Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa • Page 13

Roa Hawks Face Spartans on Time is running out for an Iowa baskctabll team that is still hopeful of a first division Big Ten finish and a .500 season. The Hawkeyes are now 9-11 in all games and 3-7 for ninth place in the Big Ten with only four games remaining two at home and two away. Next up is Michigan State at East Lansing Saturday at 7 p.m., Iowa time, and the task looks tough for two reasons: One, Iowa hasn't won a road game this year. Two, Michigan State beat the Hawks in Iowa City 100-91 only two weeks ago. "Before the season started wc set certain goals," says Iowa Coach Dick Schultz.

"We wanted to show improvement in every game, and we hoped for at least a .500 record in both the Big Ten and in all games. ill $6 fcSplll first half enroutc to a 53-41 half-time lead. Behind by as much as 21 in the second half, the Hawks made a terrific comeback to snatch the lead momentarily, but the Spartans then rallied -0- Probable Lineups IOWA POS. MICH. ST.

Feqtbonk (4-7) Breiltn U-ii Collini (-) Gutkowski U-6) Kunncri (7-0) Kilqw Williomt (4-3) Robinton (5-11) Lusk (5-10) GanakM (S 5) Time and place: Saturday, p.m., Jeimon Fieldnoute, East Lonjinq, Mich. Broadcasts: KXIC-FM, Iowa City; WHO, Dot Moines; KCPO, WMT, Cedor Rapids. -fl-for seven straight points and won 100-91. It was the first tune a Michigan State team had hit the 1110-point mark under Coach Ganakas. Canakas' son, Gary, smallest man in the Big Ten at 5-5, was important in the game with his speed, but man" for the Spartans was 5-11 Mike Robinson, who hit the Hawks with a dazzling array of shots from all over for 38 points, best one-game performance in the Big Ten this year.

Bill Kilgore. a strong 6-7 jumper, scored 23 and was a key man in the Spartans' first half dominance on the boards. Iowa hasn't won at East Lansing since but leads the all-time series by a 23-17 count. The Hawks' next game is at home against Purdue a week from Saturday. We are now at the point where there is no margin for error remaining." To achieve just a break-even level in the Big Ten, the Hawks would have to win their last four, and that would require a much more consistent stretch of play from all hands than they've exhibited in any stretch of a somewhat puzzling season.

Iowa came close again last Saturday, but Indiana broke out of a 61-61 tic and took an 86-79 verdict at Bloomington. The Hoosiers got their cushion by making a near-record 34 of 37 free tlu'ows, marking the sixth time the Hawks have been beaten from the foul line in Big Ten play. Iowa has, in fact, been out-scored from the field in only one Big Ten game, and that happened to be against Michigan State. Gary Lusk probably will be in Iowa's starting lineup Saturday. Tiro 5-10 guard hasn't started a game since Nebraska played here Dec.

21, but has often sparked Iowa rallies in the interim. Schultz thinks the Hawks will be mentally ready for Michigan State after what the Spartans did to them here, but it will be interesting to see if Iowa can do a better job of containing the Spartan speed than it did here. In that first match, the smallest team in the Big Ten ran circles around the Hawks in the More on Connie Hawkins, With a 'Happier' Ending lif jiff mmmmm liill 5 3 PRESS-CITIZEN TRUE GRIT Cheerleaders are supposed to lead cheers, and you can't let a little thing like a leg In a cast stop you. As an example, we offer Sue Wombacher of Regina High School, who helped cheer the Regals to the sectional championship this week and plans to take 'cm right on through to the state despite strained ligaments in her right leg. How did she suffer the injury? Playing basketball.

(Press-Citizen Photo) Friday, February 25, 1972lowa City Press-Citixen 3 Segals Slam Clippers, ftflove Up EDisfritf Mid-Prairie Wins Class A Sectional West Branch Out defense that caused Clear Creek the most trouble in the first half. Time and again the Clippers would either throw the ball away or be called for the 10-seeond forecourt violation. For the game. Clear Creek turned the ball over 34 times. Regina, meanwhile, took advantage of Clear Creek's mis-cues.

The Regals either penetrated tire Clippers' zone defense for a bucket or guard Tom Hein would pop one in from the outside. Regina also had several fast break baskets as Clear Creek couldn't keep up with the runnin' Regals. The Regals cooled off a bit By WARREN OBR Press-Citizen Sports Writer Begina's Regals routed Clear Creek 81-39, and claimed the championship of the Iowa High School Athletic Association Class A basketball sectional tournament at Regina Thursday night. The Itegals raced to a 19-poinl first quarter lead and upped that margin to 28 at halftime. After intermission, it was only the question of Regina's margin of victory that was left unanswered.

It was the Regals' pressing It was the middle of last July, many weeks after what is considered normal recruiting time, when Iowa basketball coach Dick Schultz received word that the last of the two "blue chip" high school basketball prospects he had hoped to land for Iowa were going to school elsewhere. One was Andre McCarter, a 6-3 guard from Philadelphia, who went to UCLA, and the other Scott Llyod, a 6-11 center from Phoenix who chose Arizona State. A few days earlier, when Iowa presumably was still in the running for both young men, Schultz had told me, as quoted in my column at that time: "I don't believe in buying basketball players. Either they're working for you or you are working for them. If you fiffer 'em something under the table, that's a start toward you working for them.

"We've played it straight with everyone w-e've recruited and I think this has sort of fascinated some of 'em. "We have hardly run into a kid of any quality who hasn't at least been offered a car. "I refused a visit to our campus of two top prospects after finding out they had asked one of my assistants in an earlier phone visit what we could give them in addition to the regular scholarship. I advised them not to bother to visit Iowa because if this was their first consideration, we weren't interested in them." i'i THE POINT IS WORTH EMPHASIZING at this time, as the really heavy work in basketball recruiting nears again, because excerpts from the new Connie Hawkins biography, by David Wolf, which appeared here Monday, make it sound like Dick Schultz "cheated" to recruit, or help recruit, Hawkins. The fact is that Schultz and Hawkins arrived in Iowa City at about the same time and Schultz had nothing to do with recruiting Connie Hawkins.

Schultz arrived here in September of 19G0, as did Hawkins, the latter after dropping out at Colorado. Schultz, then a graduate assistant in the physical education program, was named to be an assistant coach in both baseball and basketball and turned out to be Connie's freshman coach. "Foul!" is going to be serialized soon by Newspaper Enterprise Association of New York and Cleveland. The author, as quoted here hist Monday, in closing his remarks about Connie's days at Iowa, commented, it is one of the many sad ironies of big-time college athletics, for both men (Dick Schidtz and Sharm Scheuerman) are decent, compassionate human beings What the author of "Foul!" does not mention, I believe, is that both these men have maintained some contact and friendship with Hawkins for these many years since he left Iowa in the spring of 1961. And the hundreds of friends of both Scheuerman and Schultz in this town, and elsewhere, hardly need to be told they are "decent, compassionate human beings." Not only their endeavors in sport, but their endeavors away from it, with such groups as The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and "Young Life," testify to that.

THE REAL MYSTERY IN THE CONNIE HAWKINS BOOK, as I read it, is how he was admitted to school with obviously sub-par scholastic achievement. Eut it must be remembered that this was before the Big Ten and later all NCAA schools went to the "predictability" program, whereby an incoming athlete must have the predictability of achieving a required grade point level (based on his rank in high school class and score on college entrance exams). It is another irony, I suppose, that it was Iowa, largely through the work of Bob Ray, then as now Iowa's faculty representative and later a two-time president of the NCAA, which pioneered and pushed that program through. Today, if an athlete does not demonstrate the predictability of doing satisfactory academic work in college, he can not be given scholarship aid. As a "non-predictor," he may enroll on his own, without financial help, and may later receive scholarship aid if he meets the required grade point level in his freshman year.

In the meantime, however, he may not take part in practice or compete with a freshman squad. Presumably then, the Connie Haw kins college episode could not happen today, at least not in the exact manner in which it happened a dozen years ago. And this brings me to what might be termed a most fitting postscript. WHILE DOWNTOWN WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON I chanced to run into a clergyman who spent many years in Iowa City and was visiting in town' for that afternoon. An avid Iowa fan, and long-time friend of both Schultz and Scheuerman, as well as an acquaintance of Hawkins, he said he had read farcerpts from the forthcoming book.

It is his belief that some of the parts about Hawkins' days at Iowa leave the reader with an unfortunate impression of both coaches. At the end of our conversation, he made this most interesting observation: "If Connie's lot in life was to pick one of the hundreds of colleges that were after him and let's face it. Ids basketball ability was a way out of the ghetto, perhaps the only way for him at that time maybe it is fortunate in retrospect that he picked Iowa, where both Ids freshman and varsity coach were interested in him as more than lust a basketball player. "Iowa, after all, had nothing to do with his false implication in the gambling episode, and without later help from both Scheuerman and Schultz, the story might not have had the happy ending that it did." It is a point well made, and perhaps a more fitting ending than the biography provides on Connie Hawkins' days at Iowa. in the third period, scoring only 13 points.

But they came back in the final quarter with 22 points, most uf them scored by reserves. Regal head coach Bob Norton substituted freely throughout the game and he eventually pulled all his starters with 6:16 remaining and Regina ahead 68-29. Every player for both squads saw action in the contest. Regina shot 47 per cent (35-74) from the floor for the game to 29 per cent (14-47) for Clear Creek. The Regals also won the rebounding battle, pulling down 40 caroms to the Clippers' 28.

Tom Hein paced the Regal offense with 19 points while teammates Don Frantz and Larry Milder each netted 12. In all, 11 players were in the scoring column for Regina. Clippers' Joe Scheetz and Dan Scheetz each had nine points for Clear Creek. Regina now plays Winfield-Mt. Union of the Southeast Iowa League in the first round of Class A district action at Washington, Iowa next Wednesday evening.

Winfield-Mt. Union beat Columbus Junction 72-63 in the finals of the Columbus Junction Sectional Thursday night and is now 15-3. Trojans, Hawklets End Regular Season Cage Play Tonight For West Branch, the basketball season is over. For Mid-Prairie, it could just be getting underway! The Bears' bubble burst Thursday night in the finals of the Tipton Class A sectional tournament as hosting Tipton topped them 68-54. And at Well-man, Eastern Iowa Hawkeye power Mid-Prairie upped its season mark to 16-4 with a 75-52 romp past South Iowa Cedar toughie Williamsburg in the Class A Sectional finals.

Mid-Prairie took a 21-11 first period lead against the invading Puiiders and was in control most of the game. The Golden Hawks who were second in the Class A state tournament two years ago, led 40-24 at the half and were in control 56-36 entering ir.lo the final period of play. "Our boys really put 011 a dazzling display of passing," related Mid-Prairie Coach Cal Hickman, "we were really threading the needle out there. "Clayton Hershberger, our southpaw sophomore guard, had a real fine game, as did Dan Spreacker." Spreacker led the Mid-Prairie scoring parade with 19 points, while Doug Showalter added 18 and Bill 10. Hershberger, who has been pulled up from the sophomore team for tournament play, scored five points but played a good floor game, according to Hickman.

The win puts Mid-Prairie into district play at Fairfield. The Golden Hawks go against Van Buren, a double overtime winner in the Fairfield Sectional Thursday night, at Parsons College in Fairfield at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, in the other half of the bracket, New London meets Mediapoiis at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Burlington, with the finals at Burlington at 7:30 p.m. next Friday.

Tipton went ahead of West Branch 23-12 at the end of the first period and the Bears were forced into playing catch-up basketball the rest of the game. Tipton led 44-36 entering into the final but outscored West Branch by 12 points in the fourth period for the margin of victory. Mark Kerr scored 14 points for West Branch and was the only Bear to reach double figures. Marv Woode was the big man for Tipton, now 7-14, with 25 points. West Branch ends the season with a 4-15 mark, while Tipton meets Mount Vernon in Class A District action at Cedar Rapids Washington at 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday. The Mid-Prairie and Branch scoring summaries: AT WELLMAN MID-PRAIRIE 75 Bonder 4, Hershberger 5, Spreacker 19, Showalter 13, Redlinger 10, D. Ehrenfelt 9, Hochstedlcr 2, K. Ehrenfelt 4, Woodin 2, Troyor 2. WILLIAMSBURG 52 Maas Gollo 5, T.

Meade 11, Frick 3, Schulz 6, Lower 5, VonAhsen 6, B. Meade 10. Score by quarters: Mid-Prairie 2: SA 75 Williamsburg II 24 J6 52 AT TIPTON TIPTON Weode 25, Gaul 8, Lillenthal 10, Grove Forest 6, Herring 1, DeKoch 2, Pel- zer 2. WEST BRANCH 41 Slach Kerr 14, Wehrmon 6, M. Thomas 8, Longenhan 3, Donohue 2, Beeier 6, Modsen 2, L.

Thomas 2. Score by quarters: Tipton 23 38 44 West Bronch 12 23 36 48 PF TP The box score: REGINA 81 Hein, Frantz, Milder, i om DicKcrs Lehman, Lynch Volk Halsch Pacha Seemuth Butler Boyd Terry Dickens Peterson Thoman TOTALS 19 12 9 12 8 4 2 8 3 0 2 2 0 81 to hand the Muskies another setback this season, just for good measure. Last season, you may remember, the Muskies topped City -High in the final game of the season to capture the Mississippi Valley title. City High defeated Muscatine in Iowa City Jan. 21 by the score of 66-57 after leading nearly all the way.

City High's top scorer this year has been Jim Fransen, who is averaging 17.1 in the Valley, good for eighth place. The BIG game for City High and West comes Monday when the two square off for the third time this season in the first round of Class AA district play at West. The Trojans won the first game this season, 64-63, while the Little Hawks gained revenge the second time around 62-61 in overtime. FT 3-6 2-2 1- 3 2- 3 00 2- 2 0-0 0- 3 1- 1 0-0 00 0-0 00 0-0 0-0 11-20 FT 0- 3 1- 3 1-3 1- 2 3- 4 0-1 0-0 2- 2 0- 0 2-2 1- 3 FG 8 5 4 5 4 1 1 4 1 0 0 a i i 35 FG 1 1 3 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 14 26 7 PF TP 2 3 7 9 9 0 0 6 2 1 39 CLEAR CREEK 39 R. Mouain, Burns, Stewart, J.

Scheetz, O. Scheetz, Frees Crow Ron ret J. Mougin Riggle Kosina TOTALS Score by quarters: Regina Clear Creek Prep Basketbail By Th Associated Press Chariton 9i, Albia 43 Cedar Ropids Kennedy 78, Dubuque Hempstead 7 (OT) Oelwein 79, Woverly-SheH Rock 43 11-23 17 A possible tie for third place is -the target tonight for City High and West High as those two schools close out the regular phase of the 1971-72 basketball season in Mississippi Valley action. West High is home to Betten-dorf, while City High is on the road at Muscatine. West and City High both are currently 8-5 in the league, one notch behind Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

If both Iowa City schools win tonight, and Jefferson should fall to Dubuque Senior, the Little Hawks and Trojans would pull into a three-way tie for third. West will be shooting for its 13th win against just five losses when it entertains the Bulldogs, now 5-8. The Bulldogs have had their problems on offense and are averaging just 60.2 points per game, which is the Valley's eighth best mark. West, on the other hand, leads the league defensively with a 62.5 mark, but is seventh offensively at 64.0. The top gun for West has been, of course, Mike Gatens, who appears destined for a runnerup spot in league scoring for the second straight year.

Gatens is averaging 25.3 points per game compared to 27.8 for Washington's Ron Pexa. With just this one round of games left, Mike would need to outscore the Washington ace by 33 points, which seems highly unlikely. But Gatens will need a good game to stay away from Kennedy's Mark Enright, who had 42 points last week and is now just nine points behind the Trojan flash. The Little Hawks are now 9-7 on the season and would like 46 18 59 27 iiT pi t'T i1. nil 1 YOU NEVER HAD IT SO COMFORTABLE EWERS Men's Store 28 S.

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