KU Must Break Jinx Against MU Saturday
University Daily Kansan Page 9
The University of Missouri basketball team arrives Saturday and Sparky Stalcup's squad has won its last five league games with the Kansas Jayhawkers.
However, the experts agree that this particular streak will be snapped in Allen Field House Saturday night. Kansas is the No. 1 team in the country according to three major news services, has a nine-game winning streak, and rode out of Kansas City with its third Big Seven tournament championship.
Iowa State in the first round of the Big Seven tournament could have gone either way. As it was there were just six seconds between the Cyclones and a major basketball upset but those six seconds were just enough
The Jayhawker record, however,
may look a little better on paper than in reality. The 58-57 win over
CHAMBERLAIN
basket and fortunately for Kansas,
Gene Elstun is a good shot.
Missouri is defeated by Colorado in the opening round of the tournament in Kansas City last week. The Tigers are not exceptionally strong team but they possess a well balanced squad, a keen sense of rivalry with Kansas and a fine coach in Stalcup. These ingredients could produce an upset and the Tigers from Columbia will have that in mind throughout Saturday's game.
Missouri was the first team to defeat Kansas at Allen Field House and the Tigers have not bowed to the Jayhawkers in league play since they scored an 86-69 victory in the opening conference game in 1954.
Tiger Jinx Holds
But Wilt Chamberlain is on the scene now and behind him is a squad of Jayhawkers who have proved they can keep Kansas going when the big center is being held down or when he isn't hitting.
Missouri's starting center, Chuck Duren, must concede six inches in height to Chamberlain, not to mention the latter's 4-2 wingspread. This factor alone may drive the Tigers into a zone defense. This is the strategy Iowa State employed to restrict Chamberlain to 12 points, his career low since he played his first game as a Philadelphia high school star of 6-11.
Strong MU Attack
The Jayhawkers will have to blanket Lionel Smith and Sonny Siebert Saturday. Both are accurate shooters from the outside. At the forward spots for Missouri will be Rodger Egelhoff (6-3) and Bill Ross (6-2).
Coach Dick Harp will probably go with the same starting five that has proved it deserves a No. 1 ranking. Chamberlain at center, Gene Elstun (6-3) and Lew Johnson (6-6½) at forwards and Johnny Parker (5-11) and Maurice King 6-2) at guard.
Ron Loneski, a top ball handler, playmaker and mora lite lifer may see action again soon, according to Harp. Loneski's cast (he broke his right foot in the Northwestern game) may come off Saturday.
In winning the Big Seven tournament, Chamberlain and KU left Kansas City speechless. Kansas gave the patrons in the Municipal Auditorium every kind of basketball they could think of.
The Jayhawkers came from behind, figured in a photo-finish, were battled even all the way and then ran away with a couple of games.
They left the Kansas Citians begging for more and ticket sales at Allen Field House are quite brisk.
Parker Named Coach Of Year
NEW YORK  - (UP) - Buddy Parker, whose Detroit Lions finished second last season after winding up last in 1955, today was named National Football League "Coach of the Year" in the annual United Press poll.
Parker, whose Lions lost the Western Division title to the Chicago Bears by a half-game, received nine votes in balloting by 25 sports writers who covered the 1956 campaign in the various league cities.
Regularly scheduled intramural basketball games will resume Monday according to Walter J. Mikols, intramural director. The reason for the delay is to allow teams time to re-organize and hold practices.
IM Basketball Resumes Monday
Maurice King's 24-point explosion in KU's 77-63 win over Washington was his all-time career high. He had two 21-point nights last year and three 20-pointers.
By DICK WALT (Daily Kansan Sports Editor)
Kansas basketball Coach Dick Harp has lodged a protest over the omission of KU's Gene Elstun from the all-tournament team chosen by writers and broadcasters at the conclusion of the Big Seven preseason basketball tournament last week.
There can be no question as to the selection of three members of the all-tourney first five—Wilt Chamberlain of KU, Gary Thompson of Iowa State, and Bob Boozer of Kansas State. These three men were head and shoulders above the rest of the field and were virtually unanimous selections for the mythical honor.
The results of the poll gave the remaining two places to Jack Quiggle of Michigan State and Dave Mowbray of Colorado.
So, it appears that the 6-3 senior clinched his all-tournament berth on the basis of one good scoring effort. It must be said that Mowbray turned in a fine floor game on all three nights, but the tournament was full of players who handled the ball well and scored six points per game.
Personally, we picked Elstun over Mowbray for the fifth slot on the team, after watching Maurice King and the rest of the Jayhawkers hold Mowbray to one field goal and only six points in the final game.
Mowbray earned his selection with a great 28-point performance against Michigan State in the semi-finals, after getting a meager 6 points against Missouri in the Buffs' tournament opener.
On the other hand, Elstun turned in a great job of scoring, in addition to placing fourth among the tourney's rebounders with 27 grabs. Elstun, a favorite with the home-town Kansas City crowd, scored 12 points—including the game-winning goal with six seconds left—against Iowa State in the opener, added 9 more against Oklahoma in the semi-finals, and then capped the show with a 20-point splurge against Colorado in the finals.
Big Seven diehards also may dispute the choice of Quiggle on the first team, but we'll go right along with his selection. The always-battling junior was the sparkplug of the hot-and-cold Michigan State offense, keying several of the frequent Spartan scoring spree.
Probably Quiggle's greatest performance came in the final moments of the Colorado game, when he personally scored 12 points in three minutes in a vain attempt to pull the game out of the fire.
Incidentally, Michigan State became a very popular team at the tournament, largely due to its hustling, fast-breaking style of play. When the fans could tear their attention away from the emotional antics of Coach Forrest (Forddy) Anderson long enough to watch the ball game, they saw a team which evoked distinct memories of the Kelley-Reich era here at KU.
But, the Spartans didn't have a big center, and neither does Missouri. So, we'll take KU by at least 10 Saturday night.
Friday, Jan. 4, 1957
Big Seven Is Rugged, Says Sorrowful Stalcup
By MALCOLM APPLEGATE (Assistant Sports Editor of The Daily Kansan)
But Card general manager Frank Lane, who already has signed pacts from 19 players, emphasized, "Ken hasn't approached his peak performance yet. He has a tremendous natural potential."
Lane is not so glib of course, about Virdon, the 1955 "rookie of the year" whom he traded in 1956 to the Pirates for outfielder Bobby Del Greco. Virdon finished second to Hank Aaron of the Braves in the N-L. batting chase with a 319 mark and had 10 homers and 46 runs-bat-tin. Virdon agreed to Pirate terms on a visit to Pittsburgh for a television appearance.
Banks was the first Cub to sign for the coming season. Injuries to his right arm and an infected hand hampered him in 1955, forcing him to miss 18 games in August after setting a Cub team record of 424 consecutive games. Banks hit .298 with 25 homers and 85 runs batted-in.
Boyer got an unspecified "increase in pay," as well he might after a year in which he batted .306 (fifth best in the league), drove in 98 runs, clouted 26 homers and stole eight bases in 11 tries.
The Dodgers, who may have lost the last World Series for lack of a good left-handed pitcher, welcomed back 1955 series hero Podres with open arms. Blond Johnny, who beat the Yankees 2-0 in the seventh game of the '55 classic, missed all last year due to navy duty but was discharged last October because of a chronic back condition.
"I can never remember when the Big Seven league was so tough," were the words of coach Wilbur "Sparky" Stalcup after his Missouri Tigers had been relegated to last place in the conference pre-season tourney in Kansas City last week. Stalcup, in his eleventh year as the Tiger head coach, saw the Tigers drop three straight games to be dumped in eight place for the first time since he has tutored the squads at Missouri.
All-star third baseman Kenny Boyer of the Cardinals, outfielder Bill Virdon, who left the Cardinals for the Pirates and finished second in the batting race, home run slugger Ernie Banks of the Cubs, and returning southpaw Johnny Podres of the Dodgers were the latest to come to terms.
National League Signs Four Stars
Four of the National League's brightest stars, including one who now shines for the Cardinals and a "big one that got away," signed 1957 contracts today in baseball's drive to prepare for spring training.
Despite the all-time low finish, the Tigers flashed signs of strength during several periods of the tourney and proved they could make it tough for any opponent on any given night. Missouri went into the tournament sporting wins over South Dakota, Arkansas, Southern Cal., and two victories over Oregon State. Its only losses were a close two point loss to Purdue and a defeat to UCLA in their final game before the Kansas City festival.
The Tigers lost an opening round decision to Colorado, 64-55. Nebraska proceeded to down the Tigers 70-65 and Kansas State made it three straight for the Missourians by gaining a 79-75 overtime victory in the battle for seventh and eighth places. In the final game the Tigers showed their fighting ability after they had fallen 14 points behind in the first half. They battled back to gain a seven point advantage in the second half, only to lose in the overtime.
Tigers Are Small
Stalcup commented that the lack of height hurts the Tigers more than anything else. Charles Duren, 6-6 sophomore and John Stephens, $6 - 5\frac{1}{2}$ junior are the tallest men Missouri has.
Lionel Smith was undoubtedly the flashiest player the Tigers displayed during the tournament. He was their most prolific scorer, finishing fourth in the tournament scoring race with 58 points. The 6-2} senior was runner-up to Missouri's all-conference Norm Stewart last year in Tiger scoring and is certainly one of the best players the Big Seven has to offer.
Bill Ross is the only other senior on a young Missouri team. He was the Tigers third top scorer last year and showed good all-around ability during the tournament.
Siebert Shows Promise
Wilfred Siebert, 6-3 sophomore,
is the best young scorer the Tigers
showed in the recent tourney. He
bucketed 43 points in the three
games to finish second only to Smith.
Rodger Egelhoff, 6-3 junior, led the
last place Missourians in rebounding
with 23.
The final member of the Tiger squad who saw considerable action during the tournament is Mike Kirksey, 5-9 sophomore playmaker. In speaking of the Jayhawkers Stalcup said that he considered Wilt Chamberlain very tough to stop, although he went on to add that the rest of the Kansas ball club was very good without Chamberlain.
Robinson Protests Loss To Fullmer
NEW YORK—(UP)—Sugar Ray Robinson filed an official protest today against the officiating at Wednesday night's fight with Gene Fullmer and called a press conference to announce his future plans.
Those plans are expected to include "a $250,000 return title bout" with young Gene Fullmer, who won ancient Ray's middleweight crown on a decision before a sellout 18,134 at Madison Square Garden.
In a long telegram of protest to the New York State Athletic Commission, Ernie Braca—Robinson's co-manager—today accused referee Ruby Goldstein of letting Fullmer use foul tactics.
Cage Results
Colorado 73, Miami 66
Bradley 97, St. John's (N. Y.) 78
Duquesne 79, Dayton 71
Oklahoma City 80, Arizona 55
Rice 53, Texas A&M 39
VACATION'S OVER!
Now's the time to dig in . . . And Remember
Include
MILK
In Your Midnight Snack