Basketball's Week

Before WICHITA STATE and St. Louis met in Wichita for the Missouri Valley lead the air was thick with defensive strategy plots. Wichita's Gary Thompson put his Shockers into a strict pressure game, shifting from full-court zone press to full-court man-to-man in the first half and then back to the smothering zone press in the second half. St. Louis' John Benington, hoping to keep the ball away from Wichita's Dave Stallworth and Dave Leach, countered with a 3-2 zone, and when that failed, he went to his karate-type man-to-man. But the Shockers had the more resourceful shooters. Stallworth, who loses his eligibility in February, and Leach each scored 19 points, and Wichita took the game 75-64.

Wichita, however, will have to work to stay at the top. BRADLEY, showing unmistakable signs of throwing off its recent lethargy, overwhelmed Cincinnati 104-80—and at Cincy, too. Guard Alex McNutt quarter-backed the brilliant show while Eddie Jackson wrecked the Bearcat defenses, once Coach Ed Jucker's pride and joy, and scored 27 points. "They blew us right off the court," moaned Jucker. "We took a good, sound drubbing."

Michigan's Dave Strack must wonder what a fellow has to do to appease his critics. Despite a 9-2 record and No. 2 ranking for his Wolverines in the AP poll, last week some Ann Arbor pranksters strung him up in effigy with a sign that read, "With all that talent, it must be the coach." Even Strack may have had his doubts when Northwestern led Michigan 31-27 with five minutes left in the first half. But he put the Wolverines into a zone press, Cazzie Russell (who scored 36 points) led them on a quick 12-point spree, and Michigan went on to win 90-68.

Still ahead for the Wolverines in the Big Ten race were INDIANA and another go with ILLINOIS. The Hoosiers, scampering merrily in and out of a variety of zones and getting solid shooting from Steve Redenbaugh, John McGlocklin and the Van Arsdale twins, beat Iowa 85-76 and Ohio State 84-72. Illinois, despite a cold streak, managed to put down Minnesota 75-72.

Colorado's Sox Walseth had what he called a "screwy type zone" ready for Kansas when the Jayhawks came to Boulder. His Buffs covered Kansas players who probed the middle man-to-man, sandwiched 6-foot-11 Walt Wesley with two men and zoned everyone else. It worked beautifully. Wesley fouled out, 6-foot-7 Chuck Gardner poured in 21 points and Colorado upset Kansas 61-59. The Jayhawks fortunately recovered in time to whip Iowa State 72-60.

With that kind of help from Colorado, OKLAHOMA STATE moved into first place in the Big Eight after beating Iowa State 67-48 as Jim King scored 18 points and took down 14 rebounds. MISSOURI also muscled back into the race with an 80-68 victory over Kansas State at Columbia, its first over the Wildcats in 24 games.

Miami of Ohio, a team that usually relies upon fancy shooting for its victories, proved that it can play defense, too, when it battled Ohio U. for first in the Mid-American Conference. The Redskins forced the defending champions into 22 errors and ran off with the game 58-48 on the controlled 16-point shooting of Jeff Gehring (below). Miami then went back to free-shooting for Bowling Green and whipped the Falcons 74-58.

Depaul, the best of the Midwest independents, parlayed a neat slowdown and Don Swanson's hot hand into a 63-59 win over Dayton, NOTRE DAME, an earlier 75-67 victim of ST. LOUIS, cranked up its run-and-shoot game and beat Butler 94-57.

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