PAGE FOUR
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MARCH 14. 1947
By BILL CONBOY
The Oklahoma Sooners, champions of the Big Six, will play the St. Louis Billikens Monday night in Kansas City to determine who shall represent the fifth district in the NCAA western playoffs.
Coach Bruce Drake's squad has been troubled by influenza during the past week but the Sooner cage boss believes he will have the team at full strength by same time.
The conference record of the Billikens is superior to that of the Soilers in the Big Six. St. Louis won 11 games and dropped 1 in the Missouri Valley league. Oklahoma won 8 times while losing twice in the Big Six.
Besides taking two contests from the Oklahoma Aggies, the St. Louis crew has played on even terms with several other top quintets. The Billikens defeated Yale, 47 to 37, and lost close thrillers to Purdue, 53 to 55, to Notre Dame, 46 to 48, and to Long Island, 44 to 46.
Big Ed MacAuley, St. Louis' 6 feet 8 inch center will provide the Norman team with their biggest headache. MacAuley, a superb scorer and rebounder, has been the driving force behind Billiken victories all season.
The St. Louis pivot man has been stopped only a few times through the tough Billiken schedule. One of those times was when the Jayhawkers triumphed, 49 to 35 at St. Louis before the Christmas vacation. Charley "The Hawk" Black held the elongated St. Louis point-maker to 3 counters on 1 field goal and a single free throw.
If the Sooners should get past the Missouri Valley champions, they will face another 6 feet, 8 inch headache in the western playoffs in the person of Ephraim "Red" Rocha of Oregon State. The Pacific Coast conference star sank 8 field goals in the first conference playoff game against UCLA. Oregon State won that contest, 69 to 52.
In the second and title clinching game, the Beavers were again victorious by a 17-point margin, 63 to 46 this time. Rocha scored 12 points in this contest.
--eight out of the 15 times it has been held and have shared it three additional times with Nebraska.
Oklahoma led the Big Six this season in offense with a 49.6 points a game average and in defense by allowing an average of 41 points a game to be scored by the opposition. The Sooners also hit the greatest number of baskets from the field, 171, and marked up the greatest percentage of free throws with a .647 average.
The Iowa Hawkeyes faded fast in the Big Nine basketball race once they started on the downhill run. The Iowans were undefeated through a good portion of their early season schedule. A 1-point loss to Wisconsin at Iowa City started the Hawkeyes off on the wrong foot in the conference. They ended up in a tie with Ohio State for sixth place in the final Big Nine standings. They won 5 games while losing 7.
--eight out of the 15 times it has been held and have shared it three additional times with Nebraska.
Kansas does not participate in these events on an intercollegiate level. Iowa State is favored to win the wrestling crown, with Kansas State or Oklahoma coming in second. The grunt-and-groan contest was originally scheduled for Manhattan but was switched to Ames when the influenza epidemic broke out on the Kansas State campus.
Two Big Six athletic championships will be decided this weekend, but the Kansas Jayhawks will not be in the running for either one. The conference swimming and wrestling meets will be held at Ames.
Approximately 60 Big Six swimmers will participate in the aquatic meet. The Iowa State Cyclones are favored to swim off with the title, with Nebraska and Kansas State furnishing the strongest opposition.
The last conference swimming meet was held in 1942. Iowa State was victorious that year, as they had been the four years previous. The Cyclones have won the title
Kansas Meets Colorado Tonight
Kansas has a score to settle with Colorado when the two basketball teams meet on the Hoch auditorium court tonight. The Buffaloes are the lone team on the regular Kansas schedule which has denied the Jayhawkers a victory this season.
In their last three games, the Kansas cagers have disposed of the Oklahoma Aggies, the Oklahoma Sooners, and the Missouri Tigers to leave only Colorado with a perfect record against the Jayhawkers.
Kansas lost to Southern Methodist University in the finals of the Big Six basketball tournament in December, but that contest was not part of the regular schedule.
In their first clash with the Buffaloes in Kansas City, the Kansas cagers were edged out. 50 to 52, in an overtime. Schnellbacher and Black, Kansas forwards, counted 20 and 13 points respectively in the contest.
Later, out at Boulder, the Buffaloes again triumphed in an overtime session, 59 to 54. Jack Eskridge was high for the Jayhawkers with 12 scores. Kansas sank 24 out of 29 free throws in the game. Colorado hit its hottest streak of the night in the extra period, scoring 13 points to out distance the Jayhawkers.
"Frosty" Cox, Colorado coach, this week intimated that his starting lineup would consist of five freshmen for the Kansas clash. Included on the tentative starting quintet are two former Kansas high school stars, Bob Rolander of McPherson and Carr Besemann of Newton.
Rolander will get the call at center with Besemann at one of the forward spots. One starting guard is also from beyond the state boundaries of Colorado. He is Leslie McGraw, key agent. Kendall Hills of Boulder at forward and Don Sharp of Denver at guard complete the picture.
The Colorado contest will mark the final appearance of two great cage stars in Kansas uniforms. Ray Evans and Charley Black will both bow out after four years of sparkling competition as Jayhawker round ball experts. Both men brought the honors of all-Big Six and all-America ratings to themselves and to the University from the outset of their college play.
The Buffalo scoring machine has sputtered since turning back the Kansans at Boulder, dropping seven games in the last nine starts.
Coach Howard Engleman of the Jayhawkers hopes to initiate Colorado competition as an official member of the Big Six by demonstrating the traditional Kansas superiority at the cage game.
The contest is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Probable starting lineups:
Kansas Colorado
Stramel F Besmann
Black F Hills
Schnellbacher C Rolander
Clark G Metzger
Evans G Sharp
College Basketball
N.A.I.B.
Emporia (Kans.) Teachers 55 Beloit College, 52
Marshall 56 Eastern Washington 48
Mankato (Minn.) Teachers 50
Southeastern Oklahoma Teachers 44
Arizona State college 59 Northeast Missouri Teachers 55
Mormon Leader To Speak
Kenneth Burnett, president of Eastern Kansas district of the Mormon church will speak in Myers hall at 8 p.m. Sunday.
If and when a new field house comes to grace the Kansas campus, bringing more gymnasium space and a larger swimming pool, perhaps the aquatic spot and wrestling will be added to the list of Jayhawker intercollegiate competition.
Hoover Announces Women's I-M Team
The women's intramural varsity basketball squad has been announced by Miss Ruth Hoover of the physical education department.
At forward positions Maxine Gunsolly, Donna Mueller, and Geraldine McGee were chosen. The guard slots are filled by Marjorie Kaff, Joan Lippelmann, and Joan Anderson.
Positions on varsity teams are honorary, as no games are played. Squad membership entitles the six women to 25 intramural points.
High School Games
Newton 40, Ward (Kansas City) 30
Arkansas City 44, Topeka 42
Wellington 38, Lawrence 25
Shawnee-Mission 27, Salina 25
Beloit 25, Liberal 20
LaCrosse 35, Rosedale 27
Russell 51, Oberlin 39
Sedgwick 50, Washburn Rural 49
Goff 29, Mulvane 27
Instant Service
In Our
Shoe Repair
Department
Royal College Shop
837-38 Mass.
Delicious Juicy steaks and special meals during
Lent.
Across from Court House
BILL'S GRILL
1109 Mass.
Phone 2054
1
GABERDINES
$45 to $50
WORSTEDS
TWEEDS
White Shirts $3.95 to $5.00 Rialto's Air-Craft Manhattan
ALL SIZES
The Palace
843 MASS.