MARCH 15, 1943
- The Philadelphia Frigates are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to ensure they have enough players for next season. The American Football Association club has sent letters to college grid coaches saying: "If your school is quitting football, please advise any of your assistant coaches who is in good condition and wants to play pro football to contact the Philadelphia office."
- St Blane has confirmed it will definitely be playing football come September. The Fighting Saints got their spring practice under way last week despite the fact the coaching staff accepts the possibility that none of the men who work out with the club will be around come September. "If none of them will us report for football in the fall," said the St Blane coach, "then we have done our part helping them get into fighting shape for the Army and Navy."
The 32 field is complete and ready to start the 1942-43 AIAA college basketball championship tournament this weekend. The opening round will be played Saturday and Sunday with the teams completing the regional portions of the tournament Thursday and Friday March 25 and 26. The four survivors move on to New York's Bigsby Garden for the semi-finals on the night of April 3 and then the championship game will be contested two days later.
Defending National Champion Liberty College finished second in the polls but the 25-5 Bells failed to win the Northeast Conference championship and will have to settle for being the second ranked team in the East Region behind South Atlantic Conference champion Carolina Poly, which finished with a 26-3 record and third in the national polls.
Joining the Cardinals as top seeds will be WCAA champion Coastal California, which finished number one in the polls with a 24-5 record and a pair of Great Lakes Alliance schools in Central Ohio (23-7) and Detroit City College (22-7). They were two of six schools from the GLA that were invited to the 32 team tournament field. The Knights earned their top seed with a pair of wins in the final week despite missing two starters including Roman Sollars, who led the nation with an average of 15.3 ppg and seems to be a likely All-American selection but will miss the tournament after joining the Navy two weeks ago.
Here are the 15 conference champions for this season:
Code:
1942-43 Conference Champs Team Record
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Academia Alliance Dickson 21-12 (9-5)
California League Gates University 21-8 (9-3)
Central Athletic Alliance Western State 16-13 (12-4)
Deep South Conference Alabama Baptist 26-3 (11-1)
Eastern Eight Constitution State 17-12 (9-5)
Great Lakes Alliance Central Ohio 23-7 (10-6)
Keystone Alliance Berwick 18-11 (10-3)
Midwestern Association Lambert College 19-11 (9-3)
Northeast Conference Brooklyn State 22-7 (12-4)
Plains Athletic Association Daniel Boone College 11-19 (9-3)
Rocky Mountain Athletic Alliance Utah A&M 17-12 (11-1)
South Atlantic Conference Carolina Poly 26-3 (13-1)
Southern Border Association Valley State 16-13 (9-3)
Southwestern Alliance Texas Gulf Coast 20-9 (11-3)
West Coast Athletic Association Coastal California 24-5 (12-4)
Code:
AIAA TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL RANKINGS
# Team FPV Record Points Prv Conference
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Coastal California (39) 24-5 1731 3 West Coast Athletic Association
2. Liberty College (15) 25-5 1715 1 Northeast Conference
3. Chesapeake State (14) 27-3 1688 2 South Atlantic Conference
4. Carolina Poly (3) 26-3 1607 4 South Atlantic Conference
5. Great Plains State (1) 26-3 1522 5 Independent
6. Detroit City College 22-7 1384 10 Great Lakes Alliance
7. Central Ohio 23-7 1378 12 Great Lakes Alliance
8. St. Ignatius 20-9 1239 9 Great Lakes Alliance
9. North Carolina Tech 22-7 1216 6 South Atlantic Conference
10. Alabama Baptist 26-3 1160 7 Deep South Conference
11. Brooklyn State 22-7 1158 8 Northeast Conference
12. Rainier College 22-7 956 11 West Coast Athletic Association
13. CC Los Angeles 21-9 941 15 West Coast Athletic Association
14. Western Iowa 20-9 852 13 Great Lakes Alliance
15. St. Magnus 21-8 809 16 Great Lakes Alliance
16. Minnesota Tech 21-9 772 14 Great Lakes Alliance
17. Whitney College 19-10 634 21 Great Lakes Alliance
18. Annapolis Maritime 24-6 590 18 Independent
19. Elyria 24-5 506 20 Independent
20. St. Patrick's 20-9 395 19 Northeast Conference
21. Chicago Poly 23-6 385 22 Independent
22. Lane State 19-10 275 23 West Coast Athletic Association
23. Garden State 19-10 254 17 Northeast Conference
24. St. Blane 21-8 152 24 Independent
25. Rome State 21-8 57 25 Independent
Others Receiving Votes:
Brooklyn Catholic 21-8 17 Independent
Texas Gulf Coast 20-9 4 Southwestern Alliance
Mobile Maritime 19-10 3 South Atlantic Conference
LAST WEEK'S RESULTS INVOLVING RANKED TEAMS AND OTHER MAJOR SCHOOLS
MONDAY MARCH 8
Daniel Boone College 56 Oklahoma City State 51
TUESDAY MARCH 9
no games scheduled
WEDNESDAY MARCH 10
#2 Liberty College 59 St Pancras 44
Bayou State 49 #10 Alabama Baptist 46
#11 Brooklyn State 51 St Martin's College 32
Frankford State 39 #20 St Patrick's 25
Noble Jones College 44 Cumberland 31
THURSDAY MARCH 11
#3 Chesapeake State 55 Mobile Maritime 49
#4 Carolina Poly 59 Cowpens State 58
#6 Detroit City College 37 Lincoln 33
#7 Central Ohio 51 #8 St Ignatius 43
#9 North Carolina Tech 58 Maryland State 45
#15 St Magnus 56 #14 Western Iowa 42
#17 Whitney College 50 #16 Minnesota Tech 43
ACADEMIA ALLIANCE TOURNAMENT
Dickson 47 Pierpont 29
George Fox 35 Grafton 34
Ellery 49 Henry Hudson 39
Brunswick 61 Sadler 39
FRIDAY MARCH 12
#1 Coastal California 49 #12 Rainier College 47
#13 CC Los Angeles 49 Northern California 45
#22 Lane State 44 Idaho A&M 39
ACADEMIA ALLIANCE TOURNAMENT
Dickson 52 Brunswick 36
George Fox 56 Ellery 48
SATURDAY MARCH 13
#2 Liberty College 39 #11 Brooklyn State 29
#3 Chesapeake State 57 Charleston Tech 53
#4 Carolina Poly 58 Central Carolina 46
#6 Detroit City College 61 #14 Western Iowa 53
#7 Central Ohio 61 #16 Minnesota Tech 49
#8 St Ignatius 49 Wisconsin State 45
Cowpens State 46 #9 North Carolina Tech 44
Indiana A&M 50 #15 St Magnus 37
#10 Alabama Baptist 53 St Andrew's College 41
#17 Whitney College 43 Lincoln 39
St Matthew's College 57 #23 Garden State 52
Noble Jones College 55 Georgia Baptist 37
ACADEMIA ALLIANCE TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
George Fox 45 Dickson 43
END OF REGULAR SEASON
Despite missing Roman Sollars and Andrew Bennett the Detroit City College Knights won both of their games in the final week of the season and finished in a 4-way tie for the conference lead at 10-6 along with Central Ohio, St Magnus and St Ignatius. Central Ohio was awarded the conference crown on tiebreakers but DCC did manage to secure a number one seed in the conference tournament. The Knights will head to the South Region and will open against surprise Academia Alliance tournament winners George Fox University.
As for the final pair of the games the Knights started with a 37-33 win over lowly Lincoln College with center Jack Kurtz once again leading the way. Kurtz had a game high 11 points. Two nights later the Knights were on the road once more and came away with an impressive 61-53 win over Western Iowa. Kurtz had another huge game with 20 points and 8 boards as the senior center is picking up the scoring slack in the absence of Roman Sollars. The win gave the Knights a 22-7 record overall and a share of top spot. St Magnus had a chance to clinch the conference title all to themselves but they lost at Indiana A&M 50-37 and had to settle for the 4-way tie. Had they won it would have been the Vikings first ever GLA title.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Tournament time. Detroit City College draws George Fox in the opening match of the South Region. The Reds were just 16-16 on the year but got hot at the right time with 3 straight wins despite being the 7th seed in the Academia Alliance tournament. The Academia group is the only conference that holds a post-season single-elimination tournament to determine it's automatic representative in the AIAA championships. In the early days the Academia Alliance was the class of the AIAA and George Fox won the 1914-15 tournament. However, following an academic scandal in 1919 the conference instilled rigid academic standards for it's student athletes and the conference - no longer with access to many of the top players - has faded in prestige over the years. Academia Alliance schools won 7 of the first 10 AIAA tournament titles but no Alliance school as advanced to the national semi-finals since 1920. George Fox last made the tournament in 1932-33.
This years edition of the Reds is lead by a pair of seniors in forward Andrew Baker (12.1 ppg), who hails from Philadelphia, and guard Sig Hemphill (10.5 ppg), a Virginia Beach native. It should be a pretty favourable matchup for the Knights as it is unlikely George Fox will have an answer for 6'10" Knights center Jack Kurtz. As mentioned above Kurtz has been on fire since Sollars left for the Navy and boasted his season scoring average to 10.8 ppg. The hope is Andrew Bennett, the senior forward who has missed the past 8 games with an injury may be back for the second round, assuming the Knights survive the opening round test with the Reds.
Speaking of Sollars, the guard ended up leading the nation in points per game with an average of 15.3. The question now is will his 25 games played be enough to earn him a spot on the All-American team and perhaps even National Player of the Year.
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 3/14/1943
- Maj.Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, Director of Selective Service, has told a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that the pool of single men capable of military service was "practically exhausted" and that "several million" married men face a call to colors.
- R.A.F. bombers continue their assault on Nazi targets in Germany and France, bombing several German war factories.
- Four Senators, 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans, are calling for a permanent United Nations police force to be established in order to suppress aggression in the post-war world.
- Rationing of meat, canned meat, canned fish, butter and cheese has been moved up to being March 28 and on a basis will be giving Americans nearly twice as much meat but only half as much cheese as British consumers are getting.