Thursday, March 12, 1970 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Eleven I1 _a . -- . I . 7A .) A. LEE KIRK. UCLA faces tough I The professional iconoclast 0 ONE OF THE least exalted but most obvious of the privileges of being a senior sports editor is getting your own column and the added privilege of spewing forth any sort of garbage that comes to mind. It is this sacred and honorable privilege that I will invoke in this, my first and perhaps last general gripe column - my purely personal prejudices. If Joe Falls is so sick of writing about Denny McLain in his Detroit Free Press column, why does he persist in doing it? I'm saturated and neuseated with the plethora of runnings from diarrhetic pens on McLain. Unfortunately, it'd too easy (and too profitable) to hit a man when he's down. About the only men who could conceivably have any- thing useful to say about McLain are Tiger' catcher Bill Freehan, who's already doing quite a job, and Bowie Kuhn. The foggy-brained athletic directors of the Big Ten have again taken two steps backwards in order to go one step forward. They decided that conference teams could play an eleventh game in 1971, provided that it was against a conference foe. At first, this doesn't sound at all illogical. However, the only time that an extra game against a conference foe could be scheduled would be the Saturday after the season ends. In most years, this would be the Saturday on Thanksgiving weekend, a time when most students are not on campus. As it now stands, the end of the conference season is high- lighted by three traditional games (Michigan and Ohio State, Minnesota and Wisconsin, Purdue and Indiana). If indeed these schools do decide to schedule another conference game, when then shall the traditional finale be played? If it is left on the date where now scheduled, it would not be the finale any longer. Lovers of climaxes to the gridiron season would thus * be deprived of the kind of treat that games like the last two contsts between Ohio State and Michigan have provided. It is conceivable that the finales could be moved back a week and the new games scheduled in their place. For this idea to work, all the Big Ten schools probably would have to agree to add the extra game, but even then, the difficulties would still exist, for then the traditional finale would fall on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, forcing students to either miss the game or shorten their vacation. The purpose of an eleventh game is to provide more revenue for athletic departments' ever-shrinking coffers. A game over ,Thanksgiving break would in all probability draw no more fans than a game in August. The real losers would be season ticket holders who would in effect have to purchase a lame duck in order to insure decent seats. The Big Ten should have thought twice before implement- ing the eleventh game in this way. After reading of South Carolina's demise in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, I can only be amazed that the ACC and the Southern Conference persist in this folly. Consider what happened to Gamecocks. Many felt that they were the best team in the nation, and they did very little during the regular season to disprove it. They went 14-0 In the toughest and best-balanced basketball league around, winning the regu- lar season title by five games. And how were they awarded for their Herculean efforts? By being top-seeded in a tourney against teams they had creamed twice before. The ACC tournament is the roughest thing around-a real meat-grinder. The games are played -on three sucessive nights in front of crowds that literally scream their heads off. Every conceivable measure is used to win, and with a titanic power like South Carolina around, desperate measures wereobviously called for. Clemson, a team' that had won one conference game all year, employed a slowdown against the Gamecocks and lost by one point. Virginia, another team that won but once, knocked off powerful North Carolina, and suffered a one point loss to North Carolina State the next night. The Wolfpack, soundly thumped by South Carolina in their previous two meetings, em- ployed a slowdown and a seven minute freeze to eventually eke out a frantic 42-39 double-overtime victory in the finals. This is not to say that the ACC tournament isn't just about the most exciting thing going, but excitement or not, the tournament just isn't fair to a team like South Carolina. It is a rarity in the world of sports when a champion has to lay it on the line, against teams they've already beaten, in a single-elimination, do-or-die tournament. The Gamecocks can do nothing but suck it up and wait until next year. Now that I've aired a few of my gripes, why don't you think about, getting some complaints off your own chest. Just send your caustic comments to The Sports Staff here at 420 Maynard. Or, in the immortal words of Abe Lincoln, Why don't you come up and see us sometime?p .. : ..n -'-°?A'..,.v?.{ :.W ":.i: .'riL ,. :+ E :°1: REvEaa.CC, T 'd'°;'fIS}' }.'":xh+?:"'Y'i ,J~at' By JIM McFERSON Tonight there are sixteen teams, Friday night there will be eight and in nine days East will meet West to determine the champ- ionship of the NCAA, as all the experts are keeping their usually flaccid lips sealed, re- fusing to pick the big winner. It is, however, relatively safe to say that it will be UCLA ready to take on the Mideast regional winners in College Park, Maryland next week, so the question now is: "Who can take the Mideast?" IOWA WILL BE fighting Jacksonville, and Kentucky Notre Dame for the Mid- east title. Consensus around the Daily sports desk leans toward Iowa with a vocal minority favoring the Kentuckians of Adolph Rupp. Kentucky, led by 6-8 All-American center Dan Issel, has to be given the edge over Notre Dame, despite the hot hand of All- American Carr and sizzling performances by the whole Notre Dame team in the past two months. The Wildcats are real slick, with scorers like Mike Pratt and Bob Park- er who, along with Issel, can grab more than their share of rebounds. The Irish have 6-8 Collis Jones, a tough cat under the boards, but Kentucky's bench and Rupp- directed finesse should win out. It'll be a fast, loose game between Iowa and Jacksonville, pitting the incredibly bal- anced Hawkeyes against the towering front- court, which includes skyscraper Artis Gil- more, of Jacksonville. The nod goes to the fast-rising Iowa fivesomes, wh o have won road in 16 games in a row and are led by forward John Johnson, a very underrated player. Gilmore, who regardless of other reports is not surprisingly fast for a big man, will score but depth will do it for the Big Ten champs. THE EAST Regional winner, who will meet the Mideast winner, could be any- one; North Carolina State plays St. Bona- venture, while Niagara battles Villanova. It will be all Bob Lanier in the State- Bona game -- if the Big Cat gets the ball Bona wins, but if the physical Carolina team, which proved its mettle against a great South Carolina squad, can score enough points, they'll take it. Vann Willi- ford leads a balanced team which can hit from all over but Lanier, fed by playmaker Billy Kalbaugh, will make or break the game. The Bonnies should tuck this one away. Niagara and Villanova are unpredictable. All-American Calvin Murphy, who can drib- ble on a flagpole while twirling a baton with his feet, will have to knock out at least 35 and get some help from the rest of his small mates if the Purple Eagles are to win. Villanova counts of 6-8 forward Howard Porter, the human rubber band, to provide the rebounding and scoring punch that gave Villanova a ten point victory over Niagara last January. The West Region, dominated by UCLA, will have the Bruins against Long Beach State and Santa Clara playing Utah State. Even Marty McLaughlin would be at a loss for words if the boys from Long Beach were able to whip UCLA, another Wooden super-concoction, but it's going to be mighty close. NEVERTHELESS, John Vallely and Henry Bibby will weasel up and down the court and the agile front line will combine to put the kibosh on Long Beach. The Santa Clara-Utah State game has no onecexcited.dDennis Awtrey of Santa ,Clara can handle the boards and score plenty; the rest of the team provides all adequate backdrop to his play. Utah State looks good, with both Mary Roberts and Nate Williams averaging over 20 points a game. Either way, who cares? The Midwest Regional has Drake against Houston and New Mexico State meeting Kansas State, with the winner of it all going on to fight the winner of the West Region. New Mexico State has defense and All- American center Sam Lacey, enough to slip by K-State's balanced but unexciting squad. Drake is a hustling, scrambling team which hopes to speed past all-around kangaroo 01- lie Taylor of Houston, who accounts for most of his team's scoring. Drake forward Al Williams, leading the team in rebound- ing and scoring, will lead the hearty Ducks. THERE THEY ARE, the sixteen teams left, in NCAA competition; all of them cap- able of jerking off the title and each ready to lay everything out to gain the prized honors. -Daily-Thomas R. Copt -- ICERS FACE DENVER li Puck extravaganza By JOEL GREER Despite a rather unconvincing regular season, the Michigan hockey team enters the WCHA playoffs hoping to come out of their year-long slump. Known as a team that can explode at any time, the Wolverines hope their highly touted offense can carry them from the depths of the sec- ond division to a Western regional berth in the NCAA championships at Lake Placid, New York March 19-21. The WCHA playoffs open at two sites tonight with the Big Ten and more sports page 9 WCHA 'MacNaughton Cup winner Minnesota facing cross-state rival Minnesota-Duluth at D u 1 u t h; while defending NCAA champion Denver takes on a. fine Michigan State team at Denver. FRIDAY NIGHT, . Michigan Tech, which tied Denver for sec- ond place in the final league standings, meets North Dakota at Duluth and the Wolverines tangle Eastern out of tourney KANSAS CITY (IP) - Eastern Michigan was knocked out of the NAIA basketball tournament last night by Guilford in a hair-rais- ing 89-85 chiller. Eastern had won its opening round game yester- day 108-85 over an outclassed East Central Oklahoma State aggre- gation. Former South Haven ace Ken- nedy McIntosh' led the Hurons with 20 points while 6-8 soph star David Smith tossed in 35 for Guil- ford. The loss, which dropped Eastern to a final 22-7, smashed the Hur- on's hopes of an NAIA crown. It was an especially bitter pill for them to swallow since they also failed to take championship last year, losing to eventual champion Eastern New Mexico. dal sports NIGHT EDITOR: MORT NOVECK with the hungry Badgers from Wisconsin who will engage in their first post-season playoff action. The winners at Duluth will meet Saturday to determine an eastern division champion while the Den- ver winners will face off Saturday to determine the western division champion. There will be no consolation games and the Duluth and Denver winners will not meet. However, thewinners do gain high consider- ation from the Western Selection Committee as the two western representatives in the annual NCAA championships at Lake Placid. This situation is about the same as the Big Ten football champion being invited to the Rose Bowl by the athletic direc- tors' vote. It's almost certain that the two winners will go since there is little competition elsewhere in the West. IT'S JUST like a new season as any of the eight teams in the playoffs has a chance at the two spots. With the explosive Michi- gan attack the icers can break a game open at any time with one of their scoring bursts. Their most explosive night came at East Lan- sing when the Wolverines tallied four times inside a span of one minute and six seconds. Spartan Coach Amo Bassone sees both Michigan and Michigan State as possible finalists despite finishing sixth and seventh re- spectively. He looks at the lower peninsula rivals as somewhat sim- ilar teams that can explode at anytime. The Spartans proved that in their last appearance here when theycrushed the Maize and Blue 7-1. The western division will be in- teresting since Denver and Wis- consin finished one-two in the WCHA for the entire season coun- ting non-conference games. The Pioneers finished 20-9-1 while the Badgersf were second at 20-10. W C H A champion Minnesota, which won the league title with a 18-8 conference mark, finished third overall at 20-11. WISCONSIN will enter the con- test with Michigan holding a 3-2 season's edge. The two teams split home-and-home seriese with the Badgers defeating the Wolverines 5-3 in the opening game of the St. Louis Invitational Tournament. Scores NAIA Guilford 89, Eastern Michigan 85 Stephen F. Austin 74, Augusta College 71 Tennessee State 92, South Dakota State 89 Buffalo State 75, Stetson 74 Philadelphia Textile 101, American International 53 Central State of Wilberforce 83, Wiley College 77 open 's Wisconsin is banking on its bal- anced attack and on the superb goaltending of Wayne Thomas. The Ottawa, Ontario senior was superb in the nets last Friday when + he shut-out the Spartans 5-0. It was the his first WCHA shutout and the third of his career which enabled him to end the sea- son as the league's top goalie with an average of 3.0 goals allowed per game. Wisconsin's other sen- ior goalie Bob Vroman was the Saturday night 4-3 victor and he completed his season with a goals against average of 3.33 to rank in Michigan sophomore Bernie Cagnon was named to the all- WCHA second team. the top five in final WCHA goalie standings. The Denver-Michigan State game tonight will center around two stars: the Pioneer's George Morrison and the Spartans' Don Thompson. Morrison won his sec- ond straight WCHA scoring crown with 18 goals and 19 assists. How- ever, Denver may be hurting since the Scarborough, Ontario junior came up with a twisted knee in the Pioneers' loss to Colorado Col- lege last Saturday and his status for the playoffs is uncertain. Thompson, who scored five goals in Michigan State's last conquest here, has been given the nickname "Zippy" by h i s teammates. Thompson has the speed and agil- ity to break a game open single handedly. '.w4-, Eas New York Milwaukee Baltimore Philadelphia Cincinnati Boston Detroit We Atlanta Los Angeles Phoenix Chicago Seattle San Francisco San Diego Professional Standings NBA Yesterday's Results stern Division W L 58 16 54 24 46 30 40 36 33 44 31 43 31 46 stern Division 44 34 42 35 35 42 34 41 33 44 28 48 24 51 Pct. .784 .692 .605 .526 .429 .427 .403 .564 .545 .455 .453 .429 .368 .320 Yesterday's Games Atlanta 122, San Diego 121 Boston 144, Cincinnati 127 Baltimore at San Francisco, inc. NHL East Division GB 6 12 19 26!Y 28% 111 8Y2 10Y4 15 18! GA 9 186 154 9 163 145 165 206 1150 196 196 209 0 212 248 Montreal 5, New York 3 Detroit 3, Toronto 1 Boston 0, Chicago 0, tie Pittsburgh at Oakland, inc. St. Louis at Minnesota, inc. r f I 1 Boston New York Detroit Chicago Montreal- Toronto St. Louis Pittsburgh Philadelphia Minnesota Oakland Los Angeles W L T1 34 14 16 34 17 14 34 18 12 36 20 8 32 19 13 26 27 11 West Division 31 23 9 23 30 10 15 26 23 12 30 20 17 37 9, 10 44 10 Pt. GF 86 239 82 223 80 199 80 202 77 204 63 197 71 184 56 153 53 178 44 178 44 140 30 141 BUSINESS STAFF proudly announces its DEPARTMENT MANAGERS for 1970 Billing-MARILYN WEISBERG Circulation--ROBERT BURRELL Classified-JANE KRUEGER Display-RICHARD RADCLIFFE JOHN SOMMERS-Associate Layout-JAMES FLYNN DOUGLAS BUCHANAN-Associate - : TA XTE'T' XTr Ir Miss J moves up to spring in soft navy wool coat. it's a young, lively style with a belt and wide roll collar, and double-breasted buttoning BACH CLUB presents 11 THE GOLIARD BRASS ENSEMBLE t Bach, Contropunctus 3 9 Gabrieli, "Canzone" 9 Vivaldi, Concerto for 2 I Jlil I U