rAr.r. Fr'UR Lawther Performs Wonders With His Team, Says Cassell, American U. Cage By Ray Koehler "For my money you have one of the finest basketball coaches in the country right here at Penn State in John Lawther." These and other words of praise bestowed upon the Lions' head court sachem were offered by none other than Staff Cassell, coach of the just-vanquished Am erican University Eagles Wed nesday night. Prior to the annual meeting of the two old friends in the misty A.U. shower room, Cassell, a one time student of Lawther, was re newing old acquaintances on the edge of the floor where his team had just gone down to a decisive 63-50 mauling. ENTHUSIASTIC Close friend of Lawther n pri vate life, but an arch rival on the basketball court, the good-look ing. 39-year-old Eagle mentor, al though sorely disappointed over Cagers Hit Road For 2-Game Test Fresh from a 63-50 lacing of American U. Wednesday night, Penn State's basketball team entrained for New York this morning to close out the road portion of its 1948-49 season against Colgate tonight and Syracuse tomorrow. Ordinarily Coach John Lawther should be on top of the world after seeing his amazing Lion cagers extend their current streak to two straight, but with opposi tion such as the Raiders and Or ange facing him over the week end, the Lion mentor realizes that St ate will have to play heads-up ball to gain even a split. FOREIGN JINX To defeat Colgate, State will have to shatter its foreign floor jinx which has spanned six con secutive games. In direct con trast to their away mark, the Lions have won five of their seven home contests. Penn State's chances of topping the .500 mark this season are still a mathematical possibility, but even with the vastly improved Lion offense, the view appears dim. This is the week that will tell. Number one, and most imme diately pressing problem facing the Nittany cagers, is the Uni versity of Colgate and its gift to the hardwood world, all-Ameri can Ernie Vandeweghe—plus a little guy named Ed Brett whose set shots earned him the title of king of Rec Hall point-producers the last time the two squads jousted here. VANDE, BRETT It was Vandeweghe and Brett who put the kibosh on State's victory plans as the long and short of the Orange attack put on a great two-man show to carve out a 58-40 Coglate tri umph. Brett scintillated with his rec ord-shattering 25 points to pace scorers that night, but it was 6- foot 3-inch, Canadian-born Van de who really earned the crowd's plaudits with his brilliant play setting passes. Penn State's record since the last scrimmage between the two teams has jumped to five wins against eight losses. Lawther will probably stick with the lineup that has given him three wins in his last five times out. Marty Costa, who had a recurrence of his early season jitters against A.U., is being counted upon to hit his stride away from the home boards. Terry Ruhlman, Carl Nordblorn or Lou Lamie are slated to go at the forward slots. Milt Simon, who tied State's Rec nail record with 23 points against American U., and Joe Tocci, diminutive play-setter who played a big part in Simon's rec )rd-knotting effort, will start at the ball-handling positions. Karl Lawrence, Colgate men tor, will start Ed Brett and Curt Norris at forwards, Vandeweghe it center, and Jerry Palanti and Bob Plunket at the guards. Probable lineups at Syracuse :omorrow: •eat State Syracuse Nordblona Ruh Imam the showing of his own Washing ton, D. C. club, was earnestly en thusiastic over his former prof's merits. "If he (Lawther) can take a bunch of green kids like that," in dicatmg with a sweep of his arm the noisy State shower room, "and mold them into the smooth, well-balanced group that played tonight, there's no telling what he'd do if he had the means of ac quiring other player s like some of the rest of us. He's a coach's coach." Reflecting on the game while surrounded by a milling mob of curious and friendly onlookers, Cassell said he believed that if Lawther and he were to exchange teams there would be no ques- Lon that Lawther's team would be ranked among the best in the country. "I don't mean to contradict my self by reflecting any way on Milt Simon, Lion forward, who Wednesday tied the Penn State varsity basketball record of 23 points in Rec Hall. Ticket Sales Rise For Boxing Show Interest is mounting in the forthcoming Intercollegiate Box ing Association title tournament. Harold R. Gilbert, graduate man ager of athletics at the College, says more than 900 reserved seat tickets have already been sold for the finals Saturday, March 12. The special series ticket en titling the purchaser to the same seat at all three sessions has proved most popular, and nearly 700 of these $4 tickets have al ready been sold. The general ad mission sale is not scheduled to begin until March 1. Correction It was incorrectly stated in yesterday's Daily Collegian that Colgate's Ernie Vandeweghe and Ed Brett hold the' all-time indi vidual scoring record for Rec Hall. Brett alone owns the record of 25 points, registered this sea son. Vandeweghe's best mark in Rec Hall was 24 points recorded last year. Co-owners of the Penn State varsity scoring record in Rec Hall are Milt Simon, 23 points against American U. Thursday night, and Jack Biery, 23 before the war and again last year. On Speidel Wrestling Coach Charlie Spei del is the subject of an article by Tom Morgan, sports editor, which appears currently in Huddle, Western Pensnsylvania sports magazine. The article is titt9d "Rasslin' Rave at State." THE DAILY COT.I.F.C;TAN STATE CCfILEC;E. PENNSYLVANIA Skipper State's fine team. It just g, to prove how greatly they have im proved since the last time we met in December. Yes, they look like a new outfit" The story of the friendship be tween the two outstanding zone defense advocates began with Cassell's meeting Lawther while working for his M.A. at. Penn State. The two still keep in contact with each other through corres pondence, planning new slants on the zone, and they usually spend part of the vacation period work ing out new theories. While Cassell talked one couldn't help thinking of a slight switch on the biblical situation which saw the prodigal son re turn only to become the fatted calf feast of the Nittany Lion. Dutch Distance Star Nobody's 'Fal Guy' Willem Slykhuis is nobody's fall guy. The little distance run ner from Holland who has been burning up the indoo r track at Madison Square Garden weekly was the subject of a two-hour class in track techniques, and ev erything was progressing smooth ly until— But let's start at the beginning. WERNER Coach Chick Werner. who was teaching the class, invited Slyk huis and John Twomey, two mil ers who will compete in the spe cial mile at the 1.C.4-A meet Sat urday, to discuss distance run ning i n Werner's weekly track class. After spending almost an hour on proper breathing methods, Coach Werner switched the topic to pacing and discussed the Am erican viewpoint of running against time to break re c or d s against the European idea of win ning the race regardless of time. "Say for instance, Willy, you ran a 10:20 two-mile at home," said Coach Werner to Slykhuis. "Everyone in Holland would say that you're a great runner, right?" The European distance runner nodded in assent. "But suppose that in the next race you still ran 10:20 (the world's record is under nine min utes) and Emil Zatopek from Czechoslovakia, beat you by a hundred yards in 9:50, you'd be a bum then, right?" Slykhuis turned slightly red, and was about to agree with the Nittany coach, but suddenly ex claimed, "Zatopek was never 100 yards ahead of me." In Top Ten Two basketball players who opposed Penn State this season are among the nation's top ten scoring leaders. Colgate's Ernie Vandewebhe ranks third with an average of 21.4 points in 14 games, .while West Virginia's Fred Schaus fills the tenth Slot with a mark of 18.4 points per game in 17 contests. New Faces • Of Penn State's four new 1949 football opponents, only Boston College has never before played the Nittany Lions. Villanova, Army and Nebraska all have faced Penn State two or more times in the past. Boxing Mecca For the 11th time since 1924 the championship tournament of the Intercollegiate Boxing Association will be held at Penn State March 11-12. Boxing 'Firsts' First championship tournaments of both the Intercollegiate Boxing Association and the National Col legiate Athletic Association were held at the Pennsylvania State College in State College, Pa. GREAT Here's Royce Newell, Syra cuse's 6-foot 8-inch center, who faces the traveling Lion bas keteers tomorrow. Weekend Slate Today Basketball—Colgate .Hamilton, N. Y Tomorrow Basketball—Syracuse .Syracuse, N. Y Boxing—Michigan State ... East Lansing, Mich Wrestling—Navy Annapolis, Md Gymnastics—Navy Annapolis, Md Fencing—Temple . Philadelphia, Pa Track—lC4-A .New York, N. Y. Rifle—Lehigh... State College Lion Riflers Battle Lehigh In Last Meet Lehigh University's 10 - man rifle squad furnishes the opposi tion for Capt. Carl A. Unrath's Nittany riflers in the weekend's only home sporting event. The match, which is admission free, will take place on the Armory range at 2 p.m. tomorrow. WINS Victorious in two of four tel egraphic meets last week, the Lion shooters make their only home shoulder -to - shoulder match appearance of the year, and it will be the last meet of that type until the Nationals next month. Against top-flight opposition in the telegraphic tilts, the Nit tanies triumphed over Illinois and Niagara, but were outscored by the Michigan State and Ore gon State combinations. "If we fire at the rate we've been going, we'll whip them easily," Assistant Coach Captain Brian O'Neill said. PRANGE Co-captains Gerry Prange and Lyle Root head the Blue and Whitequad, while other mem bers wWo will fire against the En gineers are Harold Schwanger, Sam Carnahan, Jack Hepfer, Norman PhilliPs, Charles Kirk, Alfred Darrach, Jack Agosta and John Stoudt. Hepfer garnered a 281 point total to pace the Lions in the telegraphic duels. Lawther Selected For NCAA Group Nittany Lion Coach John Lawther was named to the 1949 NCAA basketball selection com mittee, the group that will select eight teams for the championship tournament this year. ' Teams selected from the four Eastern districts will play in the Eastern playoffs at New York, March 21-22. The four Western teams will compete at Kansas City, Mo., March 18-19. Winners and runners-up of each playoff will meet in the finals March 26 at the University of Washington, Seattle. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1949 etween The Lions By Tom Morgan SPORTS EDITOR On Midgets Scoring - table banter at the Lion-American basketball clash: The little fellow with all the fig h t, American's Jack Neer, rates no higher a jersey number than "00" because his coach, Staff Cassell, doesn't think his 5-foot-4 height warrants anything more. Neer made giants by com parison out of the Lions' Joe Tocci, Milt Simon, et al. About Reese, Maurey That the varsity wrestling team is plagued with vital wounds is no cause for con sternation to Coach Charlie Speidel. He says philosophi cally, "Why cry? We're still fighting, and we'll be strong again next year." . Here's how Speidel tells about two of his key men, 121-pounder Johnny Reese and 145er Jim Maurey, who are now termed "out for the season": "In his knee, Mauro) , had a split cartilage that had to be removed through an operation. Although the operation was successful, time is not suffi cient for him to recuperate to the extent of returning to the mats this season. Reese had an infected shoulder which may have been aggravated by ac tivity. It was not a physical injury, but will still take time to heal." Speidel continues: "We don't intend using ei t her of them against Navy or in the inter collegiates at Co r n 1. They wouldn't be ready for competi tion even if they were appar ently healed and desired, them selves, to take part." Both Reese and Maurey had been accorded good chances for Eastern titles this year. Harlow Returns Dick Harlow, who preceded Leo Houck as Penn State box ing coach and who was active in the founding of college box ing, will attend the annual championships here March 11- 12 as guest of the Intercollegi ate Boxing Association, popu larly called the EIBA. Concerning Lawtherism Penn State's basketball style has often been dubbed "glue footed," "uninspiring," "molas ses-slow," and some descriptive adjectives of unprintable nature. Such verbal broadsides aimed at Coach John Lawther's sliding zone defense and inten tionally-slow offense originate from many Lion students, other fans, the press and some op posing coaches. Unlike the caustic comments of fans and the press, however, those of in os t of Lawther's colleague coaches are tempered with re spect for the Lawiher system. They will damn it publicly, but admit privately that—given the right material—it is capable of winning games in an era of fire engine, fast-break basketball. For all its slowness and un popularity, the Penn State sys tem gets results in that it is an effective score- checker. Lawther's deliberate basket ball style wreaks mayhem on high-flying teams accustomed to climbing to 70 or 80 in one game. We quizzed the Lion coach about his reply to the annual de mand of many fans that he for sake the slow offense and sliding zone defense and employ the fast break and man-for-man defense, exclusively, to produce higher scores. To all this Lawther has but one answer: "If you can't outrun your opponent, you can't beat him by fast-breaking. Penn State can't outrun its opponents." We see an analogy between Lawther's methodical offense in basketball and the single wing in football. Both seem based on the axiom that your opponent can't score as long as you hold the ball. The usual style of a Law• Continued on page five
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