*Wednesday, January 27, 1971
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
^ M.
THE-M-CH---------
P'age Sevet
X1"
_Ford
By BOB HEUER
The resurrection of the 1971 Michi
basketball team is due in large part,
an unselfish approach and 'together'
titude exhibited by every man on
ball club. This attitude is exemplified
veteran senior Rodney Ford.
Rod Ford does not lead the team ino
major categories, but hisvalue, especie
since the start of Big Ten play has b
immeasurable.
In Michigan's offensive attack, F
serves as the swing man, able to perfo
well in every phase of the game. A
forward, he handles a large portion ofI
rebounding chores, scores consisten
from his corner position, and exhil
speed that has enabled him to grab
rebound, make the outlet pass, and s
onds later, latch on to a return pass fo
fast-break lay-up.
Ford's most important duties howev
come at the other end of the court.1
defensive prowess has given him the u
enviable task of guarding the likes
Austin Carr and George McGinnis so
this year.
"Defense," he says, "is a challenge. F
epitomizes
me, it's 80 per cent desire. You just have Ford at
gan to make up your mind to stop the other juvination
to guy." ine starte
at- Another intangible quality that Rodney see littlet
the Ford supplies is leadership. Coach Johnny about the
by Orr delegates that authority to the sen- my shot."
iors and one of their biggest chores is Carter,
any to influence, by their actions as well as close con
ally their words, the underclassmen. "We had through F
een some problems with the younger guys will alway
early in the year," Ford said. "It was him," he
ord just a case of taking the pre-season press- saw anyth
rm clippings too much for granted. Sometime
s a "It's up to us to keep them in the right situationa
the frame of mind now that we're winning it from the
itly and keep that from happening again."
bits For Rod Ford, the holiday tourna- Ford ha
a ments marked a turn in his own, as well the prese
ec- as the team's fortunes. An early season and the
r a slump kept him on the bench for the to be," he
better part of four games. But a break give an or
ver, for the holidays and a trip to Hawaii it out wit
His gave him time to analyze his problems an order i
an- and he put it all together in the Rainbow don't like
of Classic, scoring 68 points and hauling in The coach
far 23 rebounds in the four tournament son or th
games, including a season-high 29 points "Today2
For against Villanova. power; th
team
tributes at least part of his re-
to his roommate, ex-Wolver-
r Richard Carter. "Richie would
things I was doing and tell me
m. He helped me out a lot witn
a 1970 graduate, has kept in
itact with this year's team,
Ford and other seniors, "Rod
ys bring the game home with
said. "We talk it over and if I
ping wrong, I'll tell him about it.
s, he's just too close to the
and it takes a person looking at
he outside to see what's wrong."
is some interesting insights into
nt player-coach relationships
problem of discipline. "It used
e said, "that the coach would
rder and the player would carry
h no questions asked. Now when
comes down, and the players
it, they're going to ask 'Why?.'
better have a pretty good rea-
ey won't do it.
athletes realize that they've got
hat the system can't function
spirit
without them. That power is now being
exploited in all areas of sport."
The exploitation of the black athlete
is another subject that Rod Ford is con-
cerned about. "We are black people before
anything else." he said. "For instance,
we've been asked to boycott any sports
event with Brigham Young University
because of their racial policy. We were
aware of the boycott of the game with
the Australian Nationals, but there was
no time to organize anything on our part."
Ford has also been talking to the
younger black athletes at Michigan about
their predominantly Phys. Ed. curricu-
lums. "We want them to take courses in
different areas so they will have some-
thing to fall back on if the athletic career
doesn't pan out."
Ford is looking forward to an engineer-
ing degree upon graduation, but the en-
gineering career could be put off for
awhile if a professional basketball con-
tract is in the offing.
But be it basketball, football, or engi-
neering, Rodney Ford's determination
and willingness to sacrifice for the good
of the team will pay big dividends.
-Daily-Terry McCarthy
Rod Ford (43)_takes a' jump shot
y - - - f ...
of the team will pay big dividends.
Five tea
~Big Te
ims fight as
Laver rakes in the
cash on tennis tour
battle
By ELLIOT LEGOW
The Big Ten basketball season is
#only three weeks old but a great d ail
battle for the top position is al-
ready shaping up, with four teams
currently tied for the top with
undefeated marks and one more :
just a single game behind.
Illinois, Ohio State, Purdue, and NIGHT EDITOR:
Michigan all remain undefeated BETSY MAHON
*m three games, and Indiana's ?
strong Hoosiers have dropped only
one game, to Michigan. These five son lead Illinois' offense with 23
teams were all expected to be and 16 point averages respective-
tough before the season, but it was ly, but the work of sophomores
guessed that some of them .would Nick Weatherspoon, Nick Conner,
have slipped by now, and Jed DeDecker has also been
The only team performing below important to the Illini.
expectations in conference play is Weatherspoon and Jackson are
Minnesota. The Gophers compiled a strong pair of rebounders, each
a 7-4 record in non-conference averaging 10 per game. However,
action and were figured to be up coach Harv Schmidt has had
near the top of the Big Ten race. troubles with his other forward
However, the Gophers have position due to injuries and lack-
dropped four conference g a m e s luster performances. Howat h a s
without yet registering a victory, done a good job on his outside
*and have sole possession of 1 a s t shooting, meshing 55 per cent of
place. Youth has been Minne- his shots, but no other guard is
sota's problem in its Big Ten averaging in double figures.
games, while the other contenders Schmidt warns of the problems
have all got exceptional perform- that have beset his team the last
ances from their own sophomores. several seasons, when they surged
The top scorers in the confer- to the front early in the season
nee are both sophomores, Indi- and then faded. "Everyone knows
Ana's George McGinnis and Mich- our past record in the last half of
igan's Henry Wilmore. the season. In past seasons we
McGinnis has been a major have started quickly and then fad-
force in transposing Indiana from ed. This is something we will work
the cellar dwelling team of last very hard to correct this t i m e
year into one of this season's top around."
contenders. He has averaged 35.7 Purdue is another them that is
oints and over 20 rebounds per used to being in Big Ten races,
ig Ten performance, and leads and two years ago took the cham-
the conference in both categories. pionship behind the hotshooting
So far, Indiana is 2-1 in the of Rick Mount, Herm Gilliam, and
Big Ten, but in its only battle with Bill Keller, but now all of them
another contending team, fell vic- are gone.
tim to an aroused Michigan squad, However, coach George K i n g
92-81. The Hoosiers are now on has put together another f i n e
their semester break and don't get team, led by juniors Bob Ford
Aack to Big Ten action until the and Bill Franklin, and senior Lar-
first week of February. By then ry Weatherford. All three are
they may have a better idea of averaging over 15 points a game
who their top competitors will be. and Ford has led Purdue in its
Lou Watson, Indiana's coach, three Big Ten wins over Minne-
said after the Hoosiers' loss to sota, twice and Northwestern.
Michigan that he still considers The only one of the contending
the Big Ten race to be "a wide teams that does not rely bn sopho-
'oen race with Michigan. Indiana, mores, Purdue faces the toughest
Illinois, Purdue, and Ohio State part of its season in its next five
all contenders," conference games - meeting,
Illinois, also on a temporary re-' Michigan twice, and Illinois, In-
spite from conference competition, diana, and Ohio State once each.
is 3-0 in the conference and has The Buckeyes, the last of the
shown a good mixture of sopho- 3-0 teams, have made good in
more and veteran talents. Letter- what was supposed to be a re-
en Greg Howat and Greg Jack- building year. Four starters o f f
ABA denies signing Porter;
NBA loses Haywood battle
By The Associated Press
0 PHILADELPHIA - Villanova University says it has been
assured that basketball star Howard Porter has not signed a pro-
fessional contract with the American Basketball Association or any
ABA teams.
Art Mahan, Villanova athletic director, issued a statement yes-
rday which said: "I have talked to Jack Dolph, commissioner of the
merican Basketball Association and he has assured me there is no
agreement between Howard Porter and the ABA, or Howard
Porter and any team in the ABA.''
* SAN FRANCISCO - The National Basketball Association lost
another legal attempt yesterday to stop Spencer Haywood from
saying with the Seattle SuperSonics.
The three-judge Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a
motion by the NBA for a stay of a lower court's injunction, which
is allowing the 21-year-old Haywood to play with Seattle.
The appellate court here, however, still has under advisement
the question of whether Ferguson has jurisdiction in the overall
case.
* * *
rages
last season, 17-7 team have grad-
uated but Coach Fred Taylor has
fo'und good replacements for all of
them.
Moving into the pivot position
vacated by all-Big Ten center
Dave Sorenson was Luke Witte,
the only seven-footer in the Big
Ten. Witte has hauled down 12
caroms per game and has aver-
aged 19 points while shooting at a
55 per cent clip.
Strength from the outside has
been provided by hot-shot sopho-
more Allan Hornyak, who is aver-'
aging 23 points per game and star
senior Jim Cleamons who boasts
a 19-point average.
The Buckeyes have deadly aim
from the floor, hitting on close to
half their shots. Unlike most of
their Big Ten rivals, the Buck-
eyes did not play an especially
demanding non-conference sched-
ule, and thus their 9-4 record may
be a little deceptive.
Officially 3-0 in the Big Ten,
Ohio State met Indiana in the Far
West classic and got dropped by,
the Hoosiers 85-77. Last weekend's'
narrow two-point victory over
Minnesota in Minneapolis was the
Bucks' only other game against a
strong conference opponent.
Actually, up to this point in the
season, there has been little direct
competition between the top-rated
Big Ten teams, and thus little
opportunity to truly compare the#
leading contenders.
Michigan has won the only
head-to-head confrontation to
date, their win over Indiana. The
Wolverines who were generally
picked for a finish in the upper
part of the second division, have
perhaps been the surprise team
of the Big Ten.
Indiana's Watson, admitted that
he considered Michigan the*
"sleeper" threat all along, and t
most coaches now put Michigan It
on their list of top contenders. t
By JIM McFERSON
Forget what you've heard about
professional golf tournaments, the
Super Bowl and pro basketball
bidding wars - if an athlete wants
to earn the big money, he'll be-
come a member of the pro tennis
tour.
That's what Rod Laver has done
and he pocketed $203,000 in prize
money last year (and that's ex-
cluding the thousands he pulls in
from personal appearances, exhi-
bitions and endorsements).
Rod's not doing too badly this
year either; last weekend he made
an appearance in Detroit and
coasted to a victory over Tom Ok-
ker of the Netherlands 5-7, 5-7, 6-
2, 6-2, 6-2. The win, worth $10,-
000, was his sixth straight in the
Professional Championship Class-
ic, which paid him $57,500 1 a s t
year.
The $10,000 check made his
total $60,000 in this year's tour-
nament and has further strength-
ened his claim to the number one
spot in world rankings.
The rich playoffs and prestige
of the Classic has lured nine of
the world's best pros onto the tour.
In addition to Laver and Okker,
Wimbledon Champion John New-
combe, U.S. Pro Champion Tony
Roche, old Poncho Gonzalez, Roy
Emerson and Roger Taylor are
still in the running for the finals,
and $35,000 in the double elimina-
tion tourney.
Also touring are Arthur Ashe
and Ken Rosewall, who played in
a preliminary match in Detroit.
In a lackluster contest, Ashe put
the aging Rosewall out of the run-
ning with a 6-2, 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 win.
Hampered as he is by his height
and slowing reflexes, Rosewall has
to make up for his lack of power
by a placement game, but he nev-
er did find himself Saturday
night, despite a few bad calls by
the linesman.
Ashe, while not right on his
game either, managed to keep
most of his drives inside the lines
and knocked Rosewall about with
a powerful serve.
The second match justified the
night for the 5,152 fans seated
sparingly inside Olympia. Okker
played with the hustle and deter-
mination that has put him in the
top ranks for two years, running
down shots off Laver's shiny Che-
mold racket all night and taking
the first two sets in sudden death
games.
In the third set, however, Laver
turned it on and powered his way
over Okker with hard serves, a
quick rush to the net and cross-
court putaways which The Fly-
ing Dutchman just couldn't reach.
Nevertheless, Okker played well
throughout and will only improve
as he becomes more consistent un-
der pressure and sharpens up his
net play.
This Thursday night, Laver will
face Ashe in Madison Square
Garden, hoping to add his sev-
enth win and add another 10
grand to his bank account.
Scores
NBA
New York 107, Milwaukee 98
Baltimore 103, San Francisco 98
Philadelphia 129, Atlanta 122
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Notre Dame 104, Michigan State 80
Marquette 106, Northern Mich. 57
Villanova 72, Seton Hall 52
-Daily-Terry McCarthy
Indiana's George McGinni s (35) attempts to score
CARRON DENIES ABOLITION:
Basketball in trouble at U-D
UCLA slips
from lop spot
in AP poll
UCLA, the dominating force in
college basketball for the last five
years, has been deposed from its
number one ranking in this week's
Associated Press poll.
Marquette, the winner of its last
27 consecutive games, took over
that spot after the Bruins were up-
set last Saturday by Notre Dame,
89-82.
The Bruins, who garnered only
six of 35 first-place votes, hold a
slim six-point lead over their
t
I.
I
x2
r2
0
e;
t
By The Associated Press
DETROIT - The President of
the University of Detroit, Fathe:
Malcolm Carron, said yesterda3
that published reports stating tha'
the University was considerint
dropping its basketball progran,
were "not true"
"My concern is how to preserve
it, not to abolish it," Father Car
ron continued.
He made the statements after
stories appearing in two Detroit
papers indicated that the schoo
may drop its basketball progran
unless there was a sharp increase
in fan interest.
"What we've got to determine
is if basketball can go on at the
university. and if not, why waste
time continuing the program," a
Carron assistant Steve Wall stated
n an interview with the Detroit
Free Press. He laterhechoed these
sentiments in another interview
published in the Detroit News.
The U. of D. president said ir
his statement, "attendence has
been poor and this bothers me be-
cause the team has been develop-
ing nicely, and has had some bril-
liant moments. Our efforts along
vith other universities to cut ex-
>enses are well known."
"Evaluation of our total athletic
>rogram is in the mill with all
)ther activities. When it comes to
basketball, the evaluation should
tart with finding ways to h e 1 p
Coach Jim Harding develop a
'ood team, attract the best play-
rs and plan an attractive sched-
ule," Father Carron continued.
"We've filled the field house be-
ore and we should be able to do it
again," he added optimistically,
The university's attendance
problems came to a head two years
ago when it's most celebrated
player in recent years, Spencer
Haywood quit after his sopho-
i Hoope Pickings,
Strange, indeed, is the case of Hiram "Wolfgang" Ortuna.
Ortuna is a lepodopterist by trade but his life has been dominated
by a savage passion, contests. For years, Wolfgang, as his peers call
him, has been one of the tops in his profession, but, whenever he finds
out about a contest which awards free prizes he drops whatever he is
doing to enter.
Last week at this time, Ortuna was deep in the jungles of South
America when, purely a chance, a copy of the Michigan Daily, com-
plete with Hoope Pickings, blew into his face. Unable to control him-
self, he jumped into his canoe and paddled all the way to A square,
desperately racing the clock to get his picks in by midnight on Friday.
But lucky you live in Ann Arbor. And all you have to do to win
is to get your picks into 420 Maynard (by Friday, midnight) and you
might get a Cottage Inn pizza or two (2) games of bowling at the
Union.
more season to accept a profes-
sional contract with the ABA. The
team's quality of play dropped off
after Haywood's surprise move
and spectator interest consequently
dwindled.
LAST- DAY
To apply for the
AFROTC,
2-Year Progran
29 J 5anuary 1971
Room 158, North Hall
_ r .s.'.
cross-town rivals, Southern Ca
1. Marquette 22 14-0 658
2. UCLA 6 14-1 594
3. Southern Cal 6 14-0 588
4. Penn 15-0 458
5. Kansas 13-1 377
6. Jacksonville 12-2 309
7. Notre Dame 9-4 296
. Tennessee 12-2 260
9. Utah St. 1 15-2 163
10. South Carolina 10-3 140
11 Kentucky 11-3 128
12. Western Kentucky 12-2 126
13. Oregon 10-2 61
14. LaSalle 12-1 52
15. Virginia 11-2 47
16. Vilanova 14-4 44
17. Duquesne 10-2 39
18. Illinois 8-2 37
19. Murray State 13-2 26
20. North Carolina 11-3 23
Other teams receiving votes, in
alphabetical order:
Fordham, Georgia Tech, Houston,
Indiana, Marshall, Memphis State,
MiCHIGAN. New lexico, Ohio
State, Oklahoma, Purdue, Vander-
hilt.
al.
B
t
3
B
i
i
E
t
3
i
l
r
z
E
M
i
1. MICHIGAN at Minnesota
(pick score)
2. Iowa at Northwestern
3. Michigan State at Ohio
State
4. Illinois at Notre Dame
5. Marshall at Purdue
6. Memphis State at Drake
7. Indiana State at Clemson
8. Niagara at St. Bonaventure
9. Virginia at South Carolina
10. Bradley at Louisville
11. Central State (Ohio) at
Eastern Michigan
12. Dayton at Miami (Ohio)
13. Wake Forest at Davidson
omS 90!Jk
14. Pittsburgh at Bucknell
15. Auburn at Tennessee
16. Navy at NYU
17. Kent State at Ohio U.
18. Middle Tennessee at
Western Kentucky
19 Wichita State at Tulsa
20. SPECIAL: Duluth at
MICHIGAN Hockey
t
i
WASHINGTON - Controversial pitcher Denny McLain has
signed his contract with the Washington Senators for the 1971
season, the club announced yesterday.
Terms were not disclosed but it is understood that McLain, ac-
Oak
Not
FLARE
SALE
$5.00
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