Scoring Champions: The Good Old Days

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(something to divert everyone from bad news in the Big Dance, defections from the program and medical emergencies)

When I first started following college basketball in the 60’s, there were two things everyone wanted to know when we woke up in the morning: (1) Did the top teams in the country win or lose? And (2) How much did the top players in the country score? The national scoring championship created as much interest and the national team championship. I remember when Dave Bing (who wound up at 28.4ppg) battled Cazzie Russell of Michigan (30.8) for the title- and both lost to Dave Schellhase of Purdue (32.5). The next year Jimmy Walker of Providence, (30.4) beat out UCLA’s Lew Alcindor (29.0). The year after that Elvin Hayes (36.8) led Houston to a #1 ranking and a win over UCLA but even he got out-scored by Calvin Murphy of Niagara (38.0) and Pete Maravich of LSU (43.8). Maravich won three straight scoring titles, beating players like Murphy, Rick Mount of Purdue and Austin Carr of Notre Dame. It was before my time but the late 50’s was an amazing time. In 1957-58 the top three scorers in the country were Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain. Robertson, like Maravich won three straight titles. One of his main rivals was Jerry West.

In recent years our scoring champions have been such non-celebrities such as Bob McCurdy, Zam Frederick, Joe Jakubick, Kurt Thomas, (his gymnastic namesake is the famous one), Keydren Clark and Aubrey Coleman. An occasional Glenn Robinson or Jimmer Fredette- or this year’s Doug McDermott- might top the list but that’s unusual these days.

What has happened is that the game has exploded. There are far more good players than there were in the 50’s and 60’s. Top teams have 3-4 guys who would have been stars in the old days, (maybe not Oscar Robertsons, but college basketball stars). They share the ball and now All-Americans score 15 points a game. Not 30. The national scoring champions tend to come from mid- or low- major teams and are the only good players on those teams so they score 25-30ppg and contend for or win the national scoring title. But they might not even start for a team like Syracuse.

I decided to look at the history of our national scoring leaders: who are these guys? What did they accomplish both in college and beyond? How good were the teams they played on? Who did they beat out to win the title? This is very long, (I’ve been working on it for weeks), so I’ll split it into two separate posts: The Good Old Days and The Bad New Days.

The NCAA record book and the ESPN College basketball encyclopedia beginning having lists of the nation’s leading scorers for the 1947-48 season but this Wikipedia page lists them all the way back to 1935-36: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_men's_basketball_season_scoring_leaders
I will abbreviate the years indicated by using only the second year. Thus 1935-36 becomes “1936”.

1936 and 1937 HANK LUISETTI , a 6-2 185 pound forward for Stanford, was the great name of pre-war basketball, the first player to become a national figure and the face of the game. He was named college player of the year in 1937-38 and became the first NCAA basketball player to score 50 points in a game in Stanford’s 92-27 win over Duquesne in the latter year. But he’s most remembered for leading Stanford past Long Island U. in a 1936 game in Madison Square Garden, breaking the Blackbirds 43 game winning streak, probably the most famous pre-war college basketball game. Stanford is considered the 1936-37 national champions. Hank’s scoring averages don’t look spectacular today: 14.3 in 1936, 17.1 in 1937, 17.2 in 1938. But games in those days were won with 30-40 points. Hank invented, or at least developed and popularized the one handed jump shot, which would eventually eclipse the two handed set shot as the primary means of scoring in the game. Luisetti never played pro ball. Instead he played AAU ball and made a Hollywood movie, “Campus Confessions” before joining the Navy. He contracted spinal meningitis while in the service and, while he recovered, did not try to return to his basketball career when the war was over. In 1950 he finished second in a poll to name the greatest basketball player of all time to George Mikan.

1938-1942 CHET JAWORSKI and STAN MODZELEWSKI. While Luisetti was popularizing the jump shot, Frank Keaney was developing the press and fast break at Rhode Island, where the Rams became the Loyola Marymount of their time. They became known as the “point a minute” Rams, then the “Two points a minute” Rams as they became the first team to average 40, 50, 60 70 and then 80 points a game while Keaney kept pushing the envelope. From the ESPN Encyclopedia: “His antidote to the slow games of the day was to ‘give the crowds action’ with his up-tempo offense. His game plan: ‘If some coach puts up a screwy defense, use a screwier offense. You’ve got to stop us.” I wish Keaney was coaching now but he died in 1967 at the age of 81.A coach born in the 19th century ran a faster paced game than the coaches we see today. Like Loyola Marymount, Rhode Island was a small school that had not been known as a national power so they were regarded as more of an oddity. The highest ranking in the Premo-Poretta Power Poll was #5 in 1946, the year they lost to Kentucky by a point in the NIT finals, after beating Bowling Green in overtime in the semis after Ernie Calverley hit a 62 footer at the buzzer in regulation, the most legendary shot of the era. While Keaney’s style didn’t produce a national champion, it did produce a succession of national scoring champions as Jaworski, (21.0 and 22.6) and Modzelewski (23.1, 18.4 and 21.4) won five in a row. Both were 5-10 guards. Jaworksi, like Luisetti, played semi-pro ball and then entered the Navy, never playing pro basketball. Modzelewski changed his name to Stan Stutz and played for the Knicks and the Bullets in the early NBA, averaging 7.1ppg for his pro career. He later became an NBA official.

1943 GEORGE SENESKY, a 6-2 guard for St. Joseph’s set a record by averaging 23.4ppg. He went on to an 8 year NBA career with the Warriors and was their coach when they won the 1956 NBA title.

1944 ERNIE CALVERLEY, a skinny 5-10 145 guard for Frank Keaney, upped the record to 26.7. He played for two years in what was to become the NBA, (it was then known as the Basketball Association of America, or the BAA) , for Providence, leading the loop in assists both times and averaging 11.9pgg. He went into coaching and eventually replaced Keaney at URI.

1945-46 were the years of the first two great big men in basketball. Bob “Foothills” Kurland of Oklahoma A&M, (State) was the first true 7 footer and led the Cowboys to two consecutive NCAA titles. 6-10 GEROGE MIKAN led DePaul to the 1945 NIT title, including a 97-53 annihilation of Keaney’s Rhode Island team in the semis in which Mikan scored the same number of points as the Rams all by himself. Mikan was the greater scorer and won the title both years, 23.3 (to 17.1 for Kurland) and 23.1 (to 19.5). The two teams and their towing centers met in a Red Cross benefit game after the 1945 season, a battle for the undisputed national title between the NCAA and NIT champions. Oklahoma A&M won, 52-44 as Kurland out-scored Mikan 14-9 before 18,000 at Madison Square Garden. George had fouled out after only 14 minutes. Mikan went onto become the dominant player in the NBL and later the NBA, winning 7 titles in 8 years from 1947-54. Kurland got a life-long job with the Phillips Petroleum company who had the best AAU team ever, the Phillips 66ers, who won 11 national AAU championships between 1940-63, many of them with Kurland. Maintaining his amateur status, Bob also led the 1948 and 1952 US Olympic teams to the gold medal.

1947 We had our first obscure scoring champion as JIM LACY of Loyola of Maryland, a 6-2 forward, averaged 20.8ppg. Playing four years, he was the first NCAA player to score 2000 points in a career. He was drafted by the Washington Capitols of the BAA but had no interest in playing as a professional. Loyola actually played in the NAIA tournament in those days but they were good enough to upset #1 ranked Seton Hall, 54-53, in 1947.

1948 Thanks to the ESPN encyclopedia, we now have a Top Ten to look at. I’m not going to list them all, just the interesting names. And I’ll continue to focus on the winner. The 1948 scoring champ was MURRAY WIER of Iowa, who averaged 21.0ppf, beating out Tony Lavelli of Yale (20.5) and Ernie Vandeweghe of Colgate (20.3), among others. Lavelli, a 6-3 forward, was also a noted accordion player who, after signing with the Celtics, was paid an extra $125 a game to entertain at halftime, (it beat listening to the coach’s speech). According to Wikipedia, some have credited his halftime performances with saving the Celtics franchise. He later joined the College All-Stars, the team that frequently played the Harlem Globetrotters in the early 50’s. Again, he’d play his accordion at halftime. He eventually became a noted nightclub performer. Vandeweghe, a 6-3 guard, played for the New York Knicks for several years, averaging 9.5ppg. married Miss America, Coleen Ray Hutchins, (sister of Mel Hutchins who played for several NBA teams himself). Kiki Vandeweghe is their son. Murray Wier, a 5-9 guard, played for the Tri- Cities Blackhawks, (now the Atlanta Hawks) for two years, averaging 5.8ppg. He then became a successful high school coach. His Iowa Hawkeyes won the Big Ten title when he was a freshman and finished second when he was senior.

1949 TONY LAVELLI won his second straight scoring title at 22.4ppg and continued to play the accordion beautifully. Just behind was Paul Arizin of Villanova, (22.0). Arizin was one of the great scorers in the era, dropping 85 points on something called the Naval Air Materials Center. He’s credited from some sources with a 100 point game but nobody seems to know the date or the opponents. They may be confusing the 85 point game and the fact that Arizin was Wilt Chamberlain’s teammate when he had his 100 point game. Vandeweghe was back in the top ten at 20.9. Alex Groza, Lou’s brother, scored 20.5 for national champion Kentucky. A 6-7 center, he was part Kentucky’s “Fabulous Five”, (yes, there was one before Michigan), that won the 1948-49 NCAA titles and joined forces with Bob Kurland’s Phillips 66ers to win the 1948 Olympics. The Fab Five then moved on to the NBA as a franchise of their own, the Indianapolis Olympians, who immediately became one of the best players in the league. But then the Kentuckians became implicated in the point-shaving scandals and their careers and that franchise came to an end. Also in the top ten were Vince Boryla of Denver, (18.9), who became a star with the Knicks and Fred Schaus of West Virginia (18.4) who was later Jerry West’s coach at their alma mater and with the Lakers.

1950 PAUL ARiZIN led the country with 25.4ppg. He beat out Paul Senesky of St. Joseph’s, (George’s brother), who scored 22.4ppg. The games between those rivals must have been interesting that year. Arizin, who had never been recruited- he was spotted by Coach Al Severence in a rec league game- went on a great NBA career with the Warriors, averaging 22.8 for his career, being a 10 time all-star and one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players. In third place was 6-8 Sherman White of LIU (22.0), who led the Blackbirds to a 20-5 resurgence, (ended by Syracuse 80-52 in the NIT).

1951 Midway through the season, everything seemed to be going great for Sherman White and the LIU Blackbirds, He was leading the nation in scoring and LIU was 15-0 and ranked #2 behind Kentucky. Then he started having “off” games. Suddenly he and two teammates were arrested and accused of taking money to shave points. It was the end of his career and that of his famous coach Clair Bee, who retired and even of the schools’ basketball program, which was ended, (and then resurrected on the small college level 6 years later). It was the begging of the great point shaving scandal that eventually took down 33 players on 8 teams, including CCNY, who had won both the NIT and NCAA tournaments that year. Still another Philadelphia star, BILL MLKVY of Temple, known as “The Owl Without A Vowel”, surged to the top of the list and won the national scoring title with a record 29.2ppg. A 6-4 forward, Mlkvy scored 73 points against Wilkes College. He played 31 NBA games with the Warriors and averaged 5.8ppg, then started a dental practice where he could really drill it. Maybe he needed that vowel. Also in the running were Dick Groat, Duke’s first great star, (25.2), who was named Helms National Player of the Year, and Clyde Lovellette, Kansas’ 6-9 center (22.8), who would eventually replace Mikan in Minneapolis and alter back up Bill Russell in Boston.

1952 CLYDE LOVELETTE not only led the nation in scoring with 28.6ppg but led Kansas to the national championship. Dick Goat finished second with 26.0 but was UPI’s national Player of the year. Eight years later he would be baseball’s National League MVP and batting champion as his Pirates won the World Series. Since 1979, he’s been the color commentator for Pittsburgh Panther basketball games. Right behind Groat was LSU’s 6-9 sophomore, Bob Pettit(25.5), another sophomore, Furman’s Frank Selvy (24.6) as well as Kentucky’s Cliff Hagan, (21.6), who would later form a formidable partnership with Pettit on the St. Louis Hawks and then become an early star in the ABA.

1953 FRANK SELVY of Furman won the national scoring title with 29.5ppg His full name was Franklyn Delano Selvy, (his father was a Kentucky coal miner and Roosevelt fan). He broke Bill Mlkvy’s two year old national scoring record but there was much more to come next year. He barely beat out Larry Hennesssy of Villanova (29.2). Philly was a hotbed of high-scoring basketball in those days. Johnny O’Brien, the more prolific of the O’Brien twins who led Seattle, (the Gonzaga of the day) to national prominence, was third with 28.5. He and his brother Eddie would alter be teammates of Dick Groat on the Pirates and be joined later by another basketball All-American, Joe Gibbon of Mississippi. The Pirates may have had the worst baseball team in the national league in the 1950’s but they had the best basketball team. Walter Dukes, a towering 7 footer who led Seton Hall to a 31-2 record, the NIT crown and a #2 national ranking, averaging 26.1 points and 22.2 rebounds per game. Bob Pettit, still a junior, was 10th at 24.7ppg. Dukes played for 7 years in the NBA an averaged a solid but somewhat disappointing 10.4ppg and 11.3rpg, not quite the dominance that had been expected. Hennessy, a 6-4 forward, played only two years as a reserve in the League, for the Warriors and the Nationals.

1954 This was FRANK SELVY’S big year. He shattered the national record by averaging an incredible 41.7 points per game, 10 more than runner-up Bob Pettit of LSU, (31.4). The only other “name” player in the top ten was Illinois’ Johnny “Red” Kerr, (25.3), who would soon be joining the Syracuse Nationals. But Selvy was a top ten all by himself. He’s actually been cut for the team as a 5-4 130 freshman, (who were eligible during the Korean War), he had a growth spurt to 6-2 180 and began scoring at a record pace. On February 13, 1954, Fruman ahd a game against a small college, Newberry. It was televised all over the state so something may have been up beforehand. Selvy attempted 66, (or 73, depending on the source) shots in that game and made 41, (Clemson ATTEMPTED 41 shots in last Sunday’s game vs. Syracuse). Frank was also 18 for 21 from the foul line. He became the first and only major college player to score 100 points in a game, (abit against a small college opponent: ironically the record at the time for most points against a major college opponent was 66 by Jay Handlan of Washington and Lee AGAINST Furman three years previously. ) Selvy later estimated that perhaps a dozen of the shots he made in that would have been three pointers today, including the 40 footer he hit at the buzzer to reach the century mark! Adolph Rupp said not recruiting Selvy to Kentucky might have been his biggest mistake but who knew what he would become?

 

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Frank went on to a lengthy but unspectacular career in the NBA, playing 10 years and averaging 10.8ppg. His most famous moment came in game 7 of the 1962 NBA finals, (from Wikipedia):

“Selvy's best known game in the NBA is probably Game 7 of the 1962 NBA Finalsin which Selvy's Lakers faced a four-point deficit at the hands of Boston Celtics in the final minute of the game's fourth quarter. Selvy then proceeded to secure two crucial rebounds and score two baskets to tie the game at 100. However, he lost his chance for the ultimate heroic moment as he missed a 12-foot jump shot right before the buzzer that would have secured the championship for the Lakers had it gone in. The miss sent the game to overtime, where the Celtics prevailed in this, the second of seven NBA Finals match-ups between Boston and Los Angeles over the course of eleven seasons. Regrettably for Selvy, his missed shot gained even larger significance as those years went by because the Lakers ultimately lost every one of those championship battles with the Celtics, thus magnifying the pain of Los Angeles having lost a golden opportunity, with Selvy's shot, to end that streak of futility before it had even begun. (The Lakers, while still playing in Minneapolis, had lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals in 1959, as well.)

The player who initially had the ball on that final play was Rod "Hot Rod" Hundley. And Hundley had in fact dreamt the night before that he would make the championship-winning shot. And further, after pump-faking his defender into the air, Hundley indeed briefly had an opening to take a shot. But rather than selfishly insisting upon attempting to play out his dream in real life, when Hundley noticed that Selvy was open for an even better shot — a shot that Selvy usually could be counted upon to make — Hundley gave up his own chance for glory and passed the ball. Selvy's miss, however, meant that Hundley's sacrifice had been for naught and that Hundley would never know if indeed he would have won the championship himself, had he taken the shot he had available. Because of this, Hundley has said that to this day, he occasionally calls his friend Selvy and, when Selvy answers the phone, Hundley simply says, "Nice shot!" and then hangs up. For his part, Selvy has expressed some degree of irritation at Hundley's teasing.”

It was a fairly tough shot because I was almost on the baseline. But I would trade all my points for that last basket.
— Frank Selvy as quoted on NBA.com

1955 Frank Selvy handed the baton to teammate DARRELL FLOYD, a 6-1 guard who led the nation with 35.9ppg, including 67 points vs. Morehead State and 56 points against Clemson, the most the Tigers have ever surrendered. There really aren’t any big names in the top ten that year. In second place was “Buzzy” Wilkinson of Virginia (32.1 and third was Robin freeman of Ohio State (31.5). We were well into the era when top players scored 30+ppg, although Wilkinson’s scoring average is still the ACC all-time record. He was a 6-2 guard-forward, (you could be one then), who never played pro basketball. Instead he went into the banking industry.

1956 DARRELL FLOYD became the fourth straight Furman Palladin to win the national scoring title and the second straight to repeat with 33.8ppg. Robin Freeman, Ohio State’s 5-11 guard was right behind him at 32.9. Tom Heinsohn of Holy Cross was #4 at 27.4ppg and Rod Hundley of West Virginia, Selvy’s future tormentor, #7 at 26.6. Both Floyd and Freeman were drafted by the St. Louis Hawks but decided he money was not enough. Floyd wound up selling heavy machinery and Freeman became a lawyer. They might have been teammates in a very high scoring backcourt. Hundley played for the Lakers for 6 years, averaging 7.5pgg, not as good as Selvy. But “Hot Rod” was more known as a flashy passer, anyway.

1957 We were now entering the era of the Superstars. Elgin Baylor averaged 29.7 for Seattle and Wilt Chamberlain 29.6 for Kansas. Bailey Howell was also in the top ten for Mississippi State (25.9). But the leading scorer for this year was GRADY WALLACE of South Carolina, who averaged 31.2ppg, beating out the previously mentioned Joe Gibbon of Mississippi, who averaged 30.0ppg. Information on the 6-4 Wallace is hard to come by but he was still another scoring champion of the time who never played in the NBA. The big money hadn’t arrived yet.

1958 This was the year that was. The top three scorers were : OSCAR ROBERTSON of Cincinnati (35.1), Elgin Baylor of Seattle (32.5) and Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas (30.1). Ever heard of them? Even the fourth place guy, Bailey Howell of Mississippi State (27.8) is a Hall-of-Famer. Baylor got the last laugh, taking his team to the NCAA finals, where they lost to Kentucky.

1959 Robertson continued his reign as NCAA scoring champion (32.6). Howell was still in 4th place (27.5), just ahead of Jerry West of West Virginia (26.6). Bob Boozer of Kansas State (25.6) and Tom Hawkins of Notre Dame, (23.4) also had long NBA careers. Hawkins was a commentator for college TV games with Curt Gowdy when I started following college basketball in the late 60’s. Both Oscar and Jerry led their teams to the Final Four where Pete Newell’s defensive-oriented California team defeated both of them to win the title.

1960 The Big O completed his three year dominance- remember, he couldn’t play as a freshman- with a 33.7 average and another trip to the Final Four, where they again lost to California. West was fourth with a 29.3 average. Another Jerry, Lucas was 8th with 26.3 but his team crushed Cal for the title, 75-55. Two other future NBA stars, Terry Dischinger and Dave Debusschere were also in the top ten.

1961 Oscar was gone and the scoring title reverted to a battle of now forgotten players. FRANK BURGESS of Gonzaga won it (32.4) over Tom Chilton of East Tennessee State (32.1). Burgess had been discovered playing service ball by an officer who graduated from Gonzaga and steered him towards his alma mater. He spurned the NBA for the short-lived ABL. When that folded he went back to law school and became a federal judge. Chilton was a transfer from Butler who got drafted by the Hawks and then by the Army. An injury ended his basketball career and he became a high school teacher. Tom Stith, who had finished second to the Big O the previous year, was third. He was St. Bonaventure’s first big star and together with brother Sam. Also in the top ten were Dischinger, Bill “The Hill” McGill, Jack “The Shot” Foley, (are there no good nicknames anymore?), Chet Walker and Art Heyman.

1962 The Hill and the Shot ruled college basketball in 1962. BILL MCGILL scored 38.8 per game, (the most since Selvy), for Utah and Foley finished second for Holy Cross with 33.3.Dischinger was at 30.3 for Purdue, Walker was still at Bradley (26.4) and Debusschere reappeared in the top 10 for Detroit (26.8). McGill was a 6-9 jump-hook artist who wrung up BYU for 60 points. The year before he’s taken part in the Mother of all Consolation games, a 120-127 four overtime loss to St. Joseph’s in the battle for third place, scoring 34 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. He had a disappointing pro career, bounding around to 5 different NBA teams in 3 years and then 4 ABA teams in 2 years. That must have set some kind of record for the ratio of teams to years played. (1.8).

1963 NICK WERKMAN of Seton Hall and Barry Kramer of NYU battled it out for the scoring title, Werkman winning 29.5-29.3. Bill Bradley was 5th at 27.3 and Art Heyman 9th at 24.9. Unfortunately, Seton Hall and NYU didn’t play each other, despite their proximity. Strangely this was Werkman’s lowest scoring year at the Hall. He averaged 33.0 and finished third the year before and 33.2 and finished second the next year. He was known for his “underhanded lay-ups that drew numerous fouls”. Kramer had one last game after Werkman had completed his season- against North Carolina. He needed 31 points to catch Werkman. ''I remember that when The Associated Press called me and said Kramer had scored 28, I jumped so high that I accidentally put my fist through the ceiling,'' Werkman never made it in the NBA because he was 6-3 but had the skills of a forward, not a guard. But he’s credited with saving Seton Hall basketball from extinction after two of their players were implicated in college basketball’s second point-shaving scandal.

1964 Werkman got beat out for a second straight scoring title by HOWARD KOMIVES of Bowling Green, (36.7-33.2) Komives teamed with Nate Thurmond on for a terrific 1-2 punch for the Falcons. Komives went onto become the Knick’s point guard until Walt Frazier showed up. He and Walt Bellamy got traded for Dave Debusschere. Bill Bradley (32.3) and Rick Barry (32.2) were 4th and 5th in the national rankings. John Austin, Ernie’s older brother, averaged 29.2 and Utah State’s greatest player, Wayne Estes averaged 28.3. This was the year that SU, with Dave Bing, played Bradley’s Princeton team and Barry’s Miami team in the Hurricane Classic, with Muhammed Ali in the crowd to watch, just prior to the first Liston fight.

 

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1965 RICK BARRY had an amazing year for Miami, scoring 37.4 points a game and pulling down 18.3 rebounds a game. His major competition for the scoring title was Estes, whose average was 33.7 when he set a became the first player from his school to reach 2000 points with a 48 point night in his 19th game against Denver. Utah State fans expected to read about Estes’ great game in their morning paper. Instead, they read that he was dead. He’d changed into leather shoes after the game while his teammates kept their sneakers on. Driving back from the game, there was an accident ahead of them and they pulled over and got out to see if they could help. What they didn’t know is that the car had hit a telephone pole and a live wire was down, hanging from a near-bye tree. Estes walked right into it and was electrocuted.

Bill Bradley was #3 at 30.5 He really made his legend with an incredible post season run that included leading Princeton to an amazing 109-69 demolition of a 24-1, #4 ranked Providence team in the finals of the eastern regional. They lost to Cazzie Russell’s Michigan team in the Final Four but Bradley set a Final Four record that likely will never be broken by scoring 58 points against Wichita State in the consolation game. Russell scored 25.7, John Austin 26.9 and Purdue had a new gunner named Dave Schelllhase, who scored 29.3.

1966 My memory of this, (the first year I started following college basketball) is that for most of the season the scoring title battle was between Michigan’s Cazzie Russell and Syracuse’ Dave Bing but both were beaten out by DAVE SCHELLHASE and someone named Dave Wagnon of Idaho State, who both averaged 32.5, (Schellhase: 32.54, Wagnon 32.50). Russell was third at 30.8, Utah’s Jerry Chambers fourth at 28.8 and Bing 5th at 28.4. In the subsequent NBA draft, the Knicks and Pistons battled it out for the first choice. Both finished last in their divisions, (it was only East-West back then). Instead of a lottery, there was a coin flip. The Pistons who desperately wanted Russell, lost and had to settle for Bing, Russell played for a dozen years in the NBA and got to play on the Knicks’ 1970 NBA championship team. He even had a couple of 20 point a game seasons. But Bing scored half again as many point, almost three times the assists and was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players. He also founded Bing Steel and became major of Detroit. All on a coin flip. Schellhase was a reserve for the Bulls for two years before going into coaching. I was unable to find out anything about Dave Wagnon but the chart in this link is interesting, (I think?!?):
http://nba-draft-history.findthebes...as-Dave-Wagnon-selected-in-the-1966-NBA-draft

1967 UCLA was all-conquering in UCLA’s first year with Lew Alcindor, (who later re-named himself Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) but Lew couldn’t beat out JIMMY WALKER of Providence, (Jalen Rose’s Dad, as we found out decades later), for the national scoring crown. Jimmy scored 30.4, Lew 29.0. Elvin Hayes was fourth at 28.4. But the big scorers that year were freshmen, who weren’t eligible for the varsity and had to play on freshmen teams. Back then we didn’t talk about high school players to evaluate our team’s future: we talked about freshman teams. Syracuse had an undefeated one, (16-0) with Wayne Ward, (20 points and 16 rebounds a game) and Ernie Austin (30ppg). They twice took on the Niagara freshmen, who featured Calvin Murphy, who was scoring 50 points a game, (he wound up at 48.9). The combination of Ward and Austin beat Murphy’s heroics twice, (people were seen leaving to go home before the varsity game), but it was obvious that a new scoring champion was on the horizon. Indeed, someone would lead the NCAA in scoring for the next three years in a row. But it wouldn’t be Calvin Murphy.
http://www.allsportswny.com/wny-legends/calvin-murphy-niagara-all-american/

1968-70 A sophomore burst onto the college scene and scored like nobody has scored before or since. No it wasn’t Calvin Murphy, it was Pistol PETE MARAVICH of LSU, a skinny 6-5 kid with socks that seemed too big for him and who had a Beatles haircut but who had incredible skill with a basketball. He had scored ‘only’ 43.6 for LSU’s freshman team but improved on that as a varsity sophomore with 43.8 and as a junior with 44.2 and a senior with 44.5. There weren’t as many televised games back then, (usually one a week and regional) and I only saw him play once in college. It was against Kentucky. He put up 64 points on one of Adolph Rupp’s best teams. On one play I remember he was driving along the sideline on a fast break and never made a move toward the basket. Instead he threw in a running 25 foot hook shot from the corner that hit nothing but net. The Kentucky players looked at each other and at Rupp, wondering what to do about this guy. But the Tigers didn’t bother playing much defense and lost 106-121. Pistol Pete was a sort of one-man Loyola Marymount.

In the same three years, Murphy scored 38.2, 32.4 and 29.4. Murphy set the record for the most points against a major college team when he rang up Syracuse for 68 and then Maravich topped it with 69 against Alabama. Purdue had another great one in Rick Mount, who averaged 28.5, 33.3 and 35.4, leading his team to the NCAA final in Alcindor’s senior year, where they, too got crushed by UCLA, 92-72. Maravich, Murphy and mount were known as “The Three Ms”. It’s a pity their schools never scheduled each other in this period. Elvin Hayes scored 36.8 for a Houston team that upset UCLA in 1968 and went into the Final Four 31-0 and ranked #1. The Bruins exacted a devastating revenge, 101-69. Spencer Haywood put in a year for Detroit after his Olympic glory, scoring 31.8 in 1969. These were also the years of Bob Lanier at St. Bonaventure. He made the top ten with 27.3 as a junior and 29.3 as a senior. And Note Dame had another scoring machine in Austin Carr, who finished second to Maravich in 1970 with a 38.1 average. Unlike Maravich and Murphy, Carr’s team made the NCAA tournament, (which was much harder to do in those days when only 24 teams got invitations). And he became the King of the Big Dance, averaging 41 points a game in 7 NCAA tournament games during his career, with a record high of 61. It was an age when the scoring totals of the game’s greatest players roared like mighty guns across the land.