12/23/1972

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Tell Fred Snowden that you can't get" from Tucson to Manhattan, Kan., and he'd almost believe you.

And even if you get there, what then?

Snowden brought his University of Arizona basketball team to Manhattan Friday, then lost 85-69 decision to Kansas State Saturday night in which pure weariness played a major role.

"We were just plain tired," Snowden said. "We spent about eight hours on the road Friday, got here about midnight, and the hotel restaurant was closed. Manhattan was closed, period. They roll up the sidewalks at 6. Finally somebody came up with a place to eat and we put the kids back on the bus and went out there.

"Man, it was awful. That meal was positively awful. We'd have been better off sending 'em to bed hungry, or buying 'em a candy bar. And they didn't get to bed until about 2 a.m. By game time Saturday night, it wasn't so much a question of getting them up for it as it was keeping them awake for it.

"Actually, we didn't play all that badly in terms of making the offense work. We were just always a step slow, and we were dropping passes. There just wasn't time to build up their concentration, and it's hard to concentrate when you're bushed.

'"I think it will be different in Las Vegas," Snowden said. "I think we'll give a good account of ourselves against Purdue."

Against Kansas State, the Cats were bombed by reserve guard Bob Chipman, who almost attended Michigan when Snowden was an assistant coach in Ann Arbor.

"We figured if we could stop Danny Beard and Ernie Kusnyer, we could win," Snowden said. "Well, Beard only got 12 and Kusnyer got eight, but Chipman came off the bench and shot 8-for-8 from the floor. He killed us. We were willing to give Steve Mitchell 25 points, and he got 26, but we were trying to stop the other two. We just never figured on Chipman. I wish he HAD gone to Michigan.

"We out-rebounded them, but we had 10 more turnovers than they did. It was a very physical game, and they wore us out pretty good. We were just plain weary."

Snowden said most of the turnovers came at crucial times. "Coniel Norman dropped three perfect passes, and Coniel doesn't have bad hands," the UA boss said. "And all three were right in his shooting zone. Al Fleming dropped a couple on the fast break, John Irving dropped his usual one.

"But overall, I wasn't really unhappy with it. This was a ranked team (17th) at the end of a tough trip. We did a respectable job. I don't think they're as good a team as San Francisco and maybe Southern Cal, but they're tough."

The Cats had balanced scoring with 12 points by Eric Money, 11 each by Fleming and Norman and 10 from Jim Rappis.

Both games of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic Wednesday and Thursday will be televised in Tucson over Channel 11. Other teams in the tournament are Duke and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.