New No. I

The Sugar Bowl's four-team basketball tournament last week was carefully planned for a logical climax: Kentucky v. Bradley, the No. 1 and 2 teams in the country. As first-round warmups for these giants, bowl officials invited Syracuse and St. Louis, good teams but not ranked among the nation's top 20. Syracuse followed the script to the letter and lost to Bradley. St. Louis refused to play dead. The Billikens had upset another great Kentucky team in the 1948 Sugar Bowl tournament, and they made up their minds to do it again.

St. Louis used the same old slowdown-and-possession tactics that had won for them two years ago. This did not entirely stop Kentucky's great Bill Spivey (who scored 16 points for the evening), but it did accomplish one of the big upsets of the young season, 43-42.

With a glittering chance to knock off the nation's No. 1 and 2 teams on consecutive nights, St. Louis threw away its slowdown stuff, switched to a racehorse game, and ran Bradley ragged for the first three quarters. But Bradley stayed close to the pace, caught tired St. Louis, 52-52, with seven minutes to play. Bradley wrapped up the game, the Sugar Bowl title, and top national ranking, 64-59.

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