SPORTS -Page 9 The Michigan Daily Thursday, January 8, 1981 Top B By SCOTT M. LEWIS First in a three-part seriea Two years ago at this time, Illinois coach Lou Henson had his team riding a 12-game winning streak. The Illini overwhelmed their non-conference op- position that season and carried iofnentum into Big Ten competition, Here they won their first three games. On January 15 the Champaign squad was ranked seventh in the nation. Thn the bottom dropped out. From mid January until season's end, Illinois lost' all but four of its conference games to finish at 7-11. No NCAA Tournament, no NIT. Just frustration and unfulfilled promise for coach, player, and fan. The sad saga of the 1978-79 Illini illustrates a point which Michigan coach Bill Frieder has been making bince November: non-conference vic-, ories are not necessarily precursors of success in the Big Ten. Neither, for that mattek, are national rankings released at Christmastime or shortly thereafter. Michigan was the only Big Ten team to emerge undefeated in non- conference action, but it took only one conference game-a visit to Purdue Ifonday night-for its nine-game streak to be' snapped. Purdue, like nearly all of ig Ten the Wolverines' foes during the next few months, also has racked up an im- pressive victory total. In fact, every team in the Big Ten finished its non- conference schedule with records well above .500, including perennial door- mats Northwestern and Wisconsin and talent-starved Michigan State. Curiously, the worst records belong to Indiana (7-5) and Ohio State (5-3), two teams tabbed as the most likely to win the conference title. The Buckeyes are having trouble adjusting to the departure of Kelvin Ransey, the stan- dout point guard and offensive leader who is now making his mark in the NBA with the Portland Trailblazers. One reason for Ohio State's disap- pointing performance (it lost at home to Southern Alabama, on the road to Ken- tucky and Arizona State, and needed two overtimes to defeat West Virginia) has been the uninspired play of center Herb Williams. The 6-10 senior has shot a miserable .369 from the field through eight games and is not even listed among the conference's rebounding leaders.I Already, OSU head coach Eldon Miller has had to fend off criticism from Buckeye backers. According to teams denied 0 them, Miller is mishandling the 1980-81 team; they argue that he has given Williams too much of a free rein on of- fense. Nothing, it seems, pleases the Ohio State fan; last year Miller was too ,restrictive in his strategy, and this year he's too lax. "You can't get too concerned with that (the criticism)," the beleagured coach said. "I think our young people are a lot more mature about things which have been written and said about us. You're gonna get a bad rap on oc- casion. It's part of the game." - In defense of Miller, it should be men- tioned that all of his team's losses have come at the hands of premier teams. Arizona State and Southern Alabama are ranked 14th and 15th, respectively, and Kentucky is number four. That OSU came within two points of defea- ting the Wildcats in Lexington is a sign that the Buckeyes will be heard from often during the Big Ten season. - Indiana, too, has faced a tough lineup of opponents, even more grueling than Ohio State's. The defending conference champion has lost five games, a figure large enough to displease many folks in Bloomington. Included among the defeats was a home decision to Ken- tucky and road contests against Notre Dame and North Carolina. Coach Bobby Knight's team has also lost to Pan American and Clemson, two teams with a combined 1979-80 record of 42-18. While the 7-5 record is distur- bing to the Hoosier faithful, Knight's teams will doubtlessly be well-prepared for the rigors of the Big Ten. (Aren't they always?) Directing the Hoosier offense is sophomore guard Isiah Thomas, the 6-2 sparkplug from Chicago who finished second in assists last year with a 5.3 conference average. Thus far, Thomas is scoring at a 15.7 clip and, of course, leads the Hoosiers in assists. Most observers felt that Indiana would adjust nicely to the departure of All-American Mike Woodson, now with the New York Knicks. After all, Indiana had played most of last season without the top forward and still won the Big Ten crown. A fact often overlooked is that, of In- diana's eight losses in '79-80, all but one occurred while Woodson was sidelined with a serious back injury. This season Knight first turned to sophomore for- ward Steve Bouchie and senior Randy Wittman (who missed all of last year with an ankle injury) to fill the scoring void. So far, however, junior center Landon Turner, a hulking 6-10, 245- pounder has been more productive (13.6 ppg) than either Wittman or Bouchie. Iowa, which along with Purdue reached the Final Four in the NCAA tournament last spring, saw its hopes for a perfect non-conference season shattered by Arizona State in the Fiesta Classic last month. Coach Lute Olson's group then went out and destroyed a pair of fairly well-regarded intrastate rivals, Johnny Orr's Iowa State Cyclones and a Drake team led by last year's national scoring king, Lewis Lloyd. Senior Vince Brookins, a 6-6 forward, victor has provided much of the offense for the Hawkeyes. He averaged more than 17 points per contest during Iowa's 8-1 non-conference season. Brookins, who sparkled against Michigan last year at Crisler Arena (25 points) and again in the NCAA's, has finally earned a star- ting spot after spending most of three seasons as a top reserve. Olson, named college basketball's Coach of the Year by his colleagues and sportswriters last April, is employing a bigger lineup than in past seasons. In- stead of rotating 6-10 centers Steve Krafcisin and Steve Waite, he is leaving the two big men on the court together and, so far, the strategy has worked well. "I'll continue to play both of them together quite a bit," said the coach. "A lot depends on the tempo of the game and the size of our onnonent. Last year. K feast when we lost Mark Gannon (a 6-7, 225- pound forward) to an injury, that hurt almost as much as the loss of departed guard Ronnie Lester. We had to con- front our opponents with a couple of 6-6 forwards (Brookins and Kevin Boyle), and we gave up a lot." This season Boyle has moved to the backcourt, where he is joined by pre- season second team all-conference selection Kenny Arnold. Olson says that Arnold will remain at the point while' Boyle and Brookins perform at the wing, just as they did for-much of 1980. "I think you'll see more big guards with one primary ballhandler," said Olson. "Our wing players are iden tical-quick defensive players and good. shooters-which allows us to use the two centers together quite often." TOMORROW: Purdue, Minnesota, and Illinois. a1R Ocean Front Hotel Rooms in Lauderdale This Spring Break? Student Suntrips offers these accommodations right now! - $149/person/week Conveniently (ocated on "The Strip" For Reservation Information Call Toll Free--1800-848-9540 or call your local rep. Leiso at 764-6703 INDIANA'S LIGHTNING-QUICK Isiah Thomas (11) tries to drive past Minne- sota's Trent Tucker (32) in a Big Ten game last year. The 6-2 Thomas is the spark- plug for last year's conference champions, and he is currently averaging 15.7 points a game while leading the Hoosiers in assists. M M