Colorado Is Surprise
Of Big Seven Season

 

OLORADO is the sur-
prise team of the Big
Seven’s early basketball
milling as league schools
sdge toward their tenth annual
‘ournament late this month at
Municipal Auditorium,
Before the season opened there
as sharp .division of opinion
soncerning Buffalo fortunes for
1955-56. Some railbirds thought
oss of four starters from last
ear’s conference champions

lower reaches of the league.
Others maintained the momen-
tum of the last two years which

has seen C. U. represent the},

eague in N, C. A. A. tournament
play would carry it into conten-

ion right down to the wire.

Better Than Expected.

Even their most optimistic
backers did not expect a 3-0 Buff
reading at this date. Among the
victims are two defending con-
ference champions Oregon State
of the P. C. C. and Iowa ef thelo
i Bebe Lee’s made sh

. Jim Ranglos and -

Coffman who shared one for-|

ward spot last year represent
the only starting returnees .
tumbled State 63 to 53, at Cor-
vallis and edged the ‘Hawkeyes, |
60 to 57, Monday in Boulder.

jupset by Harvard,. 59-81, .

of only fifty-five shots a game
in their first three. They have
scored fewer points than any
other league team, 191, but re-
stricted the enemy to an aver-
age of 53.0, Two men, Ranglos
and Bill Peterson, an unheralded
senior guard, are sailing among
the first seventeen pre-tourna-,
ment scorers with respective ave |
erages of 13.3 and 12.0.

C. U. runs into another rugged
test tomorrow and Saturday in
a 2-game set with Brigham
Young, eighth-ranked in the lat-
ést Ai FP, poll, at: Provo.

Two Others Share Spot.
Those two~- games, plus the
Kansas-S. M, U. match at Dal-
las, and the, Missouri-Indiana
affair at Columbia, both Satur-
day night, will hold the spotlight
through the remainder of the
week. ff

Impressive as it. has been,
C. Uy holds no better than a
share of the pre-tournament lead
sinée Kansas, eighteenth-rated

the most recent A. P. ballot,
nd Iowa. State, also are. ee
eljing 3-0 marks.
Cornell, _ this . year’s ‘guest!
team, lost. a perfect record when
last
Saturday,

Norm Stewart,. Missouri’ S big}

blond | forward- ‘guard, holds. .a

 

The latter conquest, of course,
was the most significant. It
‘marked Iowa’s first defeat in
three starts. It should be noted
‘the Hawkeyes lost only one reg-
ular from last year’s fourth-
place N.C, A. A, finishers, and
‘are favored over Illinois and
‘Indiana to repeat. Furthermore,
\the Buffalos were without the
iservices of one of their regular
|guards, - Mick Mansfield, who
iwrenched a. knee at Corvallis.
In between these. victories,
C. U. overran Oregon, 68-49.
Colorado is winning with ball-
control, scoring balance and the

same resolute defense that has|"'

earned the Big Seven champion-

ship of that department the past}

two seasons.

 

\wide lead in the individual pom

_ The Buffs put up an average}

 

derby with a 26.5 average.
has. been beyond ‘thirty waits
twice in the Tigers’ first rere
games,

Here are the top fifteen pre-
tourney scorers. through games
of December 13: ;

PA ORE 1B $8

11-13. 5 oes
mith, f, Nebr, 4 24 26-35 10 ~:7

Stewart, g,
ay g, Cornell 2 19

yas
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