THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1967
THE MICHIGAN DAILY FRIDAY. JANUARY 6.1967
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-Daily-Thomas R. Copi
DAVIDSON'S BOB MOSER makes with the goal post hand
spread, but Michigan's Bob Sullivan whips the ball around him
for a nifty assist that even Cazzie couldn't top. Sullivan shows
that he hasn't forgotten his days as a hot shot guard as a prep.
_tree Nore Home
Wis for MCagers
CONTROVERSIAL
CHALLENGING
CANDID
CAMP
CLEVER
CYNICAL
COMING
January 5-25, 1967
WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE
Books available
By RICK STERN
Michigan basketball teams don't
like to lose at home. Twonyears
ago, the Wolverines won 10
straight home games. Last season
they won nine. of ten, and this
year they have started out with
four in a. row, include an 86-75
upset of fifth-ranked- Houston,
which has won ten straight since
that game.
During The Daily's "recess" per-
iod, the cagers came from behind
to nip southern powerhouse David-
son 71-68, then romped to fairly
easy wins over Butler (91-80) and
Ohio University (86-80).
The Davidson game was played
Dec. 10 before 3,400 Yost enthu-
siasts. Although the Davidson
(N.C.) school has only about 1,000
male students it has ranked among
the best in the nation during the
last four years, compiling season
records of 20-7, 22-4, 24-2, and
21-7 under Coach Lefty Driesell
and producing All-Amercians Fred.
Hetzel and Dick Snyder.
Not Ranked
Though this is not a ranking
Davidson team (current record:
7-5) the Wildcats did make the
Wolverines sweat, jumping off to
an early lead of 12-4 and hanging
on for .a 35-30 margin at the half.
But with Dennis Stewart and
Ken Maxey sparking the drive, and
Craig Dill hitting five clutch free
throws, the Wolverines stayed
close and finally knotted the score
at 57-57 with 5:38 to play.
When Maxey hit one of his driv-
ing, spinning lay-ups, Michigan
took a 63-61 lead with 3:14 re-
maining. Davidson pulled into ties
of 64-64 and 66-66 before Jim
Pitts worked himselfbfree and
scored over the heads of three de-
fenders to put Michigan ahead
68-66 with 1:20 to go. Two free
throws by Stewart and a third by
Bob Sullivan put Michigan out of
reach.
Could Be Better
Even with Stewart hitting seven
baskets in the final 20 minutes the
Michigan shooting percentage was
a not too impressive 36.9 (27 of
73); Davidson tossed in 28 of 61
for a 45.9 mark.
Against Butler on Monday, Dec.
12, the final score indicated a
much closer game than was actu-
ally the case. A crowd of 3,000
watched as Michigan zoomed to a
halftime lead of 50-37, swelled the
margin to 66-43, then relaxed as
13 players saw action.
Ed Schilling, 6'6", 220 poundI
center, playing with an injured
peg stil led all scorers with 27
points. Dill hit 12 for 18 from the
field to lead the Wolverines with
25 points, and Pitts added nine for
17 plus six free throws for 24
points.
Adams Gone
The game was the last of the
season for 6'6" sophomore center
Clarence Adams. Adams scored six
against Butler but was suspended
from the team several days later
for violating an agreement with
Strack concerning class attend-
ance. Adams appaiently is not in
school this semester.
Following th4 Butler game,
Michigan took a ten day lay-off
for exams. On Thursday, Dec. 22.
they whipped Ohio University 86-
80. The crowd, 4,600, was the
largest of the season, .surprising
considering that many students
THE JUNIOR CIRCUIT
By RICK STERN
(Lew) CLA:
How To Win Games
Without Really Trying
LOS ANGELES CLASSIC-
RUNNING SCORE:
0:14 Shackelford, 18 foot jumper from left side 2-0
0:56 Allen, 24 foot jump in right corner 4-0
1:09 Heitz, short jump in key over Taylor 6-0
1:32 Warren, 24 foot jump in right corner 8-0
1:34 TIME OUT USC
1:38 Shackelford, 18 foot banking jump 10-0
2:33 Alcindor, lay-in from Warren 12-0
2:59 Alcindor, (Marsh) two free throws 13, 14-0
And this was a good, strong USC team that had won six of
seven previous games and had reached the championship game by
coming from 15 back to beat a scrappy Illinois squad 73-72.
And UCLA stole the ball four times, hit their first six shots
from the field and made USC look like a high school JV squad.
UCLA is that good. They are. I went out to the coast a skeptic,
along with a lot of other more knowledgable basketball people. And
like them, I came back a believer. UCLA shouldn't lose for three
years. They have to be the best college basketball team ever as-
sembled. They have, four sophomore starters and they are still the
best team ever assembled. They lost Mike Lynn for forgery and
Edgar Lacey for a bum knee, two of the best players in the nation
and they are still the best team ever assembled.
Alcindor and Warren made the All-Tournament team at the
Classic. You could have put all five Bruins on the team and a sixth,
reserve forward Jim Nielsen, would make the second team.
Mike Warren, 5'10" junior guard from South Bend, In-
diana, played the best three games I've ever seen a college guard
play. He's fast, he steals the ball, he goes to the backboard, and
he shoots-from everywhere, every type of shot.
His mate at guard, Lucius Allen, 6'2" from Kansas City,
Kansas, hit for a lower percentage in the tournament but he took
more difficult shots, too. If he wanted to take just the easy ones,
he could probably hit 100 per cent. He darts around on the
awesome UCLA press, teaming with, Warren to harass flustered
opponents into numerous and costly errors.
Once, in Chicago, I saw a pair of guards, Ben Lilly and Len
Perry of Marshall, whom I thought must be the quickest pair of
guards in the history of basketball. Lilly and Perry, moving in a
blur, would run Marshall opponents off the court, going in circles
around and through them. But this was high school and Warren
and Allen are doing it in college, and better.
The forwards are just as amazing, Shackelford, a Southern
California native, shoots around 60 per cent, using his not-so-great
height to better advantage under the backboards than anyone else
in the nation. He has a towering, deadly, swishing jump shot that
he puts through easily from anywhere. within 25 feet.
Kenny Heitz, another sun tanned native, looks like a
Rhoades Scholar off the court with brown rimmed glasses and
an Ivy League suit. He walks with a nervous gait and blinks his
eyes at everything, like an 11-year old in Disneyland. But on the
court, he is a maniac. Wearing contact lenses, he maneuvers
his slim 6'3" frame around the basket with tremendous dexterity
and is rugged and skillful on the Bruin press.
Substitute forward Nielsen, may eventually get Heitz' starting spot.
He had it before the season started, but was clumsy at times, and
no one is clumsy around basketball-perfectionist John Wooden, so
Nielsen, sat on the bench. But he is the second biggest man on the
squad and played well in 'the tournament, hitting eight out of 11
against Georgia Tech for 16 points, and may soon be a regular.
A lot has been said about both Alcindor and coach Wooden who
aspires to become the first coach to win five National Championships
in six seasons. In an attempt to come up with something original
I interviewed both Alcindor and Wooden, after the Bruins semi-final
win over spunky Georgia Tech. If nothing else the interviews were
amusing, but they didn't prove much more than that Alcindor and
Wooden don't like DAILY reporters. Excerpts of the abortive dialogues
appear below. First Big Lew:
ME: (Assertively) Hi, I'm Rick Stern of the MICHIGAN DAILY.
Would you say that you are glad to have come to UCLA, even though
if you'd gone say to a school where there were less superstars, you
could have averaged maybe 70 a game.
ALCINDOR: (Glancing Down) Well, all of that's not really
very important. The only that really matters is if you win.
ME: (Still Asseritve) What about the fact that some people say that
you are damaging college basketball because you take all the fun out
of it by making it impossible for anyone else to win?
ALCINDOR: (Signing Autographs, giving me a snide look)
Well, that's not important either. If we win, that's all that
matters. If they want to cry after they lose, that's fine with me.
ME: (Less Assertive) Why did you decide to come to UCLA, as op-
posed to another school, say Michigan?
* BIG LEW: (Brushing a piece of lint from his suit) Sorry,
I've got to go now.
(Exit Alcindor)
Previously, just after the Georgia Tech game was over: I had
talked to Wooden along with several other reporters outside the UCLA
lockerroom. From that exchange:
ME: (Provocatively) Coach, how would you reply to the critic who
says your team, loaded with All-Americans as it is, is a detriment to
college basketball in that there's not even ever any doubt about
your winning?
WOODEN: (Provoked) Well I'd say that critic is pretty dumb
and selfish. People seem to find fault with us for being good, and
though we are the best team in college basketball, we're not all
that much better than everybody else. And if you are that critic,
I'd say that you're pretty dumb and selfish.
ME: (Meekly) I was just being hypthetical, I guess.
OTHER REPORTERS: Snicker, snicker.
WOODEN: (Voluntarily, still provoked) Our team is made up
of human beings Just like any other team, and if you don't realize
that you're stupid.
Feeling stupid and selfish at that point I layed off coach
Wooden and let the other reporters continue their barrage. High-
lights of some of Wooden's comments include, "Sure, I've told LeW to
stop throwing his cross court passes. It doesn't do us any good and
his completion percentage isn't too high . . . Yes, its tough to keep
a team up for a whole season and I anticipate great problems in this
area if we continue to win by as much as we are. Yet on the other
hand, I want to keep winning by this much . .. I have never be-
lieved in pointing my team toward certain games. Every game is
equally important. This game, the last one, all of them. If you'd
seen us when we won the NCAA championship, you wouldn't have
seen any of that wild joy or anything. It"was basically just another
game. None of that throwing in the, showers stuff. I don't go for that,
"Yes, I do wish Lew would shoot more instead of passing off,
just as I wish that some other players, whom I won't name, would
pass off more instead of shooting. But when we need Lew to
t
*
I
CRAIG DILL
were home for the vacation.
Pets hit 8 of 13 shots and Sul-
livan £~ of 11, to spark the attack
with 23 and 21 points respectively.
Mich'gan's shooting percentage
was f 1.5, their best effort of the
seasc n.
The Wolverines pulled from an
8-10 deficit to a 22-13 lead and
were not headed after that though
Ohio closed the game up midway
in the second half and kept it
close for the duration. However 15
Wolv rine free throws in the sec-
ond holi, after only five in the
first 0 minutes, helped put the
victory away.
Fred Cluff and Mike Hammond
each scored 22 points for the
visitors. Stewart added 15 for the
Wolverines and Dih had 12.
IA
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