USD Football 1993

TOUCHDOWN ILLUSTRATED Bashetball Preview

Travis Ford, m11ste1· ofthe trey, lends II band of KcntuckJ• sharpshooters.

when you've got a big guy with soft paws, you've got something." Reeves led the Big Eight in scoring, rebound- ing and field-goal percentage last sea- son, the first to do so since Kansas' Wi lt Chamberlain in 1958. Beyond this, Reeves was the first sophomore to be named the Big Eight's Player of the Year since another Kansas center Danny Manning was in 1986. Oklahoma State finished 20-9, their third straight 20-win season. That had never happened before. With Big Country around, miracles are becom- ing ho-hum at Oklahoma State. Louis~ille. D en ny Crum, once anointed by John Wooden as a man "born to coach," has a 35-17 record in the NCAA tournament, as well as two national championships (1980 and 1986) and six Final Four appearances. One of these days he'll be heading for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. Unti l then, he plans to add to his impressive portfo- 1io this season with a team that should be among the nation's elite. He has four returning starters (6-6 Dwayne Morton, 6-9 Clifford Rozier, 6-1 Keith LeCree, 6-6 Greg Minor) and 6-9 Brian Hopgood off the bench. Crum's recruits are outstanding: 6-8 Jason Osborne, 6-11 Matt Simons and 6-8 Beau Zach Smith. Last season Morton and Rozier were instrumental in Louisvi lle's reg ular-season and Metro Conference tournament cham- pionships. Morton led the nation in three-point percentage (.531), hitting 51 of 96. Rozier is part of the fabled freshman class Dean Smith assem- bled at North Carolina for the 1990- 91 campaign. It included Eri c Montross, Brian Reese, Derri ck Ph elps and Billy Sullivan, each of whom is now wea rin g an NCAA championsh ip ring. Roz ier trans- ferred to Louisville, where last season

he was the Metro Player of the Year, and became the first Cardinal to aver- age in double figures in rebounding (10.9) in 22 seasons. He led the Metro on the boards, was fi fth in scoring (15.7) and blocked shots (41), and second in field goal percentage (.561). Nearly 40 percent of Louisv ill e's rebounds came at the offensive end (446 of 1,167). Rozier pull ed down 129 of hi s 338 off the offens ive boards. Inasmuch as rebounding is chiefly sheer wi ll (and proper block- ing out technique), Rozier's numbers underscore his determination. His top efforts: 22 versus South Florida, and 18 each against vs. Oral Roberts, Virginia Commonwea lth and Houston. Illinois. L ou Henson has won 609 games in his 31-year career, a super accom- plishment in its own right. But when this soft-spoken, self-effacing, gentle- man was honored as Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year last season, he finally got the recognition he deserves. You could say the award was a year late, because t he job Henson delivered in a 13-15 cam- paign in 1992 was perhaps even bet- ter than his performance of 1993. Both the '92 and '93 efforts were something to write home about, given that Illinois was playing in the wake of an NCAA recruiting investi- gation that stripped the school bare of virtually all the talent Henson had. Henson was profoundly pleased by the Coach of the Year award. Yet his joy and that of his wife, Mary, was clouded by the grief they have endured since last November when their son, Lou Jr., was killed in a car accident on an interstate highway near Champaign. As for the Illini, their 13-15 mark is misleading, con- sidering they lost their first six Big Ten games by a total of 20 poi nts.

OAVIOCOYLE seniors this season. Logerman and Key are starters, joined by 5-11 point guard Tony Miller and 6-8 Roney Eford. Mcilvaine probably will move into the lineup, leaving Marquette with a solid backup punch in 6-0 William Cates, 6-2 Craig Aamot and 6-6 Shannon Smith. Ohlahoma State. C owboys coach Eddie Sutton says Bryant Reeves, a brawny 7-foot junior who checks in at an immov- ab le 290 pounds, is a "miracle child...because I've never had a player improve as much as he has." Miracles neve r cease with Reeves around . What else would you call the half- court bank shot he nailed to send a Big Eight Conference game against Missouri into overtime? (OSU would go on to wi n 77-73.) They cal l Reeves Big Country, largely because he hails from Cans, OK, a burg populated by 300 or so. "I definitely know everyone in town," said Reeves, who resembles, facially, a young Henry Iba. Reeves had never lifted weights before he got to t he Okl ahoma State campus. Sutton expected a slow process in making Reeves into a major college player, but he progressed so quickly in his first practices that he started as a freshman. Said Sutton: "He's got great, soft hands-soft paws-and