KENTUCKY'S BILL SPIVEY is perhaps the best-known basketball player in the country. This is only partly attributable to the fact that he stands seven feet one-half inch in height and can keep the ball out of the reach of most opponents merely by holding it over his head.

Spivey is the man who has made Kentucky basketball since the graduation of the Groza-Jones-Beard combination two years ago. He has proved himself to be more than just a tall man, for he has learned to rely not only on height but on timing and court orientation to make himself what he has become.

His great shot is a turn-around hook which he can deliver with either hand. He fakes one way and goes the other, swinging the ball toward the basket on a straight line. His height makes it unnecessary for him to employ an arching shot which most pivot-turn shooters have to use.

On defense Spivey is hard to pass because of his great height and reach. He has been trained to avoid fouling and was called for only 93 in thirty games last year. He controls the back-boards without real exertion, for jumping, generally, is unnecessary to him. When he gets a rebound he has time to judge his pass, for when he holds the ball over his head very few players can dislodge it.

Spivey is supposed to be an unsolicited acquistion to Adolph Rupp, the lucky Kentucky coach. The story is that he came to call on Rupp in 1948 just as Adolpho was about to leave for Europe with the Olympic team. Rupp is supposed to have left him in charge of an assistant with orders to feed him and watch him closely. Spivey weight 178 pounds when he hitch-hiked in from Warner-Robbins, Ga. Now he weighs about 220.

His debut was spectacular. Playing in New York against St. Joh's Bob Zawoluk, he scored 17 points and held his man to a field goal and a free throw. In justice to Zawoluk, it should be noted that this operative pass off all night to get around the man-mountain which loomed over him.

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