University Daily Kansan
Page 5
Cage Roundup Kentucky Tops Alabama, Ends Perfect Season
New York—(U.P.)—The Kentucky Wildcats gleefly closed the season's books today on the nation's only major perfect basketball record, but looked forward with gloom to their prospects of winning the NCAA championship.
The Wildcats of Coach Adolph Rupp completed their amazing comeback saga last night with a 68 to 43 rout of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Ala., for a clean sweep of all 24 games on their regular-season schedule.
The victory assured Kentucky, which returned to the court this season after sitting out a year's NCAA suspension for recruiting violations, of at least a tie for the Southeastern conference championship. Louisiana State also is unbeaten in league competition but has one more game to play. A final tie would force a playoff at Nashville, Tenn., March 9.
But Coach Rupp's beaming grin vanished when he was asked how he thinks Kentucky would do in the NCAA tournament—from which his three top players, Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey, and Lou Tsioropoulos, would be barred on eligibility grounds.
Kentucky is the first major college to go unbeaten on a 20-games-or-more schedule since Long Island university won all 22 of its games in 1938-39. It's the first unbeaten Kentucky squad since the 1911-12 outfit had a 9-0 mark.
"How deep did we dip tonight?" asked Rupp in return. He meant that he used only six players against Alabama and that his "big three" produced 45 of the 68 points, withagan's 24 leading all scorers.
Tuesday, March 2.1954
Louisiana State, which won the league title last year in Kentucky's absence, kept its league record clean with a 76-53 win last night over Mississippi and now the Bayou Tigers must beat Tulane in their season windup Saturday to tie Kentucky.
Iowa completed its Big Ten season with an 11-3 record with an 84-71 victory over Ohio State, while Illinois moved its record to 10-3 with an 88-82 win over Northwestern. Now Illinois can make the race end in a three-way tie by upsetting pacemaking Indiana (11-2) in the finale on Saturday.
In other leading games last night; Duquesne rebounded from its two straight surprise losses to beat St. Bonaventure, 67-55, with Jim Tucker scoring 25 points; Cornell clung to its narrow lead in the Ivy League race with an easy 73-53 victory over Dartmouth, as Wendy MacPhee scored 20 points, and now can clinch a title tie by beating Pennsylvania on Saturday; Bowling Green, bound for the National Invitation tourna-
went, turned up with a 95-62 rout of Western Michigan as Al Bianchi set a school record with 42 points. Oklahoma City, bound for the NCAA tourney, beat Houston, 58-54, as Arnold Short hit for 25; NCAA-bound Connecticut beat Tufts, 91-64; Michigan ended a seven-game losing streak by beating Purdue, 83-79.
—Kansan photos by Rozanne Atkins
Leonard's Standard Service 9th and Indiana
BALANCING ACTS—Bill Heitholt (above) and Bill Peterson (below) both try to corral the pesky roundball while meeting outside interference in the game last night.
Jays Move to 7th In United Press Poll
Kentucky (23-0) edged Indiana (18-3) by just two points, 296 to 294, in voting by the 35 leading coaches who make up the United Press board. Twenty-three of the coaches voted the Wildcats tops. Only 10 made Indiana their first choice, but the Big 10 team received far heavier support for succeeding places. Vote was based on games played through Saturday night.
Duquesne (22-2), which had led for the past two weeks, slipped to third after losing to Cincinnati and Dayton on successive nights last week.
Notre Dame (19-2) moved up from seventh to sixth and Kansas (15-4) advanced from ninth to seventh. Holy Cross (22-2) dropped from sixth to eighth after being upstaged by Cincinnati (20-3). Notre Dame (19-2) slipped from eighth to ninth and LaSalle (21-4) remained in 10th place.
Western Kentucky (28-1), newly-crowned Ohio Valley conference champion, moved up from fifth to fourth. Oklahoma A&M (21-4) dropped to fifth after losing to Wichita and Kansas.
New York—(U.P.)—Coach Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats, who led for six straight weeks earlier in the campaign, regained first place today in the United Press basketball ratings as a series of upsets caused a major shuffle among the 10 top teams.
Besides 23 first place votes, the Wildcats had seven for second and one for eighth place. Indiana was chosen on the ballots of all 35 coaches.
Notre Dame and LaSalle already are in the NCAA tournament while Duquesne, Western Kentucky, and Holy Cross of the top 10 have accepted bids to the National Invitation Tournament for other teams in the top 10 are expected to clinch NCAA berths by winning their conference crowns.
Kentucky, with three players ineligible for the NCAA tournament because they have completed work on their degrees, was left off the ballots of four coaches.
Iowa, Duke, Colorado A&M, Illinois, Wichita, Seattle, North Carolina State, Dayton, Minnesota, Oregon State, Southern California, and UCLA made up the second 10 teams in the voting.
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conference champion, received the other first place vote.
The other teams that received points were: George Washington, Colorado, Niagara, Rice, Connecticut, Louisville, California, Maryland, Fordham, Cincinnati, Toledo, Wyoming, and Idaho State.
How They Voted
1. Kentucky (23) (23-0) 296
2. Indiana (10) (18-3) 294
3. Duquesne (22-2) 221
4. West, Kentucky (28-1) 151
5. Oklahoma A&M (21-4) 129
6. Notre Dame (1) (19-2) 127
7. Kansas (15-4) 115
8. Holy Cross (22-2) 90
9. Louisiana State (19-2) 80
10. LaSalle (21-4) 65
Second 10 teams—11, Iowa, 51; 12,
Duke, 43; 13, Colorado A&M (1) ; 36,
Illinois, 35; 15, Wichita, 27; 16,
Seattle, 25; 17, North Carolina State,
22; 18 (tie), Dayton and Minnesota,
14 each; 20 (tie), Oregon State,
Southern California, and UCLA,
13 each.
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