THE WEEK (Dec. 14-20)

WEST

DePaul Coach Ray Meyer should have sensed he was being set up going into last Saturday's game with UCLA. First the crowd at Pauley Pavilion sang Happy Birthday to the coach, who had turned 68 the day before, and then each Bruin went to the DePaul bench and shook his hand. Even the first half resembled a birthday gift, as DePaul dominated play to lead 37-32. After the intermission, however, UCLA took it all back, rushing past the Blue Demons to an 87-75 win. The reversal came when UCLA moved Mike Sanders from forward to center and inserted speedy Darren Daye and Rod Foster into the game. The Bruins then outscored DePaul 45-28. "With that quick lineup in there, our press is better and so is our rebounding," said Daye. "Sometimes quickness is better than strength. This win does a lot for our confidence."

Neither Rice nor Iona could deal with San Francisco's Quintin Dailey as the Dons won their own Golden Gate Invitational, beating Iona 88-81 in the finals. Tournament MVP Dailey scored 34 points against the Gaels, following a 24-point effort in a first-round 85-69 rout of the Owls. "Quintin can put them in from anywhere, sometimes without dramatics, and you're surprised when you add up the score," said former USF Coach Dan Belluomini. Current Coach Pete Barry added up the rebounds and was less than pleased, however. "We're supposed to be one of the best rebounding teams in the country, but we were caught napping by two smaller teams," he said, speaking of Rice's 55-44 rebounding edge as well as USF's 37-36 advantage over Iona on the boards. San Francisco had only a 45-44 halftime lead against the Gaels, mainly because of Dailey's 24 points, and Iona had visions of an upset when Dailey picked up his fourth foul with nine minutes to play. A few minutes later, with USF still barely leading, starters John Hegwood and Wallace Bryant each picked up his fourth personal, but a spread offense and seven free throws enabled the Dons to hang on.

Free throws also helped Brigham Young to a 63-55 win over Weber State. The Wildcats had two more field goals than the Cougars, but BYU outscored Weber 21-9 at the line.

MIDWEST

Even before the start of the 118-65 thrashing Pan American got at Wichita State, Broncs Coach Bill White was fit to be tied—or cuffed. White marched up to a Henry Levitt Arena security man and held out his arms. "Take me," White said. "I'd rather spend the next two hours in jail than where I'm going to spend them." White's players also looked as if they wished they were elsewhere as the Shockers took a 70-32 halftime lead and set a school record with 50 field goals.

Rebounding was the decisive factor in host Houston's 62-52 upset of Iowa in the finals of the Christmas Kettle Classic. "The team that hit the boards the toughest was the best tonight," said Cougar Forward Clyde Drexler, who was the toughest of them all with 18 rebounds. Houston's 7-foot sophomore center, Akeem Olajuwon, added 11 boards in only 20 minutes of playing time. Overall, the Cougars had a 52-36 rebound advantage over the Hawkeyes, who were playing without their leading scorer, Bob Hansen, who had bruised his right foot in a game the night before. "Hansen's absence hurt because he's our best outside shooter," said Iowa Coach Lute Olson. "That made Houston's zone all the more effective."

Central Florida's plan to slow down the action against Tulsa worked for a short time, but the Golden Hurricane pulled away for a 69-58 win and its 21st consecutive home-court victory. Central led 7-4 and then went six minutes without scoring. Late in the second half the Knights held the ball for 3½ minutes without shooting. The only problem: Tulsa was ahead 62-48 at the time.

EAST

"We came in here averaging 86 points a game. Obviously, we didn't want to get into a 40-point game," said Villanova Coach Rollie Massimino, but that's what Massimino and his Wildcats got. A combination of Temple's tough zone defenses and poor Villanova shooting enabled the Owls to pull off a 52-48 upset. Although Temple failed to make a field goal in the first eight minutes of the second half, the Owls came back to take the lead for good when Ed Coe and Terence Stansbury combined for the steal and the dunk that put them in front 48-46. "This may be our biggest win because of where they are and where we're supposed to be, like Nowheresville," said Temple Coach Don Casey. Nowheresville is where most of Villanova's shots fell. Averaging 60% from the floor entering the game, the Wildcats shot only 43.2% against the Owls.

North Carolina held an opponent to under 40 points for the second straight time, on this occasion dispatching Rutgers 59-36 at Madison Square Garden. The game was the first out of state for the Tar Heels and was also a homecoming for four members of the squad. Both factors may have contributed to a sluggish early performance; North Carolina only led 24-19 at the half. But the Scarlet Knights, who shot 21.5%, couldn't capitalize. "We've never had a worse shooting night," said Rutgers Coach Tom Young.

After missing five straight free throws against Princeton, Steve Trumbo of Brigham Young, heretofore an 80% foul shooter, felt the same way—until the final seconds. "Sure I wanted to take the foul shots," said Trumbo. "It was the worst night of my life and I wanted to save my tail." Trumbo made the front end of a one-and-one to give the Cougars a 39-38 win over the Tigers, who then dropped another toughie, 59-55, to Ohio State.

Louisiana Tech, the nation's top-ranked women's team, ran its win streak to 45 with a 68-51 win over Old Dominion in the finals of the Manufacturers Hanover classic. The win left the Lady Techsters just six victories shy of the acknowledged women's record, held by Delta State.

MIDEAST

This being the Christmas season, Kentucky Coach Joe B. Hall chose not to go into his customary postgame tirade on his team's lack of killer instinct after the Wildcats' 98-74 win over Seton Hall in the finals of the Kentucky Invitational Tournament. "I'm not going to discuss the second half," Hall said of the period in which the Pirates outscored the Wildcats 48-41. "This is a time of joy and forgiving. But I will say the first half was great. I don't know if any Kentucky team I've coached has run the break that well." In the first half, the 'Cats shot 61% and only turned the ball over twice en route to a 57-26 lead. "That's some kind of team," said Seton Hall Guard Dan Callandrillo, who scored 25 points against the Wildcats. "Their depth makes you wonder who's better—their starters or their subs." Indeed, in a first-round 107-91 victory over Jacksonville, Kentucky's bench contributed 46 points and 12 rebounds.

Georgia rebounded from a 56-54 loss to Mississippi earlier in the week to win the Cotton States Classic, beating Alabama-Birmingham 76-72 in the finals after a 79-66 first-round triumph over Northeastern.

Indiana junior Steve Bouchie looked like his old self as the Hoosiers defeated Tulane 77-59. Hitting just 37% of his shots going into the game, Bouchie canned his first six attempts of the second half and was nine of 16 from the floor for the night. Later in the week, Ted Kitchel came through with 20 points to lead Indiana to a 58-49 win over Kansas State.

Minnesota handed Marquette its worst defeat at home in 16 years, beating the Warriors 76-54. Marquette played without its star guard, Glenn Rivers, who was hospitalized with a bad back, but Warriors' Coach Hank Raymonds thought his team's 32% field goal percentage was the real pain. "We're not going to beat anybody with that kind of shooting," said Raymonds. That was a statement Western Michigan could sympathize with after its 88-46 loss to DePaul. For the game, the Broncos shot 25%. "They couldn't throw a basketball into the ocean standing on the beach," said Blue Demon Coach Ray Meyer.

FAR EAST

The final game of the Suntory Ball in Tokyo was a classic basuketto (basketball) matchup between the fasuto burekki (fast break) of Oregon State and the suramu danku (slam dunk) of Louisville. Fasuto burekki won out as the Beavers upset the Cardinals 62-56. The Ball also included Penn, which got trounced 102-64 by Oregon State and 76-68 by Louisville. In the finale, the Cardinals held a 14-point lead in the second half before the Beavers, led by Guard William Brew, rallied. Brew was twice named MVP, while his coach, Ralph Miller, won the Besuto Kochi (best coach) award and Louisville's Derek Smith got a Fighting Spirit award. Said one Cardinal fan, "This is the damndest, awardest-givingest country I've ever seen," thereby winning the fractured-syntax prize.

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PLAYER OF THE WEEK

QUINTIN DAILEY: San Francisco's 6'4" junior guard scored 58 points in a pair of victories over Rice and Iona. For the season, Dailey averages 26.3 points per game for the Dons on 59% field-goal shooting.