Page Eight

rHE MICHIGAN DAILY

Sunday, February 27, 1577

Page Eight THE MICHIGAN DAILY Sunday, February 27, 1977

full court
PRESS
A shaky outing...
... But don't be fooled
By TOM CAMERON
O)NE DOWN and one to go. Perhaps that's the best thing you
wanted to say about Michigan's win over MSU yesterday.
No, it was not a dazzling victory. The team did not look super
sharp. The Wolverines did not play like an NCAA title contender.
They looked more like a team that squeaked out with a victory
over a mediocre Spartan team.
No one at Crisler Arena yesterday saw Michigan dominate
the game with-their quickness, open the game up with fast
breaks, or shoot the Spartans' eyes out with easy, open shots.
It wasn't that type of game.
No one watching the game thought the Wolverines are peak-
ing for their all but certainNCAA tournament play, either. I am
sure that few watching yesterday's game are ready to wager
that the Wolverines are ready to go all the way. Yesterday, they
simply did not look like it.
But don't get down on the Wolverines after watching them
go up against the Spartans. It wasn't the type of game to judge
them on.
"It's kind of hard to judge how well or how poorly we played
in a game like that," said*'co-captain Steve Grote. "The tempo
was just too slow and it's hard to play against the stall."
A snail's pace
The tempo ... the speed of the game ... Talk to anyone who
had anything to do with game afterwards and they'll tell you
that was the key.
Michigan State came out from the opening tip keeping the
ball under control. It looked very much like a stall, although
MSU's head coach Jud Heathcote insists it wasn't. The fans, how-
ever, booed it as though it was.
"When they slowed us up the first half," Johnny Orr said,
"they gotall of our timing out (of the game) and I'm sure that's
what Jud intended to do."
Heathcote's strategy almost paid off, but the important thing
to remember is that it didn't. "It's not how many points you
win by," Rickey Green said after the game, "it's that you win."
And Michigan did win. I'll say it again . . . the iiportant
thing is that Michigan did win.
"I think that if you're going to be a great team, those (dif-
ferent styles of play) are the things you have to got to expect
and you've got to win those games," Orr said. "They zoned us,
they man-to manned us, they slowed the ball, then they went
into their offense in the second half and really operated. We had
to do some things right because we won."
"I have to give Michigan credit," Heathcote said. "I think
that the good clubs adjust to what other teams do. "They'll win
the close dnes where the average teams will lose the close ones.
"Michigan did a super job at the end . . . controlling the ball,
not panicking . . . I think that's what good clubs do."
Don't judge too soon
So if you are ready to give up on Michigan, saying they are
too inconsistent to win a big title, you had better wait a while.
At least, don't judge it on yesterday's game. Although the Wol-
verines may not have beaten the Spartans like they were ex-
pected to, they still satisfied their coaches.
"We made some mistakes, there's no question about it," Orr
said. "But I think that it showed that we can play any way.
That's difficult to play like that when you're a running team. It
takes a lot of self-discipline.
"I think we did play up to our level under the circum-
stances," Orr continued. "You didn't see us do the things we
usually do because they wouldn't let us do them. They held the
ball and slowed it up. They didn't let us run down the court."
"We're 21-3 and we're very happy. We're in first place in
the Big Ten and sure we're satisfied. I think that's tremendous
that we are where we are."
Assistant coach Bill Frieder was just as pleased. "You're
damned right I am (elated)," he said. "That was a great victory
over a rival.
"It's easy for writers and other fans to look at scores and
say "Well, Michigan by twenty," he continued. "But if you look
at the Michigan-Michigan State series over any part it has been
played, you'll know it's usually a darn tough game to win."
What may have pleased the coaches even more was the pre-

paration for the game. "Our practices this week have been just
fantastic . . . unbelievable. We thought that we would just zip!
and go! I think, had they come out with us in the beginning, we
might have really zipped it away."
Great in practice
"You can't forget how we played against Minnesota and
Iowa," Frieder added. "We played very well against those teams.
There's no big problem,. We had a great, great week of practice."
The week of practices, no doubt, freed the coaches from any
real concern of a tournament letdown. A struggle against MSU
didn't reallyphase the coaches.
Frieder thought about in realistic terms. "If you follow any
great team in the history of the game," he said, "if you follow
even Indiana last year, you'll see how they struggled . . . the
one point victories. You have ups and downs. The difference be-
tween the great teams and the average teams is that the great
teams are going to win these types of games. But when you have
a 27-game schedule, you're going to have these type of games,
especially against rivals."
Perhaps the best thing to do is what Grote did after the
game. "I've already forgotten about it," he said. "It was one of
those games that weren't very fun to play . . . but it would
have been a lot less fun if we had lost."

HUBBARD SNARES 18 REBOUNDS

Lackluster

Wolverines

trip

1sU

(Continued from Page 1)
MICHIGAN DECIDED to play for the final
shot and the Spartans refused to come out of
their zone defense, which limited the Wolverines
to one field goal in the last five minutes of reg-
ulation.
With ten seconds to play Michigan called
timeout and set up one last shot. -
"We wanted to get the ball inside so if we
didn't hit the shot we would at least draw a
foul," said Michigan assistant coach Bill Frie-
der.
MICHIGAN DID MANAGE to get the ball in-
side - but it failed to draw a foul. Hubbard's
ten foot jumper with three seconds left was
blocked by Kelser and went out of bounds with
one tick left on the clock.
Michigan again called timeout and set an in-
bounds play from under the Spartan basket.
"We went to whoever was open, if we could
get someone open," Orr said. "I guess Tom Sta-
ton was open and at least he knew what to ,.do
with the ball."
Steve Grote inbounded the pass to Staton who
lofted a twelve foot baseline jumper which hung
on the rim and fell off, sending the game into
overtime.
"WE DIDN'T WANT to let the ball go to the
corner but to make them take it out front," said
Spartan mentor Jud Heathcote. "He (Staton)
almost won the game with one second to go.
That certainly was not very smart on our part."
The Spartans slowed the tempo of the game
down in the first half, utilizing a very deliberate
offense. Michigan State played for the easy
shot inside and took only 18 shots for the entire
first half.
While the Spartans tried to slow things down,
Michigan pressured the visitors and capitalized
on ten first half steals - four by Green.
"In the first half they slowed us up and threw
our timing off," Orr said. "We played them
pretty tough though - they had 14 turnovers."
"OUR GAME PLAN was to stay in the game
for a half," Heathcote said. "We were going to
try and control the ball."
"We felt we had to do three things," Heath-

cote added. "We had to keep Michigan off the
boards, cut down on our turnovers that they
turn into baskets and cut down on their fast
break baskets. We accomplished only one of
those things in the first half - we got some
defensive boards."
THE SPARTANS CAME out of their shell af-
ter the intermission and took a 37735 lead 4:40
into the second half.
Michigan, countered with a 14-4 spurt and
grabbed a 49-41 lead with ten minutes to play.
Once again the Spartans refused to yield and
managed to knot the score 57-57 on a baseline
jumper by Webb with 2:39 to play. That was the
last basket in regulation time.
Robinson sparkled in the second half as he
tallied 11 of the Wolverines 25 second half
points. The senior co-captain from Chicago hit
on 6 of 9 shots and ripped down 7 rebounds af-
ter the intermission, in addition to doing a fine
defensive job on Kelser.
"IN THE SECOND HALF we wanted to open
it up and play our ordinary game," Heathcote
said. "We were looking for higher percentage
shots than we ordinarily take."
The Spartans hit on 55 per cent of their field
goal attempts for the game, while Michigan
shot a cold 40.3 percent.
Michigan's hustle'on defense resulted in a sea-
son high of 17 steals, six each by Green and
Hubbard.
"With a slow down, then you have g6t to
play more defense." Hubbard explained. "We
stole it and got a few easy baskets. You have
to be alert on those steals."
THE GAME WAS MARRED by turnovers
with the Spartans losing the ball 28 times and
Michigan 22.
Green led the Blue scoring brigade with 20
1nints while Hubbard and Robinson each tallied;
15.
Kelser paced Michigan State with 25 and
Bob Chanman added 14. Kelser led the Spar-
tans in rebounds with 12.
Michigan State fell to 8-16 on the campaign
with the loss-its fifth strdight to the Wol-
verines.

MICHIGAN

Robinson
Staton
Hub bard
Green
Grote
Baxter
Thompson
Hardy
Team

FG/A
6-13
0-2
5-12
8-19
4-9
1-2
0-1
1-4

FT/A
3-4
0-0
5-7
4-8
5-6
0-0
0-2
2-2

R
10
0
18
2
2
0
2
1
3

A
I
1
3
3
2
0

TP
15
0
15
20
13
2
0
4

MICHIGAN STATE
FG/A VT/A R

Brown
Philips
A TP Team
0 25 Totals

1-1 0-0 1 0 2
0-0 0-0 0 0 0

3
31

Doily Photo by ANDY FREEBERG
Wolverine Tom Staton gives a free dance lesson to Spartans Greg Kelser, James 'Coutre
(45), and Robert Chapman (44) in yesterday's 69-65 squeaker over Michigan State. Co-
Captain John Robinson is ready with additional hints at left.
Icers belt Duluth, 9-3-
13 players pick up points

Kelser
Wilson
Coutre
Chapman
Donnelly
Longaker

12-18 1-3 12
1-4 3-5 6
3-3 5-6 4
6-13 2-2 1
1-3 2-3 2
0-1 0-0 0

2
3
1
5
0

11
14
4
0

26-47 13-20

11

65

Attendance: 13.609
lechnical Fouls - none.
Score by Periods
MICHIGAN .. 32 25

12-69
8-65

Totals 25-62 19-29 44 69 10 Webb 2-4 0-1 2 0 4 Michigan State,. 25 32

Special Io The Daily
DULUTH - If the locker-room boy had
skates, he probably would have scored a
goal against the University of Minnesota-
Duluth (UMD) last night in a game won
by Michigan 9-3.
THE WOLVERINES brought 17 skaters
to the North Star State and 13 of them pick-
ed up at least one point to lead Michigan
to the two-game weekend series sweep.
With the win, the icer's sixth straight,
Michigan virtually locked up third place
in the WCHA, its highest finish since the
championship season of 1964.
Dave Debol scored twice, his 34th and
35th of the season, and Kip Maurer added
his 31st in the second period when Michi-
gan dashed off five goals to snap a 3-3 tie.
THE GAME FEATURED a little bit of
everything, including a rare penalty shot.
Wolverine defenseman John McCahill fell
on the puck in the crease which is against
the rules.
Bulldog defenseman Curt Giles was
awarded the penalty shot since he is after
the UMD record for points by a defense-
man in a single season.
GILES SKATED IN ON Michigan goal-
ie Rick Palmer and slapped at the puck
from seven feet away, but Palmer kicked

his leg out to make the save.
When the Wolverines weren't scoring
by themselves, they were getting a lit-
tle help from the Bulldogs.
Down 3-1, The Wolverines began their
bombardment against UMD goalie Jeff
Johnson with a fluke goal by Mike Coff-
man.

f

COFFMAN TOOK a long shot from be-
hind the blue line that hit a Duluth de-
fenseman and deflected into the net.
.'First Period
Scoring: UMD - Hedlund (unassisted) 1:24;
2. Mich. - Debol (Coffman, Rob Palmer) 7:00;
3. UMD - Jones (Giles) 9:49; 4. UMD - Roth-
stein (Giles) 14:25; 5. Mich. - Coffman (Miller,
McCahill) 15:44; 6. Mich. - Maurer (Rob Palmer,
Thayer) 16:31.
Penalties: UMD - Olson (tripping) 3:16; Mich.
- Turner (interference) 7:57; Mich. - Turner
(roughing) 12:28; UMD - Olson (elbowing) 16:17.
Second Period
Scoring; 7. Mich. - Thayer (Maurer, Debol)
3:27; 8. Mich. - Debol (Miller) 8:18; 9. Mich. -
Morrison (McCahill, Lerg) 12:34; 10. Mich. -
Wheeler (MeCahill, Morrison) 12:57; 11. Mich. -
Blanzy (Wheeler, Morrison) 16:51.
Penalties: UMD - Corbin (tripping) 1:51; Pa-
cholzuk (interference) 5:53; UMD - Rothstein
(holding) 8:40; Mich. - Blanzy (tripping) 17:43;
Mich. - Manery (tripping) 19:42.
Third Period
Scoring: 12. Mich. - Hoene (Kawa) :40.
Penalties: Mich. - Pacholzuk; Mich. - Lerg
(slashing) 5:50; UMD - Jones (slashing and a
10-minute misconduct) 8:10; UMD - Harrington
(holding) 12:13.


THINCLA DS IMPRESSIVE:
Stokes clears

17

feet

AP Photo
"Leave -it alone, it's mine," pleads Illinois forward Ken Ferdinand (12) as he lunges for
a rebound. He is battling with Phil Saunders, left, teammate Osborne Lockhart (11), and Rich
Adams (40) in yesterday's encounter at Minnea polis in which the Gophers eked out a vic-
tory, 72-70.

By DAVE RENBARGER
A record-shattering perform-
ance by Michigan pole vaulter
Jim Stokes provided the fire-

HOOSIERS, OSU WIN:
GOphers
MINNEAPOLIS - Ray Williams sank F
two free throws with 30 seconds left to f
give 13th-ranked Minnesota a 72-70 Big a
Ten basketball victory over Illinois yes-3
terday.I
THE GOPHERS, who are in second
place in the Big Ten with a 13-3 confer- r
ence record, had gained possession of ther
ball 24 seconds earlier following an over-1
and-back violation against the Illini.t
Minnesota, now 22-3 for the season,
trailed 4741 at the half in the regionally-I
televised game, but rallied behind the su-4
perior inside play of junior Mike Thomp- r
son. The Big Ten scoring leader scored 1
three quick field goals and the Gophers s
caught up 51-51 with 16:23 to go.C
Ken Ferdinand's basket with 11:11 left
gave Illinois its final lead in the game
57-56.
MINNESOTA'S Kevin McHale sank five t
consecutive free throws as the Gophers r

creep j
Radford ignited a sputtering Indiana of-
fense with 16 second-half points Saturday
as the Hoosiers out-scored Northwestern
30-6 in a 10-minute span to take a 69-54
Big Ten basketball victory.
RADFORD FINISHED with 24 points,
matching his career high, and tied team-
mate Mike Woodson for game scoring
honors. Woodson scored 18 of his points in
the first half.
The Hoosiers, playing without injured
All-American center Kent Benson, trailed
41-35 with 14:58 left in the game when they
reeled off 15 straight points to take a 50-41
lead. Radford scored eight points in that
stretch and freshman center Derek Hol-
comb added the other seven.
INDIANA STRETCHED its lead to 65-45
as Northwestern, which led 31-29 at half-
time, went without a field goal for al-
most 10 minutes. The Hoosiers hit 12 of

SIllni

OSU in OT
COLUMBUS - Terry Burris hit two free
throws with four segonds remaining in
overtime yesterday, to lift Ohio State to an
82-80 Big Ten basketball victory over
Wisconsin, the Buckeye's first home con-
ference triumph this season.
BURRIS, WHO scored 20 points for Ohio
State, was fouled under the Buckeye's bas-
ket by James Gregory and calmly sank
both shots for the final margin.
Larry Bolden, a four-year starter play-
ing his final home game, paced Ohio State
with 21 points. The Buckeyes, 9-16 over-
all and 4-12 in the league, had lost eight
straight Big Ten games at home this win-
ter.
Gregory, a 6-foot-7 freshman poured in
27 points to pace the -Badgers, 9-16, and
5-11.

works, and a solid overall team
showing provided the icing on
the Blue cake at last night's i
Wolverine Invitational in the 1
Track/Tennis Building.'1
The Wolverine thinclads cap-I
tured first places in eight of
the 18 events, but Stokes' vault
of 17-r4 completely overshad-
owed the strong team effort.
With the vault, Stokes, a na-
tive of Flint, bettered his previ-
ous varsity record of 16-61 set
only two weeks ago. In addition,
the vault ranks as best ever in-
doors by a Big Ten athlete, best
ever indoors in the state of'
Michigan, and eighth best in thej
entire NCAA this season.
FOR MORE SPORTS,
SEE PAGE 7
"I was pretty confident be- j
forehand," said the pleased
Wolverine after the meet.
"When I hit the pit, I felt a
definite high. It was a great
feeling.
"Seventeen feet has been a
goal for me for a long time,"
Stokes continued. "I'm really
glad to be over it now. I think
that it was more a psychologi-
cal barrier than anything else."

Despite a last-minute substitu-
tion with Jim Baumgartner tak-
ing the place of ailing Dave
Furst, the quartet cruised to vic-
tory with a 7:29.9 clocking. Sen-
ior Andy Johnson anchored the
race, with Greg Meyer and
Steve Elliott running in between.
"Qualifying that relay for
the nationals was our whole
objective in this meet," said
Harvey. "Furst has been hav-
ing a few back problems, but
when the time comes, I'm
sure thathhe'll be in there run-
ning anchor for us."
The Blue thinclads came up
with yet another NCAA qualifier
yesterday - in the person of
hurdler Arnett Chisholm. The
sophomore speedster matched
the gualifying standard of 8.3
in the 70 yard highs.
Michigan's sprinting squadron
turned in a- pair of first place
performances. Doug Hennigar
raced to victory with a time
of 6.1 in the 60-yard dash, while-
teammate James Grace, nor-
mally a quarter-miler, register-
ed a quick 30.8 in the 300.
In the field events Wolver-
ine Doug Giggs' leap of 6-10
gave him the high jump crown,
while Randy Foss put the shot
53-114 for another Michigan
triumph.

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SCOREBOARD

COLLEGE BASKETBALL
MICHIGAN 69, Mich. St. 65 (OT)
Purdue 81, Iowa 70
Minnesota 72, Illinois 70
Indiana 69. Northwestern 64

Georgetown 79, Manhattan 71
N. Carolina St. 91, Wake Forest 85
Clemson 120, Roanoke 56
Georgia 83, Tennessee 76
Central Mich. 77, Western Mich. 61