PAGE 3    THE CATS'  PAUSE, DECEMBER 24, 1377
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Kentucky Could Be In For A Real Shocker Against Iona
Less than a month ago, basketball fans snickered and joked about a little school named "IONA" on the Kentucky basketball schedule. Some fans accused Coach Joe Hall of padding his schedule like many other major colleges.
But those same fans aren't laughing so much these days, not after what happened Saturday night when "little" Iona destroyed Auburn 105-82 and ran its season record to 7-1.
Hall earlier this season told The Cats' Pause he scheduled the game for two reasons, one because Iona has a good team and is an up-and-coming school, and secondly because he wanted to give the Kentucky fans an opportunity to watch freshman Jeff Ruland in action.
In the end, Hall may havepresented himself more of a problem than he had anticipated. Ruland, if you recall, was the target of Kentucky's biggest recuiting hunt since the days of Kent Benson [you remember him], Ruland was recruited by more than 300 colleges across the country and finally narrowed his choices to Kentucky, Indiana and Iona, not necessarily in any particular order. Experts around the country figured Iona would be the next school to be eliminated.
Surely, the number one prepster in the country would not turn his act away from either Kentucky or Indiana for tiny Iona, would he? Well, he did.
During the height of the recruiting season, Hall admitted he was more concerned about Iona landing Ruland than Indiana. Insiders said he eliminated Indiana from the race about a week from the day he signed with Iona.
Ruland visited Kentucky the weekend of the Kentucky-Florida football game in 1976 when the Wildcats were on a tear and heading toward the sensation 7-4 year and the Peach Bowl championship. Campus sports enthusiasm was at an all-time high.
I remember the day because there was this tall, muscular lad sitting in the UK press box with coach Joe B. Hall. Few people recognized the big man as the number one prospect in the nation because NCAA rules forbid any public recognition of an athlete while he is visiting a school.
Looking back to that day, you had to figure Ruland likely would stay home. He appeared to be a young guy who wasn't ready to venture some 800 miles away from home.
People close to the Ruland situation insist that's the reason he ultimately decided to attend Iona, so he would be close to home and enable his family and friends the opportunity to see him play.
Iona's gain was Kentucky's loss, make no mistake about that. Had
Ruland chosen to attend Kentucky, just think about the possible fron-court line-up of Chuck Aleksinsas and Jeff Ruland next season to go along with LaVon Williams, Scott Courts, Freddie Cowans and Tim Stephens.
Kentucky fans will be disappointed in Ruland's exhibition this weekend only because he will be wearing the opponents' uniform. Hall only hopes his Wildcats will be more successful than their SEC counterpart Auburn was last Saturday night.
For the past several years, sports writers up East have argued New York City basketball is the only real basketball played today. Well, that theory was buried once and for all Friday night by a man (not from the South), who should know.
St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca, answering a reporter's question quoting South Carolina coach Frank McGuire as saying a team would have to play New York style basketball to beat Kentucky, said, "New York basketball doesn't exist anymore. Kentucky plays as much New York basketball as the kids in New York City do. Los Angeles is the same way, because of television, the tremendous influence of pro ball on television. There are great players out of Virginia, Norfolk, Louisville, Tennessee, Washington. Basketball has been standardized."
And not to mentio a parting question, how long has it been since an Eastern team has won the NCAA?
St. John's came into the UKIT as probably the top team in the East this season and it left with a 30-point defeat at the hands of Kentucky. Maybe that's the reason the great New York press refuses to give collegiate basketball much ink.
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Don't be surprised if Kentucky and St. John's hook up again, maybe in the Big Apple.
The relationship between the two schools is very good, especially when you consider the personal relationships of the St. John's coach with Hall and other influential people at Kentucky.
The St. John's boss noted in a press conference of his ties with such people as AD Cliff Hagan, Frank Ramsey [a member of the UK Athletics Board], and former UK athletics director Harry Lancaster.
It's no big secret Hall would enjoy playing in the East, for recruiting purposes and the UK boss for one likes to recruit the good big man in the East (apparently there's still some excellent
talent up there).
No one is saying so, but St. John's visit to the UKIT could be the renewal of a long playing relationship with the Wildcats. It certainly would be an attractive package for both clubs.
You have to figure something is in the works when an opposing coach makes the following comment so early in the season, "I certainly wish Joe and his club to go all the way,'' as Carnesecca following the championship game.
HITS AND MISSES . . . Members of the Committee of 101, one of UK's sports boosters clubs which work the UK basketball games, have been wearing black armbands in tribute to the late Adolph Rupp. Club president Bill Crowley said, "When we were first getting started many years ago, Coach Rupp went to bat for us and we won't ever forget that. He was more responsible for us getting the club off the ground than anyone. When a problem would arise, Coach Rupp would just pick up the phone and take care of it." . . . Kentucky has been bringing in some pretty good hoop recruits for visits recently, including a couple of big men from New York. Also, the Cats have had guests from such states as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania . . . Todate.no more football signees have been announced by coach Fran Curci, but you can bet there will be more blue chippers before the hunt is over. Curci believes the recruits should be signed to national letters of intent before doing any boasting. Some coaches like to boast first, only to discover their stars missing when the big date arrives. . . . The "Most Appropriate Award" of the week goes to the assistant athletics director for academic affairs at UK You place a telephone call to the office and the prompt greeting is, "Academic Affairs office, may I help you?" You can bet they're taken up on that offer quite freqently .... We'll see just how popular Kentucky basketball really is during the next few months. A Kentucky oil firm has commissioned the famous Leroy Neiman to do a painting, illustrating the great Kentucky basketball tradition at Rupp Arena. There will be only 300 prints made and they will be sold at the modest price of $800 (that's right, Eight Hundred Dollars) each. Proceeds will go to scholarship and such under the direction of the UK Alumni Association. . . . Notre Dame's upset loss at the hands of Indiana last week will probably prevent the battle of the 1-2 powers next week in Louisville.
Most fans had been looking forward to the Kentucky-Notre Dame classic with the two teams being ranked 1-2. Kentucky will have its No. 1 ranking, if it can handle Iona, but Notre Dame probably will be third or fourth. . . . Tip of the week: better not bet on Kentucky beating Iona by more than 12 points this weekend. It could be the shocker of the year, and I ain't kidding. . . . Look for a couple of new books to hit the stands sometime next year about the great legend of Adolph Rupp. One such book has been in the making by Lexington Herald sports editor John McGill, and another has been in the making for several years by UK sports information director Russell Rice. . . Herald-Leader sports writer Stuart Warner came up with an excellent suggestion Sunday in proposing to rename the UKIT the "Adolph Rupp Classic." . . . Often, players have too long a Christmas lay-off and it tends to break a team's early-season stride. That won't be the case with Kentucky this season. After playing Iona on December 23, the players will have two days with their families and then it's back to the practice floor at 8 p.m. on December 26 to prepare for Notre Dame's Fighting Irish. . . . After serving last year as chairman of the Eastern Kentucky Multiple Sclerosis Hope Chest campaign, Rick Robey now is serving as the campaign's chairman of the "Read-a-thon," a program that brings in dollars for books read by children throughout the state. . . . Several of Kentucky's players feared they had lost a very close personal friend in the airplane tragedy which claimed the entire Evansville basketball team last week. Ernon Simpson, who coached Dwane Casey, Freddie Cowan and Larry Johnson in high school at Union County, is an assistant coach at Evansville, but he was on a scouting assignment rather than the team flight to Nashville. . . . Kentucky and Notre Dame may not be playing in Louisville after the present contract expires in 1980, according to Louisville Courier-Journal sports editor Billy Reed. Reed said in a recent column Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps no longer wants to play in Louisville each year, but would prefer a home-and-home series, switching from South Bend to Lexington. Phelps was quoted as saying he is getting tired of getting his teeth knocked in by a partisan Kentucky crowd every year in Louisville. Joe Hall probably wouldn't mind such an arrangement, but the Louisville fans wbuld be the real losers. It will be up to the Irish supporters in the Louisville area to put the pressure on Phelps to continue the rivalry in the Falls City, or Digger's new plan will prevail.