YOUNG INDIANA DEFENSE IMPOSING The Michigan Daily-Thursday, January 26, 1978-Page 11 Wolverines u ary of By ERNIE DUNE The current Big Ten basketball season su coach Bobby Knight and his Hoosiers. After breezing through the non-conference impressive 9-1 mark, the Hoosiers were look year's 14-13 overall record, including a 9-9 mar IT SEEMED LIKE a realistic hope, conside Dame by one point and had handled Alabama b, vote in the polls rated the Hoosiers as high as ten Then came the Big Ten schedule. After a Hoosiers dropped their next three conference Wisconsin, the last two coming on the road. A v Purdue brought Indiana's Big Ten record to 2-4 tonight at 8:05 in Crisler Arena. Indiana is off to its slowest start in the Big 1972, in which the Hoosiers dropped their first fo ONE OF THE MAIN FACTORS in the Ho experience coach Knight is forced to deal with coaching career, Knight doesn't have at least on around. Among the eight returning letterwinne 16 games during their collegiate careers p remaining five players are all freshmen. But this inexperience doesn't seem to mak less respectful of the Hoosiers' talent. "Their rebounding worries us the most and Orr said. "In past games with Indiana, it's been which have beat us. WHEN ASKED TO ANALYZE what India count for their four conference losses, Orr sai nothing different. I can't tell you why they lost.' Assistant coach Bill Frieder concurred with the toughest defensive team we've gone agains you," Frieder said. "They are very young and a been so up and down. But we respect them becau slumping Hoosiers BAR and Alabama." re hasn't been too nice to Indiana One of Knight's 16-game plus players is 6-5 guard Mike Woodson. After a freshman year in which he led the team in both field goal and free throw percen- portion of their schedule with an tage and ranked second in the Big Ten in scoring, bright things were expected from ing forward to improving on last Woodson. So far the sophomore hasn't disappointed many people. He leads the k for fifth place in the conference. team in scoring with an 18.5 average and is ranked fifth in the conference in that ring Indiana had knocked off Notre department. y nine points. Even the people that _"Woodson saved the Hoosiers trip to Ann Arbor last year for one of his finer nth at one point. games, netting 32 points on 15 of 19 shots and collecting 11 rebounds. It was all for in opening victory over Iowa, the the record book however, as Michigan won the game, 89-84, and eventually split the games to Illinois, Minnesota, and series with Indiana. ictory over Ohio State and a loss at TEAMING UP WITH WOODSON at the guard position will be Indiana's only for the battle with Michigan (4-2) starting senior, kWayne Radford. At 6-3, Radford is the team's second leading scorer at 10.7 points per game and is one of the stronger rebounders on the squad. Ten since Knight's first season in At the forward position, Knight should go with 6-8 freshman Steve Risley and 6- ur conference games. 9 junior Scott Eells. Risley was one of the most sought after players in the state of oosier's slow start may be the in- Indiana in both basketball and football, but decided to stick with-the roundball. h. For the first time in his 13-year He's hit at a 7.3 clip per game. ne or two two-year regulars to build Eells is thought of as a better perimeter than inside player, although his added rs, only two had started more than weight has helped his inside game. rior to the current season. The THE OTHER FRESHMAN in the Hoosier lineup is 6-9 center Ray Tolbert. He was one of the most sought after cagers in the nation after being named Indians's e Michigan coach Johnny Orr any "Mr. Basketball." Hitting at a 9.7 scoring average, Tolbert has taken over the rebounding responsibilities formerly assigned to All-American Kent Benson, nqW their defense is extremely good,'. with the Milwaukee Bucks. in those second attempts after shots Knight will probably come with 6-5 Butch Carter or 6-2 Jim Wisman as his fiist players off the bench in the guard slots. na may be doing differently to ac- WOLVERINE TALES: Freshman forward Mike McGee is third in the Big Ten d "They're doing the same things, in scoring with a 19.6 conference mark. He's ahead of Michigan State's freshman standout Earvin Johnson who's in fourth place with an 18.2 percentage ... Indiana h Orr's feelings. "They're probably has won six of the last seven meetings with Michigan. In the past two year's, t so far because they really crowd Michigan has amassed an overall record of 35-9 compared with Indiana's 24-18. ire learning and that's why they've T HE TTN TU IS use of what they did to Notre Dame Mike Woodson Coach Bobby Knight By Scott Lewis Pro basketball woes... . o. fans, excitement lacking W ITH ALL THE TALK of the troubled state of professional sports in ' this country today, baseball, with free agents driving salaries up to unthinkable heights, has received the most attention. Professional basketball, on the other hand, is said to be flourishing at the moment. After all, the NBA-ABA merger gave the fans the chance to see all of the country's top basketball stars in one league. In cities like Portland and Denver, seats are extremely hard to come by, as the respective basketball teams dominate sports in those places during the winter months. But those cities are not representative of what it's really like in the NBA. Using the Detroit Pistons as an example, and definitely not an exception, professional basketball has not made an impression on the American sports fan like baseball and football have. From a fan's point of view, the game leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike the college game, professional basketball exhibits nothing more than a run-and-shoot style of play. That is, instead of intricate plays and deft passing, the pro teams play one-on-one most of the time, until a player can find an open shot. Outside shooting overemphasized Except on Portland, and maybe a couple of other teams, movement off the ball isn't stressed. All that matters is if a player can work himself free for a twenty-footer and pop it in. Once in a while you'll see a player get loose for an easy layup under- neath, but the great majority of baskets in the NBA come from the perimeter. This can become a very boring spectacle for the fan. The baskets seem to be less meaningful as compared to college, where excellent movement and precision passing can pay off in many crucial baskets inside. Experts say that the 24-second clock saved the NBA, but it has also taken much of the strategy out of the game - something which makes college basketball more interesting. The 24-second clock, however, cannot be blamed as the only contributor to pro basketball's woes. If most pros can hit the outside shots with relative ease, it would seem a waste to try to work it in underneath. In baseball, strong pitching and superior fielding counteract the better hitters. Hockey provides superior goaltending as well as top-notch defense- men to keep the games tighter, while football's strong defenders can hold back the superb offenses. In basketball, however, the defensive play of the pros doesn't seem to counteract the offense's superiority. Although the scores may be signifi- cantly higher as a result, the games aren't as exciting as college games. The excellence on the offensive side of the court can't be an excuse for the defensive lapses. Late in the NBA games it seems to be much more dif- ficult to get the easy buckets. Maybe the players finally decide to play good defense. In college, you'll usually see all-out play on both sides of the court all game long. But in the pros, player motivation doesn't seem to be a strong force. Long season, meaningless games Many factors may contribute to this alleged lack of desire, but the ex- tended schedule must be the prime factor. It's ridiculous to expect the players to psyche themselves up for every game. The 82-game schedule, as compared to the much shorter schedule in college, insures more meaning- less games for the pros. Add to this the ease with which the pros can make the playoffs, and you have even the best teams playing lackluster ball at times. A team assured of a playoff berth by mid-season - a common occurrence with the NBA's present playoff format - shouldn't be expected to go all out the rest of the way. With all these deficiencies, fans have many reasons to keep away from the pro games. Getting back to the Pistons, it's no wonder that Cobo Arena is half-empty' many nights. Without the fans to lend their support, the dullness of the games is com- pounded even more. A Piston game among only 4,000 rather quiet fans resembles nothing more than an exhibition game. Neither the players, nor the fans, seem to care - a significant contrast from a crowd of 13,000 screaming fans at Crisler Arena. Blue gymnasts weigh 4 emphasis By JEFFREY BLAKE It is an odd system of scoring, really, that they use in gymnastics competition. After an afternoon of individual performances, it is the team scores - the totals of the individual points amassed - which are most often brought to the forefront by judges and meet officials. And newspaper accounts commonly play the team totals prominently. Still, it is hardly a unanimous group which feels gymnastics can be properly termed a "team" sport. "I THINK that gymnastics has to be one of the most individual sports," says John Corritore, parallel-bar specialist on the Michigan men's gymnastics squad. "I get pleasure from being with the team, but still, when you're competing, it always comes down to this: It's just you and your apparatus. There is no one out there helping you." Corritore concedes, though, that his outlook is determined largely by his status as a-specialist - a compet- itor who performs only one event. "An all-arounder (one who competes in all six events) is in a different position." "Someone like Nigel Rothwell who does everything will be more in- volved because he works with every- one and because the team depends so much on his total scores. That's why all-arounders make the best team captains," Corritore continues. ROTHWELL, the team captain, would probably agree with the last assertion, but differs dramatically in his view of the sport's nature. "It is definitely a team sport," the all- arounder says. "It's individual too, for sure, but you have to have the moral support of your teammates. Because each com- petitor is out there all alone, it's real easy to get down on yourself. And the other guys can really pick someone up when they're down." Ginger Robey, co-captain of the women's team, and Anne Cornell, the coach, agree that team spirit is an essential ingredient of success. But both also point to the negative conse- quences which result, for women at least, for individual stars because of team-point tabulations and team standings. THE ILL consequences result when: After the meet with the state's other teams, only those teams which of Scoring have totalled 118 points or more are invited to regional competition. Even an individual who couldn't climb onto a beam is entered, as long as her team score was high enough. From teams which do not reach that plateau, however, individual stars who reach a certain mark are also invited, with or without their teammates. Such was the setup last year. The key, however, is that once in the regionals, the top teams are seeded, and get to perform last in the optionals, while individuals must perform first thing in the morning. So what? "WELL, AFTER HOURS of watch- ing events with only a five-minute coffee break every three hours,' laments Cornell, "the judges just don't feel like itemizing all their deductions or facing the coaches' protests anymore."~ And Robey, who feels this hurt her last year when she failed to make it to the regional finals after perform- ing in the morning, adds another factor, "Since the teams going last are seeded tops, and the judges know this, they just keep sliding up scores" as the day progresses. CORNELL FEELS that perhaps the regionals should be spread over an extra day, or permit fewer teams to enter, so the judges won't become so weary. But men's coach Newt Loken isn't sure anything should be done. "Judges swear they don't do it, and it's just a negative thing to be questioning their integrity or what- ever," Loken says. But he does admit, "the guys are always saying, 'don't put me up first or second'." A team sport? Some feel the team nature of the sport is limited, or worse, unfortunate, but others dis- agree. And when you're alone on the MICHIGAN Mike McGee (6-5)............. F Alan Hardy (6-6).............. F Joel Thompson (6-8).........C Tom Staton (6-3).............. G Dave Baxter (6-3)............. G INDIANA ..............Scott Eells (6-9) ...........Steve Risley (6-8) ..............Ray Tolbert (6-9) .........Mike Woodson (6-5) ........Wayne Radford (6-3) OFF "SUPER QUALITY" 200% XEROX 9200 Copies Specialists For Dissertations and Resumes Faculty: We Will Do Course Packs and Other Material DOLLAR BILL COPYING a 611 C ANN N URCH CA L LCOLO AUR CALAbove I ARBOR 665-9200 EXPIF WE COPY EVERYTHING BUT DOLLAR BILLS R COPIES 3lue Frogge WES 1/31 PABST EXTRAi LIGHT --. E I- ----'~-~ - ___ beam have feats, falls. or the bar, it may not hurt to teammates to ease your de- even if they can't break your We specialize in ladies's and children's hairstyling DASCOLA STYLISTS " 615 E. Liberty-668-9329 * 3739 Washtenow-971-9975 * 613 N. Maple-761-2733 9 611 E. University-662-0354 -4 y a . a} J .J }0 4 r4 SKIERS, ARTISTS and SNOWSUNAIIES Create a Snow Sculpture at Boyne Mountain January 28, and WIN one of ten big prizes, ranging from a ski week for two at Big Sky Resort, Montana, to new ski equipment. The competition starts at 9 a.m. I CAMP NEBAGAMON for boys LAKE NEBAGAMON, WISCONSIN 54849 ESTABLISHED 1929 1978 SEASON OPENINGS Arts & Crafts Director, Photography Director, Sailing Director, I Saturday with winners i nounced later the some d( BRING A PAIL to be on- Qy. i