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Show U. of U. Hoopsters Will Meet TCU Coach Jack Gardner, although not superstitious, as basketball coaches go, hopes that the number num-ber 13 will not jinx his University Univer-sity of Utah Runnin' Redskins when they meet Texas Christian this Friday and Saturday in the Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse. The Utes were ranked 13 in this week national basketball poll. Gardner says, "I'm happy to see us up in the ratings but I'm not sure we deserve it and I hope our club is not going to look at the press notices and get complacent. com-placent. Texas Christian is a tough ball club. They are ranked 15 and have been a tough team in Oklahoma City. We've won our first three games easily but I'm afraid we might have overestimated over-estimated Oregon State's power." In TCU the Utes meet the top ranked team in the Southwest Conference. Coach Byron Bran-non Bran-non calls this "The best team I have coached at TCU." In Ron-ny Ron-ny Stevenson, Brannan has the 1958 scoring and rebound champion cham-pion of the Southwest Conference. Confer-ence. At 6'5" he is considered nnp nf iYicx -fin net Vinnrrl tnon in V V All A V PkX S V 1 V VA tli the nation. Brannon says, "He's like a linebaker in football. He can 'smell' where the ball is coming com-ing off the board." H. E. Kirchner, 6' 11" center, is also a tough basketball player. The big guy weighs in at 245 and is plenty rough under the boards. He has taken up this year where he left off last year and Coach Brannon says this is the main reason his club is undefeated at this point. "Kirchners confidence is way up, and so is the confidence confi-dence of the other kids. He's 50 per cent improved over last year." Besides Kirchner and Stevenson the TCU mentor has announced a starting five of Kenneth Ken-neth King, Derrill Nippert, and Bobby Tyler. All are seniors except ex-cept Tyler and he's a junior. In their first two games of the season, the Frogs knocked off Austin College 93-62 and Oklahoma Okla-homa City 66-58. Gardner's Redskins, in their first three outings have proven one thing they can still run. And this, despite the fact that this is the tallest and heaviest hoop squad in Ute history. Utah football Coach Ray Nagel has cast envious eyes at the big Ute hoopsters and there's more than one could could undoubtedly be a top end or tackle. The 14 man squad stands 6-3 Vz and the average aver-age weight is 198 pounds. |