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Page 4 - Wednesday, November 30, 1983 - The Michigan Daily
No let-up.
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The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, No
Turner working hard
to reach lofty goals
Coaches pre-season All-Big
By RANDY BERGER
If Eric Turner reads or listens to all
the things written or said about him, he
would have good reason to take it easy
this year. After all, when you hear
coaches and writers expound on how
you are going to lead Michigan to a high
finish in the Big.Ten or how you're an
All-American or, better yet, an Olym-
pian, it would only seem natural for a
player to become lazy and wallow in the
accolades.
Fortunately for the Michigan basket-
ball team, Turner appears to have the
attitude of a freshman fighting for the
last spot on a team.
"My approach to the game this year
is to just play hard, to go out every
game and play hard defensively and of-
fensively," said Turner. "(Being con-
sidered for All-American) is just a little
more incentive for me not to get lazy in
practice. Some people might get lazy
in that situation but for me it makes me
want to work harder and get better."
From all indications, the junior co-
captain has been working harder and
getting better.
"He's working a lot harder this
year," commented teammate Dan
Pelekoudas. "Not that he hasn't worked
hard in the past but I think after being
in the Big Ten for two years he realizes
that you have to work harder to com-
pete."
Fellow co-captain Tim McCormick
added: "Eric's going to have a great
year. He's worked hard on his game
and he's playing very well right now. I
know that he's going to answer all the
critics this year. Eric's an All-
American and he's going to come forth
and prove it to everybody this year."
However, one critic Turner is going to
have to convince that he's All-
American is his coach. All-American
guards are supposed to lead their teams
to winning records, play with con-
sistency and play good defense. Turner
hasn't proved that he's capable of doing
all of these things in Big Ten play. All-
American guards usually don't play on
teams with a combined 22-33 record
over two years, which Michigan has
compiled the last two seasons.
As far as being consistent, Turner has
- to say the least - been just the op-
posite. At times last year Turner
showed brilliancesand looked as good as
any guard in the country. At other
times he looked as if he couldn't make a
high school team.
His inconsistency was especially ap-
parent during a four-game stretch
early in the Big Ten season last year.
After being virtually unstoppable.
against Iowa, scoring a season high 32
points, in the next game (against Min-
nesota) Turner couldn't do anything
right. He shot a meager three for 13
from the field, scoring only 10 points
and committed numerous turnovers.
With such sporadic play last year, it
is no wonder that Frieder hesitates to
put Turner on any All-American team.
"He could be one of the best players in
the country, but as of right now, he's
not," said the Michigan head coach.
"He's got to prove that he can play well
game in and game out and not to have a
good game and then a bad game. I don't
know if it was the tough Big Ten
schedule or if he just couldn't get up for
every game, but he's got to be more
consistent.
"I'm hopeful he has a great year so
he's considered one of the bekt guards
in the country but right now he's not
even thebest guard in the Big Ten. He
Greg Stokes
Iowa
forward
I
Kerin Willis
Michigan State
center
Sam Vincent
Michigan State
guard
Eric Turner
Michigan
guard
kM* *kno
pred~i
In previous Tipoff magazines, the Daily basketball staff
attempted to predict the outcome of the Big Ten stan-
dings. This year, we've gone one step further. Besides our
individual predictions and the Daily con census, we 'ye ad-
ded the Big Ten Sports writers Poll, the Sports writers All-
Big Ten team, and the Coaches All-Big Ten selections to
our preseason basketball magazine.
Seven of 10 Big Ten basketball coaches participated in
the selection of an all-conference team. First-year Iowa
coach George Raveling declined to choose an honor team,
citing his unfamiliarity with the league. Indiana's Bobby
Knight and Ohio State's Eldon Miller refused to par-
ticipate.
Our panel of basketball writers included: Mark Alesia
of the Indiana Daily Student; Steve Batterson of The Daily
Iowan; Chris Deighan of The Daily Illini; Dave Dye of
The State News (Michigan State); John Hartmann of the
Minnesota Daily; Pat McGeehan of The Daily North-
western; Scott Roscovius of the Daily Cardinal (Wiscon-
sin); Ken Thompson of The Purdue Exponent; Brian
White of The Lantern (Ohio State); and the Daily basket-
ball staff.
We hope you enjoy the added information.
- Jim Dworman
and Larry Freed
Tipoff '83-84 editors
Daily Photo by JEFF SCHRIER
Iowa's Steve Carfino (left) knocks the ball away from Michigan's Eric Turner. Carfino fouled Turner on the play. The
Michigan guard went on to outscore his Iowa opponent 30-2 in a 66-60 Wolverine victory.
hasn't made first team all-league yet."
While Turner did average 19.2 points
a game last year and led the team in
assists, he knew as well as anybody that
there were still aspects of his game that
needed improvement if he was even to
be mentioned with the likes of Michael
Jordon of North Carolina or Vern
Fleming of Georgia.'
He got his chance to
measure his talents against the best in
the nation when he was one of 53
players invited to the basketball trials
for the Pan American and World
University Games. Turner ended up
playing for the bronze-medal American
team at the World Games in Alberta,
Canada but according to Turner it was
not the games but the trials which had a
more profound effect on his play.
"Just being there for a week, prac-
ticing two times a day, doing drills and
little things you can really get an idea of
where you fit in with some of the top
ball players in the country," said Tur-
ner. "I felt that I did real well there. I
really worked on my defense and when
I left I felt I was in pretty good shape."
There's no question that Turner made
his presence known to the coaches.
Norm Stewart, the head basketball
coach at Missouri, who not only
coached Turner at the World Games
but also at the National Sports Festival
after his freshman year, was impressed4
with Turner's play.
"There are a lot of good players in the.
country and Eric is certainly one of
them," commented Stewart. "He
brings the ball up court well, can get
open and is an excellent shooter.
However he still needs a better under-
standing, of the movement of the total
group and defensively he could advance
a little more especially in his concen-
tration."
Here -again, as in being named All-
American, Turner's hopes of making
the Olympic team rest upon how he
plays this season. With the addition of
Antoine Joubert and the return of Leslie
Rockymore to the lineup, Turner no
longer will have to shoulder most of the-
team's scoring responsibilities. His role
on the team will be that of a passing
guard, a strong point of his game.
"In that particular sense (as a
passer) I think I am the best point
guard in the country right now," said
the Flint native. "Passing is program-
med into my game."
Turner definitely has the statistics to
back up his words. In his freshman year
he dished out 120 assists and last year
he bettered that mark with 160, tops in
the Big Ten.
There's no doubt that Turner has
enough basketball talent to be the envy
of most college players in the country.
Yet to be an All-American or an Olym-
pian he must have a near flawless
season. Frieder sums up Turner's
situation best.
"His chances are good (of making the
Olympics and the All-American team)
if he works on -the weights, gets
stronger, plays good defense and if
Michigan has a good record. Anything
less than that, he won't make it."
All in all, there really is no reason for
Eric Turner to taketit easy this year.
Jim's Gems
1. Michigan State
2. Iowa
3. Ohio State
4. MICHIGAN
5. Indiana
6. Illinois
7. Minnesota
8. Purdue
9. Wisconsin
10. Northwestern
Freed's Follies
1. Michigan State
2. Minnesota
3. MICHIGAN
4. Iowa
5. Ohio State
6. Indiana.
7. Illinois
8. Purdue
9. Wisconsin
10. Northwestern
Paul's
Prognostications
1. Michigan State
2. Illinois
3. Iowa
4. MICHIGAN
5. Indiana .
6. Ohio State
7. Minnesota
8. Purdue
9. Wisconsin
10. Northwestern
Dailv Concensus
1. Michigan State
2. Iowa
3. MICHIGAN
4. Ohio State
5. Illinois
6. Indiana
7. Minnesota
8. Purdue
9 Wisconsin
10. Northwestern
Ran dy's Dandies
1. Iowa
2. Illinois'
3. Michigan State
4. MICHIGAN
5. Ohio State
6. Indiana
7. Minnesota
8. Purdue
9. Northwestern
10. Wisconsin
Bergida's Bets
1. Iowa
2. MICHIGAN
3. Michigan State
4. Ohio State
5. Indiana
6. Illinois
7. Purdue
8. Minnesota
9. Northwestern
10. Wisconsin
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