The Michigan Daily-Thursday, September 9, 1982-Page 7-D Youth Movement Frosh improve cagers' outlook By JOHN KERR On March 7, 1982, it was, mercift over. The worst Michigan basket season in 22 years came to an following the Wolverines' 53-52 los Notre Dame in the Silverdome. It- an embarrassing season for a o proud basketball school. Only six y earlier Michigan had been in the N( finals, and just five seasons before Associated Press ranked Wolverines number one in the count: But for a coach whose team comp a meager 7-20 record last y Michilgan's Bill Frieder is confic that he can lead Michigan back to top even quicker than it came crasl down. "I think a realistic. goal (for 1982-83 season) is to have a win season and to get back into a f season tournament," Frieder said.. NOW, TO THE uneducated obseri @at may seem to be just an optimi fantasy of a coach who wants to k his job. But nothing could be furt from the, truth, and the reasor Michigan's recruiting class. The Wolverines' incoming freshi clasp, Richard Rellford of Rivi Beah, Fla., Butch Wade of Bos Paul Jokisch of Birmingham Brot Rice, Robert Henderson from Lan: Easern, and Roy Tarpley from De Cooley, is thought to be one of the to Wt 'the top, group of recruits in coubjtry. The 6-6 Rellford was sideed one of the best high scl 1982 Bask G-s FG-FGA players in the country, while forward one, not even Frieder, has any idea how lly, Henderson, 6-8, earned All-Americn these recruits will actually perform un- tball honors as well as being voted the best til they take the floor in Crisler Arena end senior player in the state of Michigan for the first Michigan practice. But one is to last season, and Wade, a 6-7 forward, thing that will surely speed up their was was the number one player in transition from high school to major nce- Massachusetts during his senior year. college basketball is the fact that 'ears Jokish, a 6-8 forward, earned All-State Frieder expects them to see a lot of CAA and All-American honors in high school playing time. the and the 6-10 forward-center Tarpley "I DO EXPECT that some or .all of the was All-State while grabbing over 20 them are going to contribute im- ry. rebounds a game. mediately-a couple of them probably piled But before you order your tickets for will start," he admitted. "But what ear, the NCAA tournament, consider this: they're really going to give us is the size dent While Frieder feels the Wolverines will and depth and the competition that we the show a vast improvement next season so badly need in the front line. We just Ching and that he has the foundation for a have not had that." the great team, he knows that it will take at Indeed, the competition for starting ning least a year for Michigan to really spots between the five freshmen and ost- become a contender and he cautions seven returnees will most likely be fier- those who expect otherwise. ce, to say the least. About the only sure "MY ONLY CONCERN is the expec- starter is Michigan's outstanding ver, tation from people immediately guard, sophomore Eric Turner. After a stic because these guys (the freshmen) slow start last season, Turner came on :eep might not be able to do it overnight," to earn second-team All-Big Ten ther the Wolverine coach said. "They might honors while averaging 14.7 points and n is not turn the program around their -4.5 assists per game. Turner was also freshman year. , the floor leader for the young Michigan man "However, I feel very strongly that team and scored 28 points in the era two or three or maybe all of those five Wolverines' 68-58 upset over Iowa. And ton, incoming freshmen are going to be next season, Frieder expects quite a bit ther great players as time goes on. So we from the Flint native. sing will give them a little time to come in "He should be a tremendous player," troit and mature, develop, and learn the Frieder said. "He's got to do p, if system. I think with time they're going everything. He's got to set it up, pass, the to be the foundation for some future run the offense, and score-he has to do con- great Michigan basketball teams." it all." hool However, as with all freshmen, no OTHER PLAYERS FROM last year's team that are expected to help the Wolverines include junior guard Dan Pelekoudas (5.3 points, 3.9 assists PCT FT-FTA PCT REB-AVG. A STL AVG. per game), 6-7 forward Ike Person (9.8 .475 72-113 ,637 57-2.1 120 38 14.7 points, 6.5 rebounds a game), 6-7 for- .474 74-102 .725 180-6.7 58 39 14.0 ward Dean Hopson (4.8 ppg), guard .504 38-53 .717 176-6.5 33 t5 9.8 Leslie Rockymore (7.5 ppg), 6-8 for- .437 29-38 .763 77-2.9 17 6 7.5 ward Leo Brown (0.3 .p) and two big .467 32-41 .780 37.-1.4 105 28 5.3 wppgag .505 19-46 .413 93-3.4 20 8 4.8 men, 7-foot Jon Antonides and Tim Mc- .408 8-18 .444 53-2.0 3 2 3.3 Cormick, who were out all last year .750 0-0 - 1-0.1 1 2 0.6 with injuries. .400 0-0 - 3-0.3 0 0 0.4 .500 0~ .000 4.0.3 0 0 0.3 However, McCormick is still a .442 8-11 .727 19-1.9 5 3 5.4 question mark. The 6-11 junior from 89 Clarkston was red-shirted last season .471 280-423 .662 789-29.2* 362 141 61.9 as he was recuperating from two knee .503 365-546 ,.668. 874-32.4* 183 128 67.0 operations. It was expected that he 4 would be at full strength and ready to 3, Hopson 3, Carter 2, Pelekoudas I. Hall 1. Brown 1. play this season, but Frieder still has doubts. ral (0-2); Big Ten (6-12) "I'll be honest-I don't know if he'll n 1981-82. play again or not because it concerns me that he's not ready and playing 100 percent now because he's been off basketball for 15 months," Frieder said. "I'll guess we're going to just have to wait and see." TWO OTHER RETURNING players have good shots at a starting position. Pelekoudas, who started 23'games last year, is "going to play" according to Frieder, but needs to improve his shooting, while Person, who started all 27 games last season, has a good shot at a starting position if he can keep him- self in shape over the summer. Person played the center position last season but will be a forward this year. Antonides, who has fully recovered from the groin injury that caused him to miss last year, probably won't start but "is going to contribute," according to Frieder. Rockymore, Brown, and Hopson will most likely come in off the bench. Michigan will be a fairly big, young, and inexperienced team next season and the Wolverines will almost definitely improve markedly on their 7- 20 mark of last year. And if Frieder has his way, next year, the Michigan basketball season won't end in the first week of March. It will continue until the Wolverines are eliminated from a post-season tour- nament. Big Ten Standings Minnesota........ Iowa .............. Ohio State........ indiana ......... purdue ............. Illinois ............. michigan State,.... MICHIGAN........ Northwestern..... Wisconsin .......... Conf. W I 14 4 12 6 12 6 12 6 11 7 10 8 6 12 6 12 4 14 3 15 Overall W L 22 5 20 7 21 9 18 9 14 13 17 11 11 17 7 19 8 19 6 20 Daily Photo by BRIAN MASCK Tur'ner ................ GARNER ............. Peibn .............. R6e&ymore .......... Pelekoudes ............ opson ............ arIr ................. 'Rud .............. Ball s ............... Brown............. Others............ Team............... 27-27 163-343 27-27 152-321 27-27 113-224 27-9. 87-199 27.23 56-120 27-16 55-109 27-2 40-98 10-0 3-4 10-0 2-5 140 2-4 10-4 23-52 N MICHIGAN'S IKE Person (above) goes up for an easy two against Ohio State last year. Eric Turner MICIVGAN............ 27 696-1479 OPPONENTS.......... 27 722-1435 *lncludes Team Rebounds DeadIball Rebounds: Michigan 73; Opponents 8 Blocked Shots: Person 18, GARNER 9, Tzurner3 Totals: Michigan 38, Opponents 56. Recod: (7-20): Home (5-8), Away (2-10). Neutr ALL CAPITALS denote players not returning i (left) uses his drive around Wisconsin. blazing quickness to his opponent from ~1 If women hoopsters are to -contend for conference title, Dietz must be replaced By LARRY MISHKIN There's a good chance that the glory days of Big Ten basketball will return to Crisler Arena this year with a conference title and an NCAA bid a real possibility. The team that will be in contention for these honors is the women's basketball team, who, led by coach Gloria Soluk, is coming off its best season ever, 17-9, and could improve even more this season. LAST SEASON SAW the Wolverines become one of the most improved teams in the conference. A team that had come under constant criticism for the past few years, became a contender and despite an early exit from the Big Ten tournament, the Wolverines served notice to the rest of the league that they are an up and coming team and will be legitimate conferen- ce power instead of the conference doormat; a role that they had assumed for so long. Despite last year's success, though, there are some who feel that the women will have to prove them- selves again this year because of the graduation of all-time leading scorer Diane Dietz who has been the catalyst of the team for the last four years. In con- tributing to Michigan's success last year, Dietz had an outstanding season in which. she led the team in scoring for the fourth straight year, became the all- time leading scorer in the team's history, and became only the third player in Michigan history to reach the 2,000 point plateau, placing her third on Michigan's all-time scoring list behind male cagers Mike McGee and Cazzie Russell. WHAT WILL THE loss of Dietz mean to the team? "Diane had a phenomenal year," said Soluk. "It is very hard to determine what losing her will mean. I'll know after the opening game. Diane was a great game player, a heady kid. It will depend on how well the freshmen fare. I'm very positive, though, because we're bringing back four nucleus players from last year's team." The players referred to by Soluk are Peg Harte, Lori Gnatkowski, Terri Soullier and Connie Doutt. Of the four, Harte will be the one who will be expected to fill Dietz's shoes. All Harte did last year, as a fresh- man, was break the Michigan record for points scored by a freshman (552) and battle Dietz for the team scoring title, losing out by .4 points, 21.6-21.2. "PEG WILL LEARN finesse," said Soluk, "and that will make her a double threat. The kids will look to Peg more because Diane is gone." Complementing the returning starters will be a fine group of incoming freshmen who will provide the Wolverines with the height that they lacked last year. The group includes Connie Tudor (6-3) from Washington Courthouse, Ohio, Amy Rembise (6-1112) from Walled Lake, Sandy Svobda (6 11/2) from Center High, Wendy Bradetich (6-0) from Eugene, Ore., Carolyn Henry (6-0) from Battle Creek and Orethia Lilly (5-8) from Cleveland, Ohio. "My main thrust was for big kids," said Soluk who will need a replacement for 6-4 center Patrice Donovan. "Any of the big kids will have a tremendous opportunity to play right away. Orethia could also play right away but nothing is guaranteed. Everyone has to earn a starting position." WITH THIS ADDED height, the Wolverines will change their strategies a bit on both offense and defense. "All of our big kids are tough," said Soluk. "We won't block as many shots, but we'll work on keeping the other kid out. We'll be strong and big and we'll be going with strength to keep them from getting the ball." Michigan's problems on offense last year stemmed from the Wolverines' inability to get the ball inside, resulting in too many shots from the outside. "We couldn't go inside," said Soluk. "We were shooting 20 footers and not getting good shot selec- tion. Our game plan was to shoot twice as many shots as our opponents. This year the emphasis will be on getting the ball inside and continuing to run our fast break." Daily Photo by JEFF SCHRIER IICHIGAN'S PEG Harte finds herself double-teamed in a game against orthwesterp. Harte averaged 21.2 points as a freshman last year. With the graduation of all-time leading scorer Diane Dietz, the team will now look to Harte even more, according to head coach Gloria Soluk. "v, ;... vv v, v, ". ": 1:'".":. 4. .ht_.. V :". ".t ti ":: v::nv:t ........ f v. :.. "v:{: ":::. .. k ..... .... v:::v :" ::::::::. ..............: v:..... _::.v::: "::.:,......:::.;:"ii'"iX Ti? 3it::::::4::":::. :. iii:4:Li::": i:J: i:i"::"}:j:"iiii?}ii>:"..... "" . "h Kv w V ". vV. '". \. . ~ :. .. ..;c .. L 'i w.. \ ... . 4". ..... . ' . ".. ' , . w. ac:, . A 2,'2r." tib' ' ^. \ 4 e. ..;.....E ,. tik.,. ' . .4±,...::;;.;,v:...k ,...,...a"'"...w.>^ ...w.?,..a..:....".....,......a...... ., ........................ ...,............................................................;.;c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... . . . . . ...... . . . Michigan a synchro i swimmers By RICHARD DEMAK One of the finest Michigan synchronized swim teams in history concluded its season with a third-place finish at the AIAW National meet in Columbus. Ignoring an administrative miracle, it was the last Michigan varsity syn- chronized swim meet ever. As a result of disputes between the AIAW and the NCAA, the Wolverine synchronized swim- mers lost their varsity status after eight years of varsity competition. The complicated situation is briefly this: synchronized swim- Michigan's total of 77.5 points placed it 20.5 back of national champion Ohio State and 15.5 behind Arizona, and well ahead of fourth-place Millersville State's total of 47. Three Wolverines were named All- American-Betsy Neira, Cathy O'Brien, and Erin O'Shaughnessy-on this team, which may be the best Blue squad ever. "We have a very talented team, probably the best we've ever had and they're improving," said Coach Joyce Lindeman. Yet even this past year's outstanding petition. Lindeman said, "If our 'B' team can take third, we'll tie. I expect our 'A' team to take second." The team event results: Ohio State "A," first; Michigan "A," second; and Ohio State "B," third. Michigan "B" finished fourth. While the Wolverines could never dethrone the Buckeyes, the Michigan performance at the Nationals in Columbus was impressive, buoyed by the three All-American performers: Neira, O'Brien, and O'Shaughnessy, who placed third in the trio with a score of 57.0. The duet of Neira Sandy Dale. THIS YEAR'S TEAM promised to improve upon even last season's commendable perfor- mance, as none of the swimmers have graduated. It was also hoped that freshmen recruits could contribute to this year's team. Coach Mary Jo Ruggieri of Ohio State: "Not only will Michigan not be able to add any scholarships, but it will put a much greater demand on Coach Lindeman's time. She won't have as much time available to work with the team. Also, the team will only be able to go to L