SaaS eR Se E TULSA UNIVERSITY CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY OKLAHOMA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE Wihancns Coviade RSITY GEL oes ae ee ey WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE NEWS FROM THE CONFERENCE NEWS BUREAU DES MOINES, IOWA ae Missouri Valley conference basketball reached a new high during the 1957-38 season as Oklahoma A. & M. swept to its third consecutive and second undisputed championship, and then went on to New york city where the team won third place in the first national tournament held at Madison Square Garden. Altogether, the colorful, deliberate-passing, cool-shooting Punchers played 28 games during the ssason, Winning all but three. The first loss was suffered in the opening conference game, with qrinnell producing a 35 to 33 victory which later wes avenged at Stillwater, 57 to 16, The second came at the hands of the University of oklahoma's "Boy Scats," 31 to 28, after the Aggies had beaten the Sooners, 38 to 37, at the Cowboy gym. The third setback came in the first game of the national tourney when the great Temple University team of six-footers won, 56 to 44, and in doing so scored more points than any quintet ever has made ona team coached by Henry Iba. Before that game with the Owls no team had scored as many as 40 points against the Cowboys during the season, in fact only seven had gone above 30 and the 28-game season average against the Ags was only 26.4. Hence, Ibats great admiration for the Temple sharp- shooters and his resultant invitation for the Owls to play in Stillwater next winter when the new Oklahoma A. & M. fieldhouse is dedicated. The structure will be the largest and most complete in the midlands. The Aggie record was all the more remarkable when it is con- Sidered that three 1936-37 regulars, including two all-conference players, were missing from the squad when practice opened, and that Herschel inn, who had started several ganes at guard, was declared in- eligible for the second semester of play. Merle Rousey, an all-con- ference guard, and Taylor Little, his running mate, were the 1936-37 regulars who had been graduated while R. c, Cox, all-conference forward and the team's leading scorer, decided not to compete, but will be available for his senior year of conipetition in 1939-40, Thus, at the start, Coach Iba had only two holdover regulars from the previous year, Bill Barringer, all-conforeice center, and the Inidget forward, Dick Krueger. Outstanding letterrisn who also were members of the squad were Charles Kalsu, center; Carroll Smelser, like Krueger a tiny forward, and Merle Scheffler, best defensive player on the squad. The Cowboy freshman crop was small, but Iba found in its ranks a handful of capable players who combined with the veterans to give the school its best basketball team in history. Harvey Slade and Howard Doyle, a pair of sophomores, filled in at guard opposite Scheffler while NOVO 6 0 's-6%