TWO
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2352
TWO SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1952
I I
-THE EAST -
National
Cage
Preview
-THE SOUTH-
Little LaSalle College of Phila-
delphia, an all-male school with
1300 enrollment, appears to be
the class of the basketball world
in 1952-53.
Coach Ken Loeffler has four
starters returning from the squad
that captured the National Invi-
tation Tournament at Madison
Square Garden last winter and
wound up with a 24-5 slate.
* * *
WITH TOM GOLA, Fred Iehle,
Norm Grekin, and Jack Moore
spearheading the attack, the Ex-
plorers have already chalked up
impressive victories over three
Eastern powers.
Gola, a 6-6 sophomore, paced.
underdog LaSalle to the NIT
final round win over highly-
touted Dayton last season, and
wound up his freshman year
with a 17.4 average.
Coach Honey Russell's veteran
Seton Hall five is regarded the
best bet to give LaSalle a fight
for top Eastern honors.
THE PIRATES compiled 25 tri-
umphs in 28 outings during the
1951-52 campaignand advanced
to the NIT in New York, bowing
to the eventual champions.
Two starters have departed
from that unit, but the South
Orange, New Jersey combine
still retains pivot miracle-man
fThe Tvop 20
Walter Dukes and backcourt
standout Richie Regan.
Dukes, towering at 6-11, aver-.
aged 20.2 counters last year and
thus far this season is on a 27-
point per game rampage, collect-
ing 20, 34 and 27 markers in Se-
ton Hall's opening three successes.
Regan is playmaker in the fast-
breaking Pirate offense and cur-
rently boasts an 18-point scoring
average.
* * *
OTHER TOP Eastern indepen-
dents are paced by a couple of
Massachusetts entries, Holy Cross
and Boston College.
'-First-semester ineligibility of
6-8 center Jim Tucker has put
a crimp in the Duquesne hoop
outlook. But Dick Ricketts, a
6-6 sophomore who teamed with
Tucker to give the Dukes 18
wins in a row in '51-52 remains
to bear the brunt of the scoring
for cinderella poach Dudey
Moore.
Penn State, Navy, Iona and Vil-
lanova, in that order, are also
well-thought of independent
teams.
IN THE New York City cage
hotbed,St. John's and Fordham
are rated top contenders for thel
Metropolitan League crown. I
St. John's gained the final
round of the NCAA tournament
in Seattle before falling to pow-
erful Kansas, 80-63. The Red-
men, however, have graduated
three starters from the quintet
that stopped Kentucky to reach
the semi-finals, and also have a
new coach.
The Eastern Intercollegiate or
Ivy League will see the dethroning
of the current champion if pre-
season indications run to form.
* * * -,
PRINCETON took last year's
laurels with crucial beatings of
Penn and Cornell, but the high-
scoring Quakers figure to hold up
the favorite's position over the
next few months.
Main reason for the Pennsyl-
vania optimism is a seasoned unit
sparked by talented Ernie Beck,
two-year all-Eastern selection.
Beck has led the Ivy League
point-getters for two campaigns,
setting five records and tying a
sixth.
* *
-THE MIDWEST --
Midwest cage seige guns are State, Nortwestern and Purdue
out to lower the boom on Coach should finish in that order in the
Harry Combes and his "murderer's league called by many the nation's
row" of basketball talent down at most unpredictable.
Illinois.
Winners of the Big Ten title in Outside the Big Ten, the usual
three of the past four years, the wealth of top-notch independent
Fighting Illini once again are court squads prevails.
With mighty Kentucky looking
on from the sidelines, the South-
eastern Conference race is a wide-
open affair for the first time in
ten years.
I Louisiana State, Vanderbilt and
Alabama deadlocked for second
place last season, and among those
three the Bayou boys currently
look the strongest.
* * *
ALL LSU Coach Harry Raben-
horst has to do is point to 6-9
center Bob Pettit and he has the
biggest reason for potential Tiger
court supremacy.
Pettit finished behind only
Clyde Lovellette and Dick Groat
in the national scoring race in
1951-52, averaging 25.5 tallies
per game while collecting 612
markers. His high-water mark
was 50 against Georgia.
Florida won its first 12 engage-
ments last winter and is given a
chance. of being up among this
year's SEC leaders. Revitalized
Auburn could make it a five-way
dogfight for the vacated top po-
sition.
was on the long end of only seven
of 16 Southern Conference deci-
sions last season, but off an early-
season upset of Duke and an even
greater upset of nationally-prom-
inent North Carolina State, the
Deacons are the team to beat be-
low the Mason-Dixon Line.
That's quite an order for an
erstwhile tenth-place finisher,
but Coach MurrayG 'reason's
charges have to be given a
prominent billing after their
stunning initial successes.
Dick Hemric, third conference
scorer last year with with a 22.6
average, sparked Wake Forest to
its 51-50 conquest of NC State,
the defending champions.
The Staters finished last season
with an unimpressive 24-10 slate,
but scored 12 of the triumphs in
14 loop games.
I
TALL TIMBER-Center Walter Dukes (left) of Seton Hall and
John (Red) .Kerr of Illinois rate as top prospects for the All-
American pivot spot. Dukes stands 6-11, while Kerr is a mere 6-9.
RECORD HAPPY FIVE:
High Scorers Feature
HardwoodA -- merca
top-heavy favorites to romp over
league opposition in convincing
style.
REASONS FOR the widespread
faith in Illinois cage stock lie in
a bevvy of returning luminaries
from last season's five that cap-
tured third place in the NCAA
tournament.
Such standout hardwood fig-
ures as 6-9 center John Kerr,
6-8 Bob Peterson, Irv Bemoras,
Jim Bredar and Clive Follmer
are all seasoned veterans that
have experienced the toughest
in hoop competition.
Minnesota, with pivotman Ed
Kalafat and freshman sensation
Chuck Mencel heading a group of
returning lettermen, is generally
regarded as the team that will
make a contest of it with the Il-
lini for the Western Conference
top spot.
- * .. .
INDIANA, OHIO STATE, Wis-
consin, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan
Notre Dame has emerged as a
definite threat for top national
honors following a mediocre 16-10
record last season. A liberal blend-
ing of youth and holdover ma-
terial worked to good advantage
as the Fighting Irish knocked off
Indiana, 71-70, a few nights ago.
RAY MEYER'S DePaul five was
one of the four teams that was able
to overcome Illinois last year and
the Blue Demons seem a virtual
cinch to become one of the area's
winningest combines this season.
The Big Seven Crown is a toss-
up among a number of power-
laden outfits.
With the absence of Clyde Lov-
elette and three other members of
its starting unit, Kansas will have
to take a back seat to the new
power in this part of the country-
Kansas State.
Over in the Missouri Valley Con-
ference, St. Louis and Oklahoma
A & M are expected to put on their
annual dogfight for the number
one position.
1
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LOWLY-RATED Wake
Forest
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2.1
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.:
16.
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20.
LaSalle
Illinois
Seton Hall
Kansas State
Notre Dame
Louisiana State
Brigham Young
Minnesota
UCLA
Oklahoma A & M
Wake Forest
Holy Cross
North Carolina State
Pennsylvania
Indiana
St. John's
Washington
Navy
Ohio State
Seattle
By DICK LEWIS
The biggest one towers at 6-11
and the smallest stands a stumpy
5-9, but big or small everyone of
them is a potential basketball All-
American.
Little Johnny O'Brien, the na-
tion's most prolific point-getter
even though he stands three inches
under six feet, cavorts in the pivot
position for Seattle University.
BUT AMONG pre-season polls
O'Brien gains the nod at one of
the backcourt posts. Little won-
der when you look at the record
O'Brien piled up with the Chief-
tains in 1951-52.
As a junior, the South Amboy,
New Jersey dribbler scored 1051
points in 37 games to chalk up
a new single season individual
scoring record. He's just 206
counters short of the all-time
four-year mark of 2593 markers
set by Nate Delong of River Falls
(Wisc.) State Teachers College.
Another New Jerseyite, gigantic
(6-11) Walter Dukes, seems a
cinch to annex the All-American
center position if his play over the
past two seasons and the first four
games of the current campaign is
any indication.
DUKES HAS collected 1,035
points in his Seton Hall varsity
career, 524 of them coming last
year for a 20.3 average. Duke's of-
fensive prowess, which included
the snatching of 513 rebounds
(second best in the country), led
the Pirates to a 25-3 slate.
Seton Hall has triumphed in
its first four encounters of the
current season with the mam-
moth Dukes registering 107 tall-
ies (including 34 against St.
Francis of Brooklyn) for an av-
erage of 26.7 per game.
Probable All-Americans in the
front court are LSU's Bob Pettit
and Pennsylvania's Ernie Beck,
two more record-breakers.
PETTIT IS A 6-9. 210-pound
junior who averaged 25.3 scores per
game last winter to rank third na-
tionally. He holds five Southeast-
ern Conference scoring standards
and is the fifth player to register
50 points or better in a major col-
lege clash.
Beck, a shorty at 6-4, led Ivy
League point-makers and re-
bounders for the second succes-
sive year in '51-52, garnering
284 markers and 222 rebounds
for a 23.7 average. His high-
water mark was 45 points
against Harvard.
Penn State's Jesse Arnelle sides
with diminutive O'Brien at one of
the guard spots to round out the
potential top five players in the
nation.
Arnelle established a Nittany Li-
on record last year when he can-
ned 184 field goals and 124 free
throws for a 492 point total. He's
only a sophomore and measures
in at 6-5.
I
I Nil More IPopuiar
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We have
ICE CUBES
- THE WEST --
I'I I I
21
111
The University of Washington!
in the North and UCLA in the
South battled it out for the Pa-
cific Coast Conference flag last
season and figure to do the same
again this year.
UCLA sprung a 60-50 upset of
Washington following two succes-
sive losses to the Cougars to sew!
up the PCC title. Only two regu-
lars have graduatedfrom that
aggregate, and on that basis the
UCLAns are favorites to repeat
over Coach Tippy Dye's five.
WEST COAST fans remember,
however, that the Huskies were
top-heavy favorites last season,
only to fall by the wayside. Toss-
ing out the favorite's role, Dye
this year can call on four first-
stringers, including hookshot ar-
tist Bob Houbregs, potential All-
American.
California's Golden Bears rank
as the top choice after UCLAI
for the southern division laurels,
while Idaho tops Washington's
challengers in the North.
Also on the Coast, tiny indepen-
dent Santa Clara went all the wayj
to the semi-finals of the NCAA
tourney last year at Seattle before
being eliminated. The Broncos
gained fourth place in that com-
petition and currently top the
non-affiliated far west schools.
* * *
SKYLINE EIGHT champion
Wyoming, winner of 28 and loser
of seven in 1951-52, loses Moe
Radovich and Dick Haag, both
unanimous all-conference choices,
and three other dependable per-
formers.
Therefore Coach Stan Watts'
Brigham Young five has a good
chance to go all the way in the
Rocky Mountains. Improving
Utah could easily upend either
of the top two.
Down in the South-West, the
usual first-place scramble is ex-
pected among any any one of a
number of teams.
TEXAS Christian headed the
Southwest Conference last year
and understandably are number
one on everybody's wanted list.
The Horned Frogs bowled over
the opposition 24 times while fall-
ing only in four scraps, and took
11 of 12 league clashes.
Christmas
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11
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