lag*e 10-Friday; December 2, 1977-The Michigan Daily PREP PROSPECTS PLACED ON PED CST A I. R 'r' ge recruits practice joyriding' full court WIPRESS- By DAVE RENBARGER Every year it's the same old story. High school basketball hotshots reeze through their senior seasons, dazzling one and all with their hoop wizardry. Meanwhile, drooling college re- cruiters from all four corners of the country sit in the stands, imagining hat Johnny All-American would kbok like in a State U jersey. The recruiters all converge upon Johnny 6- at home, at school, and after "hours, trying to sell him on State U. JOHNNY HAS made the unofficial Most Wanted List' - not the FBI%, *ut the NCAA's. Like every other school entertain- ing thoughts of a successful basket- ball program, Michigan is out there every year, actively seeking those prep blue-chippers-. This past year five such seniors were enticed to join the ranks of the Wolverines - Johnny Johnson, Mike McGee, Paul Heuerman, and twins Marty and Mark Bodnar. From the junior college ranks came Mike Robinson. Although the six new Wolverines ;ended up at the same place eventual- .°ly, they .each rode the recruiting ~carousel for varying lengths Qf time, -and all report mixed emotions from :heir experience. OF THE ENTIRE group, Johnson =sand McGee proved to be the hottest commodities, on just about every- one's lists, the pair, however, offers plenty of contrast. Johnson took the recruiting route all the way while McGee chose to bide his time and mull over his decision at home. Coming out of Nichols Prep Acad- emy with about as, impressive an array of credentials as possible (31.6 ppg), Johnson was swept away in the r recruiting whirlwind. He paid plenty of personal visits to campuses around the country, including USC, North Carolina, , Texas Tech and Florida. "I took a lot of trips," said the flashy swingman. "I didn't-really P plan on going to all those places. It was like a joyride." DURING HIS travels, Johnson enjoyed himself. "I had a great tim%. They (the colleges) really took good care of you and you stayed in the best places. When I came here, we went to the Basketball Bust at a really nice place (Weber's Inn). The guys on the team took me out and everyone .4 . l showed a general interest in me." After a while, Johnson became tired of the entire scene. "Every time you'd come home they (the recruiters) would be there," he said. "It'd mess up all your plans. Like everything else in the world, if you get too-much of it, then it's bad." In McGee's case, the coveted forward from Omaha never did get that much of it, mainly because he wasn't overly interested. With a 38.1 scoring average and enough broken records to fill a book, McGee chose to forsake the globbtrotting adventures offered to him. "I VISITED Michigan and Minne- sota only because I knew I wanted to be in the Big Ten," he said. "I was one of the last guys to sign up. I took my time because I didn't wiant to make a mistake." During his visit to Ann Arbor, McGee was impressed with more than the school, the team and the coaches. "When I came here,'I got to meet President Ford. He was all right." Like McGee, Heuerman was not overwhelmed with the recruiting maze, but for a different reason, He was' thinking more in terms of finishing high school than starting college. "My coach screened me from a lot of it," said the 17-year-old from Akron. "I didn't want to mess up my senior year too much. "AT FIRST it (being recruited) was like a big ego trip," he .contin- ued. "But deep down inside you know it wasn't going to be all glamour. When you're being recruited you're really something special, but when you get there, you're just another player." Heuerman did manage to get away enough to visit Michigan State, Tennessee and Miami (Ohio) besides Michigan, but his travels didn't overly excite hm. "It got to be monotonous after awhile. You'd miss a lot of school. Your senior class would be doing something and you'd be off flying somewhere." FELLOW OHIOANS Mark and Marty Bodnar made it to Michigan by way of Barberton. To them, recruiting wasn't that big of a deal because of their special "two-for- one" clause. "Me and Mark went together," explained JMarty. "We made that clear right away. Since not every school in the world was in the market for an entire backcourt, the picking suddenly became a bit slimmer. "Michigan jumped on us right away in December and by mid- January we were pretty much decid- ed. It's perfect," said Marty. As a junior college transfer, Robin- son was in a different class altogeth- er. Although he had ambitions of following his brother Johnny's foot- steps to Ann Arbor directly out of high school, poor grades forced a one-year stop-over at the College of DuPage, outside of Chicago. IN ADDITION to Michigan, Rob was considering Minnesota and paid; a visit to New Mexico just for fun. "Being recruited was a real trip," Rob summed up. "Everyone comes over to your house, calling you up all ,the time. It makes you feel real special. Some guys really take ad- vantage of it. It's like a big joyride. Guys go out and joyride all over the place, just for the plane ride. I did that a little bit when I went out to New Mexico." So, it seems as though there is no common path that the prep hotshots follow in making their way to college ball. It appears that the entire re- cruiting syndrome is better suited to some prospects (are you listening, J.J.?) than to others (right, Paul?). IIU - III Not a classic .. . . . but class established By CUB SCHWARTZ I guess the best way to describe Michigan's 48-point victory over Eastern Michigan last night is: criminal. Eastern was possibly the worst team to ever enter Crisler Arena - the Hurons barely left alive., And on the other side of the scorer's table Johnny Orr had a team which can hang with the best in the nation. So it's really tough to tell if the lopsided margin was due to Eastern's ineptitude or the Wolverines' brilliance. I suspect it was a mixture of both. Not that anyone really expected Eastern to make a game of it. Coach Ray Scott has a gutsy ball club playing for him - the talent just isn't there. But few if any expected the Wolverines to mangle the opposition. "I was surprised (by the outcome)," admitted Orr, "I anticipated a closer game." For a while during the first half, when Tom Staton was driving past his man at will and Mike McGee scored only if he had nothing better to do, the game reminded me of those played at the IM Building. A clearly superior team dominates the floor for as long as it wishes, scoring when it wants, for as long as it stays interested. I almost hoped the Michigan cheerleaders down in the south endzone would call winners at the end of the half so that Eastern could elude further humiliation. Orr was really powerless to do anything about it. Michigan had a 29- point lead with five minutes left in -the first half. But at this point in the season, he has to leave the starters in the game so they can adjust to each other. Next week's game against Louisville won't be easy and it will be the starters that determine the outcome. While all of the starters found double figures, I think two deserve special attention - Joel Thompson ard Dave Baxter. Northwestern tries new coach; Red Wings hire ex-Hawk Hull * * * * * * V By The Associated Press EVANSTON - Rick Venturi was named Northwestern University's football coach yesterday replacing John Pont. At the age of 32, Venturi became the younget head mentor in the Big Ten. Venturi returns to a school where he played football and served as a freshman coach under Alex Agase while working on his master's de- gree. He went with Agase to Purdue in 1973 as his linebacker coach and last season moved to Illinois as defensive back coach. John Pont resigned as Northwest- ern coach two weeks ago but stayed on as athletic director, a dual role he had been serving. Venturi told a news conference yesterday, "I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be head coach at the university I so dearly love. I was part of the program when we won and feel confident we can win again. I understand and believe in the philos- ophy of Northwestern and feel posi- tive I can -aggressively, sell the program based on the university's principles." The Wildcats' only victory of the season was 21-7 over Illinois in the last game. * * * A new Red Wing DETROIT - Dennis Hull has joined the Detroit Red Wings after 13 National Hockey League seasons with the Chicago Black Hawks. General manager Ted Lindsay of the Wings said yesterday that Hull wanted to come to Detroit but there was a problem negotiating the payoff to the Hawks. "The compensation is future con- siderations," Lindsay said. "I'm just happy that we worked it out." , Hull, 33, had his best season in, 1972-73, when he collected 90 points on 39 goals and 51 assists. He has scored 30 or more goals for four years and 25 or more goals seven of his 13 seasons in the league. Last year, Hull had 16 goals and 17 assists in 75 games. "He has good size and strength," Wings Coach Bobby Kromm said of Hull. "Defensively, we have been playing very well but we can use some scoring punch. With his shots, he'll be able to give us that." Kromm said Hull might play with the Red Wings in Toronto and Buffalo this weekend. Joel Phils in well Granted Thompson played against an inferior opponent, but he seems set on proving the skeptics wrong. Many people have been wary of his ability in the pivot. Against Western Kentucky he pumped in 19 points, and he copped game scoring honors Wednesday night with 22. These two outings give Joel the part of the game he has always lacked, confidence. Orr, Frieder and recruiter Jim Boyce have all admitted that Joel has the mechanics of the game down pat, it's the mental mistakes that hurt him. "I'm a lot more relaxed out there now. I don't have to worry about making mistakes and coming out," Thompson said. But the senior center contends he always knew he could do the job. "There's been people who said 'Thompson can't do the job'," he says, "but I always knew, I could." Whether JT really believes that I'm not sure, but either way he is changing some people's minds. "He's (Thompson) the franchise now that Hub is out," said Baxter. "We'll win when he's in there." The realfranchise With all deference to. Baxter's good judgment, however, it seems to me that he is the franchise. The senior co-captain only scored 10 points last night, but he was the most valuable man on the floor. He was only credited with 8 assists for the night and perhaps that in itself is the biggest crime committed Wednesday night. I am sure I saw 15 or 20 assists; alley-oops'to Staton, hitting McGee and Johnny Johnson on the break and setting up some powerful Alan Hardy slam dunks. "When everyone is hot it's just my jobto get the ball to them," said Bax- ter. Indeed everyone was hot. The four men he fed most of the night, Staton, McGee, Thompson and Hardy hit a blistering 61% of their shots. Baxter was also valuable in keeping the game under control after Orr began inserting the freshmen. As a group, they averaged 13-and-a-half minutes of playing time, and Orr wanted Baxter in there to hold the fort down. "He left me in there to keep things under control," Baxter explained. "He didn't want things to get out of hand. He brought the freshmen in there one by one so they could get into the flow of the game." So maybe Michigan really wasn't tested but there were benefits to be found. Thompson is finding himself more and more comfortable at the cen- ter position and Baxter is emerging as a very capable team leader. Fur- thermore the victory had to boost team morale. But Al Cicotte 6EMU center) isn't a Joe Barry Carroll, Hank Wiggins (guard) isn't a Wes Matthews, but Louisville isn't an Eastern Michigan. the 20. 1201 $89.95 List S 76.50 Cellar * 128 Steps Programming with ontinuous Memor " 12- AddressabIe Memories HLT LBL +QMS sin-' cos' 1 ox log a xn 7L I- 1/X EXP ) p 7 Q 4 s DE TS tan-' X2 *re "xy int a] QEL C.DATA CAP C"CEPR CAM RUN x~o X-O x