SPORTS Men's Basketball versus Ohio State Tonight, 8 p.m. Crisler Arena Wednesday, January 18, 1984 Page 7 cagers wary of OS Us Campbell By PAUL HELGREN Poor Tony Campbell. The Buckeye's 6-7 senior forward is a thoroughbred among broken-down nags, so to speak, a great player who is forced to spend the last year of his distinguished college basketball career surrounded by mediocre frontcour- tmen. MAKE NO MISTAKE about it, mediocre is exactly what Ohio State is. The Buckeyes have lost four straight games coming into tonight's contest; three in the conference. They lost big men Joe Concheck and Alan Kortokrax because of poor grades. Their record stands at 7-6 and is slipping fast. So exactly what is Michigan coach Bill Frieder worried about? "Poor" Tony Campbell, what else. "He's probably the best forward in the league," Frieder said of Campbell, who is averaging 18.3 points per game. '"He's great around the basket. He's a good shooter and a great jumper." AND, ACCORDING to Ohio State coach Eldon Miller, Campbell plays well under adversity: the kind of ad- versity the Buckeyes have been ex- periencing this year. "We could be struggling through a three-game losing streak," the eight- year Buckeye coach said before the season, "and it won't affect Tony because the game is still there. The game remains." Miller's words .seem prophetic now. Ohio State is indeed struggling through a losingstreak. And Campbell apparen- tly has not lost a step from last season, when he made first team All-Big Ten and honorable mention All-American. BESIDES leading the team in scoring, the Teaneck, New " Jersey native is also far and away its leading rebounder with 9.5 per game. He also has a streak of 47 games in double- figure scoring. But unfortunately for the Buckeyes, Campbell has been more or less a lone warrior in the frontcourt. Lost to ineligibility are 6-9 Kortakrax and 6-8 Concheck. Center Keith Wesson, expec- ted to help on the boards, has been a bomb, averaging only 2.1 rebounds per game. The next rebounder after Cam- pbell is Dennis Hopson, a 6-5 freshman averaging 5.0 boards a game. As a team, Ohio State averages about four rebounds less than its opponents. With Michigan's tall timber up front, it's no secret that the Buckeyes will be overmatched. So they must rely on their quickness in the backcourt to pull off an upset. BUT QUICKNESS comes in the form of guards Troy Taylor (14.1 ppg) and Ron Stokes (12.1 ppg). Miller knows to salvage any respec- tability from the season, his guards must play near-perfect basketball. Case in point: when asked in November what he expects out .of his guards, Miller replied "Don't make a mistake with the ball. Don't ever let their man get by them. Get everybody involved in the offense. Don't miss any shots. And try to play harder every time they step out there." - Tall orders for a couple of guys under six feet tall. Size aside, though, Stokes and Taylor's speed presents a problem for Frieder. Only one Michigan guard, Eric Turner, can match the quickness of the dynamic duo. "WE HAVE TO stop their guards," said Frieder. "We don't have their quickness. We don't match up with their quickness. That concerns me." Frieder was still undecided how he wanted to match up against Ohio State. Though committed with Turner and Leslie Rockymore as guards, he has many options up front. It would seem he would try to exploit the Wolverines' height advantage, getting big men Tim McCormick, Roy Tarpley and Butch Wade in as much as possible. But he does not have any forward quick enough to stop Campbell. That could be a problem. Another problem could be a virus that McCormick picked up last- week. Frieder cringed when it was suggested that the virus, which causes the 6-11, 240-pound senior to tire quickly, was the cause of his poor performance against Wisconsin last Saturday. Nonetheless, a less-than-100-percent McCormick would be a boon to Ohio State, which does not have anyone to match his bulk. Virus may keep forward Tim McCormick, pictured here in 'a game against Iowa earlier this year, out of the lineup for tonight's OSU game. Camp bell ... OSU's Mr. Everything Hot Boilermakers prefer no rest CHICAGO (AP) - Purdue Coach Gene Keady said yesterday that his team could do without a week off after the Boilermakers' surprising road vic- tory at Indiana. No. 9 Purdue, which leads the Big Ten with a 4-0 record after subduing the Hoosiers 74-66 last Saturday, is idle un- til it travels to Champaign on Saturday to tip off against tenth-ranked Illinois (12-2), whose only Big Ten loss was in overtime to the Hoosiers last Thursday. "THE LONG layoff could hurt you," he said during the Big Ten's weekly telephone news conference. "When you have to get ready to play again on Thursday, you can stay sharp. I just don't like it the way it is." The Boilermakers - picked by the experts in the preseason to finish eighth or ninth - converted any doubters about their fast start in the Big Ten with their victory at Indiana, only their second win at Assembly Hall in 3 years. Among the converts is Minnesota Coach Jim Dutcher. "I guess I shouldn't, be surprised, but I am," Dutcher said. "For any team to go to Indiana and win, under any cir- cumstances, is an achievement, and Purdue did it." Rareling freling heat IOWA CITY (AP) - Iowa Coach George Raveling didn't really mean it when he said he'd "rather be dead" af- ter his basketball team lost to cross- state rival Iowa State. But the remark illustrates the frustration Raveling is enduring in his first season as the head coach at Iowa. ONCE RANKED fifth in the country, the Hawkeyes have lost three of their last four games - including a 76-72 double overtime setback at Iowa State on Saturday - and now stand 8-5 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten Conferen- ce. Raveling coached in a low-key situation at Washington State for years before joining the Hawkeyes. He said he "just wasn't prepared for the at- mosphere of the coaching job" at Iowa, where every game is televised on a statewide network and fans and news media scrutinize every move the players and coaches make. RAVELING said he realizes the Iowa fans, who have seen' their team play in the NCAA tournament five straight years, probably are growing restless. However, he said he Can take whatever they dish out. "Whatever heat we get, I'll take it," Ravelingsaid.'"I know I can coach the game of basketball, regardless of what the fans think. When my players stop believing in me and when my peers stop respecting me, I'll get- out." In his press conference following the Iowa State game, which the Hawkeyes would have won with better free throw shooting, Raveling was so disheartened that he said, "I'd almost rather be dead than disappoint someone." He later explained he felt that way because he disappointed Iowa fans who had counted on beating Iowa State, which the Hawkeyes had done for five straight years under former coach Lute Olson. AP Top Twent y Record 1. N. Carolina (62)................12-0 2. DePaul.................. ......13-0 3. Kentucky............... .....12-1 4. Houston.........................16-2 5. Texas-El Paso................15-0 6. Georgetown..,..................13-2 7. Maryland.................11-2 8. Nev.-Las Vegas........ ........14-1 9. UCLA...........................10-2 10. Illinois.........................12-2 11. Oregon S. ......................9-2 12. Wake Forest..............11-2 13. Tulsa..........................15-0 14. St. John's......................11-3 15. Louisiana St...................10-3 16. Boston College................11-3 17. Fresno St...................11-3 18. Memphis St ...............11-3 19 Purdue.......................11-3 20. Oklahoma......................13-2 I JOIN YOUR OLYMPIANS AND GO FOR JOSTENS GO.LD Bill seeks to put reins on 'M athl Continued from Page 1) day, but University Vice President for State Relations Richard Kennedy said that Kelly's proposals contained some "inconsistencies." "There is, in a sense, an inconsistency (with the proposal)," Kennedy said. "We have maintained at this University that athletics should be self-supporting. If now the legislature says, 'No, that's not what we mean, you can no longer sell to cable TV and make revenue,' then I see an inconsistency. "If they don't provide money from the general fund to make up for our lost revenue, then there is an inconsistency, yes." KELLY SAID he will submit his legislation to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it would first go through the subcommittee on education. The proposal, if approved, can not reach a full Senate vote until sometime after the governor's budget is ratified later this year. Kelly added that he was prompted to take action when several of his con- stituents complained about not being able to see Michigan basketball games 4 etie dept. on television. Kelly's district includes Detroit's east side, the Grosse Pointes and Harper Woods. "Canham asks, who the hell is John Kelly? (A reference to the athletic director's comments in yesterday's Detroit Free Press). A better question is, who are the fans and who represents their interests? . . . We can't get cable in the city of Detroit. Sports View is playing for a small group of upper- strata suburbanites. "I don't think Canham respected the people's wishes. I think he went out and cut a deal for himself. People are upset, about this. I got a lot of phone calls today." Kennedy disagreed with Kelly, poin- ting out that six Michigan basketball games will be shown on WGPR (chan- nel 62) this year. "I think there is some misunderstan- ding as to what has been the practice iin selling these rights in the past," he said. "I think the same number of games as in the past are available on commercial TV." Kennedy added that he would meet with Kelly to "discuss the situation." Kead. ... just can't wait (;o oxI $25 OFFALL 14K GOLD RINGS. See .your Josten's representative: TRACK THE WOLVERINES THRU THE BIG TEN BASKETBALL SEASON ON WPAG Cm\ m 034@ DATE Mon. Jan. 16th thru Fri. Jan. 20th TIME 11:00 am-4:00 pm - Games at the XXtttyd Oympwd Los Angeles 19" t-vt- i ! I1