New Centers

. BY DON PIERCE

Special. Correspondent
~y AWRENCE—The Big
-dL« Seven’s. new crop of
centers will be measured, in
head-to-head warring for the
first |time next week when
they face off in the confer-,

ence’s 10th annual pre-season °

tournament in Kansas City’s
Municipal Auditorium.

| The five new regulars (Lew.
| Johnson of Kansas and Okla-—
| homa’s LeRoy Bacher are the
| only holdover starters from
|.1954-55) ‘will carry ‘as much
|. interest as, did their «shiny
gang of predecessors who dom-
“inated most of -the-first nine

meets.: But-for ‘a different: rea-’

son.

The isn’t

now
| whether B. H. Born can de-
fend Burdette Haldorson or
| Clyde Lovellette outscore Mar-
| cus Freiberger. .It’s \a mere
‘matter of whether any. of the

question

oat

fresh pivotmen can approach
any of the old guard and
whether any one. of them is
good enough to swing the

‘scales of tournament. victory,

and subsequently the league
race.
Three. ‘ofthe newly-spot-

lighted’ post-men are sopho-.

mores. They include Don Med-
sker, 6-8, Iowa State;
Thom, 6- 9, Neb ska, an

Parr, ‘6-9, Ka:

others, Chuck I

souri and Geor,

Colorado, are seni

are seeing their first season
as regulars. —

Parr and, Medsker have’ been
equalling advance notice. The
former tops the entire ‘comple-
ment of league centers at this
writing. with a 19.5 average in
four games. Médsker is four
points back at 15.3. -

Thom must be considered a
disappointment to date. - Per-

'

haps too much was expected
of him, At any: rate he has
scored only eight points in four
games. Fact is, he isn’t even a
starter for the Cornhuskers
when Rex Ekwall, 6-5 con-
verted. forward, is available.

A heavy cold kept. the

y junior out. of the
Aichigan and. Wichita games,
both of which Nebraska lost.
Thom apparently has aways
to come.

Denny and Hannah may

prove better than any of the
rookies by the time the finals
of the four-day affair close
December 30. Both have come
up the hard way, playing be-
hind two tall and_ prolific
scorers over the past two
years.
' Subbing for Haldorson, the
6-7 Hannah averaged 2.6 last
year. He now is traveling at
10.0 through. the Buffaloes’
first three games.

Denny’ averaged. 3.1 in 20
games last season. This 6-514,
223-pound workhorse is a
somewhat larger though cruder
edition of Bill Stauffer, Tiger
great of. 1950-51-52. He fights
all the way for rebounds and
came along steadily in all de-
partments through the final
half of last’ season.

Johnson, who started all 21

games for Kansas last: season:

as a sophomore, now finds

himself the most experienced |

regular among league centers,

He. owns-some glossy creden-.

tials despite his mere junior
status.

He set a school mark of 24
_rebounds against Oklahoma

last year and, with 230 re-

coveries, outstripped the,

sophomore’ rebound figures of

Lovellette and Born. He aver-

aged 10.0 points over the’ 1954-
55 route and was travelling at
_ (Continued -on: Page -20;. Col.. 3);

x

oost Interest in Tourney

JACK PARR

/a a K-State’s Soph Center