THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1949
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN. LAWRENCE. KANSAS
PAGE FIVE
Sooners Face Jinx In Hoch As Well As Jayhawkers
By JIM VAN VALKENBURG
Oklahoma runs into Kansas' potent home court jinx at 7:30 tonight at Hoch auditorium, with Phog Allen's Jayhawkers trying to knock Bruce Drake's second-place Sooners out of the 1949 championship picture.
Coaches Drake and Allen have carried on one of the closest coaching duels in conference history. Drake leads, 10 to 9 in conference games, bu Allen has won three out of four in?
Coaches Drake and Allen have ca duels in conference history. Drake le Allen has won three out of four in non-league games at Oklahoma City and Kansas City, to give him an all time edge of 12 to 11 over the O.U. coach. Howard Engleman coached the Jayhawkers in the last two of the three 1947 K.U.-O.U. games, while Allen was resting in California.
Drake, now in his 11th year as OU. coach, has won at Lawrence only twice in his 10 games here, although his Sooners have won or tied for five championships during the same period. Kansas has beaten Drake-coached teams only twice at Norman.
If Kansas ambushes the red-shirted O.U. veterans again, it would gain Oklahoma's chances of an unspotted title and give them only an outside chance of tieing for the crown. O.U.'s next conference game is with Nebraska at Lincoln.
The Jayhawkers would take a long step in avoiding last-place Iowa State and retain a chance of tieing for fourth in the Big Seven by beating Oklahoma. K.U. is down in the race, but they might explode again as they did in blasting Missouri, 55 to 37 at Columbia, and Iowa State, 62 to 57, at Ames.
Oklahoma will throw a one-man jinx of its own at K.U., in Paul Courty, stoop-shouldered senior forward with an unusual "corkscrew" shot. Courty sank the winning goal with 90 seconds left in Oklahoma's 52 to 49 win over K.U. in the finals of the conference pre-season tournament at Kansas City. His goal with 15 seconds to go gave O.U. a 38 to 36 triumph over Allen's club at Norman. He hopes to lead his teammates tonight to a sweep of the season's series.
Courty hit a copter shot with less than 10 seconds to go in overtime last year at Lawrence, but Claude Houchin's towering, desperation leave from a step past the center line gave K.U. a 39 to 38 victory. The gun sounded a second after Houchin's amazing goal had swished the nets.
Oklahoma won, 50 to 46, last year at Norman, with Courty's five goals in the second half providing the difference. All-American Charley Black scored 65 points in three games against O.U. in 1946. Courty's freshman year. K.U. won all three, but Courty led the Sooners each time. He did the same the next year, but K.U. won two out of three
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Courty isn't scoring as many points this year as in 48, when he led the league in scoring, but he doesn't have to with Wayne Glasgow taking over at the other forward. Glasgow's hot shooting was a potent factor in both games this year.
over a Sooner team that reached the N.C.A.A. finals. The graduation of the rugged, left-handed rebounder should make Allen happy.
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Bill Waters, 6-feet 7-inches, and
Marcus Friedberger, 6-feet 11-inches,
form O.U.'s putter center punch.
Paul "The Cat" Merchant and Ken
Pryor, both superb passers and good
long shots, will be at guards.
Gene Petersen, K.U.'s leading scorer, gave the tight-guarding Sooners plenty of trouble in both games this year. He hit 22 points against Colorado Monday at Boulder, but got little scoring support from his teammates. Buddy Bull, who sparked the Jayhawks against Washington and Kansas State, will start at forward for the third straight game.
Jerry Waugh and Claude Houchin, probably Kansas' two best defensive men, will have their hands full against O.U. Waugh will probably cover Pryor with Houchin taking Courty. If Houchin can hit over the top and Petersen do the same off the post, the Sooners may again go home cursing the Hoch auditorium jinx.
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