PAGE SIX Grapplers Risk Streak Tonight Seek 33d Triumph At Maryland Coach Charlie Speidel, who has shuffled his cards well during the last two years, makes another attempt as his wrestlers seek their 33rd con secutive victory tonight at College Park, Md. This time the Lion mentor in serts two new faces who may give Penn State the needed pow er in the heavier weights. The newcomers, both sophomores, are Joe Humphreys at 167 and Joe Krufka at 177. , Krufka, who replaces graduated George Dvorozniak, s highly re garded by Speidel. Although the 177-pounder has never competed in college ranks and was not looked upon as a standout in high school, Krufka did engage in con siderable service competition and eventually won an alternate’s Joe Krufka Lion 177-pounder berth on the 1952 U.S. Olympic team. He became eligible for college competition this semester. Against the Terps of Maryland Speidel is looking toward these two promising grapplers to help stretch Penn State’s winning skein. Maryland has been beaten once and that was at the hands of always-tough Navy, 22-6. “Those Terrapins still have the same three boys who threw us off the track last year,” Speidel says, “and I expect them to be even tougher on their home mats.” The big three whom Speidel refers to are the Fischer brothers, Bob and Ernie, and Hod Norris. This fine trio administered de feats in their respective classes against the Lions last jmar. How ever, of the three there is a pos sibility that Norris may not com pete. He was declared ineligible last semester and no official word has been received whether he will take to the mats this semes ter. Last year in the State-Mary land match, Norris halted Jerry Maurey’s winning streak and stretched his consecutive dual meet wins to 44. The only two i-egular Lion mat men who did not make the trip were Dick Lemyre and Doug Frey. Although it is Frey’s first match that he has missed, this will be the third missed by Lem yre. State’s EIWA champion. He wrestled against only Lehigh, de feating Ken Faust, 10-5. Probable N Lineup: Penn State Wt. Maryland Byers 123 Alfaro Homan 130 Carroll 137 Little 147 Norris 157 B. Fischer Fornicola Maurey Krebs Humphreys 167 E. Fischer Krufka 177 Drake Oberly Hwt. "Changing Partne- Sam’s Song Penn State is guilty of inferior basketball. It’s a low blow indeed. But that’s the impression one concludes when he sees Pittsburgh arid Bucknell employ the freeze against the Lions. In_ sports there have often been cries like "Break up Minneapolis," "Break up the Yankees," and "Break up No tre Dame." But now? “Break up Penn State’s zone defense” is the only cry Pitt and Bucknell seem to sing. If they are in the mood they keep this tune in rhythm with the “freeze.” We often wondered why these two schools continued to use the freeze against Penn State. Don’t the coaches realize that in order to win they must shoot for the basket? If they hope to hold down the score, what does it prove? Don’t they believe in winning? As far as we are concerned the object of the game is to outshoot the op ponent in number of baskets, not out-dancing or out-passing. . For the third time we have witnessed the freeze. The recent occasion was called for at Lewisburg where the Lions opposed the Bisons of Bucknell. The Lions won, 49-43. Although a few called it cautious play, there is little doubt in our mind that it was the freeze. As it was witnessed at Bucknell, not once did the fans encourage the freeze. In fact, they disapproved it. The fans have always dis agreed with their hometown mentors. But still it continues. The coaches don’t seem to realize that for the freeze to work, they need the cooperation of the other squad. The only trouble is they never get the cooperation. We know that Coach Elmer Gross' zone defense has met up wiih quite a bit of ricocheting blasts. Penn State's basketball style has often been dubbed as uninspiring, terribly slow, and some descriptive adjectives of unprintable nature. Such verbal remarks have been started and aimed at Coach John -Lawiher when he originated the sliding zone defense. Well, they can damn it pub licly, but privately they must admit it is capable of winning games. One must look at the advantages of a good defense (which still permits the game to be called basketball) before he criticizes. Sure, the best defense is a good offense—as some cage masters will declare. But that is if jhe good offense is better than its op ponents. A strong defense can demoralize a high scoring team when the star dribbler, set shot artist, and others cannot operate as it would against a strong offensive, unit. A high scoring team is more accustomed to a great number of shots and free movement about the court. Unlike the man-for-man defense, an offensive player who man ages to elude his defensive man finds onjy another person awaiting his arrival. Although the man-for-man defense can support his teammate in such a case, it is not a common practice. On the other hand, it is a common practice for the zone defense. The zone defense has one objective: get the ball! As most Penn Staters have seen, a high scoring offense has had to pass the ball around as though they are freezing it. Actually they aren’t. They are trying to get one of the opposing men off balance. In this case, the zone defense may be in trouble. However, not always does a team have this in mind. Some keep passing it around for five minutes (like Bucknell) just to keep the ball. Some just hold it (like Pitt) —no dribbling, no pass ing, nothing. There is only one way to beat the zone, and that is to shoot from the outside. It may sound like a rigid assignment—and it is. But if you look back at the teams which have defeated and came close to setting back the Nittany Lions, you’ll- find they did it. Nevertheless, several coaches have gone as far as to freeze the ball no matter what the score is. The first time this happened was against'Pitt and it resulted in a 5-2 score at halftime. Then on a vote of the players, Pitt resumed its normal style of play in ihe’second half and lost 32-13. Another time Pitt coach, Doc Carlson, staged a similar protest which allowed only five points to be scored in the’ first half, with a final score of Penn State 15, Pitt 12. With Pitt, it became almost an annual event as the President’s pitch in baseball. Carlson was prac tically booed out of his hometown. Instead of holding his protests in Pittsburgh he did it at State College. Two years ago, a disgusted capacity crowd at Rec Hall saw the Lions win out over a good Pitt quintet, 25-9. All this in a supposedly high scoring era! ——3o— NCAA Ring Date Changed The National Collegiate Athlet ic Association has granted a re quest by University officials to change the date of the NCAA boxing tourney from April 1-3 to April 8-10, James Coogan, Pub lic Information sports editor, an nounced last night. The first date was accepted by Dean Ernest B. McCoy, director of athletics, at the Association’s an nual meeting Jan. 7 in Cincinnati. However, after his return to Penn State, McCoy learned that the date conflicted with the In terfraternity-Panhellenic Council Ball. University officials wired the NCAA asking for the change which was granted after, the asso ciated members were polled for its acceptance. Everly THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE. PENNSYLVAI^rA By SAM PROCOPiO Collegian Sports Editor SK ■ Tk,, Kin of Captains Dick Lemyre and Jerry Maurey, Penn State’s 1954 wrestling co captains. are brothers of former Lion mat leaders. Penn State’s all-time wrestling record now stands at 220 victories, 51 defeats, 9 ties. College Diner ' Freezer-Fresh lge Cream - Good Food ’VI ' ' The Movies - piliiiiiiiiligSiii Ringmen Powerful Despite 2 Losses While the Nittany boxers prep fpr their third rugged opponent of the current campaign against the Big Orange of Syracuse, they are probably still mulling over the outcome of their first two dual meets against Michigan State and, Maryland. Defeat is a bitter pill to swallow for any team after weeks of rugged conditioning and hopeful expectance. However, Coach Ed die Sulkowski still maintains the same opinion which he had prior to the season, “We have a strong squad, but some of the breaks didn’t go our way, particularly in the last match.” he said. Michigan State visited the Lions with two matches under its belt, one of them a defeat over Quantico Marines and the other a 4-4 tie with Army. The Lions not only were facing the Spartans in their first meet, but six of the eight ringmen had never faced varsity competition before. Sullcowski made no excuses for his team’s loss to George Mark ris and his squad. “Several of the boys l showed good in defeat,”. Sulkowski ex plained. “and Adam Kois was just as fast and aggressive as last .sea son.” Conditioning, however, was a vital factor, according to the Lion coach. “We slowed t-.own in the third round in a number of bouts,” he said. WRA Results | BASKETBALL Alpha Kappa Alpha 19, Co-op 12 Gamma Phi Beta over Theta Phi Alpha (forfeit) Kappa Alpha Theta over Kappa Delta (forfeit) , Zeta Tau Alpha over Alpha Ep silon Phi (forfeit) TABLE TENNIS Alpha Omicron Pi over Theta Phi Alpha Phi Mu over Beta Sigiv.a Omicron Kappa Kappa Gamma over Alpha Xi Delta Athlete of the Year Lenny Moore, Penn State’s sophomore football sensation, was named Athlete of the Year by snorts officials of Berks County. Pa. UNIFORM DISPLAY Wednesday fhru Sunday Evening For the Benefit of ALL SENIORS in ARMY ROTC and All AIR FORCE CADET? On the 2nd Floor STATE COLLEGE HOTEL because of the greatly increased demand for the - services offered by Fishtorrßros. Inc. the showing of uniforms to graduating ROTC seniors at the Hotel State College will be extended to 8 p.m. Sun day evening. Come in and get a free set of 2nd Lieut. Bars! FISHTON BROS., Inc. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1954 By ROY WILLIAMS Wins Bring , Problems Sav^nks NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (A 3 ) —-Pitty the New York Yankees, who can’t stop. winning world baseball championships. They’re caught in an inexorable “graph squeeze” declaring at tendance and rising salary de mands. “The jaws of the vice are com ing down on us from both direc tions,” Red Patterson, publicist of sport’s most successful team, wail ed today. “It’s getting to be a critical situation. “Our attendance has fallen off nearly a million—9oo,ooo, to be exact—since 1948. That year we had 2,400,000. Last year it was 1,- 500,000. “But since then we have won five straight world championships. Naturally this causes the players to put a higher, assessment 'on their value.” As of now, they have signed 19 players. Twenty-three remain un signed, including most of the team’s top talent. Unsigned are infielder Billy Martin, outstanding star of the 1953 World Series, and Whitey Ford, who topped all the pitchers with an 18-6 mark. Also on the yet unsatisfied list are infielders Phil Rizzuto and Gil McDougald; pitchers Ed Lo pat, Vic Raschi and. Allie Rey nolds and outfielder Mickey Man tle, each of whom is shooting for the $30,000-$40,000 bracket. “Our payroll has to reach a saturation point some time,” Pat terson said. The answer? Maybe lose a pen nant or the world championship. “We’re not even considering that,” said Red. ALL-WEEK 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. BRADFORD, PA.
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