Friday, Februqry 2, 1973 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Seven K full court PRESS 'Sad days for .. . *0* Michigan basketball By TONY SCHWARTZj JOHNNY ORR'S fingers keep going to his mouth. He is fidgety. But he's not reluctant to talk, even on this day, just a few hours after his team's near elimination from the Big Ten race. A couple of times, as he quietly tries to unravel the mystery of his team's sudden collapse, he is on the verge of tears. There is a certain pathos here, for Orr is basically a very dedicated man who believes he has done the most a coach possibly could with his team, and he is at a loss to explain why it hasn't worked. The Orr behind a desk is a very different one from the guy who rants and rails at referees during games, getting called for pointless technicals.j In fact, the only time he seems to get mad is during games. And that reaction appears to derive more from frus- tration than from a genuine feeling that referees really have It out for Michigan. 4 Perhaps the most telling thing about Orr and date- a fact which people overlooked in all the heady predictions "i preceded the season-is that he never really had great expe. tgos for the team. He's said that all along, and he reiterated it this week. At ti:e outset, he felt there were three teams better than Michigan in the Big Ten-Ohio State, Iowa and Minnesota. And now, with the unexpected freshman resurgence of Indiana, he has added them to the list. A quick calculation shows that in Orr's estimation, Michi- gan is the fifth best team in the Big Ten. It- would be one thing to argue that Michigan doesn't have the' personnel to go with other Big Ten teams if they were getting blown off the court each game. Or even if they were losing consistently by decisive scores. But that's not happening. In each of the last four games, they've come down to the last three minutes either tied or in the lead, and three times (the exception was lowly North- western), they've lost. In each of the three losses, the opposition was without its best players for a major portion of the game; Kunnert against Iowa, Buckner (and Ritter) against Indiana and Garrett against Purdue. Those are the kind of situations when a championship team, a team with guts and hungriness, puts a game out of reach-or at least builds a big lead. Those are the situations in which Michigan has lost games. It is interesting, in that light, to examine a comment Orr made on Jan. 13, 1971, when his team was flying high. After two frustrating seasons, the club, led by sophomores Wilmore and Brady, had begun to turn it on. In a reflective period, Orr tried to explain the change: "Last year's squad didn't have confidence. The team was made up of players who were used to losing teams. Teams like that don't win last second victories. If you think you will lose anyway, you don't try, and if you don't try, you don't win. That comment had a lot of truth, but in the clinch, it too fell short as an adequate explanation for Orr-coached clubs' inevitable failure to play to potential. To see it fail, one need look no further than the outcome of the 1971 season he was talking about-or to the team's perform- ance this season. In the games following Orr's comment, the team blasted its way to an 8-0 record and established itself as a strong favorite to copthe Big Ten crown. And then came the collapse. Down in Indiana, the cagers got slaughtered off the boards and lost decisively. Still it wasn't over. They came back home for the clincher against Ohio State, who had to play without senior team leader Jim Cleamons. And they lost again. A lack- luster loss in an early round of the NIT was almost anticlimactic. Members of this year's squad, if anything, were even more used to winning than the 1971 contingent. Campy Russell, Joe Johnson and C. J. Kupec were all part of the super- freshman team of a year ago which went undefeated and whose varying talents were so well meshed. And back, of course, were all the seniors who played together on their own winning freshman team three years ago,- and who had two years of experience on just-miss varsity teams. Orr had the ingredients that were missing from the teams which came so close in the last two years. A rejuvenated Brady came to practice slimmer, stronger and more experienced-by all odds a more mature player than the one who was named Honorable-Mention All Big Ten as a sophomore. He had the playmaking guard, whose absence was so con- spicuous in clutch situations last year. He had All-American Wilmore and touted All-American Campy Russell. He had aggres- sive second-team All Big-Ten Ernie Johnson, and a strong sup- porting cast led by Lockard and Kupec. None of it seems to matter, and Orr has said so himself. They have a dribbler but they still turn the ball over when it counts. 'They have a bruising front line but they still manage to get beaten off the boards. They have excellent shooters, and yet they miss easy, wide-open shots. AND PERHAPS MOST IMPORTANT, they never seem to put their talents together. When Wilmore is on, Campy is off. When the Wolverines shoot well, as they did against Indiana, they don't hustle. When they hustle, as they did against Iowa, they don't shoot well. They have winning ballplayers who can't win. Something is obviously wrong. Johnny Orr looked like a defeated man this week. He is feeling the pressure that comes from not producing, of having to find new explanations, season after season, for his teams' inevitably inconsistent play. Basketball players come and go from year to year. Only Johnny Orr stays. Michigan sputters andilapses.aThere are an awful .lot of people wondering just what it will take to change Michigan basketball fortunes. +Iq 91411,) 0 P Orcrrin+ ,n- ORR SPARKS BOSTON: Red Wings whale on Seals Daily Photo by ROLFE TESSEM DOUG GIBBS, a Michigan high jumper, clears 6-8 using his version of the Fosbury Flop enroute to a fourth place finish in the Michigan Invitational last Saturday. Gibbs, a frosh from Flint, and his teammate Mike Nowacki will handle high-jumping duties against Penn State tomorrow. FACE PENN STATE Frosli carry thincla4 By The Associated Press Bobby Orr went on scoring sprees1 DETROIT - Detroit pummeled and figured in all Boston goals ysts California goalie Mary Edwards night, leading the Bruins to a I-2 with 19 shots in the second period, National Hockey League victory four for goals, and the Red Wings over the Toronto Maple Leafs. went on to beat the Golden Seals Esposito, the NHL's scoring 6-4 in their National Hockey leader, broke out of a slump. League game last night. with three goals for his third The Red Wings, fifth in the East hat trick of the year and 19th' Division, remained two points be- of his career and helped set up hind fourth-place Buffalo which two other goals. beat Los Angeles 5-3. Orr, replying to criticism that: Mickey Redmond and Nick he has slowed down and possibly Libett each scored twice for De- may be having new knee trouble, troit, with Libett's tallies corn- scored one goal and assisted on; ing in the busy middle period. Libett finished with 10 shots on " goal, nearly half as many as the H oc s rs entire Seal output of 22. Redmond now has 35 goals to top the NHL. California's H i 11 i a r d GravesT scored the only goal in the first period and added another in the second after Detroit had taken a By BRIAN DEMING! 3-2 lead on goals by RedmwidJ, Big Ten leader Indiana's John Libett and Ken Murray. Murray's Ritter is the only Hoosier among goal was his first, in the NHL. the scoring leaders in the confer- Walt McKechnie and Morris ence. The senior forward is tenth Mott scored the other Seals goalsI in the Big Ten averaging 17 points while Billy Collins tallied the other I Wing score, per game. Wm*cr.Indiana, however, shows their remarkable balance as the Hoos- Bruins bash iers lead the Big Ten in shooting BOSTON - Phil Esposito and percentage and team scoring. Still undefeated in conference play, the Hoosiers hit 50.7 per cent of their ' ishots and average 83.6 points per '- - game. The Big Ten's leading individual scorer is Allen Hornyak of Ohio sState tallying an astonishing 28.8 per contest. Michigan State's Mike Robinson is runner-up with a 25.8 e point average. Tied for third in Big Ten scor- ing are Kevin Kunnert, Iowa's,7-1" center, and the Illini's Nick Weath- erspoon, both with 23.3 points per sportsgae Michigan's only representative NIGHT EDITOR: among the Big Ten scoring leaders is All-American Henry Wilmore, DAN BORUS who is sixth with a 19.7 average, just behind Minnesota's Clyde Tur- ner with 20.2 points per game. Godfrey Murray, 6.3 for the 60, As well as being third in scor- sprints against a Nittany Lion re- ing, Hawkeye center Kunnert leads ceiver Jim Scott, 6.2 seconds, in the Big Ten in rebounding and one of the closer battles tomorrow. scoring percentage. The big Iowan In the high hurdles, Murray will pulls down an average of 14.7 re- almost have to look for competition bounds while sinking 65.9 per cent while the duel this race lies in sec- of his shots. ond between Michigan's Mill Weatherspoon is second in re- Reeves and Penn's Fred Single- bounding,raveraging 12.7 whilenKim ton. Hughes of Wisconsin is third with The 300-yd sprint pits a Baha- 11.7 rebounds per game. man Olympian, M i k e Sands, Minnesota's Ron Behagen and against Wolverine Greg Syphax. Jmou Beper contesbriand arw tie Sands will also test the Big Ten for fourth in the Big Ten in tiat champion in the 440, Kim Rowe. rdepartment. Ann Arbor Huron's state half- Wolverine Campy Russell is miler, Bob Mills, made a tre- ninth in rebounding with an 8.6 mendous breakthrough in t h e average. Michigan Relays ,clipping three Bob Nix of Minnesota is secand seconds off his best time indoors. '________________________ The sophomore thinclad challenges Penn State's Morrison and Hell- S VO H IS man to a tooth and nail contest. The meet really will depend on three others while putting oi a Hicke sparked the Atlanta Flames dazzling skating show on occa- to a 3-1 National Hockey League sions. triumph over the Minnesota North The Bruins, who had won only Stars last night. two of seven previous suts, Leiter opened the scoring, ,last- jumped into a quick lead as Es- ing his 21st goal of the year past posito fed Orr, whose long slap Minnesota goalie Cesar Maniago shot was deflected into the net tY after 9:57 of the opening period. Wayne Cashman just 31 seconds Two minutes later Hicke ripped a after the opening face off. 20-foot shot past Maniago's left- * * * shoulder, after getting passes from Fl Keith McCrearv and Leiter. Flames soar Minnesota got within a goal when ATLANTA-A pair of first P'ariod Buster Harvey drilled his lath goals by Bob Leiter and Ernie goal of the year past Phil Myre at the 8:20 mark of the second per- iod. But Lew Morrison wrapped up the scoring two minutes later, scoring a short-handed goal for the Flames. Islanders stranded UNIONDALE, N.Y. - The Chi- cago Black Hawks built a 5-0 lead to Kunnert in shooting percentage, on four second-period goals, two 59.1, and is followed by Indiana's by Jim Pappin, and then vith- Ritter, 58.6, and Otho Tucker, 55.0, stood a final-period burst by New of Illinois. York to post a 5-3 National Hockey Michigan's Ernie Johnson and League victory over the Islanders Ken Brady are sixth and ninth last night. respectively in Big Ten shooting Stan Mikita opened the Chicago percentage. Johnson hits 53.7 per scoring in the first period. 'Then cent while Brady scores on 51.4 Pappin scored twice on goals by per cent. Dick Redmond and Cliff Kocoll Minnesota is number one in team made it 5-0 after two periods. defense holding opponents to 68.6 The Islanders got back in the points per game. The Purdue game when in a 312-minute span Boilermakers are close behind, early in the third period, Craig allowing 69.0. Cameron, Ralph Stewart and Brian By giving up an average of only Spencer scored. But Chicago goalie 69.7 points, Michigan is third in Tony Esposito held them off the the conference in team defense. rest of the way, By MARCIA MERKER The "Spirit of '76" could be the story of the Michigan-PennbState track confrontation Saturday at Yost Fieldhouse. "Certainly Penn State is our equal on the track," remarks Michigan Coach Dixon Farmer. "The field events will win or lose the meet for us." The Wolverine field events are heavily dominated by the class of '76. The frosh will have to. supply the fireworks for victory. Using the freshmen in four out of the five field events last weekend, the Maize and Blue fared very well inathe high and triple jumps with two red ribbons. In that team debut, freshman Abraham Butler set a Michigan triple jump re- cord. His class peer, Mike No- wacki, leaped 6-10 in the high jump' to earn the other second place. Two other '76ers, Terry Hart and Ed Kulka round out the field of events mounting 14-6 lifetime bests in the pole vault. The upperclassmen are pretty good themselves in the field events.tMark Bohlke surpassed Butler in the long jump last week- end finishing third with a 22' leap. Junior Steve Adams heads the shot put followed by atpromising sophomore Mike Lantry, who ranked fourth last week putting 51'11 2". Now on to the races and Penn State's powerhouse of track talent. The Nittany Lions sport two seasoned distance runners intChar- lie McGure and Matt Chadwick. Standout McGure participated in the U. S. junior meet against Rus- sia entering the 10,000 meter. Michigan's Rick Schott, placing fifth last week at 9:05.8, will do battle in the two-mile with the Penn State speedsters.j In the other distance event, te mile, Wolverine cross-country har- riers Bill Bolsters, 4:07.8 and Fred Gault, 4:25.9, will need to improve. their best times to keep up with' Penn State's Dan Supulski, 4":.02.8, Indiana, 72.8 points allowed, is fifth right behind Iowa, 72.0, while Ohio State, Wisconsin, Illinois, and' Northwestern trail in that order. Michigan State is in the cellar in team defense allowing an astra- nomical 85.3 points per game. However the Spartans are sez- ond in team' scorfng, 80.5 points, behind Indiana. Illinois places third in scoring 79.6 per contest. Minnesota, Purdue and North- western follow in that order while Michigan is seventh tossing n 71.4 points per game. "GUTm ATTNTIN I. .1 Hungry for the real thing? Try it . . you'll like DELONG'S BAR-B.Q CARRY-OUT, PICK-UP, and "DELIVERY SERVICE *DINNERS: SMALL END RIBS ... $2.85 FRIED CHICKEN . MEDIUM END RIBS .. $2.60 SHRIMP........... SLAB OF RIBS.......$4.80 OYSTER.......... BEEF-.............$2.85 PORK .............$2.60 SCALLOP.......... BAR-B-Q CHICKEN .. $2.40 FISH............. $2.00 $2.40 $2.10 $2.00 $1.75 Today in Sports Grapplers aim for Iowa HE MICHIGAN wrestling team has its work cut out for them this week in staging a match tonight against top contender Iowa which will be followed by a similar cliff hanger against j Minnesota tomorrow. The general feeling around the locker room, as well as around those who have been following the team, is that Mich- igan going into the weekend with an 8-0 record will emerge Sunday with a victorious 10-0. After the recent naming of three Michigan grapplers to repre- sent the East during the East-West All-Star wrestling match, a cerain amount of desire for a Big Ten title is naturally being generated around the team. Bay is expected to have his line-up at full strength for the on coming Iowa challenge. The game will narrow the present four way race to the title down to an anticipated three. The match is to be held today at Crisler Arena at 7:30 p.m. Icers visit MSU THE WCHA cellar dwelling Michigan hockey team takes on Michigan State this weekend in a home and home series. Tonight's game at Moo Yoo is scheduled for 8 p.m. with the return engagement at the same time tomorrow in the Michigan Coliseum. After last weekend's double loss to the former cellar dweller Colorado College (an eight point series), Wolverine playoff hopes look woefully dim. Two wins this weekend are an absolute must as Michigan is drawing very near mathematical elimi- nation. Captain Rick Mallette still leads the Wolverines in scoring with 6 goals and 18 assists for 24 points. Frank Werner and Gary Kardos pace the goal scoring parade with 9 each. State dropped from first to third in WCHA standings after a pair of losses to Notre Dame last weekend. Spartan coach Amo Bessone expressed great concern this week over the Spar- tans lack of manpower. Daryl Rice and Paul Pavelich are both out with injuries while Norm Barnes will be sitting out tonight's contest because of a one game fighting suspension. Tom Ross has also been slowed by a bruised foot, and his status for the weekend is uncertain. The Spartans won their only meeting to date with the Wolverines, downing the Blue icers 5-2, Jan. 17. t. *Dinners Include French Fries, Cole Slaw & Bread Sandwiches & Side Orders Also Available FREE DELIVERY (4 p.m.-1:30 a.m.) AT BOTH LOCATIONS ANN ARBOR (U of M) YPSILANTI (E.M.U.) 314 Detroit-665-2266 605 W. Michigan-482-2272 Sun, Mon, Wed., Thurs. 1i1 a.m.-2 a.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.-3 a.m. the Michigai freshine, coming through in the field events, for the rivalling thinclad appear closely matched. The excitement begins at 1 p.m. in Yost Fieldhouse with free admission. j' ABA Carolina 113, Virginia 98 Denver 97, Indiana 92 NHL Boston 5, Toronto 2 Buffalo 5, Los Angeles 3 Atlanta 3, Minnesota 1 Detroit 6, California 4 Chicago 5, NY Islanders 3 tA FUTURE WORLDS LECTURE SERIES Present R. Buckminster Puller "Designing a Future World"1 Sunday Feb. 4 Hill Auditorium 8:00 p.m. $1.00 ADMISSION Tickets available at the Mich. Union Ticket Desk (Lobby, Mich. Union) and at the door. ar*l r LSSS Films PRESENTS 3"THE REIVERS" with STEVE McQUEEN Saturday, Feb. 3, 1973 TIME: 7,19, 11 P.M. 42 1 4 d104 a 4' t WASHINGTON I I