The Week Jan. 28-feb. 3

EAST

Bridgeport's Sudanese Sensation, 7'6" freshman Manute Bol (SI Dec. 10), who has averaged 21.6 points, 15.0 rebounds and an astounding 8.0 blocked shots per game while leading the Division II Purple Knights to a 16-4 record, can now chew up the opposition with even greater ease. Bol, who arrived in the United States with 15 of his teeth missing, was finally fitted with a set of false choppers, at a local free clinic.

In the first half of Bridgeport's 88-54 romp past Southern Connecticut last week, seven of Bol's 12 blocks came on seven- to 18-foot jumpers by the Owls' 5'10" guard, Jeff Buckson. Not surprisingly, Buckson, a 20.2-points-a-game scorer, eventually tried another strategy. "I forgot the jumper and went straight at him," he said. "I bellied up against him once, but when I looked up, I couldn't tell if he was smiling at me."

Southern Connecticut has the distinction of being the only team to have squared off against both the biggest and the best college centers. The Owls were routed 80-46 by Georgetown on Dec. 1. Asked to compare Bol and the Hoyas' Patrick Ewing, Buxton says, "I didn't see much of Ewing [who played a mere 20 minutes], but Georgetown's whole team intimidated me."

Before a 56-39 victory over Arkansas last Sunday snapped a two-game Hoya losing streak, Georgetown had hardly intimidated anyone of late. "Until [now] I thought maybe we were still last year's team," Georgetown coach John Thompson told Philadelphia Daily News columnist Mark Whicker after the Hoyas had lost their second straight Big East game, 65-63 at Syracuse. "But now [I know] we're not. Now we're this year's team, a different team." These Hoyas, who rely a little more on finesse and perimeter shooting and a little less on intimidation than last year's team, sputtered on offense in their losses to St. John's and Syracuse, shooting a combined 39.8%. But against the Razorbacks, Georgetown shot 42.0%, and Ewing held Joe Kleine, a teammate on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, and the Hogs' top scorer, to a scant three points.

In Wake Forest's 91-64 ACC defeat of N.C. State, the Demon Deacons' Tyrone (Muggsy) Bogues showed that the littlest guy on the floor—he's 5'3"—can do some very big things. In his best performance as a Deacon, Bogues scored a career-high 20 points and had 10 assists and four steals. Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano was not punning when he said of Bogues, "He was nothing short of spectacular."

SOUTHEAST

Before Georgia's game at LSU, Cedric Henderson, the freshman forward who has become the focal point of an NCAA investigation, warmed up in teammate Dwayne (Bam-Bam) Rainey's sweat suit to shield himself from possible taunts from the 12,790 Tiger fans. Ultimately, Henderson silenced the crowd. His five-foot turnaround jumper at the buzzer gave the Dawgs a 59-58 win, snapping the Bengals' 18-game home winning streak. LSU's own heralded freshman, forward John Williams, made Henderson's heroics possible. Inbounding the ball under Georgia's basket with one second left, Williams heaved a pass that traveled the length of the court untouched. That gave the Bulldogs the ball and Henderson the chance to get that basket.

The results of the Southwestern Athletic Conference audit of Southern University's statistics (SI, Feb. 4) are in. Doniven Hoskins, who had been listed two weeks ago as the nation's top field-goal shooter, was incorrectly credited with 17 more field goals and 24 fewer attempts than he'd actually had. Thus, Hoskins's percentage fell from an astounding 78.9% to a merely decent 49.6%.

The audit was kinder to Hoskins's teammates Glenn Dedmon and John Staves, whose corrected percentages fell from 72.5% and 69.2%, respectively, to 60.0% and 65.9%. NCAA statistical coordinator Jim Wright's explanation for Southern's inaccuracies: lousy math.