Bearup Playing The Intimidator Role
What's The Matter Bobby ?
Oscar L. Combs
[Continued From Page 3]
the Kentucky beat for the same paper, predicts that UK will win by three, but qualified his prediction by adding, "you know, I have to spend some time in Fayette County this season."
Russ Brown, who covers UL for the same Louisville newspaper, picks Louisville by two. Dave Koerner of the Louisville Times takes the Cardinals by five.
In Lexington, both D.G. Fitzmaurice and Jerry Tipton of the Herald-Leader say Kentucky will win, by five and eight points respectively. Ironically, they are the only two Lexington media reporters who pick the Wildcats.
Kentucky's radio announcers both pick Louisville. Cawood Ledford has Louisville by three and Ralph Hacker picks the Cards by five. Rob Bromley, the UK play-by-play man on television, picks the Cards by four.
Jock Sutherland, the color analyst for the Louisville Radio Network, says the Cards will win by five. Sutherland believes the difference in the game will come down to the homecourt advantage. Said Sutherland, "this is the Kentucky Shootout with cap pistols, just two mediocre teams."
HITS AND MISSES . . .Already, the Kentucky-Louisville clash, thought to be a financial bonanza by some during the time when Kentucky was being pressured to play the game, has come on hard times. The best television proposal to make an offer was Sports Productions Inc. (Now Lorimar Sports) and it is syndicating the game with no national station or network involved. It was reported that the game will reach more than 65 percent of the nation's markets, but that could be considerably high . . .WHAS' sponsorship of Saturday morning's Wildcat public practice almost didn't come off. Reportedly,   Cardinal  officials were
Denny Crum
upset at WHAS for sponsoring the event for UK because the Cardinals are the home team Saturday. WHAS had sponsored a similar practice for Louisville last month when Freedom Hall was first opened to the public as a renovated basketball facility. . .A Big Four basketball doubleheader each year involving Kentucky, Indiana, Louisville and Notre Dame could become a certainty next season. According to reports, the event will probably be a one-night affair alternating among the cities of Indianapolis, Lexington, and Louisville. Reportedly, UK will alternate playing Indiana and Notre Dame while Louisville will alternate playing Indiana and Notre Dame. That also means that UK will play Indiana twice every other year instead of once. The doubleheader could get started as early as next year with the first event being staged at the Hoosier Dome . . .Denny Crum likes the idea of the one-night affair but believes  the  game   should  be the
Digger Phelps
annual kick-off to the season and not later in December. On the other hand, Bobby Knight would like to see a two-night tournament affair and to eliminate all regular season games involving the four schools. Crum doesn't like the tourney part, citing that one outstanding team each year will have to go home with an 0-2 mark . . .Elsewhere in this edition, you'll read how Joe B. Hall and Denny Crum joined together to do a promotional poster for Converse Rubber Company (the basketball shoe manufacturer). The colorful poster shows the two coaches arm-wrestling with the caption that "either way, you can't lose" referring that it's great to be a fan of either school. Well, it's not the first time the two have gotten together on the same side of the fence. A few months ago the two combined to help promote a statewide amendment to allow sheriffs to succeed themselves. But this was still different, I mean, Joe B.   Hall   and   Denny   Crum arm-
wrestling? Now, c'mon, fellas? Of course, we shouldn't forget that both are paid ambassadors to Converse's board of advisors. There have been published reports in the past that each coach earns six figures a year from Converse. For that kind of a deal, fellas, I'd arm wrestle John Thompson and take a chance of losing an arm. In all honesty, the idea was a good one and it's good to see their iceberg melting, even if the adverse image was due mainly to outsiders. . .Indiana's 81-68 win gave Bobby Knight his 400th career coaching win and evened his record against Joe B. Hall at 8-8. Hall had won five of his last seven meetings against Knight. . .After the disappointing loss to IU, Hall reportedly took the low-key approach with his team in the locker room, choosing to use the ten-minute cooling off period as a teaching session with his young team. Hall is still confident the young Wildcats will sharpen their skills and become a consistent team by tournament time. . .UK athletic ticket manager Alice Woods reports that tickets are still available for the UKIT December 21-22, and the Kentucky-Purdue game in Louisville on December 31. UKIT tickets are $10 per set (good for both nights) and the Purdue tickets are $7 each. A postage and handling fee of $2 per order must be included. Only certified checks and money orders will be honored. Orders should be mailed to: UK Ticket Office, Memorial Coliseum, Lexington, Kentucky. Tickets are on sale at the ticket office for those not choosing the mail order route. . .The latest ticket sales report on the Hall of Fame Bowl has more than 11,000 sold through UK. That's almost double of the ticket sales for the same bowl last year. Anyone wanting to purchase Hall of Fame Bowl tickets now must do so by contacting the bowl office in Birmingham.