brown, who replaced Press Maravich as coach at LSU, vowed his team would be exciting, if not a winner. In their opener the Tigers were both, as they stunned Memphis State 94-81. Much of the excitement was provided by Eddie Palubinskas, a 6' guard from Australia's Outback by way of Ricks Junior College in Idaho. Second-highest scorer in the Munich Olympics, Palubinskas led the way with 32 points. Although Maravich was not around for that performance, his new club—Appalachian State—put on a dandy show of its own. The Mountaineers, in their first official Southern Conference game, toppled Richmond 67-65.
That old wheeze about Alabama sports—that there are only two of them, football and spring football—may have gone the way of the Model A Ford. The Crimson Tide, seeing red, humbled Southern Cal 76-66, mostly on the shooting of Wendell Hudson, who was still seething over the memory of the 122-75 loss to USC two years ago when the Trojans kept in their first team most of the way. Said Hudson: "I remember as a sophomore we started a young team and they took advantage of us, so we had a lot of incentive tonight." Hudson put in a dozen straight shots from the field to finish with 13 for 15 and 29 points.
After being whomped by North Carolina State, Georgia Southern (a 144-100 loser) and South Florida (lower by 125-88) had every reason to tell the Wolfpack "We can't go on meeting like this." Southern Coach J.E. Rowe, who felt the Pack deserved its No. 6 ranking in the wire-service polls, said, "I'd rate them right behind the Lakers, Bucks, Celtics, UCLA and a couple of others." Leading point getters for the North Carolinians in the two games were sophomore David Thompson (70) and 7'4" Center Tom Burleson (50).
North Carolina got 28 points from sophomore Donald Washington to drub Dartmouth 128-86, but Washington broke a bone in his left foot as the Tar Heels struggled to beat Virginia Tech 96-82.
"That's going to be a great team. They're quicker than anyone we've seen in a long time." That was South Carolina Coach Frank McGuire's opinion—not about one of the top 20 teams in the nation or a fallen power on the rise again, but about Nevada at Las Vegas, a team with an 0-3 record. As good as Nevada may be, Coach John Bayer is operating like a high roller by testing his youngsters against a brutal schedule. Last week his boys lost to the Gamecocks 76-49 and to Texas Tech 67-53. The week before they lost to Southwestern Louisiana, and this week they face Oral Roberts and Hawaii. Such scheduling is enough to make even Bayer reach for an aspirin. Meanwhile, South Carolina further proved it was no slouch, beating Michigan State 83-64.
Southwestern Louisiana flew past Pan American 111-77 and cavorted its way to the Bayou Classic title at home by disposing of St. Joseph's 85-74 and Marshall 98-84. Even more impressive than the wins was Dwight Lamar, who curbed his gunning (he had a mere 89 points in three games) to devote more time to much-needed playmaking.
Succumbing to Virginia were VMI (85-67) and, after three straight wins, Wake Forest (75-62). Clemson had hopes when it took on Furman, but Tiger optimism was cast away as quickly as stale turnovers, 41 stale turnovers in fact, as they lost 83-69.
Florida State had little difficulty squelching Eastern Kentucky 87-70 or Biscayne 97-62 as Lawrence McCray scored 40 points.
1. FLORIDA STATE (3-0)
2. MARYLAND (3-0)