Wednesday, November 24, 1976
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Fitteen
Daily Photo by ANDY FREEBERG
The 1976-77 Michigan basketball team
FRONT ROW (left to right): Mgr. Mitch Kaufman, gen, Joel Thompson, Bobby Jones, Mgr. John Ander- David Baxter, Rickey Green, Dave Stavale, Tom
Len Lillard, Alan Hardy, Phil Hubbard, co-captain - son. BACK ROW (left to right): Asst. coach Bill Staton, Bill Lelich, asst. coach Jim Boyce, adminis-
Steve Grote, co-captain John Robinson, Tom Ber- ,Frieder, head coach Johnny Orr, Mark Lozier, trative asst. Dan Fife.
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Introducin the Wolverines
V'E BAXTER (6-2, Jr., G) Those wins last year came ting the ball up with great con- "Offensively, he's a good play- quicker," says Steve Grote.
G toing back borme was fan- with considerable help from fidence. er," says Orr. "You can be a freshman, I was 200 pot
ic. The talk of the city was Baxter. Johnny Orr's "third Baxter's finest performance sore he'll score, and he's very I'm down to 180 now."
it U of M and finishing sec- guard" rarely cracked the last year came against Missouri active. A fourth-year starter,
" says Detroiter Dave Bax- starting lineup, but racked up in the Midwest Regional final. "Defensively, he's n o t as "Cincinnati Kid" serves
"It seemed everyone was plenty of playing time. He came off the bench to score strong as we'd like him to be." co-captain, along with J
nd the team, congratulating An exceptional shooter in high a career-high 18 points, spark- * * * Robinson, of this year's sq
and pulling for me . . .those school, Baxter continues in the ing a come-from-behind 95-88 RICKEY GREEN (6-2, Sr., G) Grote, has started 78g
gs cisme when you win." s sme lashion at Michigan, put- win. 'I would think people would cameo for Michigan. Whib
"As
Unds.
the
'r as
john
uad.
f 86
e his
Orr later called him the Most
Valuable Player of that Re-
gional, although that award vent
to Missouri's Willie Smith.
Baxter will probably still be
a "third guard" as opposed
to a bona fide starter this sea-
son. But make no mistake
about it. "Bax" has made his
presence known on this team.
"David Baxter is certainly
one of the most improved play-
ers of them all," says Orr. "He's
a deadly shooter. He feels he's
a starter, and competition will
be very keen at guard this-
year." _
TOM BERGEN (6-9, J7r., C)
"At Utah, there would be
10,000 or 11,000 people at every
game," says Tom Bergen. "For
the first years here, I was dis-
appointed with the crowd but.
it's getting better"
S i n c e transferring from
Utah two years ago, the tal-
lest player on the team has
not developed into the player
he was expected to be. Ber-
gen somehow never got all
the muscle one would expect
on his large, broad frame.
Bergen performed capably as
a back-up center for Phil Hub-
bard last season, bitt lacks the
stamina and defensive skill of
the latter.
Johnny Orr may give "Berg"
some time at forward this year.
get their money's worth if they
came to check out the Wolve-
ines this year," says Rickey
Green.
And Green will make sure of
it.
Green won the Illinois high
s c h o o I championship with
John Robinson and was an
All - American at Vincennes
Junior College before transfer-
ring to Michigan.
Nobody is quicker than Green-
he's virtually indispensable on
the fast break. Green led the
team in scoring, and also led in
assists. Starting in all 32 games
last year, he hit double figures
in all but one of them.
Everybody's pre-season All-
American this year, , Green
was named to All Big Ten,
NCAA All-Regional and All-
Final tournament teams.
Green tried out for the U.S.
Olympic team (and surprising-
ly, did not make it) and re-
ceived honorable mention All-
American hondrs as well,
"Rickey Green is the most ex-
citing player in college in the
United States," says Johnny
Orr. "He's Ybetter than a year
ago. In practice, he's been un-
believable, to be honest with
you."
STEVE GROTE (6-2%, Sr., G)
"I've got my weight down now
and I should be faster, a lot
scoring average has dropped
slightly, his shooting percentage
has steadily increased.
Grote plays a very physical
game at both etnds of the
court. A good shooter from the
otside, Grote also likes to
drive the basket, using his
football player's frame to ad-
vantage.
The feisty senior always gives
the team a lift near the end of
the year when it is really need-
ed, but his also si-ffered a mid-
season slut-n every year he has
been at Michigan.
"Grote's in better shape than
I've ever seen him in the be-
ginning," says Johnny Orr. "I
think when the bell rings,
Grote's going to be there."
ALAN HARDY (6-6, So., F)
"I'm glad when practice is
over, the competition is so
t o u g h," says Alan Hardy.
"You've got to work at a Mich-
igan practice."
And Hardy certainly has work-
ed. As a freshman he earned a
top reserve job with the Wol-
verines, relying on speed and
his fine jumping ability.
He is dependable coming off
the bench as testified by his
fine performances a g a i n s t
Michigan State and Iowa last
winter-15 and 13 points re-
See THE WOLVERINES,
Page 18
1976 Statistics
Player G-S FG' -FGA Pet. FT-FTA Pet. Rbs Avg Hi A PF-D Pts Avg Hi
Green 32-32 266-542 .491 106-135 .785 117 3.7 10 134 88-1 638 19.9 32
Hubbard 32-32 208-381 .546 66-113 .584 352 11.0 18 35 129-10 482 15.1 25
Robinson 32-32 173-302 .573 102-123 .829 262 8.2 16 82 82-1 448 14.0 24
Britt 32-32 153-326 .469 42-54 .778 135 4.2 8- 124 109-9 348 10.9 20
Grote 32-29 134-265 .506 69-95 .726 96 3.0 7 112 116-8 337 10.5 20
Baxter 32-2 80-164 .488 46-56 .821 45 1.4. 5 60 54-0 206 6.4 18
Thompson 28-0 42-86 .488 10-17 .588 63 2.3 8 17 37-0 94 3.4 18
iardy 29- 41-83 .494 10-19 .526 44 1.51 18 17-0 92 3.2 15
Bergen 29-0 24-43 .558 15-i7 .882 35 1.2 5 8 33-0 6:3 2.2 '16
staton 22-0 14-34 412 6-12 .600 13 0.6 3 9 19-0 34 1.5 7
Jones 5-0 2-2 i.000 i-2 .500 0 0-0 0 0 2-0 5 i.0 4
Scheinerer 1-1 1 -3 .33 4-6 .607 4 0.4 a-s s3 0.5
Lilard 5-0 0-0 .000 0-0 .000 3 0.6 2 0 1-0 0 0.0 0
MICHIGAN 32 1138-2231 .510 477-647 .737 1339 41.8 56 600 690-29 2753 86.0 107
Opp. 32 1005-2132 .471 446-635 .102 1240 38.8 .49 514 623-24 2456 .76.8 10
Every inch counts
Knowing high things are expected of them this season, these
Michigan players stood tall when the team photos were taken
earlier this month. From left to right on tiptoes are: No. 34,
Dave Stavale, somewhere around 6-1; No. 24, Rickey Green,
allegedly 6-2; No. 25, David Baxter, allegedly 6-2, and No. 32,
Mark Lozier, right around 6-3. -/-