PAGE 24   THE CATS' PAUSE, DECEMBER 10, 1977
The Southeastern Conference picked up the pace during the first five days last week while compiling a 9-3 mark against outside opposition, but the SEC is a long way from claiming superiority over other leagues at this stage.
Kentucky launched the week in brilliant fashion by thrashing Big Ten power Indiana 78-64, while Alabama twisted Tennessee Tech 94-66 and Ole Miss handled Samford 81-68.
That was it for Monday night victories in the SEC. LSU went down to defeat at the hands of Texas, 82-66, as the Longhorns are making gTavy of outside opposition in Texas's new coliseum.
Northeast Louisiana continued Mississippi State's woes with a 78-69 clubbing of the Bulldogs and Vander-bilt fell to Kansas State 69-55. Tuesday, Tennessee turned back East Montana State.
Florida continued its unbeaten streak away from home with a 96-74 win over Mercer and John Lotz' team used the game as a tune-up for its big contest with Marquette thia past Saturday. Al Bonner and Richard Glasper paced the attack with 23 and 18 points.
LSU wallopped Tulane 120-88 as Durand Macklin, Jody Hultberg and Kenny Higgs led the way with 25, 22 and 17 points respectively. But the Tulane coach gave a verbal slap to LSU coach Dale Brown for allegedly "running up the score" near the end of the game by using a full-court press. It'll be interesting in the rematch coming up soon.
Mississippi State regained its winning ways with an 81-55 victory over Birmingham Southern and Vanderbilt had to pull out all stops to defeat Citadel 53-50 in overtime on the road.
Charlie Davis, returning from an injury, led the point parade for coach Wayne Dobbs with 20 points and Mike Rhodes added 15 for the winners, who had trailed 28-25 at the half.
The two teams battled to a 47-47 regulation tie before only 1,875 fans. Davis, who had missed two previous games with an ankle injury, is the key to Vandy's battle hopes this season. It was Vandy's first win of the season after four straight losses.
Friday night, Auburn needed a pair of free throws from Myles Patrick with only 31 seconds left to lift the Tigers of coach Bob Davis to a 66-65 win over Southern Illinois in the Marshall Invitational Tournament.
It was homecoming for Davis, who hails from the Huntington area. It was also a shot in the arm for the Tigers who won their second game of the season after absorbing a disappointing loss at home to Houston in the season opener.
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After the first full week of action, Jack Givens took the SEC scoring lead with a 26 points per game average and teammate Kyle Macy took the leadership in the assists category with nine per game. The top field goal percentage honor goes to Alabama's Reggie King at 70.0 percent. King is 21 of 30 from the field. Florida's Larry Brewster and rookie Reggie Hannah were tops from the foul line at 100 percent. Brewster is 13 of 13 and Hannah is 9 of 9.
The top rebounder in the league is Auburn's Mike Mitchell at 14.5 per game, while both Mitchell and Tennessee's Reggie Johnson are averaging 24 points per game. Rick Robey of Kentucky is high in both categoried at 21.5 points per game and a 13.0 rebounding average.
Gainesville last month.
Florida's David Johnson tied with three other Gators for most pass receptions in a game with four against Kentucky. That was the only high point for the Gators against Kentucky.
On the other hand, Florida had its lowest point total of the season (7) against Kentucky, the lowest one game per-rush average (3.4) against Kentucky, and the lowest punting average (36) against the Cats.
Meanwhile, Kentucky was the only Florida opponent not to lose a fumble to the Gators and the only opponent not to make a turnover to Florida. In other words, the above are pretty good reasons why Kentucky won 14-7 despite not playing one of its better games.
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Florida's final football stats showed some highs and lows being compiled in the Gators' 14-7 loss to Kentucky in
Devoting its entire first page to the Georgia Tech application to re-enter the Southeastern Conference, The Poop Sheet, a newsletter about ACC
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activities, says Tech's aim really was to set the stage for applying for membership to the ACC.
Publisher Dennis Wuycik says Tech really wants to join the ACC but had to prove to some Tech supporter that the right place in the ACC. That would be done by the SEC saying no.
Wuycik goes on to say, "others agree Tech should be back in a conference but opine the ACC is a better choice (than the SEC), citing comparable enrollments, academic reputations and football prowess a-mong its seven members. They also would give the Ramblin' Wreck a chance to enter the nation's top basketball league, promising that the appeal of Atlanta with its 18,000-seat Omni could help Tech build a program consisten with the ACC."
"Indeed, Georgia Tech would have a lot to offer the ACC. It would complete an East Coast media network from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta, drawing another three million people into the ACC awareness. The ACC Tournament could be held at the Omni, and conference basketball games could be carried on Atlanta's Channel, 17, a cable TV station that would add to the league's already-massive exposure," said Wuycik.
Wuycik made several good points, especially for the ACC acquiring Georgia Tech, but the ACC had better remember Tech's relationship to the SEC.
Tech once was one of the powerful members of the SEC, but got greedy and demanded more than just an equal share of the pie. Tech thought it was better than the rest of the league and if the league didn't want to pay Tech as a favorite, then the Wreck would go its own way.
Tech did and now Tech is struggling. The Engineers have found out the SEC name is worth a lot more than Tech's name. It took a lot of courage for the SEC to turn Tech away, especially with the City of Atlanta's potential. But the SEC had to set an example for others.
If the ACC should accept Tech, it probably would do so for two reasons. One is to gain more television exposure and the other would be to gouge the SEC by opening up shop in the middle of SEC country. It's doubtful the ACC would do such a thing, because the SEC could retaliate by taking in a couple of schools in the Carolinas, and the ACC wouldn't appreciate that. The relationship between the two conferences has been too good to start another civil war.
Wuycik says the ACC in only waiting for Tech to indicate an interest in the Atlantic Coast Conference, that admission would certainly be approved. Time will tell but don't hold your breath.