The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, February 1, 1978--Page 7
full court
PRESS
AIA W R ULES HAMPER COA CHES
Wolverine machine...
o.falls apart-it seems
By HENRY ENGLEHARDT
The old man looked out the big display window at the dismal Ann Arbor
dusk. The snow had lost its brilliant white and was now a dingy gray. The
store was empty and the man put a hand through his silver hair and let loose
a long sigh.
Only 45 minutes more and then he would be able to close the doors and go
home. He took his pencil and started doodling on a white pad. Then the phone
rang.
"Ann Arbor Repair. They make it, you break it, weeeee fix it," he said
with false cheerfulness.
"Uh, yes," said a nervous voice on the other end. "Um, I need some help
with a broken machine."
"Yes sir, what's the machine and what's wrong with it?"
"Well, it's my basketball machine. It doesn't work right all the time,"
the voice drawled.
"Hmmm. Well, we are just about closed, could you bring it in tomorrow
morning?"
"Well maybe if I describe it to you over the phone you could help me fix
it. It's really important."
"A basketball machine-hmmm. That's usually a pretty complicated
piece of machinery. But okay, what seems to be the problem?"
"To be honest I've had problems ever since I got it. The first day I had it,
I was playing with it in the gym when a key piece right in the middle broke.
"You know, the piece that rebounds, scores, throws outlet passes? It's
a beautiful thing to watch whenit works properly."
"Sure, I know what you're talking about," said the old man, glancing at
his watch. "What did you do?"
"I tried a brand new replacement part, but that didn't work, and I tried
an old piece that was lying around, but that wasn't quite right either. What I
finally did was take an old part that usually went somewhere else, molded it
a little and stuck it in the middle. And by golly it worked great.
Replacement parts worked well
"For a while," continued the voice on the phone, "the whole thing
worked real well. I put old parts with new parts and hot shooting parts with
defensive ones, yessir, it was working pretty well. Sure it missed a few free
throws and needed oiling every once in a while. In fact, I took it down south
once and got it well oiled.
"Then on New Year's Eve it broke down right when I was using it. Geez,
it was embarassing. But this particular model has a lot of bounce in it. I'll be
damned if it didn't work real well the next three times:
"But one Saturday I was using it away from home and I just couldn't get
it moving. And the next time out the first twenty minutes I used it - same
thing - nothing.
"Sot told my machine what the score was, that if it wanted to win, it had
to work harder. And it did, for a little while.
"But then it snowed and I couldn't take it out of the house. And when I
finally did get to use it, it was rusty; it couldn't-hold onto the ball.
"But it fixed itself, and the next time it worked near perfect. I pressed
with it, I shot with it, everything seemed to fall into place. Shoot, I thought it
might not need any more repairs or anything.
"But just the other day, right in my own home nonetheless, it totally fell
apart. That's why I'm calling.
"My two pieces I usually play at guard are inconsistent. One of those
pieces has magically lost its shooting touch. The part in the pivot still works
pretty good but it fouls a lot and I can't use it all the time. And the replace-
ment part sometimes works and sometimes doesn't..
"Then there are days like last Monday when the machine can't put
anything in. And now I've got to use it in two crucial games on the road,
where it's never worked really well. And I never know which parts will work
and which won't. I just don't know what to do anymore - that's why I called
you. Do you think you can help?"
Too late to change?
"Well,'' said the old man, looking at the notes he had taken, "it's a little
late in the season to start fiddling with a basketball machine. But I do have
a couple of suggestions. You can take them for what they're worth.
. "One thing you could try would be to move a high-scoring forward piece,
if you have one, to a guard position and then put a bigger piece in at forward.
"Or maybe you could just shake the whole machine up. Surprise every-
body and start by playing a bunch of parts that wouldn't normally start.
Might make the whole machine more energetic. Might confuse other
machines.
"Sounds like it may be time to
do some gambling. What have Platoon
you got to lose? You've gotta take Leaders
chances in the basketball ma-
chine business, y'know." Class
"Well, I dunno," the voice in
the phone balked, "that's awful
drastic stuff."
"It doesn't sound like it's going
anywhere this way."
"Well, it might bounce back
again," the voice said with hesi-
tant optimism.
"Look, why don't you just bring
it in and let me work on it?"
The sky was dark now and a M ai
gust of wind caused the window to
shake.
"Do you think you could have it
ready by tomorrow night?"( (3 3
Recruitin
By BOB WARD "THE
Stu Isaac, Michigan's women's write,"
swimming coach, has quite an im- them."
pressive record, twenty straight wins Along
in three and one-half years at talentc
Michigan with only one loss. In outbid
national AIAW competition his teams athletes
placed 18th in 1975, 14th in 1976 and ing ag
11th in 1977. compet
a good a
HOW? Talented swimmers. How The
does he find them? Some volunteer, scholar
but most are recruited. can on.
"There's plenty of recruiting," (Associ
Isaac said, "It's what separates letics f
average coaches from g o o d when a
coaches." be taken
To recruit, Isaac travels to most
major national and some internation- IN Ml
al meets searching for talent. In his shows a
office he has a book two inches thick take his
that lists swimmers and their times. so in wo
He has a two-inch stack of 4 x 5 cards
from swimmers who've sent him This y
information or requested it. on scho
When Isaac finds someone he will be
wants to contact, he calls her coach after ti
or sends Michigan varsity records, will ope
meet times, workout strategies, and arships
so on. He then hopes for responses. But th
g keys
E BEST ones don't have to
said Isaac, "We all write to
with this competition for
comes offers. Schools try to
other schools for the top
s. They start by simply offer-
good program, a team that
es nationally or a school with
academic program.
bidding gets higher when
ships are offered. Michigan
ly offer twelve, and AIAW
ation for Intercollegiate Ath-
or Women), rules state that
scholarship is given, it can't
n away.
EN'S SPORTS, if an athlete
a lack of dedication they can
scholarship away. That's not
men's sports.
year Michigan has ten women
larship and next year there
only three to offer. The year
hat several more vacancies
n up. Therefore giving schol-
is a big gamble.
e significance of recruiting is
tankers'
that you don't have to give scholar-
ships, "Often, a good recruiter can
get a girl to come because of the
program (academic and athletic),"
Isaac said, "and this is important."
"You've got to really sincerely be-
lieve, if you have any conscience,
that the program will really help the
girl," continued Isaac. "There are
some girls who won't fit in. We take
in (consider) grades, interests and so'
on."
FINDING THESE women can be
easy. All the coaches have to do is
visit AAU meets or other competi-
tion, but they must pay all their own
expenses. Talking with them is
another thing.
If a coach for any women's team
approaches and talks to any athlete
after her meet about his program, he
has violated AIAW recruiting rules.
The women may ask him some-
thing, but he can only answer that
question.
The coach may only send her mail
or talk to her over the phone. He can't
take her out to dinner or visit her;
family.
sueces(2
"FOR EVERY kid I would like'to
talk to," Isaac said, "I spend three
hours on the phone talking to their
coach and them."
"The breaking of the rule is so
prevalent. . because it's almost,,
possible not to. . ." said Isaac,
I'm not going to blow the whistle:&
anybody."
The logic behind the strict rup.
was to eliminate recruiting, avoid tbe
scandals (recently MSU had on},
that have resulted in men's sports,
and thus protect the women and-,
schools from unfair practices.
THESE RULES may have been r'&
vised at the recent AIAW confera
ence, but Isaac isn't sure. He hasnW't'-
heard anything official.
Despite the bothersome regula-
tions, Isaac has built a very success,-
ful program. Most of the top swim-
mers and divers were recruited. Thi
Friday against highly touted Rutgers
in New Jersey, he has the chance to
show the program that Michigan h K.
to offer.
Big Ten Standings.
Conference All Games
Mich. St.... 7 1 .875 15, 2 .88? .
Purdue..... 6 2 .750 11 6 .647
MICHIGAN 5 3 .626 10 6 .625
Minnesota.. 5 3 .625 9 7 .56:3
Illinois......4 4 .500 10 7- .588
Ohio State .. 4 4 .500 11 6 .441
Indiana .... 3 5 .375 11 6 .647
Iowa .......3 5 .375 10 6.5
N'western.. 2 6 .250 6 11 .'
Wisconsin.. 1 7 .125. 5 11 .34,
WOMEN CAGERS FACE GRAND VALLEY:
Strider depth turns State green,
A confident Wolverine track team,
buoyed by some superb perform-
ances in last Saturday's Michigan
Relays, hosts Michigan State in a
dual meet here Wednesday night.
The meet was originally scheduled
to be run in East Lansing, but was
moved to Ann Arbor because of, what
else, the snow. It seems that an extra
day is needed to move the bleachers
into Jenison Fieldhouse for the
Michigan-MSU basketball contest
Thursday.
But regardless of the location, the
striders appear likely to extend their
dual meet domination over the
Spartans to four straight years.
While the Spartans boast Big Ten
60-yard dash champion Randy Smith
and standout shotputter Paul
Schneider, Michigan coach Jack
Harvey expects "not too tough a
team battle." While looking for good
competition in some events, Harvey
expects Michigan's "edge in quality
and depth" to determine the outcome
of the meet..
Fueling Harvey's optimism is the
outstanding efforts of distance men
Bill Donakowski and Steve Elliot in
the mile on Saturday. Their clockings
of 4:02.7 andr 4:02.8, respectively,
shattered the standing school record
and qualified them both for the
NCAA championship meetsin the first
outing of the season. Junior hurdler
Arnett Chisholm's 7.2 clocking in the
60-yard high hurdles also qualified
him for the NCAA meet.
The meet, at the Track and Tennis
Building, will get underway at 7:00
p.m. with the field events. The
running events begin at 7:30 p.m.
-KEVIN ROSEBOROUGH
rine Corps
V
Women on road
The women's basketball team, still
floating on a three-game winning
streak in the Can-Am Tournament, is
again heading out on the road to take
on formidable Grand Valley State.
"Grand Valley is one of the most
seasoned teams in the state," said
coach Gloria Soluk. "It was one of the
first schools to give scholarships."
"Their major strength is that they
start juniors and seniors. That's
unique in that most teams start two
or three freshmen or sophomores."
Michigan had been preparing to
meet Michigan State this past week-
end but, because of the snow, the
game was canceled. Soluk feels this
may affect the way her team
performs.
"I think now, after the layoff, the
kids don'thremember the winning
streak. It hurts us not to work. on
fundamentals every day," she com-
mented.
In spite of Grand Valley's advan-
tages, among them 6-2 center Chris
Hanson, the game with Michigan is
not being taken lightly.
"We've seen Michigan play twice
and we think they're tough," af-
firmed Grand Valley's assistant
coach Pat Baker. "Abby Currier
[5-11 freshwoman center] is good.
She'll be difficult to stop. Of course,
Hanson will be difficult for them to
stop."
"We've got to cut off their fast
break. It will be tough to stop them. A
win won't be by any great margin,"
she concluded.
The game with MSU has not been
rescheduled because both team's
schedules are full. Iowever, the
Wolverines will face MSU in East
Lansing on February 18 in a pre-
viously scheduled contest. There will
also be an exhibifin game at Crisler
Arena this Friday night between
(ntral Michigan and Illinois.
-ELISA FRYE
Thursday's Games
Indiana at Northwestern
Iowa at Minnesota
Michigan at Michigan State
Ohio State at Purdue
Wisconsin at Illinois
ACU-I a
Tournament .
Sat., Feb. 7--
10 a.m. x
AT UNION LANES
Sign up Now
U B.,
mid-winter sale!
SNc3
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BILLBOARD
The CCRB will be having a perman-
ent locker sale this Saturday, Feb-
ruary 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon.
Ninety women's and thirty men's
lockers wil be sold on a first-come,
first-served basis. Lockers cost $9.50
for use through April 28 and $19 for
use through August 18.
A MIDDLE EAST
BRIEFINO
by
Dr. Phiip Stoddard
U.S. State Department
(>A VIt4U J
A did Ihe
Corps
The Platoon Leaders Class (PLC) is the primary college officer commis-
sioning program of the Marine Corps. It is a leadership program, and
the positive characteristics developed during training as a candidate will
be of great value to you throughout your career-be it civilian or
military.
What does it take to complete PLC training? It takes strength, agility,
coordination, endurance, intelligence, moral and physical courage. It
takes desire, determination and grit. If you think you've got what it
takes find out for sure while you're still in college. And do it with no
obligation.
You can join the PLC program in your freshman, saphomore or junior
year of college. On campus you will not have to wear a uniform, partici-
pate in drill or attend any special classes because all training takes place
AKl1v IKI TUC CIIAAAC rD hmn n.4 cnn..m...c nLta.4i.....civ u.:.
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Warm-Ups
Shoes (adidas seconds & close-outs)
2.
3.
Gym Shorts,
T-Shirts
4. SDeedoWSimwear