Word: alcindor
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Some night when the moon is full and the wiverns and hobgoblins are about, somebody may actually beat U.C.L.A. in basketball-but only if Lew Alcindor happens to leave his shins at home. Now that the college season is two-thirds over, U.C.L.A.'s Bruins are still undefeated, and Alcindor has proved to be better, if anything, than his notices promised. The 7-ft. 1⅜-in. sophomore leads the nation in both scoring (31.2 points per game) and field-goal percentage (202 out of 299 for 68%). On the road against Illinois last week, he poured...
Illinois' Harry Combes tried covering Alcindor man-to-man with his own star sophomore, 6-ft. 7-in. Dave Scholz; with his 6-in. height advantage, Lew simply fired away at will-often not bothering to jump. Loyola of Chicago's Coach George Ireland tried a "collapsing" defense in which as many as three players converged on Alcindor every time he got the ball. Alcindor blocked at least ten shots, pulled down 20 rebounds, and scored 35 points, including two on a spectacular backward "dunk" shot-whirling, leaping, reaching up over his head, ramming the ball through...
...remained for Southern California to suffer the crudest fate of all. All the Trojans did was win-edging Arkansas 70-67 and Illinois 73-72 in the Los Angeles Basketball Classic. And what did that earn them? A berth in the finals against Lew Alcindor (TIME, Dec. 16) and his No. 1-ranked U.C.L.A. Bruins...
Against Wisconsin, 7-ft. Hin. Sophomore Alcindor scored 24 points; against Georgia Tech, he hit a season low of 18 points, but U.C.L.A. still boosted its record to 7-0. Southern Cal's Trojans have already seen all they want to of Alcindor: he scored 56 against them in the opening game of the season...
Lefty or Righty. Neither coach has any complaint about Alcindor's offensive ability, although Lew is still only about 45% accurate when he is shooting lefthanded, compared with 70% righthanded. Both, however, admit that Lew's defense still leaves something to be desired. "He needs work," says Naulls. "But I'll tell you this-when Lew Alcindor wants to guard somebody, he can guard anybody." Duke's Bubas will attest to that: against the Blue Devils last week, Alcindor collected 16 rebounds and blocked eight enemy shots...