Evening star., 1953-11-18
Duquesne Regarded
As Sure BET 10 Win
Eastern Cage Title
BY the Asseei1ied Press

NEW YORK, NOV. IL. - The
Iron Dukes of Duquesne figure
to outclass the rest of the East
in basketball this season and
may well be in the running for
the title of the Nations No. / |
quintet.
Whether the Pittsburgh five is
better than the defending cham
pion, Indiana, returning Ken
tucky or improving Kansas won't
be decided for months, but on
paper no one can match the
Dukes in height, experience,
speed. ball handling, defensive
strength and reserves.
Basketball observers are con-
vinced Duquesne can't miss win
ming the mythical Eastern title. !
Even Dude Moore, modest Du-
queSne coach, admits the out
look is the best he has ever
enjoyed. Duquesne lost only
three men from last seasons
team, ranked ninth nationally
on a 21-8 record. Six of the
Dukes defeats came early in the !
season while Jim Tucker, an
All-America candidate, was in
eligible.
SOphOmOreS Look Good.
The 1854 squad again will be
built around Tucker, Dick Rick
ettS and Fletcher Johnson.
Tucker is 6-foot-8, Ricketts, 81, |
and johnson 6-5.
Duquesne's only weakness last |
year-lack of back-court strength |
and outside shooting-has been |
remedied by a fine array of |
SophomoreS. Best of these is
Sihugo Green, who figures to
win a regular berth without too
much trouble. A 6-foot-3 for
ward from Brooklyn, Green is
fast, smart. a good driver and |
a deadly shot from the outside. |
Mickey Winograd, another
sophomore, probably will round |
out the starting five. Marty |
Schwemmer. Sid Dambrot, Don |
McLane and Jim Corkan make
up strong bench.
La Sale Still Has Cola.
After Duquesne in the East |
comes La Sale of Philadelphia
and Niagara of Buffalo. La
Sale, four-time champion of the
Philadelphia area, has lost two
regulars via graduation but still |
possesses Tom Cola, rated by
many as the best basketball |
player in college today. The 6-6
junior scored SIT points last year
to earn a place on the Associated
Press All-America team.
Other starters are Jackie
Moore, Bill Katheder, Frank
O'Hara and Joe ellison. La
Sales strong points are ball
handling, set shooting and a +
tricky croSS-Screen offenSe.
Niagara is an experienced five
with an outstanding star in
Larry Costello. It's weakness is
lack of depth and it needs a good
big man to rank with the best in
the Nation. But the Purple
Eagles have good overall height,
speed, scoring punch and pos
sibly a better defense than last
year. Charlie Hoxie and Bo
Erias are at forward, Eddie
Fleming at center and Jim Nc
Connell and Costello at guard.
Fordham, with the same team
that went through half of last
season unbeaten, ordinarily
should belong up there with the
best. But it's getting to be a
habit for the Rams to look great
on paper and then fall apart at
some point during the year. Ed
Conlin, Dan Lyons and Ed
Parchinski may keep them to-
gether this time.
Manhattan Could Surprise.
st. Johns lost heavily when its
clutch player, Dick Duckett, went
into the Army last spring. NYU
has Boris Mechanism but no de-
fenSe. Manhattan, tall, fast
club, could be the surprise of the
UnV-lx CotnYH 10n hoe
lost Walter Dukes and Richie
Regan, but last years team that
ranked second in the Nation to
Indiana must still be rated with
the Eastern powers. Siena of
Albany is the East's dark horse"
In New England nobody should
come close to Holy Cross. The
Crusaders are big and strong and
have a good sophomore center in
Tom Heinsohn, 81, besides the
talented Togo PalaZzi. In up
State New York, Syracuse will be
potent and in Pennsylvania the
strong clubs figure to be Villa
nova and Penn State, behind
Duquesne and LaSalle.
In the Ivy League, where the
pace seldom measures up to that
of the independents, Cornell and
Yale are the coaches choices to
vie for the championship. Cham
pion Penn and Columbia have
lost their two record-Setting
point makers, Ernie Beck and
Jack MolinaS.