editors:
martin porter
tony schwartz
contributing editors:
howard brick
ehris parks
laura berman
sundciy
inside:
magcazrne
page four-Brodsky
page five-fleming
page six-looking back
Number 20
Page Three
March 24, 1974
FEATURES
Orr'sb
The Ci
By DANIEL TESSLER
AH, THE -contrasts.
They were a huge, highly touted team
led by seniors two years back Wilmore,
Brady, Johnson and Lockard. Crisler Arena
was packed. Add one Campy Russell and
anticipation was at a high pitch. By sea-
son's end, however, Johnny Orr seemed
a defeated man, a man at a loss to ex-
plain his team's dramatic failure, one who
could sit back in his chair and tell a friend-
ly reporter about his profession: "Sure is a
hard way to make a living."
No one expected much from this year's
team. In the wake of a 8-6 Big Ten season
recruiting was a dismal failure, and the last
scholarship wasn't awarded until mid-sum-
mer (to Lioned Worrell, discovered in a
Brooklyn recreational league). The team
was ostensibly without leadership since
every would-be tendered senior had long
since left it. And the crowds were predict-
ably tiny.
To make iatters worse, only two start-
ers returned. There was Campy Russell,
who despite an underrated solid sophomore
season, simply hadn't lived up to his super
notices and occasionally even seemed cur-
iously unmotivated. There was Joe John-
son, who after a fine freshman season,
suffered a bullet wound the following sum-
mer. He came back.to play guard in the
overpowering shadow of Henry Wilmore,
and so lost his confidence by the latter part
of the season and was benched.
The only talked-about recruit, b i g
Randy McLean, ran into academic a n d
motivational troubles, and was out before it
started; freshman Steve Grote had been
told by recruiters that he would never play
major college basketball. C. J. Kupec, a 6'-
8" natural forward was forced to play cent-
er; Wayman Britt, a 6'2" natural guard was
forced to play forward.
IN SHORT, the team lacked outside shoot-
ers, inside board strength; leadership
2ys
make
good:
nderella
season
The secret of the 22-5 success was as
simple as it was elegant. The Wolverines
played team ball with the supreme confi-
dence that the game would end with Mich-
igan racking up more points than its op-
ponents.
They played the kind of basketball that
Johnny Orr used to dream about in the
nightmare of '72-'73. And with every game,
the miracles multiplied.
The beginning was unexpectedly prom-
ising, but Michigan basketball had fed on
promising beginnings. Taking on a big
Southern Illinois team in front of five thous-
and people masquerading as a crowd of two
thousand, the Wolverines fast broke their
way to an 86-74 triumph.
THOSE "SMALL", skinny Michigan play-
ers were all over the boards clawing
for rebounds and tapping in missed shots.
Russell, as he was to be all year, was, in
a word, fantastic. He rebounded, he shot
well, he scrambled up and down the floor.
But more importantly, he seemed to be
enjoying what he was doing.
That famous Russell smile came back in
'73-'74, and with it the moves that had won
him praise as a schoolboy. His singlehand-
ed destruction of Notre Dame down in Tus-
caloose last week was just the capper.
Quite a contrast to his sophomore year
when he seemed paralyzed. On three differ-
ent occasions he vomited on the bench
from sheer nervousness. He was booed at
home, and came to hate playing here. And
although Johnny Orr talked down reports of
his dissension and division on the Wilmore-
led club, there was no doubt that the team
played apart..
No such complexities this year, and the
proof was in the winning. Time after time
Wolverines would slough off the shot to pass
to a teammate with a higher percentage
chance. They executed with a mellifluous
precision, and what gave them such bril-
liance was the fact that every starter could
do everything.
Daily Photo by ROLFE TESSEM
C.J. Kupec comes down with a rebound against Northwestern.
Johnny Orr
and depth. On top of it, they had
toughest schedule in the league.
the
Seventh place looked about right. A
near national championship was the result.
What happened?
Statistics don't reveal much, for they
are nearly identical for the last two years.
The team averaged a few. more assists,
and Kupec's good position meant m a n y
more rebounds than Brady's spectacularly
erratic leaps. But that wasn't the real dif-
ference.
AGAINST PURDUE, in a near-perfect
game, the starters came within a shade
of scoring 20 points each.
\ C. J. could run the fast break; Wayman
Britt overpowered and outplayed players 8
inches taller than him, and Steve Grote
managed to hit incredible layups inside.
Everybody, it seemed, could do everything.
And that meant if Campy Russell went
to the bench in foul trouble, the team still
managed to hang on. They played defense
when it counted, and nearly always manag-
ed to find the hot-hand.
A Michigan basketball team folding
goes hand in hand with promising begin-
nings. But even after the team was solidly
whipped in a showdown clash with Indiana,
it came blasting right back to humble Pur-
due, Wisconsin and Michigan State in suc-
cessive do-or-die games.
The loss to Marquette was anti-climac-
tic. The catharsis had been reached before'
what was called a stunning upset of Notre
Dame, but what in fact was almost expect-
ed by converted Michigan fans who knew
something was afoot.
ND NOW John Orr is Big Ten Coach-of-
the-Year, vindicated even in the eyes
of Jim Barahal, the feisty- student who
called for his firing and on that platform
won a seat on Student Government Council
last fall. Says Barahal, who has appropriate-
ly changed the name of his movement to
the Lionel "Main Train" Worrell Fan Club:
"I'll tell you frankly, the guy made me
look like a donkey. But to see 'em win after
all those awful years, it was worth it. And
who knows, maybe in some demented way
I had something to do,about it."
KMS fusion: Selling the solution
to
the energy crisis
By DAN BLUGERMAN
"MY COMPANY may be on the road
to developing a process that
will supply most of man's energy
needs for the rest of time," Keeve
'Kip' Siegel boasts,, "but get this
straight: we're not in it for an educa-
tional experience. "Our aim is to de-
velop energy for the buck."
This being his purpose, Siegel,
chairman of the board, president,
founder and namesake of the locally
based research conglomerate, KMS
Industries, may well be on his way to
making a mint. Siegel predicts his
company will be the first to success-
fully solve the energy problem and
will make the United States self-suf-
ficient of foreign energy supplies. His
solution -laser fusion.
Although laser fusion has only been
shown feasible in computer simula-
tions, Siegel, a portly and outspoken
corporate tycoon and engineering
wizard, is confident enough in the
process that he is cannibalizing all
his other operations and is sinking
his resources into the project. KMS
is the only private group pursuing
fusion research in the world. It has
spent close to $13 million since 1969
In a race against at least a dozen gov-
ernment and university organizations.
And KMS, a company with a long his-
tory of scientific innovation and lu-
crative wheeling and dealing, is clos-
er to their goal than any of their op-
ponents.
KMS (Siegel's initials) was started
in 1969 on canital rai ed from the
sale of Sieoel's brainchild, Conduc-
is nothing to worry about; it is In-
herently incapable of a runaway acci-
dent."
On a $800,000 research contract
from the Texas Gas Transmission
Corporation, KMSF has already in-
vented two new methods for produc-
ing hydrogen from water and one
process for producing methane gas.
Both processes necessitate the direct
use of fusion. Methane is a ready
substitute for natural gas. A standard
internal combustion engine can be
converted to burn hydrogen.
GOMBERG PREDICTS that "hydro-
gen production and its subse-
quent conversion will be more effic-
ient than any other nuclear process
of generating electricity, and this in-
cludes both fusion and fission . .
that means that it will be more effic-
ient than the nuclear plants presently
being built."
What this means to KMS is the pos-
sibility of a lucrative future. And this
possibility seems to override any
doubts or worries that Sieeel may
bave. "Of course this is going to end
the energy crisis. Why, when we can
tap fusion energy we will be able to
releasce by far the largest increment
of power known to man."
Barring any hidden complications
Olmh'eri nredict.s that they will be
able to achieve breakeven in the next
few months.
THTNGS LOOK BRIGHT for KMS.
Po-ribly the solution to man's
enr v nroblems will be solved in our
very own bnckvnrd. Quite a few peo-
nle and quite a few dollars are bank-
r
Doily Photo by ROLFE TESSEM
"Hydrogen production will be more efficient than any other nuclear process of generating electric-
ity ... that means that it will be more efficient than the nuclear plants presently being built."
light. The fuel currently being used
is a mixture of deutrium and tritium
which are heavy forms of hydrogen.
generate electricity at a price toler-
able by the American public.
SgPr1 and VIffP1m'.iris t nr
and American built laser, the most
powerful laser of its type in the world.
The power level being delivered to
in five foot thick concrete walls.
When the local pilot plant is built-
the projected date is mid-1979-the