TUESDAY, AUGUST29,1967 THE MICHIGAN DAILV
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PAGiE THREE
Roundballers Hope To Erase Recent Past
By HOWARD KOHN
Sometime toward the end of last
season, coach Dave Strack sighed,
"This is a five-man operation and
we've been trying to run on three
cylinders."
And Michigan's basketball team,
losing its last eight Big Ten games
in a row, coughed and belched and
wheezed its 'way to a 2-12 record
and last place.
Parnelli Jones and his six-buck
gearbox should complain. Strack
and his three-cylinder team never
got off the starting line.
key' expected back, Michigan's
basketbal team will have its
chance.,
Strack's "startling"' sophomores
of last year will now be juniors
and will have their chance to re-
coup the exhilerating headlines
they received during their fresh-
men year.
Junior Corps
Forwards Dave McClellan, Den-
nis Stewart and Bob Sullivan and
guard Ken Maxey-who struggled
through large part of the work-
load last year-are the junior
corps.
In addition, senior Jim Pitts and
.a talented trio of sophomores will
be on hand.
At least, Strack hopes Pitts will
be. The 6' 3" rangy guard, who
wears rubberbands on his wrists
and became one of Michigan's top
rebounders, has been reclassified
1-A and may spend the season in
a warmer clime.
Pitts, as the only senior on the
team, would have been an obvious
choice for captain; but his offi-
cial appointment won't take place
until his military situation is
clarified.
Pitts had his problems last sea-
son, too, missing one game because
of a suspension and another be-
cause he was late for the bus.
Sullivan also sat out a game
due to a disciplinary suspension;
and Stewart missed one because
f an academic hang-up ...
... and it was that kind of sea-
son,
The Wolverines opened their Big
Ten schedule with three consecu-
tive losses, after a mediocre 6-4
pre-season record, before upsetting
the other eventual co-champion
and cross-state rival Michigan
State
The word was, after the im-
pressive 68-59 shocker, that "the
boys had gained poise' and the
"team had jelled" and other col-
loquialisms.
Michigan split the next two,
losing at Iowa but rebounding to
nick Purdue, and then inexperi-
ence caught up.
Defense Minister Dayan would
have had trouble pulling Michigan
out of its tailspin. It was the first
time in six years that the Wolver-
ines had finished last.
Last (in Theory)
It was also (theoretically at
least) the last time the Wolverines
were to play in Yost Field House-
home of Michigan basketball and
State St. pigeons.
Michigan's strike-stymied Uni-
versity All-Events Building is
scheduled to house the cagers this
fall . . unless, of course, some-
thing drastic like a falling beam
delays progress.
(Editor's note: In the fall of
1966, a supporting beam at the
University All-Events Building col-
lapsed, delaying progress.)
Putting a foundation under
Michigan's basketball dreams may
be just as difficult..
"I'm always optimistic. These
boys put in a'lot of hard work
last year. But let's wait and see,'
opines Strack.
Strack will have a new assistant
in former Massachusetts head
coach John Orr.
Orr replaces Jim Skala who re-
signed before the beginning of last
season. Former Wolverine basket-
ball star George Pomey filled in as
assistant coach and assistant base-
ball coach Dick Honig subbed as
freshmen basketball coach last
year.
Pomey will handle the freshmen
this year. '
Featured in "Honigs Heroes"
was 6' 7,' 195-pound Rudy Tom-
janovich. A high school All-Amer-
ican, Tomjanovich is a slick and
aggressive board man and a deft
outside shot.
Among the sophs, he has the
most promising chance at a start-
ing position.
Except for 6' 10", 200-pound
Mike Lawson-built in the tradi-
tion of Craig Dill-Tomjanovich is
the tallest man on the team,
For the most part, he played
forward while Lawson played the
pivot on the freshmen team; but
Strack may use Tomjanovich as
the high post man in a 1-3-1
alignment a la Adolph Rupp and
Kentucky.
Fighting for the other front
court positions will be Stewart,
Sullivan and McClellan-and pos-
sibly Willie Edwards.
The 6' 6" Stewart and 6'4" Sul-
livan were Stracks original start-
ers; but 6' 6" McClellan won a
starting berth early in the Big
Ten season and finished as one
of the team's top scorers and re-
boundezs.
Experience Benefits
Stewart, who clicked consist-
ently with a fadeaway jumper but
who passed and rebounded erra-
tically, should "benefit greatly"
from a year of experience says
Strack.
Sullivan has the ballhandling
finese of a guard but had repeated
problems at working in close shots
or pitching in outside ones.
McClellan was the most stable
of the three, both on offense and
defense, but didn't show the flashy
potential of Stewart and Sullivan.
Fighting for backcourt jobs,
along with Pitts (?), will be
Maxey and sophomores Rick
Bloodworth and Steve Fishman.
Maxey at 5' 9" is the smallest man
on the team and probably the
most colorful.
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SUBSCRIBE TO THlE MICHIGAN DAILY:
JIM PITTS
DAVE McCLELLAND
The state of things' returned to
what it had been before Strack
and Cazzie Russel had driven the
Wolverines to three consecutive
:onference championships.
There was little spark and no
Ignition.
Rebuilding Year
It was a rebuilding year, of
course, after the graduation of all
five starters, and no one expected
much.
Unexpectedly, every one got ex-
actly what they expected.
There were good moments: e.g.,
when Michigan charged from be-
hind to come within one point of
eventual co-champion Indiana
with 10 seconds left and faked
the Hoosiers into giving away the
ball.
There were bad moments: when
Craig Dill lost -the inbounds pass,
Indiana's Butch Joyner recovered
it and Michigan lost by three
points.
There were other, less memora-
ble moments. But when the sea-
son ended, in an ignomious loss to
Iowa, Strack slumped in the locker
room and said, "I Just wish that
I could wipe some things that I
don't like right off the record
books."
This year, with every one except
co-captains Dill and Dennis Ban-
i
1
t
t
His defensive forte is a stop-
and-start foot pattern and a flair
for the unexepected. His strategy
usually resufts in a high number
of stolen passes and a high num-
ber of fouls.
Although he's naturally aggres-
rive on offense, too, his shooting
percentage was one of the lowest
on the team. Maxey alternated
with Bankey last season.
Fishman is 5' 10" and plays the
same brand of crackerjack ball.
Fishman took the -starting fresh-
man jo. baway from Mark Henry
last year.
Bloodworth, 6' 3" and the other
fresman starting guard, is a strong
outside shot and an awake ball-
handler.
Strack, who couldn't stop the
meteoric fall from first to last,
is the man who must try to put
the Michigan basketball star back
in the sky.
He is an experienced handler of:
players and problems.
He has had a summer to think
about mechanical problems like
sparkplug misfirings. He's had a
summer to think about putting the
team back in running condition.
But it takes more than a me-
chanic or a driver to run a team.
[t takes a six-buck gearbox called
desire.
Bob Sullivan (20) threads his way through Illini players.
[[. i
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Tuesday, September 6,
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Wednesday, September 6, 4:30 P.M.
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Wednesday, September 6,
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Monday 8-11 P M.
Rifle T
Fencing,
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hursday,
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January
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