page 8   the cats' pause, december 3, 1977
UNIVERSITY  OF KENTUCKY
TOP REGULAR SEASON SCORERS
PlayerPos._Year_Games FG FT TP Ave.
Dan Issel (C)...........                       1970 (Sr.)         26 339 198 876
Dan Issel (C)...........                       1969 (Jr.)         26 269 159 697
Cotton Nash (C-F)......                1964 (Sr.)         25 233 149 615
Kevin Grevey (F) .......                  1975 (Sr.)         26 265 99 629
Cliff Hagan (C).........                     1954 (Sr.)         25 234 132 600
Cotton Nash (C-F) ......             1962 (Soph.)     24 205 161 571
Jim Andrews (C) .......                   1972 (Jr.)          26 224 120 568
Kevin Grevey (F) .......                  1974 (Jr.)          25 232 83 547
Pat Riley (F) ..........                        1966 (Jr.)          25 225 91 541
Louie Dampier (G)......               1966 (Jr.)         25 211 99 521
Cliff Hagan (C).........                     1952 (Jr.)          26 206 128 540
Jack Givens (F) ........                     1976 (Soph.)     26 216 105 537
Louie Dampier (G)......                1967 (Sr.)         26 219 99 537
Cotton Nash (C-F)......                1963 (Jr.)          25 176 162 514
Mike Casey (G).........                     1968                 25 215 76 506
33.7
26.8 24.6 24.2 24.0
23.8
21.9 21.9
21.6 20.8 20.8
20.7 20.6 20.6 20.2
1977 Wildcats Set Five NCAA Attendance Marks
In their first season in cavernous Rupp Arena, the nation's largest basketball facility (23,000), the Kentucky Wildcats drew fans through the turnstiles at a rate that surpassed all other teams, amateur or professional, since Dr. James Naismith nailed up the first peach basket and proclaimed the beginning of a new sport.
Of six NCAA attendance records on the books, only the single game record52,693 at the Astrodome in 1968, Houston vs. UCLAremains a non-Kentucky record.
The Records:
1. Average per-game, At Home, 22,323Old Mark, 21,818 by Brigham Young in 1972.
2. Total Home Attendance, 312,527Old Mark, 261,815 by Brigham Young in 1972.
3. Total Attendance Full-Season, 509,124Old Mark 486,421 by Indiana in 1976.
4. Average Per Game, Full Season, 16,971Old Mark, 15,201 by Indiana in 1976.
5. Single Game on Home Court, 23,412, Kentucky vs. AlabamaOld Mark, 22,987 by Brigham YoungUtah in 1973.
The story of major-college basketball attendance is the story of the fantastic growth of college basketball over the last four decades. The attendance figures tell the story as effectively as scoring or shooting figures. For instance, the first NCAA basketball tournament drew 15,025 for five dates in 1939. The 1977 NCAA tournament drew nearly a quarter-of-a-million spectators at 18 sessions, nearly a 17-fold increase in 38 years.
Two of the nation's major arenas that played a big role in popularizing college basketball are New York City's Madison Square Garden and Philadelphia's Palestra, but last season, the Garden averaged only 8,958 fans for 17 college sessions, and the Palestra averaged 4,420 for 28 sessions, while the Wildcats averaged 22,323 at Rupp Arena. A further comparison shows that of all 245 major colleges, the national per game attendance was only 5,021.
Kentucky's per-game increase at home was 10,812 over 1976. Consider the following points:
 Only 23 major colleges full-season per-game averages were higher than Kentucky's INCREASE of 10,812.
 Only two other SEC schools were in the top-twenty in per-game increaseVanderbilt 12th with 2,501 and Alabama 14th with 2,133.
 The SEC topped all conferences in increase per-game with 1,791.
 The SEC led in total season increase288,924, of which 151,368 was produced by the Wildcats.
 The SEC ranks third in average per-game attendance with 9,802, behind the Big Ten with 9,977, and the Atlantic Coach Conference with 9,944.
Add it all togetherwhether it be the world's leader in attendance; the NCAA's all-time leader in wins with 1,189; the nation's leader in All-Americans with 28 men honored 42 times, and the nation's finest in facilities with a new arena and a beautiful new basketball dormand you come up with an answer that saysKENTUCKY, THE MECCA OF BASKETBALL.
lYear
KENTUCKY'S HOME ATTENDANCE No. Games Attendance
Average
1976-77 ..........
1975-76 ..........
1974-75 ..........
1973-74 ..........
1972-73 ..........
1971-72 ..........
1970-71 ..........
1969-70 ..........
1968-69 ..........
1967-68 ..........
1966-67 ..........
1965-66 ..........
1964-65 ........
1963-64 ........
1962-63 ..........
1961-62 ..........
1960-61 ..........
1959-60 ..........
1958-59 ..........
1957-58 ..........
11956-57 .......... 1955-56 .......... * Season high in the nation.
14 . . . 12 . .. 12 . . ,
12 . ..
13 . . , 13 . . . 13 . .
15 .. 13 ..
16 .. 13 . .
13 ..
14 .-.
14 ..
15 . .
16 . .
14 . . 13 ..
15 . .
13 . .
14 . . 13 . .
....... 312,527+
....... 138,135
....... 138,098
....... 130,755
....... 150,856
....... 150,297
....... 152,471
....... 181,295
....... 165,500
....... 178,000
....... 136,588
....... 149,571*
....... 151,000
........... 165,650
........... 153,132
........... 165,495
........... 129,978
........... 138,995
........... 177,824
........... 124,461
........... 129,733
........... 126,104
+National Record.
22,323 + . 11,51 . 11,539 . 10,896 . 11,604 . 11,56 . 11,728 . 12,086 . 11,82 . 11,333 . 10,502 . 11,505 . 10,786 . 11,11 . 10,208 . 10,343 . 9,284 . 10,692 . . 11,855 . . 9,574 . . 9,266 . . 9,700
Sunday, November 20,1977
Billy Mitchell
News-Journal Sports Editor i!ht Pcnsacoli! RtiM-.lournal
Call Kentucky 'Boss' in SEC
The University of Kentucky is expected to dominate Southeastern Conference basketball this season for one simple and obvious reason.
Any NBA franchise should have it easy against mere college competition.
That's not meant to be a needle-pronged innuendo suggesting the Wildcats have assembled a powerhouse basketball team by solicting prospects with such enticements as Secretariat, the Onasis estate or King Tut's fortune, as rumor depicts the football Wildcats.
The basketball Wildcats escaped the guilt-by-association, CIA-like scrutiny of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) investigation that hanged the football team with a two-year probation period.
The Kentucky basketball program emerged untainted by any implications of recruiting violations, and it's a good thing for coach Joe Hall it did.
Winning football is a new thing in Blue-grass Land, and Wildcat fans are having too much fun adjusting to pleasurable fall Saturday afternoons to become volatile over not being allowed to go to a post-season bowl game. . Winning basketball is nothing new at Kentucky. It is more of a way of life, and the Wildcats, for years, won, and won and won in the godlike presence of Adolph Rupp, the charming ol' curmudgeon who is the stone-faced edifice of Kentucky basketball.
Once is enough, the crusty Rupp figured. Kentucky got burned by the NCAA in 1953, and the penalty was no schedule.
That's -right. The Wildcats sat out the entire season.
Of course, they were 25-0 the next year and declined the NCAA tournament which, in essence, was a blatant not guilty plea by Rupp.
That's history. But, the bottom line, is that Kentucky basketball has, since 1953, abided by a puritan code. Scandals are out.
A halo now seems to surround Kentucky basketball, and this natural recruiting fortress does not want to stoop to any under-the-table shenanigans to damage the image.
Thus, with a big 10-4 by the NCAA, Wildcat fans begin another season wondering who they'll be playing in which regional in the first round of the NCAA tournament. And, as long as this anticipation doesn't happen to take the zap of an NCAA rap, there will be no mutinous rebellion against the coach.
So Joe B. Hall, the low-keyed, bespectacled spitting image of a bank executive, has gone about the business of assembling an awesome stable of talent in a very saintly manner.
And so awesome is this talent, the general opinion of SEC coaches is that Kentucky belongs in the NBA.
Alabama coach C. M. Newton, who played on Rupp's '51 national championship team, assesses the strength of his alma mater with a subtle dread. "Kentucky will be hard for anybody to beat just because of their sheer physical strength," he says.
Kentucky has the size, and also the talent.
From last season's NCAA tournament team, which advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual runnerup North Carolina, return nine lettermenin-
cluding All-SEC and All-American forwards Jack Givens and Rick Robey. Center Mike Phillips and guard Jay Shidler are starters returning along with ace reserve forwards James Lee and La Von Williams.
Robey, Phillips, Givens and Lee are all battle-tested seniors.
Robey and Phillips are both 6-foot-10, 235-pounders, a formidable front-line duo that Hall has reinforced with two 6-10 freshman230-pound Scott Courts and 253-pound Chuck Aleksinas. This is four-of-a-kind with which Amarillo Slim would call the last raise on any stakes. They make the defensive front-line of the Minnesota Vikings seem like the "Feeble Foursome."
In fact, the only thing missing from this lineup of King Kongs is Faye Wray. They're a case for the Big Foot task force.
SEC coaches, at their annual press meeting in Birmingham, Ala., abstained from voting on a pre-season order of finish, mainly because the only interest would have been in who would have finished second. In the Associated Press preseason national basketball poll, released Saturday, Kentucky was ranked No. 2, garnering 21 first place votes, the same as No. 1 North Carolina.
Thus, the Wildcats carry great expectations of winning their 31st SEC and fifth NCAA championship into the '77 season.
True, pre-season ratings are only worth the ink and paper on which they're printed; but, the opinion of SEC coaches seems to be if Kentucky wins the conference championship, the coronation ceremony will be anti-climactic.
Kentucky simply seems to have too much talent to lose.
To combat the Wildcats, opponents need to forget zones and presses and arrange martial arts training for their players. Kentucky has popularized Karate basketball with its imposing physical prowess.
In a pre-season exhibition last week against the Russians, a touring group of professionals who carry an amateur rating, the Wildcats reeled off one of their black-and-blue numbers. The final score was 109-75 over what is considered to be a very good Russian team.
However, against Kentucky's towering front-line and the slick-shooting Givens, the Russians could have started Rasputin, Stalin, Molotov, Lenin and Ivan the Terrible and it probably wouldn't have made any difference.
In a methodical style, Kentucky simply deploys and destroys.
"We'll be a senior-oriented team, and this will mean a good year for me, personally, because I like to work with seniors," says Hall. "There's something about the maturity and dedication with seniors you like to have, and this group has tremendous dedication and should have the maturity.
"They have gained great experience the past three years. They were in the national finals as freshmen, won the NIT without Robey as sophomores, and last year, as juniors, ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation.
"Knowing their past success, and seeing how hard they work in practice... well, confidence should be a great factor in our favor."
The 'Cats will have the confidence, and their opponents will have a lack of it.