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T4; MICHIGAN DAILY
X Sundav_ AAnrr- ?R 1971
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T E DAILY MAAZINE
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Sunday, March 28, i 1'i 1
I
T~E DAILY MA~ZINE
Dark
By BOB HEUER
Another Big Ten basketball sea-'
son is history and for the second!
straight year, nearly everything
that was supposed to happen,z
didn't.
In the pre-season polls. Illinois
and Indiana, both ranked in the
top twenty nationally, were ex-
pected to fight it out for the
league title.
But the Hoosiers couldn't win
on the road in the early going, the
Illini lost eight in a row, and with
the season only half over, it was
-F-
L.
horses
jar
Big
10
race
We are pro teWL
the WOL
We are also yer
Yc
virtually a two team race be- their status as a genuine title con-
tween unheralded Michigan and tender and propel them to con-
Ohio State. vincing wins in their next six out-i
The Wolverines, ranked to fin- ings.
ish in the second division by many, It was the same Hoosiers who
broke from the post by reeling off finally burst Michigan's bubble in
eight straight conference victories Bloomington on Feb. 24 by a score
beginning with a somewhat shaky of 88-79.
one-point win over Wisconsin The Ohio State Buckeyes, whose
when a desperation 22-footer by success in the Big Ten was clouded
Wayne Grabiec was ruled good due due to the presence of three soph-
to a goaltending violation. omores in the starting lineup, also
On the following Saturday, the rolled along in the early part of
upstart Wolverines upset the In- the season: slowed only by a
upsart oleris, upt etbhe home-court loss to lowly Michigan
diana Hoosiers, 92-81, to establish State.
----The Illini. after winning four of
- their first five games, went into
a swoon, dropping their next eight
before coming out of it with a win,
against Indiana in their finale.
0 SI l { The Gophers, on the other hand.
Salthoughladen with individualt
talent, were never able to jell as a1
team and were well off the pace:
' 1 all year. c
The Big Ten's two-horse race
y proud to serve came to a head on Feb. 27 whenr
I Michigan and Ohio State met at
U Crisler Arena, sporting identical
8-1 records. Michigan came up
cold and Buckeye Alan Hornyak
American Cuisine shot the eyes out of the basket as
Ohio State built up a 52-42 half-
time lead.
?IM l i .t j 11 Henry W i 1in o r e's sensational
performance led a Michigan come-j
closed Sundays I back that tied the score at 74j
- -_ apiece, but the Buckeyes overall!
- strength prevailed in the closingc
Ohio State
MICHIGAN
Purdue
Indiana
Minnesota
Illinois
Wisconsin
Iowa
Michigan State
Northwestern
Conference
W L Pet.
13 1 .929
12 2 .858
11 3 .787
9 5 .642
5 .9 .357
5 .9 .357
4 10 .286
4 10 .286
4 10 .286
3 11 .213
All Games
W L
19 5
18 6
18 6
17 7
11 13
11 12
9 15
9 15
10 14
7 17
Superb Greek and
Thano's, L
421 E. Liberty
. Big Ten Standings -
minutes as they came out on top, pionship team and were not ex-
91-85. pected to approach their 14-0
Both teams won their remaining mark of '69-'70.
games and OSU took the cham- Michigan State suffered through
pionship with a 13-1 record; while a dismal season after losing super-
Michigan claimed runnerup hon- star Ralph Simpson to the Ameri-
ors with a 12-2 mark, can Basketball Association's cele-
After nearly all the contenders brated hardship clause. The Den-
were-knocked off in the early part ver Rockets signed Simpson last
of the season, no one dreamed spring after he had led the Spar-
that a team could get through the tans with a 29 point average and
season with only two losses, as was selected to the All-Big Ten
Michigan did, and not even get a team in his sophomore year.
share of the title. But when the Northwestern brought up the
would be contenders fell by the rear of the race, winning only
wayside, the road was paved for three times while losing 11. The
a team to breeze through their Wildcats did scare a lot of people
schedule all but unscathed, which though, losing by only a single
is exactly what Ohio State did. point to both Michigan and Ohio
Purdue, also stamped early as a State.
contender, did manage to contend This was definitely the year of
all year but was unable to win the the sophomore in the Big Ten.
big games. The Boilermakers had Champion Ohio State's lineup
no trouble with the bottom teams sported three sophs, including
and came up with a win over In- slick-shooting Alan Hornyak, who
diana, but lost twice to Michigan almost single-handedly destroyed
and once in their only meeting Michigan by hitting 17 of his
with Ohio State. team's first 21 points in their Feb.
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iie Boermaker sinished with 27th meeting; and seven - foot
an 11-3 record, good for third strongman, Luke Witte.
place in the conference, and a bid Michigan's sophomore delega-
to the National Invitational Tour- tion was led by Henry Wilmore
nament. and Ken Brady, who captured the
Indiana, with their season-end- team scoring and rebounding titles,
ing loss to Illinois, finished with respectively. Brady also had the
a 9-5 mark and slid to fourth best field goal percentage mark at
place, two games behind Purdue. 61.7 per cent, while Wilmore fin-
The Hoosiers had the horses to ished third in the Big Ten scoring
go all the way, but stumbled early race with a 27.8 average.
against Michigan, and spent the Indiana's George McGinnis was
rest of the season chasing the probably the object of more pre-
leaders. season hoopla than any of the
Apparently, part of the problem sophomore crop and responded by
lay in the inability of the players copping both the -scoring and re-
to get along with coach Lou Wat- bounding titles in the Big Ten.
son. This became evident when The burly 6-7 forward averaged
Watson resigned amidst a storm of over 33 points and 15 rebounds a
controversy during the season's game.
concluding week. Minnesota's Jim . r e w e r fell
The players held a private meet- somewhat short of his predicted
ing and later sent a representa- greatness this year. But, although
tive to inform Watson of their he averaged only 17 points a game
feelings. The coach resigned upon and was unable to save his team
hearing of the meeting, expressing from a fifth-place finish, Brewer
as his reason disappointment that showed flashes of brilliance and a
the players would get together lot of promise for the next two
without his knowledge. years.
On the court though, it was a Illinois' Nick Weatherspoon and
double-overtime loss to the lowly Michigan State's Bill Kilgore are
Wisconsin Badgers that broke the two more youngsters who bear
Hoosiers' back. At that time, they watching ;next year. Both aver-
were coming off a big win over aged near 15 points a game and
Michigan that had put them back led their teams in rebounding.
in the race, and chances for an iIn all, three sophomores, Mc-
NIT bid looked good. Ginnis, Wilmore, and Hornyak
After that loss, Indiana merely were named to the All-Big Ten
went through the motions, bowing first team; while two more, Luke
to Ohio State and Illinois in their Witte and Jim Brewer landed
last two games. berths on the second team.
Four full games separated the Rounding out the all-star quin-
top four teams from the rest of tet were Fred Brown of Iowa, who
the pack. Minnesota and Illinois finished second to George McGin-
tied for the fifth spot with 5-9 nis in the race for individual scor-
records; while Wisconsin, Iowa, ing honors, and Jim Cleamons,
and Michigan State shared sixth who quarterbacked Ohio State's
place at four wins and ten losses. offense despite sustaining a broken
The Hawkeyes had lost all five wrist a week before the Michigan
starters from last year's cham- game.
Congratulations
on--a Super Year
From
SHAROLDS. TRICK
T-Sh ts---J ackets-Sweat-Sitsh
t
.
REVIVAL IN ANN ARBOR
M'
s
By JOHN PAPANEK
Last season, as the Wol-
verines coasted to a 5-9 Big
Ten record, Coach John Orr
tried to tell everyone t h a t
"next year would be better."
He pooh-poohed the loss of
roaring Rudy Tomjanovich, the
second highest scorer in Michi-
gan history and proclaimed that
he had some "super players"
coming up from the freshman
team and the independent in--
tramural league.
Well, of course it's all history
now, and while Tomjanovich was
making a name for himself in
the pros, All-Big Ten super-soph
Henry Wilmore emerged and led
the Wolverines to a 12-2 con-
ference record, 18-6 overall,
but a lowly second place behind
the Buckeyes of Ohio State.
In years past, it would have
meant the end of the line for
the Wolverines, but in 1971, the
Big Ten libertarians overturned
an old rule barring conference
teams from participating in
postseason tournaments other
Season Record
than the NCAA's. So Michigan
got a reprieve and became the
first Big Ten team in history
to land a berth in the prestigious
National Invitation Tournament
in New York's Madison Square
Garden.
Individually, Wilmore led all
scorers for Michigan with 610
points and a 25.4 average. In
the process, moved into seventh
place for most points scored in
a season. He has some fine com-
pany on that list, the only names
above his being Tomjanovich,
Buntin and Russell.
The battle for the second place
in the team scoring column went
down to the last game. Senior
Rodney Ford hit his career high
of 30 points against Wisconsin
~eason
to best his classmate, Captain
Dan Fife, 326 points to 319. Both
averages 13 points per game.
Fife, who showed endless hustle
and exquisite ball control all
season hit for 127 assists, more
than twice the total of his near-
est teammate.
Completing the starting f i v e ,
junior Wayne Grabiec turned
out to be the biggest (6-6) and
one of the best outside shooting
guards (47 per cent) in the Big
Ten.
Senior Harry Hayward. jun-
ior Dave Hart, and sophomore
Ernie Johnson provided the Wol-
verines with most of their
bench relief. Johnson, 6-8, was
used often in the early part of
(See THAT WAS-, page 9)
Wilm ore and Grabiec cotrerge onl Alan Horntyak
The sponsors of the National
all the way to the bank.
SfrtThis year's tournament, in wl,
first Big Ten participant ina histor
teams ranked in the Associated Pr
only eight of the 16 schools even re
Moreover, only one New York c
there to provide the home town att
Still, New York's plush Madisor
trouble pulling in the paying cust
interesting, if not the greatest baslk
try.
The NIT is usually noted for also-rs
was graced with two conference champion
NIT fans also had the benefit of wate
stars, like LaSalle's Ken Durrett, Georgia
Denton, Massachusett's Julius Erving an
to say nothing of a fellow from Michigan
For NIT fans, the tournament brou
the Garden. Michigan and Purdue, by
change passed just in the nick of time, be
ever to play in the tourney.
Hawaii also made its first NIT ap
North Carolina and Oklahoma all recei
after making their debut last year.
To make the tournament even more
tournament officials picked fewer East Co
the first word in the tourney's name a
normal.
But if the teams were unfamiliar to t
were well known to Michigan, two of the
Earlier this season, Michigan played
while twice defeating league rival Purdu
North Carolina, ranked 13th by the A
the tournament" by Providence coach I
next night proved the Tar Heels were at
in the quarterfinals.
North Carolina won the regular seaso
Atlantic Coast Conference, before falling'
of the post-season tournament. The Tar
regular season by Dennis Wuycik, one of
in the country.
Wuycik, however, injured his right kn
of Massachusetts and was lost for the tot
burden then fell on Bill Chamberlain.
The Tar Heels were the first ACC t
semifinals and were joined by league riva
Duke, shocked in the first round of t.
Carolina State, 68-61 was one of the hott
last half of the season, winning 10 of its la
Led by Randy Denton, the 6-10 cent
December, the Blue Devils had trouble i
an 18-8 season.
Denton, who was drafted in the first r'
the American Basketball Association, ran
in rebounding on the all-time Duke list.
Duke partisans claim Denton has out-
he's come up against-including Kentuck
tucky's Jim McDaniels, Davidson's Mike
America Rudy Tomjanovich.
Duke's playmaker was 5-10 Dick Ven
shooter, who also hopes to be a Rhodes
Duke's playmaker was 5-10 Dick DeV
side shooter, who also hopes to be a Rhode
(See NIT, page
team
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M
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Notre Dame
Kentucky
Duke
Eastern Michigan
Detroit (OT)
Harvard
Wyoming
St. Louis
Hawaii
Villanova
Wisconsin
Indiana
Northwestern
Minnesota
Purdue
Northwestern
Purdue
Minnesota
Indiana
Ohio State
Illinois
Michigan State
Iowa
Wisconsin
Opp.
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