T esday, January 27, 1970 'THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Seven thle cf evilC ______ __ d~icipe __ Bill Cusumano_ Green basketball in the pros Professional football drafts college athletes today and if the past is any indication a lot, of guys are going to be worth a lot more in the upcoming months. Being a high draftee means get- ting a fat contract. The same thing happens every year and all of us would be jocks wish we had stuck to football. Or we at least wish we had become business managers so we could pull in that cool 10 per cent. But this time around I'm not even going to give football a second.thought. Instead I'm in pain for not staying with basket- ball because that's where the big coin is. If only I could have been a superstar I could be pulling in those six figures. Today basketball players are in the same beautiful position that football players had before the NFL-AFL merger. The ABA needs top flight talent to draw crowds and stay in business and they are willing to pay for it. THE ABA is no two bit operatioin like the defunct ABL was. The owners have bread and want to be big time. They came within inches of getting Lew Alcindor last year and don't plan to make the same mistake this time around. They will be bidding in the stratosphere and forcing the S NBA to keep pace. It's a perfect strategy, one in which the ABA can't lose. If the NBA does not want to get involved in a bidding war the rebel league will pick up many star players. On the other hand, even if, the NBA wins a price fight the cost of doing it may force the owners' to seriously consider merger. As long as the ABA can stay in existence while forcing the NBA to cough up monstrous salaries, the pressure for merger is bound to increase. The established NBA has tended to look down upon the young league and insist that it will never last. But lately rumors of merger have gotten stronger and if the owners haven't begun to totally accept the ABA they had better start. Certain events over the last two years have helped to put the ABA on a much firmer fooing than the NBA ever imagined it would attain. First they won therbattle of the courts over Rick Barry, proving conclusively that the raiding of players was legally possible. Since that time other NBA stars have inked con- tracts"with the upstarts and the ABA is patiently awaiting their arrival. Zelmo Beatty of the Atlanta Hawks sat out this season and is going to do his stuff next year with the Los Angeles Stars. Bill Cunningham of the 76ers is headed for Carolina where he was a star in his college days and Dave Bing of the Pistons will return to Washington, scene of !his high school triumphs. The cstatus of another 76er, Luke Jackson, is in limbo since he signed contracts with both leagues.. The jumping of these stars does not bode well for the NBA. A precedent has been set and other established players, such as John Havlicek of the Boston Celtics, have used it as a lever to pull more money out of their present clubs. The ABA has even waved the lure of owning a franchise under Wilt Chamber- lain's very wealthy nose. Obviously wllat the ABA is trying to do is build itself upon superstars. By stealing the NBA's top athletes they hit the senior circuit in its most vulnerable area. Very few teams by themselves can draw good crowds, the Pistons being a prime example. Either a super winner like the Knicks is needed, or a star of the caliber of Oscar Robertson or Jerry West. People like Barry and Cunninghan can provide such a catalyst and the NBA knows it. To prove the last point a person only has to look at the court cases. Fights have resulted over Jackson, and Barry and action has been threatened on Bing and Cunningham. But was anything done when players like Paul Long .and Tommy Kron switched leagues? Probably most people don't even know that they did at one point in their careers. What should scare the NBA even more is that the ABA has survived while waiting for the stars and has even developed some of its own. The league gave a good indication of the strength that it has developed when it lost its first star, Connie Hawkins, to the NBA and kept right on going! Several franchises already are in position to operate in the black. Indiana and Carolina have proved to be very strong, taking advantage of two of the nation's basketball hotbeds. Should these franchises obtain Rick Mount and Pete Maravich, two college superstars with local appeal, they could equal the gate of almost any team in the NBA outside of New York. Other ABA franchises are not in the position of Indiana and Carolina but several are building up and others have enough money to keep fighting. -Denver is developing a strong local following and now have a legitimate superstar in Spencer Haywood. Haywood, of course, was stolen straight out 6f college but the ABA Chas also grabbed some young stars that the NBA wanted. Last year Miami signed Larry Cannon, the Chicago Bulls' top draft choice, and dealt a strong blow to the NBA. The senior league found out that the money war was in earnest. This season should be even more fun. The ABA is becoming fairly stable and can devote efforts to signing stars. They sold their All-Star game to CBS and it is not unlikely that they could get a full season TV contract if they garner some of this year's glamour prospects. New commissioner Jack Dolph formerly ran the show at CBS Sports and he just might have some influence in that area. It is fairly well established that the ABA has already drafted and that they parcelled players out along geographic lines. Rumor has it that Carolina has the rights to Maravich, Indiana to Mount, the New York Nets to Bob Lanier and so on. Just a few signatures from players of their caliber and the new league will be cooking. It will undoubtedly be here to stay at that point and could very easily force a merger. But the real winners are the athletes. Contracts in six figures should be easy to come by for the top players and even the lesser lights have a strong bargaining position. Former Vice-President Nixon might have to move in to stop the resulting inflation.. So you see why I wish I had been a basketball superstar. Oh well, I guess there are other ways to make money.. Hey Rudy, do need a good manager? I'll only take 5 per cent. Ron Johnson traded to N.Y. LOSE TWO: Gophers too much for weakened Icers Warfield goes to Dolphins By Tie Associated Press Former Michigan halfback Ron Johnson was traded yesterday by the Cleveland Browns to the New York Giants. The Browns sent Johnson, their first choice in last year's college football draft, defensive tackle Jim Kanicki, and linebacker Wayne Meylan to the Giants in exchange for flanker Homer Jones. In a separate deal, the Browns sent split end Paul War- field to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for the Dolphins top draft pick. Miami has third choice in the pro football draft today behind the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears. The Browns plan to use the choice for a top college quarterback to back up Bill Nelson. The Browns are expected to pick Mike Phipps of Purdue. Johnson, 22, broke into the Browns' starting lineup after end- ing a long preseason holdout and' played regularly in the backfield with Leroy Kelly. He lost the starting assignment to Bo Scott, ex-Ohio State and Canadian foot- ball star, in the next to last game of the season. While at Michigan, Johnson broke Tom Harmon's rushing rec- ord. With the Browns, he ran for 472 yards, an average of 3.4 yards per carry, and scored seven times. Johnson also caught 24 passes for 164 yards.; "Johnsori should help us in the backfield;" commented Giants' Coach Alex Webster, "especially in view of the fact that Tucker Fredrickson and Junior Coffey have knee problems. "I hate to lose a player of Homer Jones' ability," Webster continued, "but we saw an opportunity to strengthen our club at three po- sitions." Webster said that with Kanicki taking care of the Giants' press- ing needs for a defensive lineman, he can now use his number one draft pick to take the best player available. Kanicki, a former Michigan State star and the Browns second draft choice in 1963, missed most of last season with a broken leg. He was a first string player for six of his seven years on the Browns. Warfield, 27, an Ohio State star, was-drafted by the Browns in 1964. He caught 215 passes for 44 touchdowns and 4,346 yards, an average of 20.2 yards per catch, while with the Browns. Browns' Coach Blanton Colliery has been quoted as saying: "Paul runs the best, most precise, most detailed patterns of anyone T know," "Warfield is one of the top re- ceivers in .pro football," Dolphin Coach George Wilson said in Miami. "He gives us the outside speed that we need." "Paul has played so well for us and is such a high type person that I hate like the devil to con- sider any trade involving him," said Browns owner Arthur Modell. "However, it was the overwhelm- ing consensus of all of our com- bined thinking that we had need for backup protection behind quarterback Bill Nelson." In a prepared statement last night, Warfield said: "It comes as a great surprise to me to learn NIGHT EDITOR: ERIC SIEGEL Miami Dolphins. However, I sup- pose this is one of the risks that a professional athlete takes. This move will mean severing the won- derful relationships that I have had with my teammates, coaches, the Cleveland Browns' manage- ment and the Cleveland fans. "The trade also presents a num- ber of difficult economic problems in connection with the various business involvements that both my wife and I have here in Cleve- land." Warfield said he hoped "that there will be a satisfactory solu- tion to the problems raised." "Frankly, I look forward to playing with the Miami Dolphins and hope that I can be a valuable addition to their team," Warfield added. In another deal completed yes- terday, place - kicking specialist Bruce Gosset was traded by the Los Angeles Rams to the San Francisco 49'ers for defensive back Kermit Alexander and a second round draft choice. By JOEL GREER "They played their guts out," viewed a depressed Coach Ren- frew after a series that nearly destroyed all chances for a Michi- gan regular-season WCHA cham- pionship. The double loss dropped' the Wolverines to a 7-7 league record and are four games behind the league leading Minnesota Gophers (11-3). The icers ventured up to the cold country hoping to gain some ground on the Gophers. However, the flu bug struck early in the week and practice was unusually ineffective. Michigan boarded the plane minus the services of Michael Jarry, a fine freshman defense- man, who was too ill to make the trip. Traveling with only four de- fensemen, added pressure was, placed on Jerry Lefebvre to fill in for the ailing Jarry. Lefebvre play-, ed admirably but the weakness on; the club all week showed as i3hys- ically four defensemen were not enough.; FRIDAY NIGHT'S battle feat-; ured everything you like to see at; a hockey game and everything you don't. There intermediate moments of hard skating but most of the time both teams played slow-mo- tion hockey.' With the breaks Michigan had; they were destined to win, but the way they played, they deserved to lose. Fate finally caught up with them and they fell to a back checking Minnesota squad 8-6. Late in the second period, to the, amazement of* the 5,065 rowdy partisans a brawl broke out along the Minnesota bench. It started when Bernie Gagnon and super-, freshman Mike Antonovich, who1 scored ahat-trick, crashed heavily into the boards. Immediately sticks raised and punches flurried. Out of the maze of players Brian Slack and Tom Marra began swinging their sticks at the crowd. It seem- ed to bel one irate fan who kept' taunting the Wolverines and the sticks came again. "He emptied a Iwine glass in my face," mused an angry Slack after the game. FINALLY ORDER was restored and the referee tried to assess penalties. Bernie Gagnon was first to enter the box while other play- ers simply milled around. After several anxious moments the battle stopped and many row- dy fans escorted out by Minnea- polis' finest. It was an eerie sight as the vicious fans began pelting the Michigan speedster with all sorts of debris. Paper cups, programs and popcorn all were directed at theenraged Gagnon. Gagnon sat there and took it as the fans con- tinued their assault. He .finally exploded and he rose flailing his stick at anyone he could see. Both benches emptied and the police, officials and players from both teams were involved. EVEN THOUGH the Wolverines came out of the first period with a 1-0 lead it took them until the seven minute mark to get their first shot on goal. Minnesota converted two nice passing plays midway through the second period to go out in front. Bart Buetow got the first while Antonovich was credited with the second. Minnesota controlled the play throughout the period until Shaw scored on a 70-foot shot that fool- ed the Gopher goalie Murray Mc- Lachlan. Minnesota went back in a shell and the Wolverines added two more to finish the period lead- ing 4-2. MICHIGAN'S defense complete- ly collapsed in the final stanza as Minnesota tallied six time to win it going away. Saturday's game saw Michigan gain a 3-0 lead in the first period before completely falling apart as the Gophers went on to win, 6-3. 'We were just tired," explained Shaw after the game. Probably the key of ;the whole series was the Inability of the Michigan forwards to back check. They were consistantly caught up the ice and the Michigan defense could not handle the onrushing Gophers. WELCOME STUDENTS! Let us style your hair to fit Your persona lity.. . * 8 BARBERS, no waiting " OPEN 6 DAYS The Dascola Barbers Arborland-Campus Maple Villaqe -Associated Press How high is high? Michigan's freshman polevaulter Larry Wolfe clears the bar at 15 feet in the U.S. Track and Field Federation midwest meet Saturday in Colombus, Ohio. Wolfe took a third in the event, as two other Wolverines, sprinter Gene Brown and high-jumper John Mann, copped firsts. Brown's time of 6 seconds flat in the 60 yard dash was just a tenth of a second off the world record while Mann cleared 6-8 in the high jump. KENTUCKY STILL SECOND UCLA bolsters No1. 1 ranking By The Associated Press UCLA received a scare last week but still managed to in- crease its hold on the No. 1 ranking yesterday in The Asso- ciated Press major-college basket- ball poll. The unbeaten Bruins barely beat upstart UC-Santa Barbara 89-80 Friday night before rolling to their 14th straight triumph, a 115-77 thrashing of Wyoming and were rewarded with 29 first place bal- lots and 634 points in the nation- wide balloting by sportscasters and sports writers. Kentucky, 14-0, retained its No. 2 ranking but picked up only three firsts and 568 votes. The Wildcats, who whipped Louisiana State Sa- turday 109-96, had received four first place votes last week. St. Bonaventure, unbeaten in 12 games, swapped places w i t h 12-1 South Carolina on the strength of two impressive victor- ies last week. The Gamecocks, idle last week, drew 442 points w h 11 e the Bonnies advanced to third with 464. New Mexico State, 16-1, and Jacksonville, 13-0, remained in the Nos. 5 and 6 spots and N o r t h Carolina, 12-3, held ninth place. Houston's loss to St. Mary's, Tex., dropped the Cougars record to 12-2 and pushed them f r o m seventh last week to No. 12. Mar- quette, 13-1, replaced Houston, moving up from eighth while North Carolina State, 13-1, edged up two notches from No. 10. Illinois, 12-2, idle last w e e k, was the only new comer to 'the Top 10,' just making it ahead of No. 11 Davidson, after being 12th last week. Following Davidson, 13-2, w e r e Houston, Ohio U., Penn., South- ern Califoria, Drake, Columbia, Florida State, Kansas State and Iowa. Additions to the Top 20 were Drake, Columbia and Florida State, replacing Duke, 16th last week, Louisville, 18th and No. 20 Notre Dame. The Top Twenty, with first-place votes in parentheses, season record and total points. Points awarded for first 15 places based on 20-18-16-14-12-10-9-8- 7-6-5-4-3-2-1. 1. UCLA (29) 14-0 634 2. Kentucky (3) 14-0 568 3. St. Bonaventure 12-0 464 4. South Carolina 12-1 442 5. New Mexico State 16-1 343 6. Jacksonville 13-0 328 7. Marquette 13-1 283 8. North Carolina State 13-1 205 9. North Carolina 12-3 186 10. Illinois 12-2 148 11. Davidson 13-2 14'7 12. Houston 12-2 93 13. Ohio U, 12-2 89 14. Penn 14-i 85 15. Southern Calif. 10--3 65 16. Drake . 13-4 45 17. Columbia 13-2 19 18. Florida State 14--2 18 19. Kansas State 12-3 17 20. Iowa $-4 11 Other teams receiving votes in al- phabetical order: Baylor, Duke, Du- quesne, Georgia, Georgetown, D.C., Louisville, Niagara, Notre Dame, Ohio State Oklahoma Santa Clara, Tennes- see, Texas-ElPaso, Utih State, Villanova, Western Kentucky, Wyoming. $101 per month FREE Service and Delivery ' -NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED- CALL: Nejac TV R entals 662-5671 SERVING BIG 10 SCHOOLS SINCE 1961 that I have been traded to the . , NBA Standings NBA' Eastern Division W L Pct. New York 41 it Milwaukee 36 17 Baltimore 32 21 Philadelphia 29 24 Ci cinnati 24 29 Boston 20 30 Detroit 20 33 Western Division Atlanta 30 22 Los Angeles 26 24 Chicago 25 28 San Francisco 22 29 Phoenix 23 31 San Diego 18 31 Seattle 18 34' .788 .682 .604 .549 .453 ,400 .377 .577 .520 .472 .431 .426 .367 .346 GB 5% 9%f, 12%f 17% | 20 2111| 3 5%1 10 12 This Week in Sports FRIDAY WRESTLING--Illinois at Events Bldg., 4 p.m. SATURDAY BASKETBALL-at Purdue WRESTLING-Ohio State at Events Bldg., 2 p.m. GYMNASTICS-Minnesota at Events Bldg. (after wrestling) SWIMMING-Michigan State at Matt Mann Pool, 7:30 p.m. TRACK-Michigan Relays i 4 Sales SPrvicc Repntals Yesterday's Results u r u Atlanta at San Francisco, inc. Cincinnati vs. Chicago at Kansas City, inc. .' FOR FAST, ECONOMICAL Philadelphia 122, Milwaukee 103 TYPEWRITER SERVICE Todlay's Games TYERTRrE~C Boston at New York San Diego at Los Angeles BY EXPERTS, CALL SCORES Last Night'i Results A DB SNESM C NE n NHL AbpBUSINESS 11 HN~ nC No games scheduled. M Today's Games 3022 Packard * Ann Arbor, Michigan No games scheduled. cOyLL1EGE Telephone: 313 971-5700 Kentucky 86, Alabama 71 _________________________________ South Carolina 97, Clemson 76 LSU 71, Tennessee 59 '"" Ge orgia 79, Mississippi State 76 '(l r i io State 74, Ga. Tech 71j : : : , :. .t . r.. . . . . . . : . ..... .....r..., r..... . . . . . . . . t ': . . . . . . x .. . . ... . 1 Famous Brand-Permanent Press SLACKS Reg. to $14.0O $~82ar10 Divisions of Hughes Aircraft Company will be conducting interviews on campus: am i