Photo by Ron Bishop
Big guys duel . . .
Big Sam Lacey shoots over David Hall in recent tourney action. At 6-10, Lacey doesn't hesitate to shoot from 20-25 feet out and hits at 47 per cent accuracy from the field. He and his Aggies will face UCLA in semifinal action this weekend at College Park, Md.
Collins voted most valuable
By CHARLIE SMITH UPI Sports Writer
Aggies are 'frustrating'
New Mexico State is a frustrating basketball team. At least, that's the way they strike their opponents.
The Aggies of coach Lou Henson won the NCAA Midwest Regional basketball tournament here this weekend by whipping Kansas State, 70-66, in the semifinals and Drake, 87-78, in the finals.
And both losers left the court wondering why they didn't win.
Drake coach Maury John probably summed it up best.
Jimmy Collins, voted the tournament's outstanding player, scored 23 against Kansas State and 26 against Drake. And 5-8 Charles Criss added 13 and 14, respectively.
"I felt in our game, watching it from the bench that New Mexico State outscored the Bulldogs, 31-14, from the free-throw line."
As John said, "When one team goes to the line 45 times and another 24, it's pretty difficult to overcome that difference."
New Mexico State played a zone defense against both Kansas State and Drake, which is a radical departure from the Aggies' usual style. They're pretty much of a man-to-man defensive team.
Neither of New Mexico State's foes handled its guards in this tournament.
Yet, against New Mexico State's zone, Kansas State made only 31 per cent of its field goal attempts and Drake 40 per cent. So the Aggies managed to stay out of foul trouble and play better-than-average defense, too.
Pro ball to discuss problems
HONOLULU (UPI)—Pro football club representatives opened their annual meeting today, the first joint session since the American and National football league merged.
They began tackling the problems of uniform rules and procedures and the site of the 1971 Super Bowl.
The higher echelon-officials, coaches and owners of the 26 clubs were also expected to discuss the sale of the New York Jets and the stadium situation in Boston.
"I don't believe anything on the regular agenda will keep us locked up," Rozelle said on his arrival last week.
Football Commissioner Pete Rozelle said he hoped the meeting would end Thursday, but most observers felt that it would run through Friday.
The committee-composed of Vince Lombardi of Washington, Tex Schramm of Dallas, Paul Brown of Cincinnati and Al Davis of Oakland met last week to discuss the type of football to be used, the two-point conversion option, players, names on Jersey backs, and the official timing device.
Rozelle also said that work will be done towards setting up administrative operations for the American and National conferences that make up the league.
But what killed Drake was Milton Horne, a 6-1 sophomore reserve who put 13 points on top of the contributions by Collins and Criss. That meant New Mexico State got 53 points from the guard positions against Drake.
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Criss and Horne did their damage against Drake's Bobby Jones, while Gary Zeller was doing his best against Collins.
"Jones is a real fine defense guard," said John, "but he did not have real good quickness against those two. They were more ready to play than he was."
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Henson said Horne "does a great job of penetrating the ball. He's done this the entire year. We were concerned about Drake's speed and ability, but he gave us more flexibility."
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a unanimous choice for the all-tournament team. He was joined by teammate Sam Lacey, Kansas State's David Hall and Jerry Venable and Drake's Al Williams.
Kansas State's 107-98 victory over Houston in the third-place game set a Midwest Regional scoring record. Previous high was 103 by Houston in 1968 against Texas Christian.
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New Mexico State will meet UCLA in Thursday's semifinal round at College Park, Md. It will be the third time in three years the Aggies have run into the Bruins in the NCAA tournament. UCLA scored a 57-48 victory two years ago in Albuquerque, N.M., and won, 53-38, last season in Los Angeles.
Williams was a narrow choice over teammate Jeff Halliburton, who missed the first team by one vote.
Teammate Sam Lacey, a 6-10 senior, missed being unanimous by two votes on the all-tournament team.
Collins, a 6-2 senior from Syracuse, N.Y., was named on 32 of the 44 ballots by newsmen and broadcasters for the outstanding player award.
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"Defensively, UCLA will have some problems if this club (New Mexico State) is having a good day," Drake's John predicted. "New Mexico State has the size that it takes to go against Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe and Steve Patterson."
Besides being named the outstanding player, Collins also was
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