Wednesday, August 27, 1969
Tomj0anovich

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Page Three

THE MICHIGAN DAILY Poge Three

centers
By DAVE IANNES
Rudy, Rudy, and still more
Rudy, That just describes th
1969-1970 edition nf the Michi-
gan Wolverine basketball squad.
Their is little question that
Toinjanovich will be Michigan's
big gun this year. For two sea-
sons Rudy has led his team in
scoring and last year was sec-
ond in the Big Ten to Rick
Mount in that department with
a 25 point per game average.
He also led the league in re-
bounds.
The big question with Tom-
janovich this season will be his
bad back which plagued him
throughout this past year. If
the 6'7" senior and team captain
can stay healthy he will un-
doubtedly be one of the topi
players in the country and can
look forward to a career as a
professional.
Missing from last year's team
are Captain Ken Maxey, Dennis
Stewart. Bob Sullivan. Willie
Edwards, and Dave McClellan.
Maxey, Stewart, and Sullivan
were all starters and due to their
absence head coach John Orr
has stated. "I doubt that we'll
be able to match last season's
recoi'd.
In the past season the Wol-
verine cagers had a 13-11 over-
all record and a 7-7 mark in
the Big Ten, good for fourth
place behind league titlist Pin'-
due. Ohio State. and Illinois.
Peturning at guard is Dan
Fife. who will be the number
two offensive threat behind
Tomjanovich. At 6'2," Fife has
good size for a college guard
and should improve on his 17
point scoring average.
Battling for the right to play
in the backcourt along with the
junior Fife will be Mark Henry.
Rich Bloodworth. and Lamont
King a 8' senior. Henry has the
inside ti'ack to the .job consid-
ering that he was the number
three guard last year and had a
few fine games such as against
Duke when he scored 20 points
to lead the Wolverines to a stun-
ning upset victory
Bloodworth is a 62'' senior
who has seen little action in his
two years on the varsity. King,
a '1" sophomore, led the fresh-
man in scoring a year ago. He
'played high school basketball
under the present Michigan as-
sistant basketball coach Fred
Snowden at Northwestern High
in Detroit.
Finding the two men to play
torward could be Coach Orr's
biggest problem. The loss of both
Stewart and Sullivan, two former
high school All-Americans, is a

Michigan
tremendous blow. R i c h a i' d
"Bird" Carter, a 6'1" senior with
great leaping ability, looks like
a good bet to play take one of
the open spots.
Carter was a starter last year
for the first part of the season,
and had one of his finest games
against Iowa with a 25 point
performance.f
Rodney Ford could play along
with Carter at forward. The
6'4" junior sate limited action
during the past season but was
the leading player on the fresh-
man team of two years ago.
Wayne Grabiec, a 6'5" All-
Stater from Illinois, has an out-
side chance for a starting berth,
but the sophomore possibly
needs more experience. Juniors
Toni Nicksic and Mike Raf-
Sfeity will probably be second
string forwards for this season.
The center position is solid
with Tomjanovich. Backing him
up is6 ' senior Bill Frauman.
Fi'rauman is not a good offensive
threat but is a great team
player and always hustling oiin
the court
Purdue would have to be the
favorite on the basis of their
performance of a year ago. The
Boilermakers took the top spot
in the Big Ten and then made
it to the NCAA finals before
losing to Lew Alcindor aiid
UCLA.
Purdue does lose Herim Gil-
liam and Bill Keller but will
have Rick Mount to put the lin-
ishing touches on a tremendous
collegiate career. Coach George
King's biggest headache will un-
doubtedly be at center where
Chuck Bavis, Jerry Johnson,
and Frank Kaufman all proved
to be mediocre last season.
Purdue's maiui challenge will
come from Ohio State and Il-
linois. The Buckeye's firepower
will be faced by 6'7" center
Dave Sorenson and 6'3" for-
ward Jim Cleamons. Meanwhile,
the Illini star Mike Price and
6'8" junior Greg Jackson.
Michigan State boaRts Halph
Simpson. one of the finest soph-
omore prospects in the country.
Unfortunately for the Spartans
Simpson will get little help.
Other individual players in
the league of note are Chad
Calabria and Glenn Vidnovic of
Iowa, Joe Cooke of Indiana,
Larry Mikan of Minnesota, and
Clarence Sher'od of Wisconsin.
All in all the Big Ten Race
appears to be a three team af-
fair this season including Puir-
due, Ohio State, and Illinois.
Wolverine fans may be forced
to wait a year or two until the
recruiting of Coaches Orr and
Snowden begins to pay off.

cage

dreams

Richalr(I "Bi rd"'Carter

Dan Fife


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