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 ff rd ference 11 1 8 2 7 2 6 4 5S 4 } 4 6 37 38$ 2 7 259 V I / 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. -t--- CLIP AND SAVE.- w SI a I I , I I II II : Phone Numbers : Circulation 764-0558 I I .. I , Classified Adv. 764-0557 I I Disrlay Adv. I 764-0554 I ! R News I - 764-0552 'II j~ Sports' 764-0562 ---- CLIP AND SAVE ----- Q WED., FEB. 9-4:30-6:30 1420 Hill Street GVGFNTVIVG 113 Y'YCI t.t,., VfvA C t c:no ALL YOU CAN EAT! Wednesday Special 5 to 10 P.M. Baked Lasagna DINNER 'INCLUDES: * Home Made Baked Lasagna * Large Pretzel Bell Salad with Choice of Dressing * Steaming Hot Basket of Russian Rye Bread with Creamery Butter $3.95 ADULTS CHILDREN Under 12-$1.75 THURSDAY SPECIAL "FRENCH FRIED SMELT" All You Can Eat $3.95 The Pretzel Dell Restaurant Ccampus AMC Jeep, SERVICE 6 SALES HEADQUARTERS FOR: AMRC As G remlin Pacer 2'3 hornet Matador i 144JEEP WASHTENAW COUNTY 2448 WASHTENAW (Ypsi) 434-2424 SERVING DINNER 5 TO 10 P.M. 120 E. LIBERTY 761-1470 I .____ 4 r SPORTS OF THE DAILY: Blue gridders honored ENLARGEMET SALE 3 for the price of 2 From Your Negatives, Slides or Prints NO LIMIT This advertisement must accompany orders. Good through March 18, 1977 1 WEEK DELIVERY SUN PHOTO-3180 Packard 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