Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

.Three BY JIM HERSH Sports Writer Most times when a team has only three lettermen returning you would have to say that a rebuilding Lafayet NIT win BY JIM HERSH Sports Writer On the eastern border of Pennsyl vania, at a spot almost equadistant from New York City and Philadelphia, there is a town called Easton. It's right near Allentown, which is in obscurity. Which is where the Lafayette College basket ball team came from to beat Vir ginia in the NIT tournament last year. For the first time Lafayette was known to most of the nation. The Virginia win probably got the Leopards more publicity than they had in their total of 72 years of bas ketball. Actually their basketball prog ram is not that bad. In 1957 they participated in the NCAA tourna ment. Until last year it was the last national tournament in which they played. Realistically, it may be their last for another fifteen years or so. Lafayette is not the type of school that can recruit hard every year to stay at the top of the sport. They got lucky with a couple of kids nobody wanted five years ago. Tracy Tripucka, one of the best pure shooters in the nation last year, and Jay Mattola and George Weaver, a pair of heady guards, came Lafayette's way and led them to three years in which they won 50 games. They're gone now and it will be a while until the Pards get three of their kind again. What is left over from last year 20c E3 9 Ounce BUDW Eviery M11 9THEO0TH] Happy HIomi 4:30-7:00 15S" retu rne year is in order. But for the Duquesne Dukes it is not the case. That's because they have the qual ity players back. The Dukes lost only two players e trying t was no1 is not that bad. The team doesn't have great size but they have small forwards who can drive bigger, slower players crazy. The only true big man that the WALT I KOCUBINSKI ...smali but aggressive. Pards have is Earl Brown. He's a 6-10 junior who is not strong enough to consistently hit the boards with fervor, but on occasion he can do the job. Like against Virginia when he grabbed 15 rebounds. At times Brown looks like a big college bas ketball player, at others he looks like he should warm the bench for the Easton Area High School team. As mentioned before the Leopard forwards are not the big bruisers. Walt Kocubinski, is only 6-5, and Jim Portray, smaller at 6-3, will never intimidate their opponents, but usually they put pressure on their opponents. Pressure is not something that 6-8 forwards enjoy and that's what makes Portray and Kocubinski so successful. At times last year Dr. Tom Davis sent Portray in for Brown and went with a line-up where the big man lEER Draught EISER nda(I(y Night ER PLACE 00(d Drive I)rauaglht R.uid es boo whose absence could really be called critical. And foremost the players they have back are spread equally around the three starting positions. 2 show luke was 6-5 Kocubinski. They would press their opponents to death and when the press was working they would run up a bundle of points before the enemy could react. The frontcourt, where Lafayette is experienced and skilled, the Pards look good. But the guards, who are inexperienced, could be the team's weakness. Four guards-Ron Blass, Jim Guerra, Jack Moran and Karl Rook stoll-saw limited service last year. Blass was the high scorer, 2.6 points a game. Two sophomores could save the Pard backcourt. Frank DiLeo averaged 21.7 points as a freshman and Art Fischetti scored 15.3 on the frosh team. Out of the six possible guards Davis should be able to get two on the court at the same time who can take at least some of the load that Mottola and Weaver took with them. Lafayette came out of obscurity last year and they may not be ready to go back into it right away. A win over a nationally ranked team, Like well, Carolina, would put Lafayette in the headlines again. Don't laugh. Virginia isn't. 1 S. Across from USC ROUNDHOUSE BACK P. EQUIP -Alpine I Clothing, Shoes ( Tents - Sleeping Ruck NEW SHII BICYCLES Students Alwu BICYCLE OF COL 746 Harden St Columbia, Phone 2 St Duqi Their big man, height and skill wise, is 6-9 Lionel Billingy. He led the team in scoring 15 times last year and had a 21.6 scoring average for the year. The big center also recovered over 14 rebounds every game. And he did it all as a sopho more. He should be awesome with a year's experience behind him. The man who will probably han dle the ball for the Dukes is 6-2 guard Ruben Montanez. A senior now, Montanez averaged 16.8 points and surprisingly 6.9 rebounds a game. Montanez will have to take a bigger share of the playmaking duties now that super ballhandler Mike Barr has graduated. Barr averaged 13.4 points and handed out a Duke record of 142 assists as a senior. He will be missed sorely. That might be reason for dis tres9for Duke coach Red Manning. But a couple of outstanding pros pects off last year's frosh team sof ten the blow. Jack Yun is one of the sophs that will definitely help. He's a 6-4 guard, averaged 24.7 points for the frc^h and might step right into Barr's spot. But then again Yun will have to beat out another soph, Oscar Jackson. All Jackson did as a freshman was average 24.4 points. That leaves the forward spot opposite 6-4 Jack Wojdowski. Woj dowski scores well, 13.2 average, but he can't help Billingy too much off the boards. He grabbed only five a game. Which means that Manning ACK ING MENT )esigns ISlothing - Shoes - Bags - Frames - sacks 'MIENT OF IN STOCK rys Welcome! CENTER UJMBIA reet (at Green) S.C. 29205 54-'9821 jesne had better find a big, tough forward to team with Wojdowski. Three players, none experienced, might fill that void. Dave Harring ton, 6-8 junior, and two freshmen-6-9 Dan Malignani and 6-10 Murray Meikenhouse-have the size but Manning may just leave the rebounding up to Billingy and go with a smaller man. In that case he will choose between 6-4 Bernie O'Keefe, 22 point average frosh, or 6-5 Dave Pavlick or 6-6 Don McLane, both of whom scored around 15 points. There are a lot of 'ifs' in the LIONEL BILLINGY ...Dukes scoring leader. Duquesne picture but the stars are there and if one or two of the sopho mores come through with the kind of season they did as freshmen, Manning will probably enjoy this season. He didn't enjoy last year much. Despite the 20-5 record he coached his team to Manning had plenty of problems. One player was found ineligible, there was a lot of trouble among team members, they ended the season with six players and the Dukes were ignored by post season tourneys, something that shouldn't happen to twenty-win teams. Manning is probably hungry for another winner, one that he can take to a tournament. Should one of the sophs turn into a genuine star Mann ing will get his post-season bid. a,.., c .. ,,.,,. SHOWS * - a 1:30-4 1417 MAIN $S16E6 5:30-9 DY SINGS THE BLUES STARRIiN DIANA ROSS so, o .....Late * - a Shows 2 MAN STEl? Fri. & Sat. Fri. & Sat. 11:30 PM . "ALICE'S REST AUR ANT" - with Arlo Guthrle