University of Virginia Library

ACC Roundball Teams Going To Tourneys

By BILL BERNO

Christmas time "tis the
season to be jolly" for most
students, but ACC basketball
players won't be taking a
holiday during the break, as all
but one team is playing in a
Christmas tournament.

With the exception of
fourth-ranked N.C. State, every
ACC squad will play in
tourneys against teams from all
parts of the country. Taking
the prize for longest
"megaroll" are the UNC Tar
Heels, who are going to Hawaii
to play in the eight-team
Rainbow Classic.

Clemson will enter the
Poinsettia Classic in Greenville,
S.C. Duke will play the odds in
the Las Vegas Classic, and
Maryland will stay in Cole
Field House for the Terps' own
Maryland Invitational.

Wake Forest will play in the
weakest of the tournaments, the
Palmetto Classic in Charleston,
S.C. Our own Cavaliers will
travel to St. Louis for the St.
Louis Invitational.

The Tar Heels are playing
against a field which is not as
strong as had been expected in
the pre-season predictions. The
seven teams joining the 'Heels
in the tourney are Utah,
Washington, host Hawaii,
Colorado State, Fordham,
Louisville, and a team of
Armed Forces All-Stars who
are stationed in the 50th state.

Utah and Colorado State are
the comedy teams of the
tourney. They should be
eliminated quickly. Hawaii
went to the NIT last year and
has added transfer student
Tom Henderson, the 6-3
sparkplug of the U.S. Olympic
team in Munich.

Huskies Will Be Tough

Washington's claim to fame
was an early-season upset of
Ohio State, which seemed
impressive until everyone
started beating the Buckeyes.
The Huskies also won the Pac-7
last year, while UCLA was
winning everything else.

Fordham and Louisville are
the only two teams with a
chance of upsetting the Heels.
Fordham was another NIT
entry last year; but was
eliminated early. Kenny
Charles, last year's leading
scorer for the Rams, returns.

Louisville made it to the
NCAA semifinals last year.
However, the Cardinals lost all
six of their top players from
last season's squad and are in
the throes of a rebuilding year.

The Armed Forces team is
traditionally entered in the
tourney. The military men
aren't given much of a chance,
but should play a disciplined
style of ball.

Duke will play with the Las
Vegas branch of the University
of Nevada, Purdue, and
Arizona. Nevada-Las Vegas
bumped off highly-touted Oral
Roberts early in the season,
but hasn't shown much since
then.

Purdue is one of the
mediocre teams in the Big Ten,
if there are any this year.
Arizona is coming up with
plenty of spending money,
because the Wildcats won't be
around the gym on the second
night of play.

Maryland plays with
Bowling Green, Georgia Tech,
and Syracuse. Syracuse? Yes,
the Orangemen are a strong
entry. Last year's edition was
22-6, with a pair of wins over
Penn State and a narrow
victory over Duke.

Bowling Green is the new
home of ex-Terp tree Mark
Cartwright. Cartwright is
sitting out this season, and the
Falcons need all the help they
can get. They are a young
team, still a couple of years
away.

Tech Has Young Team

Georgia Tech is another
young team which lost by
three points to William and
Mary Monday night.

Wake Forest decided it
wanted to win a tournament,
so it accepted an invitation to
the Palmetto Classic. The field,
which is made up of Brown,

Tulane, and host Citadel,
should be easy prey for the
Deacons. None of those teams
could be better than Brown,
which lost by 43 points to
Maryland.

Clemson will have its hands
full when it takes on
Pepperdine, Futman and
Texas. Pepperdine is a school
in suburban Los Angeles which
is small in enrollment but big
on basketball. The Waves are
led by pre-season All-American
pick William Averitt who is
eighth in the land in scoring.

Texas used to play
basketball the same way that
Brown plays football, but this
year the Longhorns were
pre-season picks to win the
Southwest Conference.