The Michigan Daily-Thursday, September 10, 1981 --Page 5-D
Frieder's task: replace four starters
Ce7th in '81
,after late collapse
and win in overtime. It was in the
second of these extra-session contests
that the Wolverines defeated Indiana,
the eventual Big Ten and NCAA cham-
pion.
THE BLUE CAGERS reached the
high point of their Big Ten season
several weeks later, when they
defeated Wisconsin for their fourth win
in a row, a 7-3 conference record, a
share of the league lead, and a Number
12 national ranking.
Then the bottom fell out. Starting
with a 105-87 debacle at home against
Ohio State in which the Bucks shot 70%
from the floor, the Wolverines
proceeded to lose six in a row-in-
By MARK FISCHER
"T have no idea who my start-
ingfive will be right now.
-Bill Frieder
Summer, 1981
It's no wonder that Frieder, Michi-
ans second year basketball coach,'
doesn't know who will takle the floor for
hizi when the 1981-82 season begins.
FOUR OF THE five starters from
last' year's squad are now gone, and
only two of the returning
cagers-senior forward and captain
Thad Garner and sophomore center
Tim McCormick (who underwent knee
surgery in June but is expected back)-
logged more than five minutes a game
in the 1980-41 campaign.
Yes, you might say that Frieder gave
he nod to experience last winter; but he
ad good reason. His five star-
ter -Garner and seniors Mike McGee,
Paul Heuerman, Johnny Johnson and
Marty Bodnar-had all started the
previous year, one in which the Blue
hoopsters won'17 out of 30 games.
And for a while, Frieder's personnel-
handling strategy seemed to be
working beautifully. The Wolverines all
but . coasted through thgeir non-
conference schedule, winning their first
nine games with little difficulty for the
best start by a Michigan basketball
team since 1926-27. Included in the
cagers' pre-Big Ten season spree were
impressive wins over two eventual
NCAA tournament teams, Kansas (64-
52) and Arkansas (78-65).
THIS EARLY RUN of success not
only gave Frieder an unblemished
career slate as Michigan's head coach,
but it served to get the team a Number
Eight ranking in the national polls, as
well.
Neither of these conditions held true
for long, however, for it was then that
the Big Ten portion of the Wolverines'
schedule came up. In its first conferen-
ce contest against Purdue, Michigan's
undefeated bubble was burst 'soundly
by the Boilermakers, who shot a siz-
zling 75% from the floor in an 81-74 win
over the visitors from Ann Arbor.
The Wolverines bounced back in
Minneapolis several days later, though,
with a 68-67 double-overtime thriller
over Minnesota which was to mark the
beginning of the "Kardiac Kids" phase
of their season. In two of its next three
games (and in three, of its next four
home outings), Michigan came from
behind to tie at the end of regulation
remains now, though, is what does 1981-
82 hold in store for the Michigan hoop-
sters? As mentioned earlier, their 1981-
81 seniors, who accounted for almost
three-quarters of the team's scoring
last season, are all gone-McGee and
possibly Johnson off to the pros,
Heuerman and the two Bodnar brothers
off to law school.
"Well," said Frieder, "we are going
to have a sound player returning in
Thad Garner, an experienced player in
McCormick, a super freshman in guard
Eric Turner (6-3 All-American from
Flint Central), and the rest of the
players are good. But you have to
remember that we will be a very young
team."
Young, yes, Inexperienced, yes. But
boring? No, says Frieder. "In may
ways (we'll be) a more enthusiastic and
exciting team. The experts pick us as
low as eighth or ninth, but I think you
will see a very good basketball team
here next season. Our main weakness is
youth, but I think, in the long run, that
may prove to be our strength.
"WE WILL BE bigger at center (with
McCormick, at 6-10, replacing Heuer-
man in the pivot, and 7-2 sophomore Jon
Antonides backing him up) and a little
stronger rebounding at the forward
positions (to be. manned by Garner, 6-7
junior Ike Person, 6-6 sophomore M. C.
Burton, 6-8 junior Leo Brown, and/or 6-
8 freshman Willis "Stretch" Carter) so
our board totals will increase. With
Eric Turner at guard, we will definitely
increase the quickness of our backcourt
and allow for both a fast-breaking and
disciplined basketball team."
Helping Turner out in the backcourt
will be 6-5 junior Joe James, who
played more minutes last season than
any other returning guard, 6-1
playmaking sophomore Dan
Pelekoudas, 6-7 guard-forward Dean
Hopson, a sophomore from Ann Arbor
Huron, and 6-4 freshman Leslie
Rockymore, a sharpshooter from
Detroit Southwestern who may also see
some action in the frontcourt. Also on
hand is 6-3 frosh Greg Washington from
Detroit Western. Washington, who is
strong enough to play forward, will join
the hoop team only after the football
season has ended, as he comes to Ann
Arbor to play that sport, as well.
"Because there are so many new
faces in the lineup, there will be much
healthy competition for playing slots,"
continued the coach. "These men know
there is floor time to be had, and each
has a shot at that time. Also, our attack
will be more balanced than last year-a
little more by consequence than design,
but more balanced, nonetheless."
Thus the 1981-82 Michigan basketball
team will sport many newcomers who
will have to fill large vacancies left by
their predecessors. With so much
youth, however, the team has great
future potential. It should be an in-
teresting season.
1980-81 Basketball Statistics
G-S FG-FGA
McGee* ..........30-30 309-600
Johnson* .........30-30 195-351
Garner ...........30-30 120-233
Heuerman*.......30-30 79-161
Bodnar, Mt*. 30-22 89-164
McCormick ....30-0 54-106
Bodnar, Mk*. 27-8 31-65
Burton...... . 18-0 13-30
James ..........23-0 17-40
Person..........28-0 13-36
Hopson ........... 14-0 4-22
Pelekoudas..... ...18-0 5-9
Antonides........12-0 3-4
Brown............12-0 2-7
MICHIGAN .........30 934-1828
Opponents.........30 874-1716
x-Includes Team Rebounds
Pet. FT-FTA Pct. REB-AVG A STL
.515 114-169 .675 118-3.9 35 46
.556 42-54 .778 109-3.6 105 39
.515 64-88 .727 167-5.6 76 44
.491 76-93 .813 156-5.2 62 25
.543 30-39 .769 64-2.1 94 23
.5091 47-60 .783 106-3.5 14 3
.477 15-19 .789 17-0.6 55 8
.433 4-12 .333 20-1.1 2 1
.425 3-5 .600 23-1.0 8 2
.361 8-11 .727 40-1.4 11 1
.182 7-11 .636 10-0.7 2 1
.556 4-10 .400 4-0.2 5 3
.750 2-6 .333 7-0.6 0 0
.286 0-1 .000 9-0.8 0 0
.511 416-578 .720 950-31.7 469 196
.509 371-537 .691 969-32.3 452' 127
PF-D
89-5
47-0
81-3
98-6
64-0
83-2
25-0
17-0
14-0
18-0
8-
8-17-0
9-0
7-0
577-16
556-13
AVG
24.4
14.4
10.1
7.8
6.9
5.2
2.9
1.7'
1.6
1.2
1.1
0.8
0.7
0.3
76.1
70.6
BLOCKED SHOTS: McCormick 14; Garner 9; Heuerman 8; Johnson 6; Burton 3.
Totals: Michigan 44, Opponents 72
DEADBALL REBOUNDS: Michigan 73, Opponents 72
RECORD: (19-11); Home (12-4), Away (5-7), Neutral (2-0); Big Ten (8-10)
*(Asterisk denotes those players not returning in 1981-82.)
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McCormick
... now the big man
cluding a 74-70 home loss to North-
western, the conference's perennial
doormat.
The losing streak was finally snapped
at home against Minnesota, in a game
in which Mike McGee became the Big
Ten's all-time career scorer with a 36-
point effort. Leading everybody in
scoring was nothing new to McGee. The
speedy 6-5 forward from Omaha, who
led Michigan in scoring for each of his
four years in Ann Arbor, was the top
point-producer in 26 of the cagers' 30
games last season, a fact which helped
him receive the Bill Buntin Award for
the team's Most Valuable Player.
A LOSS TO Purdue on the last game
of the regular season erased any chan-
ce that the cagers-who finished seven-
th in the Big Ten with an 8-10 conferen-
ce mark-previously had at an NCAA
tournament berth. The National In-
vitation Tournament did give Michigan
a bid for the second year in a row,
however.
The Wolverines had little trouble
eliminating their first two NIT op-
ponents, Duquesne (74-58) and Toledo
(80-68), whom they faced in the familiar
confines of Crisler Arena.
Syracuse, where the Blue cagers
faced the Orangemen in the semifinal
round, was not nearly so friendly.
Syracuse found enough holes in the
Wolverine defense to hit its first 16
shots from the field in the second half
on its way to a 71% field goal percen-
tage for the game and a 91-76 victory
over the Blue visitors, who finally en-
ded up their own season with 19 wins
and 11 losses.
ALL IN ALL, said Frieder, "it was a
good season." The question that
t
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* secret Ad mirer
Sports Information Photo
THAD GARNER, THE Wolverine hoopsters lone returning starter from
1980-81, will be relied upon heavily for increased scoring and rebounding
over his 10.1 and 5.6 per game averages of a year ago, as coach Bill Frieder
must rebuild from youth.
1980-81 Big Ten
Basketball
Standings
Conference Overall
Indiana .........
Iowa ............
Illinois ..........
Purdue ........
Minnesota .......
Ohio State .:.....
MICHIGAN .....
lichigan State ..
Wisconsin .......
Northwestern ...
W
14
13
12
10
9
9
8
7
5
3
L
4
5-
6
8
9
9
10
11
13
15
W
21
21
20
18
17
14
17
13
11
9
L
9
6
7
9
10
13
10
14
15
18
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