Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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6 teams at Fest BY JIM Sports Madison Square Garden is sports arena in the world. The den, and it's amazing that ti E. C. A. C. Holiday Festival ii From Dec. 26 to Dec.30 ten t crown at the Garden. Durin be professional basketball gai nonsense happening and the hope they aren't ordered off of dogs. While they may not be ordered off the court, the Festival committee has ordered four teams to play two games at the insane hour of 10:30 a.m. As Frank McGuire says, "Who the hell plays basketball at 10:30 in the morning?" Those are just the sacrifices you make for playing in the Garden. In the luck of the draw Carolina will meet up with Villanova in their first preliminary game Dec. 26. The game will begin at the reasonable time of nine at night. Other first round match-ups are Grambling-St. John's, North Carolina A&T-Manhattan and Bos ton College-Michigan. Niagara and Tennessee don't play their first game until the Purple Eagles meet the Grambling-St. John's game and the Vols meet the winner in the N. C. A&T-Manhattan contest Dec. 27. Frank McGuire and his team are well-acquainted with Jack Kraft and his Villanova squad. They met each other twice last year. The Wild cats made off with the Quaker City (Please see HOLIDAY, Page 6, Column 3) Across from USC ROUNDHOUSE Baske b Coach 1 The Ga Gamec<i The Cam IJSSII have shot iva title HERSH Writer probably the busiest indoor y have everything in the Gar iey were able to squeeze the rito their hectic schedule. earns will play for the Festival those same days there will nes, dog shows and other such ten college basketball teams the court in favor of a pack Michigar of shakir BY JIM HERSH Sports Writer Michigan State is usually a power in the Big Ten football circles. For some reason they can never do it in basketball. Sure, once they won the conference. That was in 1966-67. But most of the time they are fifth or sixth in their league. They were fifth last year. This year they hope to change all of that. They're speaking in terms of a championship. This year, not in the future. "We return virtually all our strength from a fifth-place team and we anticipate help from last year's fine freshman club," Spartan coach Gus Ganakas expounds. Most of Ganakas' optimism is over one Lindsay Hairston. He's 6-7, can play either at forward or center and he can do it all. The only sopho more in the Big Ten who can com pare with him is hated Michigan's Campy Russell. Hairston has a great touch from the floor, 29.9 scoring average as a frosh, and can go to the boards with anyone, 13.2 rebounding aver age. Hairston will bring a little friend up from the frosh squad with him. thall ceGuire mecocks ack Gifts by pus Shop tl 43 KEVIN JOYCE ...Ali-America honors. 1 State he ig also-ra Bill Glover wasn't thought to be that great a player when the Spartans recruited him, but he turned out to be an excellent floor general and averaged 21 points last season. He's just the added bonus for Ganakas that coaches get every now and then. The sophomores won't com pletely dominate the MSU picture. A pretty good scoring guard is back. Mike Robinson, a junior now, did what had never been done since the days of Rick Mount when he led the Big Ten in scoringas a sophomore. His 24.8 average was 17 in the nation. With Robinson and Hairston around the Spartans may not need a high scoring center, but 6-7 senior Bill Kilgore can put points on the board, too. He averaged almost 15 points and 11 rebounds last season. The other Spartan forward will probably be 6-5 Allen Smith, who had a nine point average, but Brad Van Pelt, the Big Ten's answer to Frank Merriwell, has an outside shot at the job. Van Pelt, who will win nine varsity letters in his career, is an All-America safety in football and has turned down a $100,000 contract to pitch with the California Angels. Unfortunately he is not quite as good at basketball Just in We have ju 5501I GENUINEI HEAVY BE MOE BRITCH $ Corner Lady Charge Ci Provide n Utah fiel BY JIM Sports Providence College and Car sic Dec. 15 in Salt Lake City the championship game the ne pionship will be decided in th The two Eastern schools in Clara and Utah are the other and their early season game to expect the rest of the seas( is hopes n label as he is in football and baseball. Ganakas, in his fourth season at Lansing, has a 33-38 record but he can't wait for this to start. "We should have more experienced depth, better height and just as good speed and quickness as any time in my three past seasons as head coach." The Spartans have four freshmen on their roster but they expect only one of them to make it big as a rookie. They're very high on Cedric Milton, a 6-8 center from Denver. He was contacted by 250 schools, chose Michigan State and may be a starter in Lansing before the end of the season. Last year MSU had wins over tough teams like Kentucky and Michigan, but they also had disap pointing 'losses, like one to Northwestern, a team with a 5-18 record last year. The added depth, Hairston and Glover should be enough to move the Spartans from the middle of the Big Ten into a contending position. And with Hairston, Glover and Robinson around for another two or three years the Spartans just might start to be the dominating force that their football team usually is. Time! ist received PAIR ivr's DENIM LLS LEVYS AND ES BREW I Assembly St. ards Accepted Pe makes d strong HERSH Writer olina will open the Utah Clas and the winner will play in xt night. But really, the cham at Providence-USC game. the four-team tourney, Santa teams, are nationally ranked should tell much about what )n. Neither Santa Clara nor Utah have the personnel of their Eastern counterparts and the championship game should just be a formality. Whichever team survives the Providence-USC battle should win the tourney. Last year Providence surprised many people when they went 21-6, including a mid-season 10-game winning streak with wins over Vil lanova, Niagara and Southern California. No one will be surprised if they do it again. To start with the Friars have eight of last year's top nine scorers back. The experience is there. So are the stars. Marvin Barnes, who has great moves on and off the court, is a 6-8 center whose 584 points last year set the school sophomore scor ing record. His 15.7 rebounding and 21.6 scoring averages both led the Friars. Barnes is agressive, sometimes overly, and he does not like to be pushed around. In a pre-season practice this year Barnes and team mate Larry Ketvertis, 6-10, 230, got a little physical. Evidently Barnes figured he came out second best because he carried the practice home with him. Or, rather, he car ried it to the school cafeteria where he met up with Ketvertis. "I'm definitely sorry the whole thing happened," Barnes said about what followed in the cafeteria. So is Ketvirtis. He needed surgery for the cheekbone that Barnes broke for him. Even with Barnes, the man who makes the Friars go is senior guard Ernie DeGregorio, a good Italian name for the Catholic school. He's a great floor general, leads the fast break and can shoot from the out side. Ernie D. is listed on every pre season All-America team. He deserves it. Last year he scored 17.7 points a game, and his first point (Please see UTA H, Page 6, Column 1) Across from USC ROUNDHOUSE . Acade MIl 1330 Main