TUESDAY, ,JANVARY" 17, 1967 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PAI"vr '193TVV TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1907 TUE MICHIGAN DAILY WAf±W ~?Th.?U' * A5..5r SlkY E h Cagers Facing Uphill Battle By DOUG HELLER "We aren't the type of club that's going to go. out and over- power anybody. We've got to go all out every minute." So spoke: Michigan coach Dave Strack after the Illinois disaster Saturday, a statement which out of context as it is here seems ripe for sensationalistic interpretation, especially with a sportswriting equivalent of a Kremlinologist rid- ing shotgun on a typewriter. What can be said about a team that was originally expected to go nowhere (preseason rank in Big Ten: seventh), looked very im- presive for a young team against Houston (now ranked number four) and now,, three games into the Big Ten season, has shown ab- solutely nothing? Disappointed Strack said, "I was disappointed in our performances in some of the games but not the ones against Wisconsin and Illinois." And now the drive for perspective is begin- ning to lose out. Strack said this team would not be as bad as everyone thought before the sea- son, and now that they are losing what at first glance seems to -be very sloppily played ball games, particularly the last one, he says he isn't disappointed. Michigan presents very close to the same offense they had last year for approximately the same situation: guards that can't shoot from the outside, one who would much rather drive the baseline, a very fine outside shooting center, and at least one forward who also likes to shoot from the outside. Tall Guard Center Craig Dill has been call- ed by more than one person the tallest guard in the. world. He does seem to play. further outside than Jim Myers did last year, at least he did against Illinois, but this is god strategy if a team is afraid of the opposing center's rebound- ing ability. But four rebounds for Dill? And then, in the second half, Illinois left Dill unguarded and put the extra man on Jim Pitts, who they obviously thought could hurt them more. Thus while Pitts was held to two second-half points, Dill was even able to drive in occasionally. It has often been said that Den- nis Stewart can look like the great- est player ever to pick up a bas- ketball, or something of that or- der, but other times one wonders if he really knows where he is., Leading Rebounder Stewart, who everybody seems to think should be board-crashing like the graduated Oliver Darden, did in fact lead the Wolverines Saturday with 11 rebounds. But that figure just. isn't impressive for anybody's leading rebounder. The fact remains that on the av- erage Stewart simply doesn't al- ways go for the boards and often looks very tired. Still, he has an excellent outside jump shot, and 'as Strack says, is the player who Crisler Criticizes TV 'S tatic' n Grid Games Special To The Daily penalties on interceptions. PHOENIX, Ariz.-H. O. (Fritz) ,0i Allowing substitutes to enter Crisler, Michigan athletic diector, game without reporting to de- opined yesterday that college foot- signated official. ball should curb television's ex- ' Reduction frm 15 to 5 yards panding role in the production of for penalty for assisting teammate games. move the ball forward on offense. Speaking at the opening of thenOthecangesrwrooe se. National Collegiate Athletic As- Other changes proposed are: sociation rules meeting here, in- * Prohibiting player signaling terim chairman Crisler criticized for fair catch from blocking. television's tendency to involve it- 0 Elimination of requiring cer- self in regulating the games tain angle of ball during center rather than in simply telecasting snaps, so long as head and hands them. of center not in entural zone. Crisler presided in the absence 0 Give officials authority to of Chairman Ivy Williamson of stop clock when game is being Wisconsin, who is illr delayed necessarily, as during Areas of Concern moving of sideline chains., are invited to meet with our Contact your Placement Of majoring in " ARCHITEICTURE ADMINISTRATION * CHEMISTRY " ENGINEERING " LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE " LIBERAL ARTS " RECREATION " URBAN PLANNIING representative on campus fice for an appointment GRADUATING SENIORS MICHIGAN SOPHOMORE BOB SULLIVAN (20) attempts to drive around a partly hidden Illinois defender in the Wolverines' 99-93 loss to the Illini last Saturday. Illinois' Don Flessner (30) ap- pears ready to pounce on the Wisconsin native w ho scored eight points in Michigan's third Big Ten defeat without a victory. Craig DiT. oversees the action at right. finds it easiest to score. Is forward Bob Sullivan really a forward? At 6'4" he appears to find it awfully hard to rebound. He also hasn't seemed as though he has steadied his outside shot enough to use it regularly in the Big Ten, although he can score under the basket. Unbelievable Passing, Sullivan's passing at times is absolutely unbelievable. This can be taken in two ways, and often has been. In short, he as yet doesn't have much poise, and poise must be learned. Substitute .forward Dave Mc- Clellan hasn't seen much court time or taken many shots, but the shots he has taken go in. In fact, his shooting average is .667 over the last two games. At this point, his rebounding ability is close to being an unknown factor, but no one can question his effort. Of the four main front-liners not one has been an above aver- age rebounder, and this is the main reason why a team loses with a .535 shooting percentage. Bankey Steady Dennis Bankey is a steady play- er who either can't or won't shoot from the outside. Bankey was seen driving during the Illinois game, and this by itself is an improve- ment, since it means he has been making use of his very fine speed. Up to the Illinois game there was a serious question as to whether speedy guard Ken Maxey could shoot, 'and now all that is asked is was it an isolated per- formance. There can be no doubt that the most valuable player on the Wol- verine squad to this point has been guard Jim Pitts. Although lacking a real effective outside shot, Pitts has usually been very effective near the baseline and in fact has only been stopped when double-teamed, as shown by Illi- nois, and even then he was also cold. Most Aggressive Pitts is also by far the most aggressive rebounder Michigan has, and this is saying quite a lot for. a backliner. But at 6'3" Pitts does get his share even though he some- times has to outjump players four inches taller. Thus far the most important criticism that has been left out about the offense has been ball- handling. Right from the start of the season there has been an im- moderate number of turnovers. Al- though reduced, they still happen at the wrong time. Aside from all the criticism of the offense given here and else- where, the offense is not one of a losing team. The defense gave up 99 points to Illinois, and the of- fense scored 93. Trouble with Fouls Ken Maxey one of the better defense players has his troubles with fouls. The trouble partly stems from attempting to get the man with the ball to commit of- fensive fouls, an unusual defensive maneuver that only a player of Maxey's speed can pull off at all: by trying to outposition the oppo- sition. Unfortunately, the defen- sive player is by definition us- ually at a disadvantage in this type of action, and so Maxey picks up unwanted fouls. Yet the big problem at Illinois was the great number of offensive rebounds gleaned by the Illini during the last 13 minutes. A si- tuation like this is so much of anj advantage, that Michigan's shoot- ing percentage looks inconsequen-I tial in comparison. But this is by no means a badj team, and there certainly is no reason for considering them out of the first division yet, although it would take an almost impossible string to make them champions. And Strack has said, "These boys will be winners before they leave the University of Michigan." [SCORES COLLEGE BASKETBALL Georgia 49, Kentucky 40 Georgia Tech 84, Ohio State 73 Tennessee 66, Florida 53 Vanderbilt 71, Auburn 65 North Dakota 64, State College of Iowa 58 Memphis State 46, Florida State 42 Maryland 68, Clemson 48 West Virginia 91, VMI 77 Connecticut 99, vermont 70 Creighton 85, Air Force 77 Miami (Fla) 97, Tampa 86 Western Kentucky 100, Morehead 69 So. Illinois 52, Kentucky Wesleyan 51 NBA Baltimore 100, St. Louis 98 COLLEGE HOCKEY Middlebury 9, Vermont 2 In addition, Cresler emphasized two other areas of concern for col- lege football: 1) Concern about a electronic advancements, with emphasis on closed circuit television and other scouting devices. 2) Concern about the relation- ship of professional football to college football. A subcommittee, headed by Jack Curtice, head coach at Cali- fornia at Santa Barbara, proposed several changes in football rules. Six of the proposals, suggested at last week's meeting of coaches and NCAA representatives in Houston, Texas, are expected to pass in a ballot vote tomorrow. Favored Proposals The rulesmakers will hold a straw vote and discuss amend- ments to the changes today. The favored proposals included: 0 A suggestion that the tackle- eligible play be eliminated or modified. * Allowing a coach to com- municate with one player on the sideline during a charged time out. Elimination of line shifts de- signed to draw offensive players offside. ! Eliminations of offsetting g:. 'S" 4, v .r.. "r. v":"}4:".:4