g f h s d e n e l t y n. g e e e g
Monday. March 24. 1958 University Daily Kansan
Page 5
The complete collapse of the Kansas State basketball team in the NCAA tournament will never be fully explained.
Whether the team got air sick, or as Tex Winter said, "didn't come down here to play basketball," no one will know.
The two games K-State played in Louisville will be remembered and talked about for years as one of the most amazing collapses in NCAA tournament history.
K-State was top seeded in the tournament, believed to be invincible with its height and balanced attack. But the Wildcats did not live up to advance billing, slumping both nights, against Seattle and Temple.
Those two games will certainly remain vivid in the minds of the 350 K-State fans and other Big Eight spectators who were present to watch the humiliation of the conference representative at the hands of two basketball teams and a jeering crowd.
The Wildcats, who had an impressive 22-3 record against some of the best teams in the country and had defeated Cincinnati and Kansas plus Indiana, Purdue and Minnesota of the Big Ten, could do nothing right in Louisville. Jack Parr, whose deadly hook shot helped spell doom for Kansas in Lawrence and Cincinnati in the regionals, appeared to be completely indifferent both nights.
Bob Boozer's usual all around play fell to a season low and only Wally Frank displayed the form of a champion.
After the Seattle-K-State game Friday night bands of stunned Wildcats wandered around the huge Freedom hall, looking rather numb and occasionally staring with disbelief at the scoreboard
Kansas State victory parties, carefully planned, didn't come off.
Few K-Staters could be seen in downtown Louisville where Seattle and Kentucky fans cavorted happily Friday night.
The humiliation of Kansas State struck the Big Eight a prestige blow it may take years to recover from. Big Eight executive director Reaves Peters said he was "plumb numb."
Kansas coach Dick Harp, assistant coach Jerry Waugh and Missouri coach Sparky Stalcup were equally stunned.
Saturday night was Adolph Rupp's night. The cagy "Der Baron" of basketball won his fourth NCAA title with what he described as a "bunch of ugly ducklings who weren't even supposed to swim."
But Rupp's ducklings gave an almost hysterical crowd of over 18,000 something to celebrate when they pulled away from Temple Saturday night mainly on eight 30-foot 1-handed push shots by Johnny Cox and a spectacular layup with 25 seconds to go Friday night by Vernon Hatton, the latter giving Kentucky a 1-point victory over the Owls.
Victory parties sprang up almost simultaneously with the Kentucky triumph. Deliriously happy students hugged each other and the big question for many a celebrator was which party to attend.
Meanwhile the K-Staters started quietly back to Manhattan. For them and for the Big Eight it had been a lost weekend.
Four Wildcats to endure the taunts of this KU student during the 550-mile trip back to Kansas City. But they bore all the good-natured ribbing and, like most other K-State students who attended the fiasco, were more concerned with the prestige blow to the Big Eight than with their own school's defeat.
East Downs West, Litwack Defeats Tex Winter Again
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —(UOP)— College basketball took one of its final bows of the season, Sunday and it further proved The All America ability of Guy Rodgers, the 6-foot Temple ace who led the East to a 71-66 victory over the West in the seventh annual Shrine All-Star game.
He got big help from Indiana's Archie Dees and North Carolina's Pete Brennan who gave the East control of the backboards by a 49-60 rebound margin. Dees got 13 rebounds and Brennan 12.
Rodgers, voted the game's most valuable player, topped the nation's finest senior basketball players in points with 17 and harassed the opposition with fancy ball-handling and stolen passes.
By coincidence, both Dees and Brennan matched their rebound totals in points. Mike Farmer of San Francisco was the West's top rebounder with 10.
The West, paced by Hub Reed of Oklahoma City University with 11 points and Arkansas's Fred Grim and Kansas State's Jack Parr with 10 each, outshot the East from the floor by a percentage of 34.9 to 32.9.
For Harry Litwack of Temple, the coach of the East All stars, it was a second victory over Tex Winter, Kansas State and the West coach,
in as many nights. Saturday, Temple downed K-State for third place in the NCAA championship tournament at Louisville, Ky.
Boston 'In' As Eastern Champ
The Celtics took a 3-0 lead in the Eastern finals Sunday by defeating the Philadelphia Warriors, 106-92, as Bill Russell set a probable playoff record with 40 rebounds.
The Boston Celtics are virtually "in" as Eastern Division playoff champions in the National Basketball Assn., but a stunning upset has halted the St. Louis Hawks' attempted runaway in the Western Division.
Boston can sweep the series by winning the next game at Philadelphia Wednesday night or, at any rate, needs to win only one out of four games to clinch.
Physicians Into Ring
CHICAGO —(UP)— Ring physicians have been ordered to climb into the corners Tuesday night during the Carmen Basilo-Sugar Ray Robinson title fight and prevent the use of any forbidden coagulants on face cuts.
Tex Winter Denies K-State 'Choked-Up' During Tourney
A heartsick Fred "Tex" Winter, conceding Kansas State "was favored and couldn't live up to it," today stood staunchly, behind his weary team to deny published reports they "choked" in two NCAA tournament appearances.
The boyish coach, not as apparently angered as surprised and hurt, said the choke-up tag was "unfair" and an "observation made by someone not familiar with the situation."
Winter admitted Kansas State was "flat, sluggish and maybe a little tense" in two dismal tournament losses to Seattle and Temple. But he added that to him the phrase "choke-up" meant that a team "quits," and that, he said, "is something Kansas State did not do."
Weariness, caused by a rugged 27- game season, Winter said contributed to the Wildcats' sudden and
disastrous slump. He acknowledged "certain other problems we've had all year," but declined lengthy comment.
Cites 'Other Problems'
The 36-year-old United Press "Coach of the Year" did make clear, however, that the "other problems" did not include team dissension. Absolving his players of blame, Winter said he alone was "responsible."
Kansas State, ranked fourth nationally after winning the Big Eight title and conquering champions of four other U.S. conferences, had been rated the team to beat in the 4-team NCAA championship tournament.
Winter cited victories over Kansas and later over Cincinnati in NCAA regional playoffs as proof of his team's ability "to win the big ones." He said the "entire squad is heartstick, and we know we're a lot better than we looked in Louisville."
Honors Heaped On Xavier
Can Happen To Any Team
Can Happen To Any Team
Philosophically, the K-State coach said "this kind of thing can happen to any team. Regardless, I'm proud of our boys and I think they're one of the finest teams to ever represent the Big Eight."
Winter said K-State reached its peak during a skein of 10 straight conference victories, and "after that, I guess we just didn't pace ourselves."
NEW YORK,—(UP)—All-Tournament honors were heaped on members of Xavier's surprising National Invitation Tournament champions today, along with predictions that the upset kids from Cincinnati will once again be a national basketball power next season.
Hank Stein, whose six points in the overtime period carried unseeded Xavier to its title-winning 78-74 upset of top-seeded Dayton on Saturday, was the only unanimous choice today on the all-NIT team
picked for the United Press by 21 sports writers covering the tourney. Second-team honors went to three more Muskeeters—little Ducky Castelle, rebounding ace Frank Tartaron, and pop-shooting Joe Viviano.
About two thirds of all newly enlisted Marines get their first taste of service life on Parris Island, S. C. A major Marine Corps post since 1915, the island lies on the Atlantic coast between Charleston and Savannah, Ga.
Sunday, Winter's West team failed to salve his feelings by losing 71-66 to the East in the seventh annual East-West Shrine game in Kansas City, Mo.
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