Then it was three straight
By EMERY GOAD
The KU Jayhawks captured an unprecedented third straight title in the Big 8 pre-season basketball tournament in Kansas City last week.
Defeating the Iowa State Cyclones 63-57 last Friday in the finals, Kansas became the first team to ever capture the tournament three times straight.
Led by the heroic-like action of Jo Jo White, KU came from a "nip and tuck" ball game in the first half to keep solidly in control of the game.
Bohnenstiehl is injured
Kansas' top scorer and second best rebounder, Rodger Bohnenstiehl, 6-3 center, was forced to leave the game after the first half, suffering from a broken blood vessel.
Just after the half the Jayhawks extended a ten point lead to 14 points. Outstanding shooting by White, who hit nearly half of his shots from near the half court line, pepped the Hawks throughout the game. White was later named most valuable player at the conference, judged to that spot by all but two sports writers covering the event.
Phil Harmon, 6-4 guard, was the high point man for the KU team with 19 points.
In the first round of the tournament, played in Kansas City, the Hawks defeated Colorado 72-54 just after Kansas State whipped title favorite Nebraska 93-81.
KU nips Colorado
In that game with Colorado, KU was again led by Jo Jo White's straight-in shots to keep an early lead. Also aided by Ron Franz the Buffers dropped to a score doubled by that of KU. It was 43-28 at halftime and then in the final minutes of the game KU continued to score during a stall.
It was that first game that saw a large number of team fouls. Vanoy and Franz both left the game midway in the second half and Coach Ted Owens finally played the reserves in the last minutes as other teammates totaled many fouls.
Oklahoma falls next
In the second round of play KU met Oklahoma University and downed them 86-73. KU suffered throughout the game from poor defense and rebounding power. Coach Owens, after the game, compared KU's match to that at St. John's when KU lost.
In that semi-finals match, KU started the second half by sinking the first eight of ten field shots.
"We came to the tournament to find out if we could compete with the best teams in our conference and to find out if we could rely on our No. 1 defense—the man-for-man. We used that
man-for-man all the way and we found out." Ted Owens, head Jayhawk coach, said.
Owens is elated
Daily Kansan Wednesday, January 4, 1967
After taking the tournament title Owens said, "Yes, everybody is even better than I thought they were. We just have a lot of good players with good attitude and ability," he said.
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KU took those three straight wins after losing a tight battle in Chicago to Texas Western and then again in New York to St. John's just before the tournament.
The next goal of Owen's team will be the NCAA tournament. KU will host the regionals in that tournament on March 17-18. To participate in the tournament the Hawks must win the Big 8 title for the season.
On Saturday KU will meet Oklahoma University in Allen Field House. This will be the first official Big 8 game KU has played in the 1967 season.
KU currently carries a nine win and two loss record in all games edging into Big 8 conference play which begins this weekend.
JO JO WHITE This Jayhawker was named outstanding player of the tournament.
WEEjUNS .. with love
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