Larry Jewell

Welcome to Meet the Running Redskins. This pregame show precedes the freshman varsity basketball contest from the new Sports and Special Events Center. Hi, I'm your host Larry Jewell and tonight we will be discussing basketball with both the varsity coaches and the freshman coaches to give you a chance to meet the Redskins. Also to meet our pedal and papooses, the Freshman Ball Club, which we will be hearing more of later this year on kueer. First of all, let's see what it's like from the varsity side of the court. We're here with coach Jerry Pim, assistant varsity basketball coach this season. Coach, tell us a little about your background. Well, I played at the University of Southern California a few years ago, I don't even want to mention how many, and coached the freshman there when I finished playing and I've been. Well, this is my ninth season coming up right now starting tonight here at Utah. How long have you been associated as an assistant coach here at the University of Utah? I coached the freshman my first five seasons here and this is my fourth season as the varsity assistant coach. You've been here quite a while then and gotten a chance to get indoctrinated into the Jack Gardner system. What do you like about University of Utah basketball? Well, of course, one of the greatest things about the University of Utah and basketball is the enthusiasm that the fans show towards the game. It's a tremendous experience to play before 15,000 people and now we're going to have it a lot right here on our campus this season. You have most of your ball club back from last year, I believe somewhere in the neighborhood of 8. Letterman. Who do you plan to start against? The freshman? Well, tonight we'll go with Walt Hawkins, a 6 3, a 200 pounder from last year's squad and junior college boy originally. And then at the other forward spot, Ken Gardner, who has been a little bit of a question mark up till now, to be honest. He has torn cartilage in his left knee and it has been bothering him. But we're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that he'll be able to go the rest of the season. And a decision to whether or not he will play the rest of the year will be made Sunday, next Sunday or Monday before we play Stanford and open up the year. Of course, if he gets hurt between now and then, he will not play the season. If he does not, he probably will. So that hinges on whether he gets hurt or not. And then at the post we'll Start Jim Mahler, 6:10, 230 pound center who Was our starting center last year. The other returning starter is Bob Martin and Mike Newland in the backcourt, of course. Mike Newland, everybody knows, is a player of the league and the leading scorer. A real fine basketball player. And incidentally, he's working real hard on the other aspects of the game that it takes to play this tough game of basketball. And he's coming along real well. And I think everybody will see a marked improvement in his floor play, for instance, his defensive game and his board play and very conscientious boy, an easy boy to work with and we're real pleased to have him. Bob Martin at the other side, five' 11, about 180 and he's doing a good job for us. A good scorer and a good defensive player and a good inspirational player to lead the guys along. You have 10 other ballplayers on his ball club. Could you give us a brief rundown of some of those who will see plenty of action this year, the others that should see action and not necessarily in this order, but we have a junior college boy named Early Laster. The boys call him Peaches. And he's about six six and has a seven foot span from fingertip to fingertip, has long arms, good jumping ability and has exhibited good board power so far in our scrimmages. And so he will be seeing some action at a forward. Ken Reynolds, a junior college transfer from College of Eastern Utah who scored around 48 points against our freshman last year. And we decided that maybe we ought to have him playing for us instead of against us. So we got him up here with us and he's at 65 and 220 and he'll be at 1 forward and helping us in playing quite a bit. Harper. Another boy named Ted Harper from Fullerton Junior College is our next junior college boy, about 6, 5 and 2:15 and he'll be seeing a lot of action. Bob Beam, a new junior college guard, about six two, will be seeing some action. A squad member, John Hunter from last year, about 6:1 and £160, and he will see a lot of action as our reserve guards. So that is pretty much a rundown of the guys that we'll be seeing a lot of action for. Our reserve post is still up in the air between a couple of guys. Dennis Cook, about 610 and 210 pounds, still rather thin, but he's working well at the post. And Terry Kunez, a boy who red shirted Last year at 6, 8 and 220 who's kind of sharing the duties there at the post. There's two members of the ball club that we remember from last year because we broadcast the freshman games, especially 1 Dan Cowan, 6 foot 4. What do you plan to do with him? Dan is definitely going to play and he will be in the guard line at 64 and has shown a great deal of improvement this year along with Rick Martin off of last year's freshman. The only two freshman boys that will be on the varsity this year off of last year's team. I know you have. You've been hit with injuries during the practice sessions. There have been three that I can think of besides Ken Gardner right off the bat. First, in this order, how is Ken Borovic's wrist and how are the auto injuries to Dennis Cook and Bob Martin? How are they healing? Boravik ran into the cement wall over in our new practice facilities. He was so elated that we don't have a screen there anymore. He forgot to stop and he jammed his left wrist on the concrete abutment behind the baskets. And he is coming along well. He bruised the blood vessels and so forth, but I think he'll be able to go in a week or so. And then of course, Dennis Cook and Bob Martin were involved in a rather serious automobile accident after one of the on the freeway. And they're coming along real well and Bob has healed. He had a little head injury and he has healed and Dennis Cook was lucky enough not to get a scratch on him. So they're both back on the squad, working hard and out of the hospital bed and ready to go. That's good news for University of Utah basketball fans. One thing that we've noticed, traditionally in the preseason polls, the team picked as the preseason favorite has only won once, and I believe that was the first or second year when Arizona State won. This year, Arizona has been picked number one and Utah number two. Do you feel the pressure yet? Well, not really. We have been picked one before and in the years I've been here, we won the Skyline a couple years when it was still the Skyline Conference. And you know, it's kind of fun to be picked as number one, but yet you do have a lot of responsibility and it is putting you on the spot because everybody's aiming for you. But we were picked as number two and Arizona is number one. And they have four starters back and we have four back. But don't count the other teams out. Byu. I watched their varsity freshman game Saturday night after the football game and they have an outstanding varsity squad in addition to probably one of the best freshman teams I'VE seen since I've been here. They have a boy named Karasaka who's a Yugoslavian freshman, 610 center, and he can play in the pro leagues right now. He's a great one. And Utah State, of course, are intermountain rivals here, and they have a fine varsity squad, so you can't count. I don't think anybody can say right now who's going to win the league and who's going to finish last. It could be any one of five or six teams. It seems like the main curricula or the main ideas of the sports riders in picking as they did was not so much the starting five. Everyone seems to have a good, strong starting five. It seems to be depth. Hence New Mexico was picked at the bottom. Did that surprise you? It did a little, because, you know, New Mexico is always picked to win it since Bob King's been out there. And they have excellent talent. But like you say, they lost Howard and they've lost a couple boys by graduation. So they're not as deep as maybe the rest of the teams, but their starting five is as good as any starting five. I think on a given night. You have the Utah Classic coming up just before the first of the year. Could you tell us briefly about some of those teams? Yes. Well, we will be playing University of San Francisco the first night, and then Bradley will be playing Michigan State the second night. I mean, the second game. And then, of course, the winners will play winners in the final game on Saturday, and the losers will play losers on the first game on Saturday. So it'll be an outstanding event and one that I think should sell out both nights. Well, thank you, Coach Jerry Pim. Good luck to you in this season. And all the University of Utah fans will certainly be rooting for you. And good luck against the freshman team tonight. Thank you very much. That was the varsity story. And the varsity basketball team is primed and ready for their first contest in their new show place. And now let's see what it sounds like on the other side of the court. We're here with coach George Fisher, head freshman coach here at the University of Utah. Coach, tell us a little about your career here at the University of Utah. Well, first of all, I came here from Alhambra, California, where I was born and raised. Played freshman ball in the year 1962, 63. Played three years of varsity ball, graduating in 1966, culminating in what I feel was a very colorful and successful career. We ended our final season of play in the NCAA Championships in College park. Coming in fourth place. Unfortunately I was not able to play because of a broken leg. But still I think it's one of the most exciting times in my life. It was a fantastic year and all the University of Utah fans were kind of bemoaning the fact you did have a broken leg that year. How long have you been a coach here at the University of Utah now? Well, this will be my fourth year. My first year out of school I helped Jerry Pym when he was freshman coach. I did a little graduate work and helped him with the freshman and then the following year I became the head freshman coach and this will be my third season. You're also assistant varsity coach also, isn't that part of your title? Yes, that's right. Coach Pim and myself both helped Jack Gardner with the varsity splitting up the duties of scouting, recruiting. Also with our practices, it's a full time job and I handle the freshman earlier in the afternoon and then go ahead and help with the varsity as they finish up. This freshman team you have this year looks kind of exciting. Could you give us briefly a starting lineup and then some of your potential stars? Well, right now I think I'm going to start four in state boys at the guard line will be Blair Morris. He's a six foot guard from West High School who has shown good quickness handling the ball exceptionally well. We hope that he'll come along and be our quarterback of the team. Kind of keep the boys together and help them run their offense. The other three in state boys right now will probably be Craig Campbell from Bountiful starting in the center position. Craig's 69 and is from the state high school championship team last year. And along with Craig at one forward position will be Larry Green who stands 67 and weighs about 200 pounds. A good sized boy with fine quickness and a good feel of the game. He and Craig, as I said, play together last year on the team that won the state high school AA class basketball championship. At the other forward right now will probably be Steve Breese from East High School, 6 5, 200 pounder who played for coach Dick Milne. And also who could be seeing a lot of action will be Jim Sorensen from Box Elder High School who is currently nursing a pulled thigh muscle. And we hope that Jim will be back in the in the starting lineup real soon. And our rounding out our starting five will be Bernie Williams, 6 foot 3 inch guard from Southern California. Played at Covina High School for a very fine high school coach by the name of Doc Suiter. One thing that coach Stan Watts down at BYU bemoaned was he missed out a little bit on the in state recruiting this year. It looks like you and Utah State have kind of cornered the market on in state boys. Can you name some of those boys who aren't starting who people can remember from high school? Well, we also have from Highland High School Brian George and his running mates Blaine Smith and Don Branca. All three played for coach Larry Maxwell at Highland High School and all three will be playing a lot for our freshman team. Also from N State we have Steve Tibbs who's from the championship bountiful team. Steve is another big boy at 67 and weighs over 200 pounds. So we're looking for some help from Steve at the forward line. One thing I've noticed about this year's team is comparison to last year's. It seems to be deeper with more talent and a little bigger up front. Am I valid in that assumption? Yes. Well, last year we had very little size as a matter of fact, and in comparison with this year's team, we have much more size up front with the center and forwards. But I don't think we have the team speed that we had last year. We had a lot of little scooters that worked hard and kind of were all over the court at one time and were a pleasure to work with. This year. I think we do have, as you say, more depth and more talent as far as individuals are concerned. But when you have that, you also have to work a little harder and longer to mold them together as a group. One thing I've noticed, just purely looking at the team and not trying to be biased in any sort, you do have talent on this ball club. This is the haymaker. How much has this new complex aided in your recruiting? Well, I don't think that this past recruiting season played as much a factor as I hope it will be this coming recruiting season. And the reason I say that is because 17 year old boys and 18 year old boys coming out of high school have very little foresight and it's very difficult for them to walk into a huge plant such as we have here that's partially constructed. It's tough for them to visualize what it will be like and tough for them to think two or three years ahead of time to imagine themselves playing as varsity players in the new arena. I hope that this year, as I said, it will help us much more. I'm sure that it will, but as far as these kids are concerned, I think most of them look forward to it. But I'm hoping that next year we can have even a better group that can come in and actually see what we have. The freshman coach. Being head freshman coach is definitely a challenge. Everyone knows there's a big difference between high school ball and even freshman college ball. What are your main duties as freshman coach? What do you have to teach these kids? What do you find them lacking most? Well, Coach Gardner, first of all has me take each of the boys and break them down individually in order to teach them the fundamentals that they will need to become good varsity players. Mostly this is a job of. Of teaching them individual footwork, confidence in their ball handling both left and right, and also teaching them confidence in getting their shots off in various parts of the floor. Most high school players generally shoot from one or two different spots on the floor. These kids, we try to teach them to be versatile players so that they can play up front or in the backcourt, because in our style of play, every player will find himself in every position at one time or another during the game. One other thing, connection with your freshman coaching career. Do you find great satisfaction and do you feel that you've been successful over the years in producing fine varsity players for coach Jack Gardner? Now, that's. Throw away the modesty, if you will. That's really a loaded question. Well, I feel very good about my first freshman team, which was the kids with Kenny Gardner and Mike Newlin and Ken Borovic and those kids. I think they came along very well when they were freshmen. They had trouble playing defense. They had trouble molding together as a unit and learning the offense. But I think once we did stress and teach those things, that they became better players. They were good players when we got them, but I think they're even better now because of the fundamentals that we more or less bred into them. This is kind of a nodding your head type question, I guess, but when one of your former ball players does well with the varsity, how do you feel? Well, of course, it gives me a great deal of satisfaction because as I see the players out there, I guess I'm sort of seeing myself in them because of the time that I've spent with each one breaking them down, as I said, and then building them up to the pedestal that they're now on. And of course, when they win a ball game with a particular player with a fine pass or with a good shot or with something that I've taught them, it does kind of make me feel warm inside. But I do have to be honest in saying that it just wasn't my coaching that made them good players. After they get to the varsity, they seem to blossom. And I'm sure that's because Coach Gardner brings out the best in all his players. As a final question, I'm going to give you a chance to be a little bit of a cheerleader. What brought you originally here to the University of Utah and what do you like about the University of Utah basketball program? Well, I've probably examined that question a hundred thousand times and I'm really not sure. I think being from Los Angeles, and I've always liked to get out, so to speak, in the wide open spaces where I had a little elbow room. When I first came to Salt Lake City, I stepped off the airplane and the sky was so blue and the mountain so clear that right away I was just totally impressed. And then once I got on the campus and met the coaching staff and found out how basketball players here on the campus were well treated, how the basketball tradition was well accepted by the fans and the students, I was just totally enthralled. And when I go out and recruit boys, I try to tell them that being an out of stater that I was when I was first recruited to the university, some of the things that I looked for, I'm trying to point out to them. For example, Salt Lake City is large enough that it offers enough diversification in all types of things, yet it's small enough that there is a hominess and a friendliness about the town that you don't find in large megalopolises like Los Angeles. For example, Coach George Fisher, you've got a great freshman team and you have competition this year. The other schools have good freshman teams. Junior colleges around here you'll be playing have good teams. We wish you the best of luck in your coming season. Thank you. Coach GEORGE fisher, thank you. Yes, it looks like the freshmen are ready also. So as Coach Jerry Pym and Coach George Fisher say, this should be an exciting game. And Kueer the sports staff, that is, invite you to settle back and relax and listen to exciting play by play of varsity freshman basketball immediately following this broadcast on kueer, George Fisher has his freshman ready to go, and Jerry Pym, along with Jack Gardner have their varsity squad ready to go. This has been Meet the Redskins. Meet the Redskins is a production of the Kueer Sports staff. Producer for this edition is Larry Jewell for University of Utah radio. Sam.