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Show i Don Denson-One Reason J For Recent Utah Success yelling for you, and it inspired the team enough to win." Team Spirit High "The team is really up now. We think that if we are given a fair shake by the referees, we can win our next three road games with BYU, Arizona and Arizona State. We're not afraid of who we'd face in a post-season tournament, we're out to win the next three games, then take what comes." Coach Gardner summed up t h e value of Denson when he described his play: "Don is a vastly improved player; he has been an inspiration to the team by coming in when we were having trouble with our forwards, for-wards, and doing a fine job. He is a hard-nosed competitor, he shoots well, and his board play and hustle are exceptional. I am very grateful that he has come through in t h e clutch without having much experience." av it By MIKE JACOBSEN ) Chronicle Sports Editor K raj j one big factor contributing to the lf' 1 recent Utah basketball success is the addition Sf Don Denson to the starting lineup. The 6'4" senior was moved into the starting for-ward for-ward position prior to the Wyoming Wyo-ming contest in Laramie when Lyndon Lyn-don MacKay was sick, and he has : performed well for the Utes ever ' since. Denson is a native of Torrance, California, He lettered in basket-j basket-j bail four years and baseball three years while attending South High, ; and his basketball coach was for - mer Utah great, Rich Ruffel. Don was named to the all-Bay Region ; team, the all-CIF team (southern California) , and was the Bay Region Re-gion most valuable player his senior sen-ior year. He averaged 23 points a game his last year in high school. Recruited To CEU ' With help from Rich Ruffel, Jack Gardner and Jerry Pimm were able to recruit Denson to come to the College oi Eastern- Utah. This . gave Don two valuable years of 7 playing experience before coming f to Utah last year. While a freshman at CEU, he played with Ron Cunningham, and j their team was ranked third in the nation among the junior col- ! leges. He averaged 19 points per game his sophomore year, and lead CEU to third ranking in their region. re-gion. Don is a physical education major, ma-jor, and he plans to get his masters mas-ters degree and teach at a junior college. Tired Of Not Playing Denson commented on his play: "I was tired of riding the bench, so I started doing something about it. I worked hard in practice, I began be-gan shooting and rebounding well, ' and I showed desire to play." When Denson got his chance, he came through in good fashion, and he has averaged 14 points and eight J rebounds a game. i Denson especially displayed h i s J value in the New Mexico game i when he shot, rebounded, and hus- tied the Utes to victory after it il seemed they were doomed. "The J 1 -fans helped a lot against New .'Mexico with their enthusiasm. It J was really great to hear all that X f , , , -;x DON DENSON ... Up and Coming Ute |