Wednesday, February 9, 1977
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Seven
Big Ten plans cage play
Inside Straight --
ti aIif conference race ends ti
--y Glazer In the event of a tie in the race for the conference title,
Big Ten officials announced plans for a March 8 playoff
game to determine its representative in the NCAA cham-
G ood gu . . * bionship basketball tournament. "
1 rF The conference problem il choosing an NCAA tourney
. . . goor reanV ,r. representative is complicated by the fact that Minnesota Con
syh(7-2), is on probation and barred from tournament compe-
JOHNNY ROB. Good 01' Johnny Rob. tto
Important'wins. Good ol' important wins. THE GOPHERS, along wih Michigan (11-1), Purdue MICHIGAN
The two go hand in hand from this angle. But let's back up (8-2), Indiana (6-4) and Iowa (5-4) remain in the running Purdue
a little. for the Big Ten championship. Minnesota could win the Indianoa
Last year's Michigan basketball team has been the biggest title and not be eligible for the NCAA tournament.
success story I've seen in four years at Michigan. And for my Thus, if two teams tied for second place, they would
money, it was the most exciting team to watch. play off with the winner getting the tournament bid. How- Michigan St.
That point can be argued, of course. Each of Bo's football ever, if Minnesoa and another team tied for the champion-
ThatHI f corse Eac ofBo'sfooballK oNorthwestern
teams has had its moments, and the Campy Russell-C.J. Kupec ship, the other team would get the bid without a playoff. Ohio State
basketball squad of three years ago left more than a few gasping MINNESOTA would be eliminated from any playoffs Wisconsin
for breath. since it could not compete i the tournament.
Although Indiana and Iowa along with Illinois (4-6) are
Moby Benedict's nine took two Big Ten titles, and Dan Far- r"'still mathemaically alive in the race, it appears that on%
el's hockey teams win and lose games by dull scores like 11-8. Michigan, Purdue and Minnesota remain as serious con-
But none of those teams had "the flow." tenders for the Big Ten title.
"The flow?" Has Glazer lost those few marbles he had left?
.................................................................................................................
Not really (although that's undoubtedly arguable too). s i I. San Francisco (31) 23-0 386
"'The Flow" is a rather inexact te'm that I apply to the , y- 2. UCLA (8) 18-2 361
sg3. Louisville (1) 162 230
style" of Michigan basketball. 4. MICHIGAN 17-2 228
Have you ever watched Michigan playand gotten the 5. Kentucky (1) 1- 211
feeling that the Wolverines would do whatever was needed 6 i Wake Forest () 18-2 179
to win? That there was simply something about them that 67.tieMDais ut es 1-14 +
was different from any other college team, barring, say, last .Nv Mara-uae 1-2 104
any ar, sy, 8. evaa-Ls Vgas 1-2 87
year's Hoosiers? 9. Alabama1-28
yersHoirAP Photo 10. Tensee1-s With several succsses behnd
That difference is their team play - their ability to function Kt r. Cincinnati 15-3 68 WthevUera. succshesobehind
synergistically, with the whole being greater than the sum of 14. tie Arizona 16-3 45 brings you another GRAD
th at.Mcia a tece hr h algt asd BRIAN TROTTIER of the Islanders fakes Los Angeles goalie Rogie Vachon to his knees and 114. tie Minnesota 16-1 4
around so well you'd swear the other team was the New Jersey then slipped the puck past for a goal. New York went on to defeat the Kings, 4-1. 16. Providence 18-2 26 H O U R. Popular mixed drinks
_1. Uti ya cuse-418-2.5 ) ,fr9 un hi s
,eds (the Harlem Globetrotter's standard opponent). _"-19. UtieSyracuse 18-2 91
What's more. there is a significant difference between Mich- PT A TFQU (tC A CH IT ilK E1\ 19. tie Clemson 17-3 9 I .. F( r/J S FfrK
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igan's and the Globetrotter's play. The Globies play best against
a ragged bunch. Michigan doesn't turn it on until it meets a
topnotch team.
I'm not trying to be overly scientific. This "flow" of Michi-
gan's isn't perfect execution of blackboard sessions, although it
has its roots there. While Johnny Orr's X's and O's are good, I
don't think there's anything inately superior in Michigan's play-
book.
What Orr has done is turn his crew into one of the most
unselfish units I've ever seen. At their best, they play like
one unit of five, not five units of one.
And that's where Johnny Robinson comes in.
Rob always plays his best in the big games, the tournament
games and so on. He typifies the Wolverines in this respect. In
fact, or, should I say, in opinion, he more than typifies them.
His highs are higher and his lows are lower.
Until two games ago, John Robinson hadn't contributed all
that mightily to Michigan's success this year. He wasn't the Rob
of old, making incredible shots in close and tearing up the offen-
sive boards.
And Michigan, without one of the vi'al gears in its well-oiled
machine, was struggling because of it. The Wolverines make
up for a lack of size with tremendous quickness. But they still
need some inside strength, and Phil Hubbard simply can't pro-
vide it all by himself, at least not against the great teams. John
Rob's inside work was part of the "flow."'
Suddenly, Rob has returned to form. He tuned up against
Ohio State, and then came through brilliantly in.the season's big-
gest game, against Minnesota on Monday. He had 20 points and
11 rebounds, working inside on one of the biggest and best teams
in the nation.
There are other gears in the Michigan "flow." Perhaps
Steve Grote deserves some special mention, for he too has
been coming on of late.
The others - Hubbard, Rickey Green and whichever of the
three musketeers Orr has gone to (Tom Staton, Joel Thompson
and Alan Hardy) have been playing great ball all along.
Maybe playing well all along should be everyone's goal. Some-
one had to get Michigan into posilion to be in the tournament.
But John Rob and the "flow" are back, and Atlanta seems
a much more realistic goal now than it did a week ago.
C" EL1 A-.Ilk? 1 1.kJ .f- 1 J+ i". Y1.1L1
Gymnast
bows out
By BRIAN MARTIN'
"Since this will probably be
my last press coverage, I would
like to talk about something I
feel very strongly about," said
Chuck Stillerman, two-time Big
Ten Champion in the floor ex-
ercise for the Michigan gymnas-
tics team.
"This was supposed to be
an off-year for Michigan gym-
nastics," Stillerman said. "We
have a lot of new guys on the
team and we weren't consid-
ered a contender by anyone.
Now we are one of the top
teams in the running for the
Big Ten Championship."
* Stillerman beamed with prideI
while he talked about his coach,
counselor, and friend for the
past four years. Not many ath-
letes would want their last press
coverage of their life to be dedi-
cated to someone or somethingl
other than their own achieve-l
ments.
But Newt Loken has meant
something much more important
to Stillerman than any of his
past accomplishments.
"To give you an example of
the character of Coach," Stil-
lerman said, "I was in a pret-
ty serious motorcycle accident
my senior year in high school.
I broke my leg and my gym-
nastics future was in jeopardy.
"Most universities would have
taken away my scholarship, at
least until I proved myself
again. But not Coach Loken.
He stuck by me and ,had faith.
After a while, I gained confi-
dence in myself," Stillerman re-
membered.
Stillerman has done more than
prove himself during his four
years at Michigan. With two
Big Ten titles to his credit, he
has also qualified for the NCAA
finals twice in the floor exercise.
During his first two years on the1
team, the Wolverines competed
for the NCAA team title.
Stillerman is a pre-med stu-
dent, and has lost much valu-
able studying time for the sake
of training. "Sure, my studies
could've been much better if I
had spent the four hours a day
in the library rather than in the
gym, but I'm not bitter in the
least."
BILLBOARD1
Tom Rucker, a Big Ten bas-
ketball official, will speak at
the IM Building, 606 E. Hoov-
er, on Thursday, February 10
at 7:30 p.m. Rucker will lec-
ture on the mechanics of ref-
ereeing and on handling tough
calls.
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WE USE KODAK PAPERS AND
CHEMICALS FOR A GOOD LOOK
I
The Michigan Senate last'
week adopted a resolution spon-
sored by Senator Gilbert E.
Bursley (R-Ann Arbor) honor-
ing the 1976 Michigan football
team and its outstanding re-
cord.
THE SENATE praised the
team for its number three rank-
ing in the nation, and for being
the 1976 Big Ten co-champion
and conference representative
in the Rose Bowl.
THE resolution also honored
Coach Bo Schembechler,
"whose successful recovery
from. open - heart surgery ex-
emplified the courage and de-
termination of the entire Uni-
versity of Michigan football
team."
The resolution will be pre-
sented to Coach Schembechler,
the membef s of the team and
the Athletic Denartment on an
appropriate occasion.
East and West squads in the
sixth annual Pizza Hut Basket-
ball Classic.
THE contest features the top
eight vote - getters from each
region, plus two at, large se-
lections, in an NCAA, NAIA
sanction event April 5 in Las
Vegas.
STEVE GROTE, the only
other Wolverine receiving
votes, currently occupies elev-
enth place, 3000 votes behind
eighth place holder Bruce Par-
!' SCORES
NBA
N.Y. Knicks 125, L.A. 107
Buffalo 99, Philadelphia 89
Chicago 111, San Antonio 89
Houston 97, Cleveland Si
NHL
N.Y. Islanders 4, L.A. Kings 1
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
kinson of Purdue who has 33,-
000.
Trailing Johnson in the West
equad ballotting is yet another
Big Ten guard, Ray Williams
of Minnesota.
* * *
Shiers schuss
Michigan's men and women
ski club's traveled to Crystal
Mountain to compete for the
Crystal Mountain Cup and both
came away with second place.
JEFF DIEHL placed first in
the combined, winning the sla-
lom and finishing runner up in
the giant slalom.
For the women, Buzz Stone
finished third in the combined
IN THE meet, Michigan State
finished in the top spot in men's
competition with Notre Dame
third. Central Michigan placed
third in women's competition.
The next action for the clubs
will be in two weeks at the
NCAA and AIAW qualifying
I
i
*z*c**Clemson 70, Wake Forest 66 I meet.
Pizza Rickey -
Michigan guard Rickey
Green and UCLA forward
Marques Johnson have emerg- THE CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES
ed as voting leaders for the
THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
Challenge Present
THE
Wizd MR. RICHARD HALLORAN
Wizard.
FOR New York Times Washington Correspondent
Former Asian Correspondent, Tokyo, Japan
F roe Fun MA. Graduate, Center for Japanese Studies,
9 a n U-M, 1957
' Cards &Gifts J
~4ards CIuifts
'ECards & Gfts
Ci
~Cards &~tc
... for the love
in your life.
j 4
Gerry Peirce
You never seem to hear about the people who are
cured of cancer. I am one of them.
My cancer was discovered early. Because I went for a
PAP test regularly.
I want you to have a PAP test. Make an appointment
for one right now. And keep having the test regularly
for the rest of your life.
The rest of your life may be a lot longer if you do.
I know. I had cancer and I lived.
i