Monday, Mar. 22, 1971

Thinking Small Pays Big

Quick, now, basketball fans, who is the best college forward in the country? Sidney Wicks of U.C.L.A.? Well, some pro scouts insist that unpublicized Travis Grant of Kentucky State can shoot circles around Wicks. How about the best guard? Wrong again--not Austin Carr of Notre Dame. Those in the know say that Tuskegee has a ball-hawking hustler named Kendall Mayfield who has moves that make Carr look like he is standing still.

Such opinions are, of course, purely subjective. Yet when they come from professional basketball scouts, they bear checking out. That, in fact, is exactly what the pro scouts were doing last week when they made their annual visit to Kansas City, Mo., to inspect the 32 teams playing for the championship of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Because the N.A.I.A.'s 558 member schools are classified as "small colleges" their athletes do not command the kind of publicity that is heaped on the big-college stars. Nonetheless, as the number of pro-basketball teams has grown from nine to 28 in the past nine years, scouts have found that thinking small can reap big rewards. Ask the world champion New York Knickerbockers. No fewer than three of their starting five--Walt Frazier of Southern Illinois, Willis Reed of Grambling and Dick Barnett of Tennessee State--are N.A.l.A. alumni. They all sharpened their skills in the prostyle brand of run-and-shoot that is played in the N.A.l.A.

This season the N.A.l.A. has nurtured a host of prospects who figure to make it in the pros, including Greg Northington, a 7-ft. 1 1/2. center from Alabama State who averages 20 rebounds per game; Georgetown's Ken Davis (32-pt. average); and Mike Ratliff, a rugged 6-ft. 10-in. junior center from Eau Claire. But four players in particular, according to the scouts, have "can't miss" written all over them. Travis Grant of Kentucky State, a 6-ft. 8-in., 225-lb. forward, is rated by a Knicks scout as "the best shooting forward in the country today." A hustling rebounder who plays well at both ends of the court, Grant hit on a remarkable 68% of his shots this season while averaging 30.7 points a game. -- Fred Hilton of Grambling, a 6-ft. 2-in. guard, is a deadly shot outside and an elusive driver inside. This season Hilton led Grambling to their conference championship by pouring in no fewer than 38 points in key late games. -- Elmore Smith, also of Kentucky State, stands 7 ft. tall, weighs in at 251 Ibs. A draft-eligible junior, Smith, according to former Boston Celtics Center Bill Russell, is already capable of stepping into a pro uniform. Like Russell, he has the agility and range to block shots anywhere in the keyhole. A hook-shot artist, Smith averaged 27 points and 26 rebounds a game this season. Kendall Mayfield of Tuskegee, 6 ft. 1 in., has topped 40 points in five games this year. Says one scouting report: "Excellent outside. Good driver. Takes opponents to basket well. Very quick. Has poise." William Berker, chief scout for the Los Angeles Lakers, goes even further: "Mayfield is the best college player in the U.S. today."

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