TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1966 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAGE NTNE TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1966 TUE MICHIGAN IJAILY i'AGE NINE Spartans Trip Tourney-Bound Wolverines By GIL SAMBERG' ' Acting Assistant Sports Editor Special To The Daily EAST LANSING -- Hard nosed defense and John Bennington's patented lane - driving o f f e n s e against the Wolverines' board con- trol and sharp-shooting from the field had been expected. Well, there was hard nosed de- fense and a lane driving offense, anyway ... The Blue didn't take care of their part of the action, and MSU, with some good supporting work from Michgian, was in control from the start, and took an 86-77 decision here last night going away. The Big Ten crown is a little dented, a little dulled, but the head under it has not changed. This loss marks the third consecu- tive year that the Wolverines have dropped their last regular season game . . and the third time it has had no effect on the sub- stantive outcome of the confer- ence race. The only race it did effect was the duel between Cazzie Russell and Dave Schellhase for Big Ten scoring honors. Russell's game-high 34 topped his rival's output by three last night, and gave Michigan's All-America the title by 14 total points. Didn't Mean Anything They kept saying it didn't mean anything.. . Michigan had already wrapped up the conference championship and the coveted NCAA shot for the third straight year. All the match-up with Michigan State in the regular season's finale could be was a good exhibition game in a long rivalry, a matter of pride. That was enough. Jennison Fieldhouse was packed like an in- duction center, as students, locals, the working press, and anyone with enough pull to address Big- gie Munn by his first name (Clarence) - the fans who had anticipated this toe-to-toe to be a blood bath between the cinde- rella Spartans and powerful Mich- igan for Big Ten honors and that Regional slot - didn't seem to notice the difference. Judging by the atmosphere of fanaticism, maybe there really wasn't one. The game was played and a lost on the floor, not off the back- boards. While rebounding was fairly even, the shooting was not. State started fast and finished fast, staying at a steady 50 per cent all game. The Blue started off shooting poorly . . . but got worse. Michigan, a team that has been sinking buckets at a rate of 60 per cent or better over the past three conference matches, went to a dismal 39 per cent from the floor. The statistics read like bat- ting averages, and the shots were not being forced, just blown. But the game was won and lost on more than just that. Stan Washington, Matthew Aitch, Bill Curtis, and Steve Rymal each turned in one of their best games of the year . . . if not the best. Washington Hot Washington popped in 11 of 14 from the field and took nine re- bounds off the crowded boards. He is 6'3"; and has always been trouble for Michigan. Last night he was murder. His quick cut-in to the basket from the corner has been one of State's bread-and-butter plays all season. It ran like a picture time and again, as he beat Jim Myers flatfooted and took floater passes from Rymal, Bailey, and Aitch in mid air and layed them in before coming down. "Washington was perfect on those plays tonight," said State coach John Bennington after the game. "He hasn't had much luck with it for the past couple of games. They've more or less been anticipating his moves and stop- ping him. But this time the cuts were so quick that he couldn't be stopped, and the passes were al- ways right there." State's "little men"-Rymal and Bailey-were big problems too, as they picked off important re- bounds inside while the Blue front line was being drawn out by Aitch at the foul-line, and Washington and Curtis on the wings. Rymal (6'1") had three key rebounds in the first nine minutes. "You have to give a lot of credit to Matthew (Aitch) also," added Bennington. "He did a real good job of denfensing Russell even though Cazzie did score a lot of points. "We figured Cazzie could hurt us inside an doutside with his shooting, but at least if he stayed out he couldn't kill us on the boards." Actually Russell tied for re- bounding honors with 11, and led the scoring. And in spite of Aitch's good effort, the 6'8" center appear- ed to be outmatched even under- neath. Always Underrated Last to receive praise was Cur- tis, as always the Spartans' un- derrated man. State's captain turned in another fine perform- ance, especially from his center spot on defense, where he is us- ually ignored. "Bill is the man who has to play constant pressure ball," ex- plained Bennington. "He's the one who has to keep the other team from back-dooring us, which is done so often to break our de- fense." "You've got to give MSU cred- it," said Michigan's Dave Strack after the loss. "They played a fierce game and deserved to win. "They are a good, quick team, but a quick team always looks season ended it this way: "I'm twice as fast when you're a half not happy about this loss, but step slow. We won't play like that we're not through yet. You can again." always profit from losing, and I Strack, with experience in los- think we will." ing this last game of the regular Western Kentucky is next. Spartan Express MICHIGAN STATE G FR PT Washington 11-14 1-4 9 4 23 Curtis 10-21 6-7 11 3 26 Aitch 6-13 0-1i 9 5 12 Bailey 1-5 3-4 2 0 5 Rymal 5-12 5-7 5 2 15 Geistler 1-5 1-1 6 2 3 Miller 1-1 0-0 0 1 2 Holmes 0-10-0 0 0 0 Kupper 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 35-72 16-24 42 17 86 MICHIGAN Claws.on 1 Darden 5 fMyers '+ Russell 13 Thompson Bankey Pitts A Dill Totals 31 MICHIGAN STATE MICHIGAN G -16 3- -10 2 -14 0- -25 8.1 1-6 0- 1-2 0- -s 2. -80 15- F R P T -4 9 4 15 3 4 5 12 -1 11 3 8 0 11 4 34 -0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 2 2 2 4 20 39 18 77 45 41-86 36 41-77 i .1 If 11 Big Ten Standings FINAL Cagers Trounce NW Russell Sets Record - of MICHIGAN Michigan State Iowa Illinois Minnesota Northwestern Wisconsin Ohio State Indiana Purdue W 11 10 8 8 7 6 5 L 3 4 6 6 7 7 8 9 Pet. .786 .714 .571 .571 .500 .500 .429 .357 .286 .286 4 10 4 10 By CHUCK VETZNER Acting Sports Editor Last Saturday afternoon, Michi- gan defeated Northwestern, 105-92, to win their predicted third straight Big Ten basketball cham- pionship. That, in precise, unemotional language, is what happened this weekend. It's accurate all right, but it's not right. It's as correct as it is to call Lindbergh a pioneer pilot, Charlie Brown a fictitious comic strip character, Cassius Clay a boxer, or sex a noun. Everythin is true, but there Is so much more to the story, and you just can't tell it properly with- out a touch of emotion, a tinge of pride, and a ton of enthusiasm. The Wolverine win was a. climax that made the Michigan State game only a denouement. It was not perfection because there is no such thing, but it was a beau- tiful whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. No Jigsaw In putting all the pieces to- gether, we could start back when the Wolverine coaches conned 'a high school hot shot named Rus- sell into playing all his home games in the first field house ever built. (Michigan has the habit for being the first to do everything and never changing it afterward.), But starting with Cazzie would A be a tale of Michigan basketball not an episode of one game. In- stead we can move up to March 2, 1966 when David Strack, head coach, blew out the candles on his birthday cake for the ---- time in his life. Strack, however, is a basketball man. He likes to celebrate with a winning team. Strack knew that his birthday could only be an aesthetic success if his squad gave him a present on Saturday-he didn't have cufflinks in mind either. Son Like Father Two hours before the North- western tussle was to commence, David Strack the younger led a junior high all-star team onto the floor of Yost. A few hundred miles away Max Walker, a junior high sized player, led an aggregation of Indiana players onto the main court in Bloomington. When the final horns blared, Strack Junior had a victory in Ann Arbor, and Walker and Hoo- siers had a win over Michigan State. Not necessarily fate, luck, or the breaks. But it sure looked like somebody somewhere liked the Wolverines. By the time that old field house on State Street was beginning to get bloated. It was "spring vaca- tion" for all of four days in the beginning of March, but nearly NCAA Regionals at Raleigh, N.C. Duke (23-3) vs. St. Joseph (23-4) Syracuse (21-5 vs. Davidson (21-5) at Iowa City Kentucky (24-1) vs. Dayton' (23-4) MICHIGAN .17-7) vs. Western Kentucky (24-2) at Lubbock, Texas Cincinnati (21-5) vs. Tex. West. (23-1) or Okla. City (24-4) SMU (16-8) vs. Kansas (22-3) 4 at Los Angeles Oregon St. (20-6) vs. Houston (22-5) Brigham Young (22-4) vs. Utah (18-6) every student high-tailed it out town. ,I Full House Yost was packed, full, crowded and Jammed with the missing students. Ticket manager Don Weir still hasn't figured it out where they came from. They were there because this day was spe- cial. When Strack brought out his team, the place went wild, and enough banners were held up to make the place look like Shea Sta- dium on sign day. It was undoubtedly one of the most enthusiastic crowds ever. When Cazzie Russell was intro- duced for his -final home appear- ance, the yelling was so loud and long that somebody had to nudge Oliver Darden to tell him that the announcer, had called out his name. No 'o' It was the last home game for the Big '0', too. The same for five other seniors who had been along for two previous trips to NCAA finals. That was the goal again, and as Strack said later he wanted to "escalate." You know, after finishing third and second you have just got to try and make it all the way. The invitation for the chance was held out with a friendly smile. All Michigan had to do was beat the lowly Wildcats. No, the day wasn't perfection, but the Wolver- ines made their first four shots, and that eight point lead never was diminished. In the second half, the lead oscillated from 15 to nine before a spurt put the game out of reach once and for all. That second half, however, was the story of an indi- vidual, because the Wolverines were already in. How else could the game be concluded but with Cazzie Russell breaking the Michi- gan scoring record? Almost Utopia No, the game wasn't perfect, but awfully close. Sir Cazzie the noble player who passed up good shots all year to feed his teammates with dazzling passes, decided to score. In all he took 34 shots, not a gluttonous total, but with his accuracy it was enough. He made 20 of them and had 48 points for a new record. Afterwards Strack was asked why he didn't let his superstar stay in to break 50. "He doesn't need to score 50 to be remem- bered," pshawed the happy coach. "People will remember Cazzie be- cause . . . he's Cazzie." At that point, football coach Tony Mason ran up to Strack and embraced him in bear hug. Plant- ing a big smacker on Strack's forehead, Mason summed up the day as he gushed, "I could have cried." Cazzie Skins the Cat MICHIGAN G F R P T Darden 8-15 3-4 17 4 19 Clawson' 2-7 0-0 9 3 14 Myers 7-11 0-0 8 3 14 Russell 20-34 8-11 7 1 48 Thompson 5-8 0-0 3 1 10 Bankey 2-4 0-0 2 2 4 Dill 3-5 0-0 3 3 6 Pitts 0-1 0-0 2 0 0 Brown 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 Delzer 0-1 0-0 1 1 0 Tillotson 0-1 0-0 2 1 0 Totals 47-87 11-15 61 19 105 NORTHWESTERN G F R P T Kozlicki 8-20 2-2 6 3 18 Weaver 9-18 2-3 8 2 20 Pitts 3-12 3-4 13 1 9 Burns 13-3512-14 12 4 38 Tiberi 3-12 1-1 4 0 7 Cummins 0-0 0-0 1 2 0 Totals 36-97 20-24 48 12 92 Saturday's Results MICHIGAN 105, Northwestern 92 Wisconsin 69, Purdue 68 Illinois 106, Iowa 90 Indiana 86, Michigan State 76 Ohio State 94, Minnesota 89 Last Night's Results Michigan State 86. MICHIGAN 77 Northwestern 84, Illinois 76 Purdue 92, Ohio State 86 Iowa 86, Indiana 77 Wisconsin 87, Minnesota 74 -Daily-Kamalakar Rao CAZZIE RUSSELL, MICHIGAN'S BIG TEN scoring champ, battles Spartans Stan Washington (24) and Bill Curtis (25) for the rebound in last night's 86-77 State win, Russell nosed out Purdue's Dave Schellhase for scoring honors with back-to-back 48 and 34 point performances. INDOOR TRACK: 3M Finishes Fourth to Champion MSU §Y .4 §2 J }x !( i§ 7 . y § ' Daro Lig te it suits475, 32 Neuth SatenS-N41ShaAd ms § § x By BOB McFARLAND Special To The Daily EAST LANSING-Too many ifs! There lies the answer to a fourth place finish by the Wolverines in the Big Ten Indoor Track Cham- pionships. For the Michigan thin- lads or anyone else to surprise the rampaging Spartans, it was neces- sary for the breaks to fall exactly the right way. No round pegs in square holes. Jenison Field House was full of square holes. Yes, contingencies. Anyone fore- casing a Wolverine victory last Friday afternoon would have had to trap the prediction in a maze of contingencies. Michigan State had the power; the remainder of the league had the hopes. Long Afternoon At 4:15 Saturday afternoon, MSU had 50 points and their first Big Ten Indoor Championship tucked away. Wisconsin, their clos- est contender, totaled 38, the Iowa Hawkeyes racked up 35, while the Wolverines garnered 34. It was a loss only in the physical aspect for Michigan though. They performed well, came up with their traditional surprise successes, and were a mere :00.6 from the runner-up spot. Moving into the final event on the program, the mile relay, the Michigan cindermen found them- selves in a two-way tie for sec- ond place with Wisconsin, while Iowa was a thin point behind. To the winner went the second-place spoils. Iowa had turned in the best pre- meet time, a 3:14.9, which was three seconds faster than the clockings recorded by both Wis- consin and Michigan. One of the Iowa foursome, Fred Ferree, was injured in the 440-yard dash fi- nals, and was replaced by Dennis Kohl, evening things up. Up to Expectations The race turned out to be everything it promised, with Wis- consin barely nipping Iowa at the tape in the time of 3:17.0. The Wolverine quartet of Marion Itoey, Clive Laidley, Bob Gerometta, and Alex McDonald were a shade be- hind, finishing in 3:17.6. Gero- metta turned in the best Mich- igan split, a blistering :48.4 quar- ter. Wolverine coach Don Canham is a man accustomed to winning, his teams having taken seven of the previous ten indoor crowns, but he was smiling as the mile re- lay ended. "That was one hell of a race," he said. "Two things hurt us," Canham pointed out, "or we would've had second place - McDonald's dis- qualification in the 600 and Cana- mare's failure to place in the pole vault. Other than that, we per- formed real well. In these meets, you've got to expect to fall down in some events and come up in others, though," he continued. McDonald, running easily, won his trial heat in the 600-yard run in the time of 1:14.2. The judges disqualified him for momentarily leaving his lane early in the race. Speaking of the effect of McDon- ald's loss to the team on Friday night, Canham said, "The thing it hurts most is the morale. The cost of a disqualification is im- measurable." 'Erase the Ifs' "It just knocks the hell out of you," the Wolverine coach contin- tied. "We were going pretty good out there until that happened. Now, we'll have to squeeze every point we can get." Erase one of the 'ifs'. George Canamare, Michigan's pole valuter, had topped 14'6" in every meet this season, but missed three tries at 14'4" in competition Saturday and failed to place. Erase another 'if.' Erase the second; place finish. But where were the upsets? Not even the most optimistic observers figured that Jim Mercer and Ken Coffin would take 1-2 in the 1000- yard run for Michigan. That's just what the pair did however, Mercer tying the field house rec- ord of 2:13.1, and barely clipping teammate Coffin at the wire. Hoey put in a fine effort in the 440-yard dash, adding fourth place points to the Michigan ledger in his season's best. Competing in a tough field, Wolverine sophomore Jim Dolan grabbed a third in the two mile for more markers. Shot Record Michigan's star weight man, Jack Harvey, was expected to out- class his competitors in the shot put, and he easily did just that. He tossed the 16-pound iron over 2'6" farther than his closest op- ponent, setting a Big Ten record on his first toss, and then heaving the oversized ball bearing 58'31 /" on his next throw to break the mark. Wolverine junior Steve Leuchtman added support with a fifth place. Simple Coup Michigan State accomplished their coup very simply. All MSU did was to sweep the first three places in the 70-yard low hurdles and 70-yard high hurdles. That rare feat gave the Spartans 24 points, and should prompt some kind of anti-trust proceedings against the MSU hurdling monop- oly of Gene Washington, Clinton Jones, and Bob Steele. Washington, who won both events, snapped the Big Ten and field house marks in the high hurdles with an :08.3 time. After the meet, he emphasized that "all three of our performances are helped by the fact that we've got two teammates who are pushing and helping us. It's a great feel- ing. An elated Fran Dittrich, MSU's track mentor, said he had only countetd on his trio for "nine points, not twelve, in each event." Sparts who netted other firsts included Jim Garrett, who won the broad jump, and Dick Shar- key, who set a Big Ten record with a 9:01.4 mark in the two mile run. Wisconsin, listed by'some as the co-favorite going into the meet, gave its trainer a field day as one after another of their established entries came up with injuries. Ger- ald Beatty, a defending champion in the high hurdles, came up with bad feet, Barney Peterson, de- fending champion in the 1000- yard run, injured his transverse arch, which prevented him from running on his toes, and Tom Dakin, a top hurdler, injured his thigh. No breaks for the Badgers either. Not everyone went home happy. Illinois coach Bob Wright, com- menting on the times of some Il- lini cindermen, remarked, "My wife can run faster in high heels and a tight girdle." LONG JUMP-1. Garrett (MSU). Distance--23'7". MILE -- 1. Wieczorek (Iowa). 5. Kelly (M). Time-4:09.7. 440-YD. DASH-i. Whipple (W). 4. Hoey (M). Time-:48.5. 70-YD. HIGH HURDLES-1. Wash- ington (MSU). Time - :08.3 (Big Ten, field house record). 1000-YD. RUN-1. Mercer (M). 2. Coffin (M). Time-2:13.1 (ties field house record). SHOT PUT - 1. Harvey (M). 5. Leuchtman (M). Distance - 58'3y" (Big Ten record). HIGH JUMP-1. Stuart (Minn). 2. Densham (M), tied with two others. Height--6'6". 60-YD. DASH-1. Pinder (I1I). 3. Ward (M). 5. Brown (M). Time - :06.2. 600-YD. RUN-1. Mondane (Iowa). 4. Grove (M). Time--:111.2. 300-YD. DASH-i.° Weddle (Ind). Time- :1.2. POLE VAULT-1. Albrecht (NW). Height-i5'. 880-YD. RUN-I. Latigolal (W). Time-1:52.2. TWO MILE--I. Sharkey (MSU). 3. Dolan (M). Time-9:01.4 (Big Ten record). 70-YD. LOW HURDLES-1. Wash- ington (MSU). Time-:07.9. MILE RELAY - 1. Wisconsin. 3. Michigan. Tiine-3 :17.0. 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