PAGE 10   THE CATS'  PAUSE, DECEMBER 18, 1976
With Bill Straub
Is It Good News Or Bad: Mears Is Back
This week we've got some good news and some bad news.
First, Tennessee coach Ray Mears has returned home from a long hospial stay recovering from a bout with nervous exhaustion.
Second, he might just want to return after watching his previously top 20 ranked Vols drop two games within one week's time.
Now you decide which one is the good news and which is the bad news.
At any rate, the man who bills himself as the coach with the best winning percentage within the college ranks-although that title actually belongs to Jerry Tarkenian - has not received what you'd call a happy Homecoming. With Bernard "Get me a lawyer" King back in the line-up after being forced out by a factor other than injury, Tennessee was expected to reach the same heights it attained last year.
Those same heights, you may remember, included Ernie "I never cheat'' Grunfeld giving a new meaning to the word sportsmanship.
But the big thing is that the Vols might very well be coming off their longest week of the season under assistant coach Stu Aberdeen. To put it bluntly, Tennessee was expected to come out of the week with an unblemished record, San Francisco or no San Francisco. After all, the Dons were a Top 20 club led by former high school All-America Bill Cartwright but with the Ernie and Bernie Show back in full swing on a nuetral court little difficulty was anticipated.
Regardless of what was expected, however, the Dons received 18 point efforts from Jim Hardy and Winfred Boynes to knock off the Vols 86-77. King had 22 points and 18 rebounds while Grunfeld poured in 20.
Just three days earlier, on Tuesday, coach Bill Foster's Duke Blue Devils visited Stokely "Palace" (read armory) in what was expected to be an easy ACC win for the Vols. It, again, never happened. Duke built up a 41-33 halftime lead and forced Tennessee to play catch-up. The Aberdeen-led crew couldn't manage it as the Devils captured an 81-78 victory.
Now Saturday night, in your basic consolation game of the Utah Classic (with San Francisco advancing to the finals) the Vols finally had a halfway easy time. Little Seton Hall of New Jersey- a basketball power in earlier days of competition fell behind Tennessee by as much as 25 points and went into halftime trailing 57-32.
Things were different in the second 20 minutes. The Pirates cut the lead to
61-44 midway through the second half and got within 11 at 69-58 a few minutes later. But Grunfeld's 37 points and Mike Jackson's 33 proved to be too much. It was as close as Seton Hall could get until the 99-90 ending.
Obviously, after giving up 81, 86 and 90 points in three games time, something is going to have to be done on defense. Mears, just a week out of the hospital, may be back at the helm sooner than expected.
King, in his three games by the way, has picked up 22,22 and 19 points. He started out great guns against Duke with 18 first half points. But the Blue Devils tightened up their zone around the middle and held the Brooklyn native to just four second half points.
A few miles west of Knoxville, another Tennessee team in the SEC is having more than a little bit of trouble. It's gotten so bad that a Division II team--with a 1-2 record going into the game held onto the ball most of 40 minutes before falling by two points Saturday night.
Vanderbilt coach Wayne Dobbs definately has it hard. After all, how would you like to follow in the footsteps of a coach who was popularly known as Uncle Roy? On top of that he winds up without the F-Troop of Joe Ford, Jeff Fosnes and Butch Fehrer that brought Vandy many victories the past three seasons. With a schedule chock-full of opponents like Michigan and Louisville things are looking bad for the Commodores.
Especially when a team like Mercer comes to town and decided to sit on it. It was 22-22 at halftime with Mercer hitting nine of 10 shots from the floor but committing 13 turnovers.
It was all left up to freshman Greg
Fuller in the end to bring home a 35-33 victory. With a slim 28-27 advantage with 11:08 remaining, Fuller stole the ball from Bear center Jay Eiche and drove the length of the court to make it 30-27. Later, a six-footer and a 15 foot jumper by Fuller gave Vandy its longest lead at 34-27. That was all that was needed to give Dobbs his first victory after four losses.
On Monday, All-America guard candidate Ricky Green scored 29 points to lead Michigan to a 97-76 victory over the Commodores.
Dobbs summed it up as an "experience.' '
He'll probably experience a lot more by the end of the campaign.
In other SEC action this past week:
FLORIDA-- It's true that "almost" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades but Marquette came close enough to losing to make things interesting.
Only a pair of free throws by guard Butch Lee with 11 seconds left assured the closer than close 64-61 victory which caused coach Al McGuire to start doubting whether his team really is the second best in the nation.
The game was tied 15 times,s the lead changed hands 20 times and Marquete's biggest lead came at 56-52 Malcolm Cesare led coach John Lotz's Gators with 21 points.
"There's no way we thought the game was going to be this close," Lee said. "We didn't study Florida enough.
McGuire said he kept on expecting Florida to crack but it never came.
"I don't think we're the second best team in the country," McGuire said. "They (the writers) put us there."
The game was, of course, played at
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LSU Coach Dale Brown's crew remained in the undefeated ranks by winning two games. The Bengals whipped Samford 100-89 with three guards combining for 75 points before besting Niagra 82-68.
Against Samford, the Bengals got 26 points from Jordy Hultberg, 25 from Kentuckian Kenny Higgs and 24 from Bob Miller.
Samford came within two late in the game before the guards pulled it out.
"We played sour out there tonight," Brown said.
He sang a different tune about Niagra.
"Niagra is the best team we've met so far," Brown said. "They might go to the NIT this year. This was the best overall effort of the season for our team."
This time it was a pair of freshman who escaped last week's early season review of top first year players that made the difference. Hultburg, a frosh backcourtman, finished with 22 while Kentucky native Durand "Rudy" Macklin had 18. Macklin, by the way, leads the SEC in rebounding.
MISSISSIPPI STATE- Coach Kermit Davis' crew has been one of the big surprises thus far using one big freshman and a slew of sophomores. The Maroon rolled to its seventh victory without a defeat this week with wins over Texas, Northeast Missouri and Southwest Louisiana.
The Bulldogs have yet to face a national power and have at times come away with close calls. But the record alone is enough to give the young Dog players some confidence heading into the conference campaign.
Again Southwest Louisana, the Dogs got 22 points out of sophomore Ray White and 15 from tree-tall freshman center Rickey Brown in an unimpressive 78-72 win Monday night. Saturday against the Longhorns, the Maroon was forced into overtime before Brown and White again combined for a 91-89 cliffhanger.
State trailed by 15 points with 10 minutes to go against Texas but a rally led by Brown who was held scoreless until the final two minutes of regulation, tied it at 81-81 before the final buzzer.
Brown incredibly wound up with 21 points after being shut-out the first 38 minutes.
GEORGIA After losing Jacky Dor-sey to the pros, coach Jack Guthrie's Bulldogs were expected to finish near the toes of the conference. With two
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