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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1011621, member: 289"] 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 [URL='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962_NBA_Finals']1962 NBA Finals[/URL]in which Selvy's Lakers faced a four-point deficit at the hands of [URL='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Celtics']Boston Celtics[/URL] 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 [URL='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakers%E2%80%93Celtics_rivalry']seven NBA Finals match-ups between Boston and Los Angeles over the course of eleven seasons[/URL]. 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 [URL='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis']Minneapolis[/URL], 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 [URL='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Hundley']Rod "Hot Rod" Hundley[/URL]. And Hundley had in fact dreamt the night before that [I]he[/I] 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.” [I]It was a fairly tough shot because I was almost on the baseline. But I would trade all my points for that last basket.[/I] — Frank Selvy as quoted on NBA.com [media=youtube]mJXWPQjI020[/media] 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. [/QUOTE]

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