Too Good Neighbors

Basketball, supposedly a U.S. specialty, showed last week that it had international possibilities. On Christmas Day the University of Havana, first big-time foreign team ever to play on a U.S. court, confounded experts and Long Island University, rated the East's best team, 40-to-37.

The Cubans' ball-handling was about the slickest ever seen in Manhattan's packed and cheering Madison Square Garden. Basketbol shares Cuban sporting fervor with beisbol and boxeo. The season lasts seven months on outdoor, wooden courts. It took Havana's team only ten minutes to get their indoor bearings. From then on split-vision faking and passing kept them always in the lead. The "Caballeros of the Caribbean" go home after two more games: with Canisius at Buffalo early this week, and with Temple at Philadelphia on New Year's Day.

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