University of South Carolina Libraries
Youthfi BY STEVE PARKER Asst. Sports Editor Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps expresses faith in the future of his extremely youthful 1972-73 version of the Fighting Irish, but the ques tion is whether their future is like A Gift T[ Of You V A Gift C( From the E Parkland SI Now Open For Your uL Irish Redskin Coach George Allen's-now-or is it in the future? "I've been pleased with the prog ress through the last five weeks," said the sophomore coach about his team's appearance in workouts, "And we'll find out in the first three at Both Vill Enjoy ?rtificate Five Points St. Andrews Forest Drive 3erry's on Main opping Center Convenience... Gamecock 1 block from camp 921 Asse: Grand Op s Pabst E *1.40 *5.50 Open 9 Cold Beer-C Same prit are a days of the season what to expect." The truth of the matter is that the Fighting Irish are so young and inexperienced a team that the squad may not reach its potential in three days of regular season play, or even three months. Indeed, the team is so youthful that it may require three years. Phelps came to Notre Dame from Fordham just last season and took an Irish team with just one return ing letterman, a winning tradition and a lot of hopes and suffered through a quite dismal 6-20 cam paign. The second-year mentor surely hates to lose, at least at the fre quency that Notre Dame did last year, but after suffering through the dismal year Phelps has decided Fai rfie BY JIM HERSH Sports Writer If experience means as much as it is supposed to Fairfield Univer sity will have an excellent season. You can't ask for more experience than having all five of your starters back and that's exactly what Fair field has. Fred Barakat, the Stags' third year coach says, "We will have a strong and excellent shooting team, and we will also be very tough off the boards." Carolina should know all about Fairfield's shooting. Last season the Stags, not nearly the physical equal of the Gamecocks, stayed with USC for a half at the Quaker City Classic by making a high percentage of out side shots. The Stags' best shooter is prob ably senior George Groom, a 6-2 guard. He averaged over 21 points last season and needs just 12 points to reach the thousand-point mark. He scored 38 points in one game last year and was one of Fairfield's lead Across from USC ROUNDHOUSE Party Shop us-in front of Star Lanes rnbly Street aning Special lue Ribbon six pack case - 8:30 p.m. old Wine-Mixers e hot or cold ruestio to risk further setbacks in order to obtain a bright prospectus on the future. With plans to start a lineup of four sophomores and a lone junior, Phelps has one of the youngest squads in the nation. There are ten upperclassmen on the Notre Dame roster and it is sure that they will see considerable play ing time if not eventual starting berths, but Phelps has indicated the youth movement in his early prac tices and that appears to be his trend. The old man of the starting lineup, junior forward Gary Novak, led the varsity team in scoring last year with a 19.5 average. His scoring total is surpassed by two of his Id may w ing scorers over the Carolina zone in that game last season. One of the newcomers to the Fair field frontcourt is 6-6 Phil Rogers. Rogers, a freshman at Fairfield two years ago, transfered away last year and is now back at the Con necticut school. If he comes any where near his freshman statistics it will be quite an achievement. He only scored 37.2 points a game for the frosh. The returning forward starters for Barakat are Tom Duffy and Dave Bradley. Duffy, 6-6, scored 10.9 points and grabbed 11.8 rebounds last year. Bradley, a pencil-thin 6-9, had a good sopho more season, scoring 14.4 points and getting 9.6 rebounds a game. In the backcourt junior John Ryan will team up with Groom. Ryan is perfect for the role. He can handle the ball, he was third in assists for New England schools last year, and takes that responsibility off the shoulders of the scorer Groom. Should either Groom or Ryan need a breather or miss a game for some reason, the super-transfer Rogers can move into the backcourt. Two sophomores have good chances of breaking into the regular line-up. Ray Kelly, 6-3 guard, will undoubtedly see plenty of action. BL AZER The great pull together Nothing coordi niates a wardrobe like aI blazer. Patterns fall in place, colors blend in ha rmonyx. L.ayeredl mixes live together. Dr1op) in andl view. 01ur collectionl. BRIT'] DOWN' OPENFRIDY N' r mark sophomore teammates who clipped at a plus 20 point level in their first seasons. Guard Gary Brokaw, at 6-3, hit 28.3 scores while 6-9 John Shumate figured at 22.4. Dwight Clay added -6.3 and Peter Crotty hit 14.3 in their frosh efforts last season. Shumate was pleasing to Phelps , in the intrasquad game earlier this year as he pumped in a game-high 35 points. Phelps' team features those ten returnees from last year along with five sophomores and two freshmen. One of the frosh varsity men-6-9 Roger Anderson has suffered a back injury and the Notre Dame coach has to hope that Anderson's (Please see IRISH, Page 14, Column 3) - 'in 20 Last year he was New England's second leading frosh scorer at 25.6 points a game. New England's leading freshman rebounder was Fairfield's Craig Moorer. At 6-10 Moorer hauled in an average of 16 rebounds. If he can break into the line-up and dominate the boards like that the Stags will truly have that tough team off the boards that Barakat thinks they do have. Fairfield looks like they could be C very tough this year. They have the shooters, potentially fine reboun ders and a lot of experience with which to mix their potential stars. They will have no problems beating last year's 12-13 record and with Rogers, Kelly and Moorer having good years they may have a chance at an 18 to 20-win season. Across from USC ROUNDHOUSE POW HIT 'TIL. a P.M