Bilko's bomb shocks 'Nova

AD Bilsky put hoops on map Wideman is quiet, sincere and a close friend of Bill Bradley and what he said was, "It's a simple story, the better team won." Over in another corner Steve Bilsky, soon to be christened Broadway Bilko, by Pete Andrews, stood as the center of attention. "Listen to him talk over there," Dave Wohl kidded. "Tomorrow morning's paper is going to be a Bilsky monologue." The scene was vaguely reminiscent of Penn State's locker room after the Orange Bowl. The main conversation was, "I can't believe it," and "this is the greatest thing that ever happened to me." Of course, it was Bilsky's night because the finger of fate had pointed at him and the ball fell through the hoop. "The shot was supposed to be mine or Dave's," the hustling sophomore said. "We had trouble recognizing whether they were in a zone or man-to-man. I knew time was running out and that even if I missed, we still had the tie. It felt good off my fingers and I just stood there and watched it. It took ten seconds to get there?" · Dick Harter sat in his chair a few weeks back, before the Princeton game, bemoaning his luck. It wasn't enough that Ken Cohen had been sidelined for a couple months on a bum knee, or Pete Andrews missing a couple of games with a sore back, but now the team had some momentum after the win in the Kodak Classic and Pete had come down with a bad cold for the Princeton game. "You know," he said with a serious look on his face, "you can't have a week go by that something doesn't go wrong," and then he broke out into a big smile. It has been a troublesome three years for Dick Harter since he returned to Penn and tried to pick up the pieces that Jack McCloskey left him. The young coach has been criticized a lot, by many, but most are willing to give him the time to gather his kind of talent before judging. But Dick Harter is being recognized as one of the finest recruiters on the eastern seaboard, and in fact, could barely stay around to savor his greatest win. He was off Thursday morning to Chicago to look at some prospects. You could feel, Wednesday night, the competition between two basketball minds, as if they were only chessmen. It was Jack Kraft, called the best around by many people, and Dick Harter, whose biggest fault may be a tendency to overcoach sometimes. Harter guessed right, Kraft wrong. · There was more hugging going on in the Quaker dressing room than at a Kappa Sig party. Wohl and Bilsky stood together for a while with Dave answering for his backcourt mate and giving him encouragement. He leaned over and said, "Steve, that shot is going to go down in Pennsylvania basketball history. Even Ernie Beck couldn't have put it in better." Decker Ulhorn was standing on the bench in front of his locker saying, "I just want to go out there and shake Gillen's hand." But really nobody wanted to leave. "I just want to stay here," Bilsky said. "I wouldn't go to class for anything tomorrow." But Wohl retorted, "I would." Dick Phelps was caught by the TV cameras dancing at about midcourt with Harter punching him in the ribs. It wasn't until later that he noticed the ache in his back. "Did I go up high enough to block a Howard Porter shot?" he asked. "I'm going to feel it tomorrow, but give me a couple like that after La Salle Dick." · It was difficult to tell who was more shocked. The Villanova players couldn't find the coordination to call time out, even though they could have with two seconds left, and Bilsky as he sat in front of his locker mumbled, "I didn't know what to do, or where I was?" But maybe the most stunned were the Harter critics.

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