The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-10
+CACEBALL LEADERS,
WITHSTAND STRAIN
Florida and Creighton Among
Those Setting the Pace in
Their Conferences
BY HUGH S. FULLERTON, JR

10y ~ ~
NEW YORK, Feb. 9-R-This
years leading teams in the rather
confusing game of basketball ap-
pear to be bearing up very well
under the strain of playing heavy
m%id-season schedules, but there's
no easier way Of becoming thor
oughly muddled than to try to fig
ure out why they're in front.
Outside of their won-and-lost rec
ords, there seems to be no good
reason why Florida or Creighton
to pick two widely separated ex-
amples-should be setting the pace
in the Southeastern and Missouri
Valley conferences. Yet they're
both still on TOP, apparently be-
cause no rivals have been able to
keep going consistently.
Down the line of sectional lead
ers last weeks games showed few
changes but in many cases they're
up against a brand new set of
challergers. AS a result, there's
uncertainty in every district as to
how long the leaders will be able
hold on, especially with more
important games than ever listed
for the coming week.
A quick checkup of the first
place teams, last week and this
week, in every section, shows this:
Eastern league: Dartmouth
Dartmouth; Big Ten: Wisconsin,
Wisconsin; Big Six: Oklahoma
Kansas; Missouri Valley: Creigh-
ton = Creiglton; Southern confer
ence: North Carolina-North Caro-
lima; Southeastern conference:
Florida-Florida; Southwest confer
ence: Arkansas-Arkansas; Big Sew
en-: Utah : Wyoming and Utah
tied; Pacific coast, Southern di-
vision: Stanford Stanford; North.
ern division: Washington S a E.
Washington State.
Adding further complications are
the facts that neither Wisconsin
nor Florida played any conference
games last week, Kansas advanced
by default when Oklahoma lost to
Iowa State and that Creighton
was tied by Washington university
in mid-week only to forge ahead
again The mighty "independ-
ents," such as unbeaten S t o n
Hall and Baltimore university in
the East, Notre Dame in the Mid
west and a few teams in other
sections, have all-season records
that make some of the prospective
champions look like buns, but
they're apt to be overlooked in
the heat of the title races.
Surveying the situation by Sec
tons:
East-Dartmouth, in its first
Eastern league game in r e e
weeks, walloped Princeton $40 to
remain unbeaten in it's circuit, but
Cornell won its fifth game in six
43-31 from Pennsylvania and
still is a threat. The
seasons second CORNELL Dartmouth
encounter at Hanover, N. H., next
Saturday may be the decisive
game.
Among the Independents, Seton
Hall beat st. Francis (Pa.) for it's
18th straight win; Baltimore was
idle while little Westminster was
dropped from the unbeaten list by
Indiana CPa.) Teachers. Once-de-
Rhode Island State chalked
up three victories. Syracuse ended
Georgetown's 11-game w n 6
streak, 1913, for the Hoyas' sec
ond loss and then dropped a 50-37
decision to Colgate. Long Island
university took its second defeat
from Duquesne, which has a
perfect record against Eastern op-
position, and once-beaten Washing
ton and Jefferson handed Villa
nova setback No. 2.
Big Ten-Indiana's 1910 N. c.
A. A. champions walloped h
State 1925 to tighten their hold on
second place in a week which saw
the rest of the standing scrambled
with Purdue and Minnesota NOV
ing into a tie for third and Illinois
and Iowa dropping back. The Hoo
slers tackle Iowa and Minneota
this week while Wiscosin returns
to action against a pair of second
division teams, Northwestern and
illinois. Northwestern was Notre
Danes 18th victim, losing 47-36
Saturday. Bradley kept pace with
the Irish in independent ranks by
whipping Temple and North Da-
kota.
Big Six-Iowa States 1888 tri-
umph over Oklahoma in last
weeks only game dropped t h e
Sooners back into a second-place
tie with Nebraska, a dark horse.
plays Kansas at Law
renee tomorrow and then meets
Missouri Saturday in the Tigers
first home game. Oklahoma, mean
time, meets only non-conference
opposition.
Missouri valley-Ex-leader Okla
horna A. and NJ, lost its second
straight game to Washington U.
last Monday; then Tulsa knocked
off Creighton Wednesday,, putting
the Blue Jays into a tie with Wash
That was broken Satur.
day when Creighton beat St. Louis
$3.50 and Drake, winning its Sec
ond game of the week, beat WASH
;,.~4o. 90 % +o move into saoo,a