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Show ItfSWfc toy BY BRUCE WOODBURY Sports Staff The 1971 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) basketball crown is going up for grabs this weekend as the conference round- ball wars start for all eight team. Utah's Runnin' Redskins s a their WAC play where they left off last season as they travel so th, to face the Miners from UTEP and the Lobos from New lexico When tlte Utes face UTEP Friday Fri-day night, their moUve for the game will be revenge Last year 5 Miners kept Utah from th conference champ.onship when they dumped them 83-82 in me last game of the season. Ute coach Jack Gardner describes this year's Miners team, " having much better team balance." Although fey are lacking in height, they have been one of the leading rebounding teams in the conference so far this season, averaging better titan 50 takedowns a game. The leading scorer for UltPis 6 ft. 5 inch forward Dick Gibbs. Gibbs, a senior, is averaging 15.8 points per game. He is also the leading board man on the team grabbing 13.7 rebounds every outing. Starting center for the Miners this year is 6 ft. 8 inch Dave Borup from Salt Lake. Borup, who was a standout for South eg t"fv. 5 ,f mm-'1 ' ! ; u v- ' Vf ' . a li ' : , f u J V i ' v e A - - -i . r ' -.... New Mexico's Willie Long will lead the Lobos a"--Redskins Saturday evening in Albuquerque. Long averagtj' a game last season. High a few years back, is a transfer trans-fer from Snow College. Last year he led Snow to the first postseason post-season tournament in the school's history. They are big on Borup in El Paso, calling him the first true center to play for the Miners since David Lattin did in 1966-67. Utah and UTEP have contrasting con-trasting offenses. Contrary to the run and shoot basketball played by the Redskins, the Miners pride themselves on defense and have limited their opponents to 57 points a game this season. Saturday, the Ute's move over to Albuquerque, to tackle surprisingly sur-prisingly tough New Mexico. The Lobos, picked at the start of the year to be the doormat of I the league have been anything ' but. With only two lettermen returning re-turning from last year, New Mexico coach Bob King has led his charges to a 9-2 record this season, best in the conference. The Lobo attack is based on New Mexico's version of "Mutt and Jeff." 6 ft. 8 inch Willie Long and 5 ft. 8 inch Petie Gibson are the Lobo stars and two of the top players in the WAC. Long is one of the scoring leaders in the conference averaging over 22 points per game and 10 rebounds. Last year, the Lobo ace was a first team All-WAC pick, and is being touted as an Ail-American come March. Gibson is the quarterback of the New Mexico attack and is a first-class playmaker. He also knows how to shoot, averaging 1 1.6 points per game. Like UTEP, New Mexico has a Utah player on their starting five. He is 6 ft. 7 inch John Johnson from Bountiful. A graduate of Viewmont High School, Johnson was the leading scorer on the Lobo freshman team last year averaging over 21 points per game. So far this season Johnson looks like the top sophomore in the conference. He is scoring at a 14.5ppg clip, and playing consistent consis-tent ball in every game. Already this year he has led his team in scoring by dropping in 29 points against Denver. New Mexico has a wide open style of play, similar to Utah's and when they play at home in their famed "snake pit," they are tough to beat. Utah, with a 5-5 record on the year, hasn't lived up to their pre-season billing as king of the WAC. However, Coach Gardner, somewhat disappoints: cou raged. He said t right spark is needed: team live up to depress de-press notices. He said, "I can't pr one area that needs :-provement, :-provement, but we it-in it-in all areas." Mike ' getting in double cc? can be expected, k: scoring as well as k year." Gardner addei team needs to, "D;: bounding at both tt: court in order to putt game together, and x percentage must k: prove." If the Utes can ; Fox's orders, these t weekend could putl'-i the road to a WAC c: great season. |
