Basketball's Week

THE TOP THREE:

1. DAVIDSON (14-1)
2. VANDERBILT (12-2)
3. DUKE (10-2)

There was a time when Southern Conference coaches used to sympathize with each other about their troubles with West Virginia. Now it is DAVIDSON that has them all in a dither. The strong Wildcats took dead aim on two challengers last week and whipped them handily. First The Citadel succumbed 100-81, as Fred Hetzel scored 26 points and Dick Snyder 24. Then West Virginia had a go at the league leaders in Charleston. The Mountaineers bothered them for a while with a blistering press, but Hetzel got away for 25 points, Barry Teague scored 19, and West Virginia lost 86-77. After that, just for kicks, Davidson polished off little Presbyterian 130-67 for its 13th straight. "You could put a lid on the basket, and they'd bomb it off," said Richmond Coach Lew Mills ruefully. "You can't outscore them, and when you try to contain them you find they're containing you."

The defeat by Davidson was merely the beginning of a week of ignominy for West Virginia, PENN STATE, which had not beaten the Mountaineers at Morgantown in 10 years, caught them this time 80-79.

Vanderbilt, the preseason favorite, was discovering that the Southeastern Conference race was not all fun and games. The Commodores, who beat Georgia 75-62 with big Clyde Lee (below) popping in 29 points, had good reason to worry. AUBURN, playing its tough board game, raced past Mississippi 67-52 and Alabama 93-68. TENNESSEE Coach Ray Mears set his disciplined offense to picking and punching at a tight Kentucky zone, and Larry McIntosh and A. W. Davis got the Vols an early lead. The Wildcats rarely got through the Tennessee defense, and they were beaten 77-58. Mears, who remembered Adolph Rupp facetiously describing the defense that had wrecked the Vols a year ago as "a stratified hyperbolic paraboloid," had an explanation ready for The Baron. "Our defense has a name, too," he said. "We call it an iconoclastic defense with disharmonious tendencies."

All of a sudden everybody—especially Duke—was taking NORTH CAROLINA STATE seriously in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Wolfpack clawed from behind in the second half to beat North Carolina 65-52, then cooled off hot Maryland 73-67 for its ninth straight since Press Maravich took over for ailing Coach Everett Case. DUKE, however, kept pace with State, routing Clemson 106-81 and Wake Forest 105-77.

Miami's Rick Barry, the nation's leading scorer, rattled in 54 points as the Hurricanes blew over Florida Southern 124-93 and added 41 more in a 119-99 rout of Jacksonville. "I hear the crowd," said Barry matter-of-factly. "I know they expect me to shoot when I get the ball, so I shoot."

THE MIDWEST

THE TOP THREE:

1. MICHIGAN (10-2)
2. WICHITA STATE (12-2)
3. INDIANA (12-1)