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by Rich I.erner w r
Sectional politics . . .
blocks Green's selection
HE UNITED States Olympic Basketball' Team was announced,
over the weekend. and conscicnous by his absence from the
15-man roster was Mi-higan's guard Rickey Green.
Making the team were the Wolverines' Phil Hubbard, two
players from Bobby Knight's NCAA champion Indiana Hoosiers
(Scott May and Quinn B"kner, two Arizona State players (Scott
Lloyd and Mark Landsberger, Otis Birdsong of Houston, Notre
Dame's Adrian Dantlev, Ernie Gronfeld of Tennessee and seven
players from the Atlantic Cost Conference.
Included among the ACC clster were four players from Dean
Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels. Perhaps coincidentally, but
most likely not, Smith is coach of the Olympic Team.
The seven players from the ACC are: Tate Armstrong,
Duke; Steve Shenp'rd, Maryland; Kenny Carr, North Caro-
lina State; and Tom LaGarde. Phil Ford, Mitch Kupchak, and
Walter Davis all of North (Carolina.
The announcement of those selected for the Montreal extrava-
gaza caught many people off-guard. Many observers had Green
pegged as a shou-in for the squad and at least as having a great
chance by the remainder.
Many Mid-westerners, familiar with Green, looked forward to
the prospect of the mercurial guard dribbling circles around
slower-footed Eastern Europeans.
"I know he was personally heartbroken that he did not make
the team," said Michigan coach Johnny Orr.
Discussing the make-up of the sqoad Orr had this to say:
"I've never heard of Tate Armstrong, all I know about him is that
he is from the Atlantic Coast Conference. You see they got a
Maryland guy, a Duke guy, a North Carolina State guy and four
North Carolina plavers. Next time one of the Big Ten coaches
has got to be the Olvmpic coach," Orr continued.
"I think that for the Olympics they'd have a much better
team if they had taken Indiana's first five or six players and
fill it in with great players as reserves. I think you'll have
a much stronger team than you have now.
"And I think Bobby Knight should he the coach, because he
won the national championships. I think that's one way to take
the politics out of it.
"It seems ridiculous to me that we have North Carolina hav-
ing four players picked on the squad to go to the Olympics, when
I saw them humiliated on television by Alabama. And Alabama
doesn't have a player on the team. North Carolina could not get
into the final 16 teams in the country with its team and now they
have four players on the Olympic Team. Either their fifth player
was awfully terrible, or they had a lousy coach."
"It sure smacks of something, with four players from the same
school, plus two from another member of the selection commit-
tee's (Ned Wulk of Arizona State) school and one of those, Lands-
berger, didn't even play this past year," said Arizona's head
basketball coach Fred Snowden.
"Let's just say that I'm a little confused," said Snowden.
"Bob Elliot (Snowden's 6-11 center from Ann Arbor Pioneer) came
back with a very bad taste in his mouth. When they were picking
centers, he felt there was a certain trend set early on, that made
him think no matter how well he played he would not make the
team,
"Complaining that my own player did not make the team
might sound like sour grapes," Snowden said. "But Green
not making the team confuses me a wee bit. I thought at
the end of the year the two best guards in the country were
Green and Buckner. I think Rickey Green was most certainly
the finest small guard in the nation."
"I was surprised and disappointed Green and Bob Wilkerson
did not make the team," said Northwestern coach Tex Winter,
the only Big Ten coach present at last week's trials in Raleigh-
the capital of North Carolina, nonetheless. "He is as talented a
guard as there is in the country. By the same token, I can under-
stand, with only two weeks to prepare for the Olympic Games, if
you are the coach you'll be inclined to go with people you're
familiar with. He (Smith) wanted to exert influence.
"I thought Green played well, I coached the team he was with
on the last night, and he scored 32 points. I thought he played
awfully well," Winter said.
Washington coach Marv Harshman, a member of the selec-
tion committee, felt that Green's last night performance may
have cost him a berth on the squad.
"I think maybe that what chance Rickey had maybe was hurt
by the last night," said Harshman, the coach of the U.S. Pan-Am
champions last year. "That's probably the poorest showing he
had, although he scored 32 points, he went one-on-one completely.
He didn't play very well within the team concept. Wilkerson was
another one that was hurt by not playing well within the team
concept."
To Big Ten basketball fans and coaches, the characteri-
ration of Wilkerson and Green as something other than team
players is startling. Indiana and Michigan employed their
distinctive styles of team play to carry them into the NCAA
finals and Wilkerson and Green were integral components of
their respective teams.
Harshman admitted that regional bias may have played some
See DID, Page 7
NORTH CAROLINA center Mitch Kupchak stop s Rickey Green's lay-up attempt in a scrimmage
at the Olympic trials last Friday. Despite scoring 32 points in the game, Green failed to make
the squad. Kupchak did, along with three North Carolina teammates. The 15-man roster an-
nounced Saturday includes Michigan's Phil Hubbard and seven players from the Atlantic Coast
Conference. Three additional cuts will be made later.
BUSBY WHITEWASHES, 70-0:
Royals crownT igers
By The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY-Slump-ridden
Frank White drove in five runs
with a single and a bases-loaded
triple and Steve Busby, whose
sore arm remains a question
mark, hurled six innings of two-
hit ball in leading the Kansas
City Royals to a 10-0 trouncing
of the Detroit Tigers last night.
The Royals scored three runs
in the second and two in the
sixth off Vern Ruhle, 4-2, then
turned it into a runaway with
five in the seventh.
Busby, 2-1, was relieved in
the seventh by Mark Littell.
Zisk zonks
PITTSBURGH - Richie Zisk
slammed a pinch-hit, solo home
run in the eighth inning to give
the Pittsburgh Pirates a 5-4
victory over the Cincinnati Reds
last night in a regionally-tele-
vised power display that saw
both sides clout a total of seven
solo homers.
Neither team had a hit
through the first four innings,
and Pirates' starting pitcher
Bruce Kison led 1-0 on a no-
hitter through six after the Pi-
rates scored an unearned run
off Reds' starter Jack Billing-
ham.
But by game's end, the two
teams had matched the major
league record for most solo
homers by two teams in a
single nine-inning game. The
total of seven was last equal-
led by the Chicago White Sox
and Cleveland Indians in 1974.
In the seventh inning alone,
the Pirates assaulted Billingham
with three solo homers.
Al Oliver and Willie Stargell
hit back-to-back homers to al-
most the same spot in the right
field seats to open the inning,
and one out later, Bill Robinson
drove another home run over
the left field wall.
Major League Standings
AMERICAN LEAGUE NATIONAL LEAGUE
East East
w L Pet. GB W L Pet. GB
New York 2 19 .596 - Philadelphia 33 14 .702 -
Baltimore 24 25 .490 5 Pittsburgh 29 no 5 %
Bostan 20 04 .4785'SiS New Yark 06 21 .081 t10a
Cleveland 02 26 .458 61 St. Louis 23 29 .442 12
Detroit 21 27 .435 8 7 Chicago 22 29 .431 13
Milwaukee 10 26 .409 81'. Montreal 17 28 .378 15
west west
Kansas City 31 18 .633 - Cincinnati 32 20 .615 -
Texas 00 20 .583 0.. Los Angeles 31 22 .585 1'
Chicago 25 21 .543 41'u San Diego 26 23 .531 4'5,
Minnesota 25 24 .510 6 Houston 27 29 .412 7
Oakland 24 08 .402 81' Atlanta 20 30 .400 11
California 22 30 .407 11'- San Francisco 01 3353912
Yesterday's Results Late games not included
Texas 0, Baltimore 4 Yesterday's Results
Minnesota 7,Cleveland2Pittshurgh 5, Cincinnati 4
Mintesoa2,lrseattSt. Louis7, Houston 6
Kansas City 10, Detroit 0 New York at San Diego, n
Only games scheduled Philadelphia at Los Angeles, n
Today's Gamnes otnly games scheduled
Today'Gae
Oakland (Mitchell 1-3) at Boston Atlanta (Nier 34s G at Cicago
(Tiant 7-3), - (R. Reuschel 5-4).
Texas (Peterson 0-3) at Baltimore Cincinnati (Alcala 5-1) at Pitts-
(Alexander 3-2), n. burgh (Rooker 6-2), n.
Minnesota (Hughes 2-6) at Cleve- St. Louis (R. Forsch 1-1) at Hous-
land (Eckersley 3-4), n. ton (Dierker 5-5), a,
California (Ross 3-6) at New York New York (Loich 2-7) at San
(Ellis 4-4), n. Deo(F reisieben 3-1), n 62
(Ells 4-), aPhiladelphia (Christenson 64-t or
Chicago (Johnson 3-5) at Milwau- Reed 4-1) at Los Angeles (Rhoden
her (Trasers 6-2), n. 4-0), n.
Detroit (Roberts 4-4) at Kansas Montreal (Fryman 6-3) at San
City (Leonard 5-1), n. Francisco (Dressler 1-3), n.