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wae By DICK SNIDER

 

 

 

 

Sports Editer

Cc CITY, MO.—No Big Seven tournament champion

ever has repeated, and this sturdy jinx adds to the odds
against the defending champion Kansas as the ninth annual
pre-season derby opens here tonight, .-

Kansas isn’t favored this time, mainly ‘because its fine
outfit of last season has been shredded by graduation, leaving
four sophomores in the starting lineup. Phog Allen calls his
team this year a “seven-semester team.”

“Figure it out,” says Phog. “Dobbs (Dallas, the lone
returning regular) has played three semesters, The other boys
are still working on their first one.”

But the sophomores at Kansas are good and they are
plentiful. And Phog Allen still is Phog Allen. Thus while
Kansas isn’t favored, it still is eyed warily by the rest of the
field. :

Bill Rosenstretter of the United Press perhaps explained
the feeling over KU this year best when’ he said the rest
of the field here wasn’t falling for the report Kansas has no
big man this year.

“Kansas still has its big man,” he wrote, “He’s Phog Allen,”

rr IS CERTAIN that no team will come into this rugged
grind so sorely lacking in game experience as Kansas.
But KU’s four straight victories can’t be discounted, and
neither can the tireless Phog, who has traveled hand in hand,
with success ...

Speaking of fine sophomores, Kansas has no corner on
them. In fact, KU’s first foe herey Iowa State, will show one
of the best in Gary Thompson, a 5-10 product of Roland, Iowa.

An all-stater for three straight Years, Thompson earned
the tag of the “Roland Rocket” an@*is living up to it with a
fancy 16-point average thrusfiVe games.

Iowa State has an soph“gtandout in Chuck Vogt, a

z ig a, vegular.
a sports a top-flight rookie in Jimmy
vhO teams with little Lester Lane in the
Sooner backline, Peck, like Lane, is a fine outside shooter,

ISSOURI LAST season came up with a sophomore star

in Norm Stewart to match KU’s Dobbs, and the Tigers

have another one this time who is regarded as highly as
Stewart. eG

Sparky Stalcup’s newest surprise package is Lionel Smith,
a 6-2 sparkler who got his chance when regular Lloyd Elmore
had to take time out for an operation. Smith has come thru.

Nebraska has a rookie standout in Rex Ekwall, a 6-4
jumping jack who was a two-time all-stater. He, too, has
crashed the starting lineup and promises to remain.

Kansas State has Pachin Vicens as its top soph. The little
Puerto Rican is second on the scoring table with a 10-point
average, and is a great ball handler and play maker.

Only Colorado is without a shining sophomore, and Colorado.
has a good reason. It has back 11 lettermen, and all of last

. year’s traveling squad.

ANSAS MAY BE setting some sort of record in starting
four sophomores. KU sports publicist Don Pierce can’t
recall when the Jayhawks ever did it before, and says the
last time they came close was in 1949-50 when Clyde Lovellette
and his future Olympic pals were first year men.

Lovellette, Bill Hougland, Bill Lienhardt and Bob Kenney
all saw extensive action that year, but two of the regulars
were veterans Jerry Waugh and Claude Hauchin. That team,
despite the sophomoric tinge, tied for the title and was picked
for the NCAA playoffs in a move the Big Seven would just
as soon forget.

‘While Pierce can’t remember the last time KU opened
with four sophs, he is staking tentative claim for a record for
one of the KU rookies. He thinks Gene Elsutn’s’ feat of
grabbing 19 rebounds against Rice may be a record for a
sophomore—perhaps in the history of the conference.

“Lovellette never did it as a sophomore,” Pierce says. That
alone should establish it as a record.

Phog Allen never won this tournament with four sopho-
mores, but his opponents are quick to point out that he
never tried it with four sophs before, either.