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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1951
Drake, Stalcup Feel Sorry For CCNY Coach
Bv FORREST MILLER
Daily Kansan Assistant Sports Editor
In commenting on the recent eastern basketball scandal in which three City College of New York players were arrested, two Big Seven basketball coaches agreed on one thing—they felt sorry for Nat Holman, C.C.N.Y. coach.
Between sips of coffee at the Eldridge hotel Monday afternoon, Bruce Drake, head man of the Oklahoma Sooners, expressed sorrow for Holman and at Lincoln, Sparky Stalcup, Missouri mentor, said that he "feels terribly sorry for Holman." Both Oklahoma and Missouri defeated C.C.N.Y. this winter and the Missouri game was one that the "Grand-slammers" from New York were alleged to have thrown.
Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen, Kansas coach, said basketball needs a
national commissioner and a return of the game to the college campus. Speaking of the gambling scandal, Allen said, "out here in the mid-west this condition, of course, doesn't prevail. But in the east boys, particularly those who participate in the resort hotel leagues during the summer months, are thrown into an environment which cannot help but breed the evil which more and more is coming to light."
By BOB NELSON Daily Kansan Sports Editor
Our choice as Basketball Coach of the Year is Oklahoma's Bruce Drake.
Certainly no coach in the nation has accomplished more this year with available material. Let's take a quick glance at what the Sooner coach had returning in the way of personnel to start the 1950-51 season.
COACH BRUCE DRAKE
Drake's losses were the heaviest in the Big Seven. He bade goodbye last year to every starter on his club—Wayne Glasgow, Wayne Speegle, Bill Waters, Walter Morris, and Paul "The Cat" Merchant—and also Jack Hughes and Don Leake, two topflight reserves. And to make things worse, Drake's upcoming sophomore crop was his poorest of all time.
This all amounted to losing seven of his top 10 players. Returning were this year's starters, but they hardly made the traveling squad last year.
In last night's game with Kansas, Drake played Doug Lynn (didn't play last year) and Ted Owens at forward, Marcus Freiberger at center, and Stanley Grossman and Charlie Pugsley in the backline.
These players scored and averaged the following last year:
Owens, 12 points in 16 games for a 0.7 avg.; Freiberger, 156 points in 22 games for a 7.1 avg.; Grossman—who didn't even play high school ball—scored NO points in 10 games, and Pugsley tallied 60 points in 21 contests for a 2.9 average.
Last night's victory was Oklahoma's 13th in 20 games this year and its fifth Big Seven win in eight starts. Drake's Sooners hold impressive victories over Minnesota, 66 to 45; C.C.N.Y., 48 to 43 (probably questionable); the nation's 2nd best team—Oklahoma A. and M., 44 to 40, and almost upset them again at Stillwater 45 to 48; Kansas State, 49 to 46 at Norman last Saturday, and last night's thriller over K.U.
Oklahoma's 5-3 record trails only K-State's 7-1 mark and K.U.'s 6-3 record in Big Seven conference play. Before entraining for Norman last night, Coach Drake said, "I still think the conference race will end in a tie if K.U. can defeat Kansas State at Manhattan on Saturday night."
"If this happens, and Kansas wins its remaining games and we defeat K-State again at Manhattan, the conference race will end in a three-way tie with each club owning a 9-3 record.
"We're just finding ourselves and I think we can take Kansas State again. Boy, Marcus (Freiberger) was great tonight. I've got a great bunch of kids that just don't know when they're beat," the Sooner coach added as he hurried to pick up his luggage as the train pulled into the station.
He departed with a big smile on his face with, "best of luck against Kansas State. Kansas certainly lost a tough one tonight."
And, so departed a great coach with a fine team. In case you didn't notice last night, Coach Drake and his players were by far the best sportsmen on and off the court and on the bench that have visited Hoch auditorium this year.
Drake and his Record Spoilers certainly did a great job on their mission to Lawrence—in fact, a bit too good as they edged past a K.U. team that played a great game.
"These boys are employed as bus boys and waiters and given large amounts to play basketball at night. They work out with professionals and the atmosphere is certainly not one conducive to the best interests of the boys.
"These were the dangers I mentioned recently in New York and Nat Holman countered by calling what I had to say a lot of 'hog wash.' But here are some of Nat's players involved and Nat knew nothing about it because basketball is the easiest game of all sports to fix.
The Kansas coach said a man called him Monday and suggested he would be a good basketball commissioner. "I told the man I wasn't big enough for the job. The colleges need someone with the reputation which Judge Landis had when he took over baseball at a perilous time of its history."
However, Jack Gardner, head basketball coach at Kansas State, said he did not believe that it was the locale of the games that was to blame.
"After all," he said, "the gamblers in New York can bet on basketball games played right here in Manhattan, Kan. The odds sent out of Minneapolis go everywhere."
Both Gardner and Drake said that Ned Irish, who promotes games in the Garden, had been doing everything possible to guard against gambling in the place.
"So long as you have sporting events, there will be gambling," Drake said. "A coach can only hope such a temptation will not come to any of the boys who play for him."
Drake said he was willing to go along with Allen's suggestion for a basketball commissioner, but added "such a man can be effective only if the officials of the leagues and the school get together and standardize rules that will apply to all schools in the country."
Drake said, "We have played C.C. N.Y. for the last three years, three years ago they beat us, last year we beat their national champions, and this year beat them by five points. There was no evidence as far as I could detect concerning bribery of the opposing club. This incident is very regrettable and deplorable and certainly a blow to their fine coach, Nat Holman.
In Lincoln with his Missouri team,
Stalcup said the latest scandal is
Kentucky Maintains Leadership In Poll
New York, Feb. 20 (U.P.)—Powerful Kentucky, winner in 22 out of 23 games, led the nation's college basketball teams for the fifth straight week today in the United Press ratings as Oklahoma A. and M. gained just a little ground and Indiana took over third place.
Coach Adolph Rupp's wildcats, who clinched the regular season southeastern conference championship last Saturday night by drubbing Tennessee, 86 to 61, received 27 first place votes and 338 out of a possible 350 points from the 35 leading coaches who make up the rating board.
UP Cage Ratings
New York, Feb. 20—(U.P.)-The United Press ratings (first place votes in parentheses):
Team Points
1 Kentucky (27) 338
2 Oklahoma A. and M. (4) 305
3 Indiana (1) 211
4 Columbia (1) 205
5 Kansas State (1) 196
6 St. Louis (1) 117
7 Bradley 97
8 North Carolina State 84
9 St. John's 82
10 Wright Young 80
"just unbelievable." Stalcup said "We've looked at those pictures (of the Missouri—C.C.N.Y. game) at least a dozen times and have never been able to see anything that looked at all wrong."
Second 10 — Illinois, 63; Long Island, 29; Southern California, 25; Washington (Seattle) 19; Cincinnati, 17; Oregon, 11; Villanova, 9; Arizona, 7; Oklahoma, 6; Beloit, 5. Others—U.C.L.A., Louisville, N.Y.U., 3 each; Kansas, Canisius, Texas, Niagara, 2 each; Toledo, Dayton, 1 each.
Stalcup said Missouri had "studied the pictures often" because C.C.N.Y. was a great team coached by a great coach.
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ISN'T SHE A HONEY! Who Took Her Picture?
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