12/16/1972

Carl Porter
CITIZEN SPORTS EDITOR

Snowden 1, Jorgensen 0

One game does not a season nor a career make, but you have to figure. Dave Strack made the right move when he picked Fred Snowden over his longtime friend, Tom Jorgensen, to coach Arizona's basketball Wildcats.

Snowden and the Wildcats put it on Jorgensen and his Northern Illinois Huskies, 91-90, in overtime here Saturday night.

It wasn't exactly a massacre. In fact, the Huskies had Arizona by the throat with three seconds to go, when Northern Illinois' "main man," Jim Bradley, blew the game by illegally "dunking" the ball and then missing the front end of a 1-and-l free throw situation.

You had to feel a little sorry for Bradley, who otherwise played a brilliant game (30 points and 20 rebounds). He simply was a victim of what has to rank as one of college basketball's most deadly snake pits: Bear Down Gym.

The visitors don't sit on the 'bench in Bear Down, they sit in the laps of the screaming Arizona partisans. Wildcat foes -stay away from the jammed sidelines like you'd avoid a New York City alley. Bear Down has the acoustical equivalency of an old wash tub and the boos and catcalls pushed, the decibel rating to the deafening point as Bradley went to the foul line, missed badly, and trudged back to the bench groaning about "too much racket."

Arizona's all-time basketball great, Bear Down Gym, had done it again.

Better 'team' won

No question in my mind, Northern Illinois has better personnel overall than UA. The Huskies should be at least 10 points-better than Arizona on a neutral court — just as Southern Cal, who the Cats beat, 71-69, in Bear Down — would probably dominate Arizona anywhere else.

But in Northern Illinois and USC, we're talking about basketball programs in full maturity where coaches Jorgensen and Bob Boyd have built teams deserving of rating near the top 20 nationally.

That's what struck me Saturday night. Here was a veteran, talented Northern Illinois outfit taking it on the nose from a bunch of Arizona youngsters who are still spending half their practice time learning to shave. Four Arizona freshmen were on the floor at times (against San Diego, Snowden used five frosh much of the game).

The young Wildcats did not have quite the physical explosiveness and awesomeness of the Huskies, but they were better conditioned, better drilled and better "psyched up." They may not have been better players, but they were the better team.

You call that coaching. And, unless the future proves me premature, UA athletic director Dave Strack rates a pat on the back for making the right choice between reputed finalists Snowden and Jorgensen when he picked a coach last spring.

Best yet to come

What do I think of these young Wildcats?

I don't think Eric Money is the greatest guard in Arizona history. Nor is Coniel Norman the most fantastic shooter I've ever seen on the Bear Down hardwoods. Al Fleming might not even be the best power forward the Wildcats have had.

...Yet!

One, two, three years from now may be something else. Money certainly is the most magnificent 17-year-old I've seen play, although he has a way to go before he is the all-around offensive, defensive and floor leader that Warren Rustand was in 1964-65. I can't forget some of those great match-ups in which Rustand nullified Wyoming's super scorer, Flynn Robinson.

I've never seen a Wildcat shoot better than Norman, but I'll have to wait and see if his range is as great with that unorthodox, elbow-out jumper that he arches near the roof as was Robinson's with his own behind-the-head sky-rockets he would launch from anywhere over the mid-court line.

Fleming hasn't quite caught up with Joe Skaisgir and some of the other past UA greats yet, but like Money it may only be a matter of time. And the closest competition Money might get for "all" honors before he finishes four years at UA may come from Jim Rappis, another UA frosh.

They're young. I think they'll lose, almost as often as not. But it's exciting basketball with a promise of excitement for the future that could even out-grow the bounds of the new McKale Center.