BLUE PULLING FOR BUCKEYES: Big Ten turns By DAVE RENBARGER If you're more than a little bit sur- prised to see Ohio State still sitting pretty on top of the Big Ten basketball standings, don't feel bad because you're not alone. In fact, before this wacky season got started, nobody outside of Columbus gave the Buckeyes a sliver of a chance to displace the defending champs, Michigan State. Case in point: the pre-season Big Ten basketball predictions, where the sup- Big Ten Standings posedly knowledgeable media types got together and made their selections. Michigan State, the defending champs, collected 45 of the possible 66 first place votes. The remaining 21 votes, inciden- tally, went to Michigan." Ohio State fared no better than fourth in the poll behind third-place Indiana. Other predictions that the voters may not wish to own up to are those for Iowa and, Purdue. The second-place Hawkeyes, currently the only team with a legitimate shot at OSU, were picked eighth, and the third-place Boilermakers were tabbed to finish seventh. But that was long before things got started, and how could anyone predict a collapse as thorough as the Spartans'? MSU's insulting 83-65 loss to traditional Big Ten martyr Northwestern was the coup de grace for Jud Heathcote's team, virtually eliminating them from title contention. Meanwhile, Ohio State approaches the midpoint of the Big Ten season tomorrow at the crossroads. The Buckeyes play two games away from home this week -.Thursday at MSU and Saturday at Indiana - and when those results are in, the race will either to Ps t and dried or more mixed up than )hio State sweep will just about be gh for the Bucks to claim the y a month early, and a split in't be much worse. But if the , drop two, which is quite possible , road, just about anything can an. where does all of this leave the erines? ht now, Michigan finds itself in aradoxical situation of pulling for State victories. That's right. If the' erines' dream of making the k playoffs is to materialize, e probably going to need some rom the front-running Bucks. h only a 4-4 record, the Wolverines >ur games out of first place, and for fourth. But they're only two s out of second place, and the Big unner-up goes to the NCAA's too, now. realistically, Michigan can con- he title to Ohio State, setting their on second place and the guaran- CAA berth. iere's two ways to look at Ohio s situation," said Michigan ant coach Bill Frieder. "One, they get beat. Then everything >le would have to work out for you the title because the advantages -turvy would be the same for Purdue, Iowa, Michigan State and Illinois. "Then, the other thing is to have Ohio State keep winning. Then, if you keep winning, you'll be continually gaining on everybody Ohio State beats." So it's not really that complicated at all, is it? "Ohio State beat Indiana on Thur- sday, and we gained a game on In- diana," continued Frieder. "If they beat Michigan State on Thursday and we win (at Indiana), we gain a game on Michigan State. I think that with that type of philosophy, we'll be into the NCAA Playoffs." So, the way it stands right now, the Michigan coaches are officially Buckeye fans, at least until Feb. 8, when the Wolverines take on OSU in Cqlumbus. In other key Big Ten games this weekend, Iowa hits the road for two at Wisconsin and Minnesota, while Pur- due visits both Northwestern and Wisconsin. The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, January 31, 1979-Page 9 Irish retain top spot NEW YORK (AP) - It took 11 weeks,'but Indiana State finally lost one - off the court, that is. Notre Dame, despite garnering only 13 first-place ballots to the, Sycamores' 32 and losing a game in the final seconds to Maryland last week, retained the No. 1 position in The Associated Press college basketball poll today. The Irish received 1,124 points in balloting by a nationwide committee of sports writers and broadcasters, edging Indiana State, 18-0, by a mere 13 points in one of the closest votes in AP poll history. While Notre Dame and Indiana State were battling hard for the No. 1 spot, last week's rash of upsets created wholesale changes among the rest of the Top Ten. AP Top Twenty UPI Top Twenty Conference Ohio State Iowa Purdue MICHIGAN Michigan State Illinois Minnesota Indiana Wisconsin Northwestern W 8 6 5 4 4 4 3 3 2 1 L 0 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 6 7 Overall W L, 13 4 13 4 15 5 10 6 11 5 16 5 8 9 11 9 8 9 5 12 1. Notre Dame (15) ............... 12-2 2. Indiana State (32)............ 18-0 3.Duke (8).....................14-3 4. North Carolina (1)............15-3 5. UCLA (2)......................14-3 6. Louisville (2) .................. 17-3 7. Ohio State .................. 13-4 8. Syracuse..................18-2 9. Georgetwon, D.C............... 16-2 10. Louisana state ................. 15-3 11. Texas...................... 15-4 12. Marquette.................14-3 13. Alabama..................13-4 14. Illinois..................... 16-4 15. Michigan State.............. 11-5 16. Texas A&M................17-4 17. Maryland ..................... 14-5 18. Temple ........................ 15-3 19. Arkansas ...................... 13-4 20. vanderbilt..................... 14-3 1.124 1,111 1.025 970 957 956 851 692 623 497 484 460 355 325 324 283 251 210 169 153 1. Notre Dame (12) .............. 12-2 2. Indiana State (18).............18-0 3. UCLA (1) .................. 14-3 4. Duke (3)..................14-3 5. Louisville (2)..................17-3 6. North Carolina (2)............15-3 7. Ohio State (3) ................. 13-4 8. Syracuse ................... 17-2 9. Marquette.................14-3 10. Georgetown ................. 16-2 11. Texas ......................... 14-4 12. Louisiana State................ 14-3 13. Michigan State.............11-5 14. Texas A&M................. 17-4 15. Alabama ....................13-4 16. vanderbilt..................14-3 17. Illinois..................... 16-4 18. Temple .................... 18-2 19. Weber State ................... 19-4 +20. Purdue........................15-5 551 528 436 430 419 414 393 308 199 195 163 116 98 94 69 65 51 49 43 39 Thursday's Games MICHIGAN at Indiana Ohio State at Michigan State Iowa at Wisconsin 39 B WOMEN FA CE CHIPPE WA S Cagers stressing offense Minnes Purdue: ota at Illinois. -to win at Northwestern7 Orr, Can ham, B Ten brass shun proposed CA boycott By DAVE RENBaARGER Michigan athletic director Don Canham and coach Johnny Orr said yesterday that they have no plans to abide by Maryland coach Lefty Driesell's proposed boycott of the NCAA basketball tournament. On Monday Driesell had sent letters to coaches and athletic'directors around the nation, urging the schools to boycott the tournament in protest over a rule which allows a maximum of two teams per conference to participate in the 40-team tourney. Driesell would like to have more than two teams/from the same conference eligible for tour- nament bids. Driesell had sent letters to all schools, in a conference which had a Top Twenty team, but received no support from Canham, Orr or Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke. WHEN INFORMED of the proposed boycott yesterday, Canham scoffed at the idea. "You've got to consider the source-he's crazy," said Canham jokingly of Driesell. Canham went on to defend the new format of the tour- nament, which was revised last summer to include 40 teams rather than 32. "I wouldn't change a thing. They've got it set up just fine. "You've got to remember that this is supposed to be a national tournament, and all parts of the nation must be represented. If you can't even finish second in your con- ference, then you can go to the NIT (National Invitational Tournament). "NOT ONLY WILL I fire off a letter right back to him, but I will urge others to do the same," said Canham. Like Canham, Orr was unaware of Driesell's action before yesterday and had not yet received the letter. Unlike Canham, however, Orr agreed with the idea in principle before dismissing the boycott as being ridiculous. "Sure, I think that more than two teams from a con- ference should qualify for the tournament," said Orr. "But there's no way he's going to get anything done about it this year. These thigs take time. "The whole thing sounds like a waste of time to me," Orr added. "I think Lefty's a little worried that he's not going to make the tournament. The best thing he can do is start winning his games." DUKE, BIG TEN Commissioner and Chairman of the NCAA Tournament Committee, charged that Driesell's idea stemmed from his own narrow-mindedness, thereby undermining the intent of the tournament. "The domination of a select few has been one of the biggest problems in all of college athletics," said Duke. -"We're trying to work toward more of a competitive equality. "We were just thinking of the best interest of college basketball as a whole," continued Duke, referring to the two-team rule. "This is the perspective of an ad- ministrator as opposed to that of a coach. The ad- ministrator looks at the entire picture and the coach's is a fragmented point of view." IN DUKE's opinion, Driesell's boycott idea "will be totally unproductive," adding that "this is nothing new. Lefty wrote me a letter to this effect last summer." In an interview in yesterday's Washington Post, Driesell said, "I've been hot about this before, and I'm hot about it again." The two-team rule has been in effect since the 1976 tourney, and no conference has ever sent three teams. ffy LIZ MAC A change from its hectic early season pace has given the women's basketball team (10-7) a chance to experiment with some new facets of their game. "We've been working on our offen- se," said head coach Gloria Soluk. "We're practicing getting the ball in- side to our big girls." "With our busy schedule, we had no time to work on everything we'd like," agreed assistant coach Margo Plotzke. "Now, we can sort of polish what we do now. And we have a few different offen- ses and different defenses that we're working on." From a three-games-per-week slate in early January, the cagers' schedule has slowed to a somewhat normal two SCORES games per week. The Central Michigan Chippewas visit Ann Arbor for a contest tonight at 7 p.m. in Crisler Arena. "Defense seems to be our stronghold," said Plotzke. "We've been putting some finishing touches on our press, (but) we've been working on our offense a great deal. "The thirty second clock is new to a lot of the players. We're teaching-them to have a little more patience on offen- se." Although there is no Big Ten women's basketball conference this year, there is a Big Ten Tournament in February toward which the players are looking now. Last Saturday's 58-57 victory over Illinois undoubtedly helped get them ready. "It's like a 20-point victory when we win on the road like that,", said Soluk, referring to the last minute one-point victory. "We're trying to win some road games to get ready for-the Big Ten Tournament." Post-season action begins in early March. Winners from the state tour- nament go on to regional competition, and the national tournament is next. Tonight's contest may give the Wolverines a hint of what's to come in the state tournament. Central "has great respectability around the state," according to Plotzke. "Gimme a D * Gimme an A Gimme an 1 . . . L ...Y * Give the MICHIGAN DAILY that old college try. * CALL 764.0558 to order your subscription NHL Minnesota 5, N.Y. Islanders 4 Detroit 7, Washington 4 NBA Washington 109, Atlanta 105 Indiana 112, Houston,106 College Basketball Notre Dame 80, Brown 53 Fordham 76, Columbia 75 A TTTTTTTTTTT-TTTrTTTTTTTTV r First in war, first in peace AP Photo ... and last in the Norris Division. 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