THIS DUD'S FOR YOU{ By BUDDY MOOREHOUSE Turningpoint for cgers .. NCAA bid on the line '.4 4 Just by looking at the statistics, it seems obvious that Michigan should have won the game. The Wolverines took a whopping 17 more shots from the floor than Michigan State, 57 to 40, outrebounded the Spartans, 23 to 15, and committed fewer turnovers, 22 to 19. The numbers never lie. It should have been a Wolverine victory, right? .Wrong. As coaches are so fond of saying, "Stats are for losers," and in this case it couldn't be more true. It doesn't matter how many shots you take from the floor if you can't put the ball in the basket. Michigan only connected on 30 of its 57 attempts, for a paltry 53 percent. MSU, on the other hand, made 63 percent of its field goal tries. :And it also doesn't matter how many turnovers the other guys make if you cai't capitalize on them. Time after time in last Saturday's 70-66 Michigan loss, ithe Spartans would turn the ball over to the Wolverines, whereas Michigan would respond with a turnover of its own. And don't think that the Wolverines fell to two games behind the leaders in the Big Ten because Michigan State played a stellar game. They didn't. True, Spartan guard Kevin Smith had a spectacular day offensively, scoring a career-high 28 points. But Smith also committed six of his team's tur- nbvers, and played his usual shoddy defense. And any time a team turns the ball over 22 times, it can hardly be called a good effort. 1 Why, then, did the Wolverines lose? The most obvious reason is their lack of offensive production. "Our problems today were on offense," Blue coach Bill Frieder astutely remarked after the game. "We weren't patient enough ea ly, and it really hurt us." Deficiency at center but another, more glaring reason, is the total lack of dominance at the center position. Paul Heuerman, the starting pivot man, had probably his } worst game of the year against the Spartans. The senior from Akron finished with one point, two rebounds, three turnovers, and five personal fouls in 23 minutes of play, hardly dominating statistics. His replacement, freshman Tim McCormick, fared only slightly better, ending up with six points and three rebounds in 24 minutes. In a game against one of the shorter teams in the league, Michigan's cen- ter should have been much more effective. MSU starts 6-8 Jay Vincent in the pivot, along with Heuerman one of the shortest starting centers in the league. So what could have been a field day for Heuerman and McCormick turned out to be a disaster. Obviously, that can't continue if Michigan hopes to bounce back from its two straight losses. So what looked like a sure NCAA tournament bid only a week ago has become considerably more doubtful. And it doesn't look to be getting any easier for Frieder's cagers with road games at Illinois; Iowa and Indiana in the next two weeks. The Wolverines are going to need a win in one of those contests, plus a sweep of their remaining home contests against North- western, Minnesota and Purdue if they are to be assured of a NCAA bid. Anything less, and it could be another trip to the NIT for Michigan. But even though it looks like an uphill battle for the Blue cagers, don't make reservations for Madison Square Garden just yet. The Wolverines have already beaten Illinois and Indiana, and with a little luck, they could overcome the screaming crowds in Champaign and Bloomington and come away with a win in one of those games. And although Iowa blew the Blue away in Ann Arbor earlier this year, the Hawkeyes have been playing less- than-spectacular basketball on their home court this year, as evidenced by losses to Ohio State and Minnesota. "It would have really helped us if we could have won this game," said Frieder after the East Lansing fiasco. "Now we'll have to pick up another win that weanormally wouldn't have gotten." No. iV CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Senior Jeff Lamp and sophomore Ralph Sampson led a 36-5 run in the first half that gave top-ranked Virginia a 40-11 lead and the Cavaliers clinched a tie for the Atlantic Coast Conference regular- season title last night with an 83-42 rout of Georgia Tech's Yellow Jackets. Lamp finished with 19 points, Sam- pson with 15- and junior guard Jeff Jones with a season-high 12 as the Cavaliers, 23-0 overall and 12-0 in the ACC with two league games left, exten- ded the nation's longest winning streak to 28. THE CAVALIERS converted six of the seven turnovers into baskets, scored 14 points in a row for an 18-6 lead and outscored Georgia Tech 36-5 over a 12 -minute span. By halftime it was 48-15, and the Cavaliers scored the first five points af- ter intermission to make it 53-15. Several times in the second half, Virginia was up by 43 points, the first time at 71-28 with 9:03 left. Howe honored HARTFORD (AP) - Gordie Howe soon adds another footnote to his long and memorable National Hockey League career this week, when a sec- ond team retires his numer. "Yeah, I dreamed about it. It means a great deal," Howe said. THE TEAM performing the honors this time around is the Hartford Whalers, the team the 52-year-old Howe played for until his second retirement in 1980. The Wednesday evening ceremonies AIP Top Twenty 1. Virginia (45).......22-0 1,184 2. Oregon St. (14) ..... 21-0 1,130 3. DePaul ............. 22-1 1,059 4. Louisiana St. (1) .... 23-1 1,047 5. Wake Forest.......21-2 947 6. UCLA............16-4 836 7, Arizona St.........19-3 755 8. Tennessee..........18-4 693 9. Utah .............. 21-2 645 10. Kentucky .... I ..... 18-4 631 11. Notre Dame ........ 18-4 591 12. Iowa ............... 17-4 575 13. North Carolina ..... 19-6 549 14. Wichita St.......... 19-2 385 15. Illinois ............. 16-5 347 16. Indiana.......... 16-8 243 17. Brigham Young.... 18-5 175 18. MICHIGAN ........ 16-5 113 19. Lamar...... ....20-2 91 20. Maryland..........16-7 71 are part of an official Gordie Howe Week declared in Connecticut by Gov. Bill O'Neill for Feb. 16-20. When he retired for the first time in 1971 after 25 years with the Detroit Red Wings, Howe's No. 9 was retired in Detroit. BUT TWO YEARS after that retirement, Howe decided to make a comeback and joined his two sons, Mar- ty and Mark, with the Houston Aeros of the defunct World Hockey Association. In 1977, he and his sons signed with the Whalers, a WHA team at that time which was added to the NHL in 1979 when the WHA folded. On Wednesday, Howe's number will be officially retired and raised to the rafters at the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum. The Whalers will be at home that night to play the Winnipeg Jets. Howe holds several NHL records, in- cluding: most seasons, 26; most games, 1,767; most goals, 801; most assists, 1,049; and most points, 1,805. UCLA player booted LOS ANGELES (AP) - Freshman center Kenny Fields, who came to UCLA as one of the nation's most highly regarded young players and im- mediately became a- Bruins' starter, has been dropped from the squad, UCLA basketball Coach Larry Brown announced yesterday. Fields, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound prep All- American out of Verbum Dei High in Los Angeles, averaged 10.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for the currently sixth-ranked Bruins. Fields had an unexcused absence from a Bruin practice two weeks ago, when he reportedly wanted to take some time off to think about his future. There was no indication of what led to Brown's decision to drop him from the team, however. The Michigan Daily-Tuesday, February 17, 1981-Page 9 SPOR TS OF THE DAIL Y . . . irginia rolls along, 81-64 Fields will retain his UCLA scholar- ship, the school announced. Brkovich hurt EAST LANSING (UPI) - The price was high but Michigan State's weekend victory over Michigan could give the Spartans a needed lift heading into the last three weeks of the Big Ten season. "But it was a costly win," Heathcote said. "We lost senior guard Mike Brkovich for at least a week, and possibly the season, with a pulled ligament in his right ankle. "Hopefully we'll be able to get him back for the last two games, at least. Right now his foot is in a cast. It won't be removed until next Monday." FEBRUARY 17, 18 & 19 INTERVIEWS: CAREER PLANNING & PLACEMENT FEBRUARY 17 & 18 INFORMATION TABLE MICHIGAN UNION DETROIT 313-226-7928 I I IM BULLETIN Worried about the possible reduction in financing of recreational sports? There is a forum on which your views can be expressed. There is an open meeting to discuss the proposed budget cuts in recreational sports. Anyone in- terested should report to the Anderson oom of the Michigan Union tonight, February 17, between 5-7 p.m. Schuss Miountain has gone MAD for MARCH 1/2off on. ANN ARBOR'S LONGEST HOUR OLDEST PIZZERIA Finest Pasta Dishes Open for Lunch Dinners until 1:00 A.M. Cottage INN OR ed Sa/. FOR SANDWICHES " PIZZA l- All U_ 1br!iNU_ LODGING Fast Track romf condos & 'LIFT TICKETS VLESSONS KWRENTAL EQUIPMENT L{ ESKI PACKAGES {ALL OF THE ABOVE to Responsibility One of the many things young engineers at Alcoa do is to oversee plant systems and make sure they operate properly, at optimum efficiency. The employees above are checking the controls of a D.C. motor drive. This is a lot of responsibility for an entry- level engineer. It's a lot of Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Industrial Engineers, R&D, Safety Alcoa Campus Recruitment March 6 Contact University Placement Office for available interview times I I