Page 10. - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 20. 1986
Smokin' Spartans
4
(Continued from Page 1D'
conjuring up 26.8 pointsha game on
56.7 percent shooting. In his last eight
outings, Skiles has shot 59 percent,
averaging 31.8 points, and seven
assists. This is the guy who cast a
spell on Michigan with 40 points. "We could always have a plan that
"Never, ever have we been stum- worked and we'd do a pretty good
ped on how to stop a guy," Frieder defensive job on the guy that we wan-
said, naming past Big Ten scoring ted to stop. It's just amazing, amazing
threats his teams have contained. to me because this kid is unstop-
look t
pable."
"I don't think he's unstoppable,"
countered Heathcote. "Scott's not
going to score 40 points. Last time he
had an unbelievable shooting night."
IN THE PREVIOUS meeting, the
senior from Plymouth, Ind. connected
on 15 of 20 from the floor, and 10 of 31
from the line. Add eight assists and
that was the ball game.
Skiles, however, is not the Spartans'
only threat. Junior Darryl Johnson,
currently Big Ten player-of-the-week,
has been downright dangerous. The 6-
2 guard is shooting at a 59-percent
clip, averaging 16.6 points a game.
His last two games have been
phenomenal - 30 points against Iowa,
and 33 versus Minnesota on a com-
bined 80 percent shooting.
Thanks largely to the backcourt
pair, MSU is "the best team in the
league right now," according to
Frieder. During the. recent string of
success, the Spartans' 58.2 percent
shooting beat Illinois, 84-80 in Cham-
paign.
"THAT'S WHAT good shooting will
do for you," said Heathcote of his
team's recent tear. "It will keep you
in the game when you're not playing
well. We seem to sometimes not play
well on defense or not be sharp offen-
sively and still win because we shoot
well.
"We haven't been playing well
defensively," Heathcote added.
"We're not a good defensive club
because of deficiencies in size and
strength. Our forwards are perimeter
players. They're not tight ends like Al
McGuire called Michigan's forwar-
ds."
The size advantage inside definitely
belongs to Michigan. The Spartans
are no match for the towering trio of
Butch Wade, Richard Rellford and
Roy Tarpley. But then again, they
weren't last time either.
IN THAT CONTEST, Tarpley got
into foul trouble early and fouled out
of the game. He saw only 16 minutes
of playing time. The real surprise,
though, was that the Wolverines
outrebounded MSU by just three.
"Their rebounding has been good
considering their size disadvantage,"
Frieder said. "But again you can go
back to Skiles for that. You try to
double on him, you try to help and he
makes the pass or there's a shot and
they get an offensive rebound because
(you're) forced to help."
"It's truly amazing that in the wake
of all this adversity and negative
publicity that Scott Skiles has con-
tinued to flourish the way that he has
flourished," said Frieder in reference
to Skiles' drug-possession and drunk-
driving charges. "Hell, there's been
so much negative publicity that it
would drive a normal man to drink."
BUT KIDDING aside, Frieder has
nothing but respect for the sharp-
shooting senior's abilities on thes
court.
"He's done an absolute sensational
job and he deserves a tremendous,
tremendous amount of credit. He's
unstoppable as a basketball player."
"He's a great player," agreed
Joubert. "But we're going to make
him work harder. We're going to try
to put more pressure on him than we
did last time to see if we can change
his tempo or his pace. We have to try
to outmaneuver and outthink him."
And get up pretty early in the mor-
ning.
:o burn Blue
I
4
Doily Photo by DAN HABIB
Antoine Joubert enjoyed the Wolverines's performance in last week's victory against Iowa. The junior guard
hopes to continue the fun tonight against Michigan State.
Pistons
continue hot
streak with
118-113 win
By JIM LANTOS
Special to the Daily
4
PONTIAC-The red-hot Detroit
Pistons won their fifth consecutive
game and their record-tying tenth in
a row at home, a 118-113 victory over
the Seattle SuperSonics.
Bill Laimbeer and Kelly Tripucka
led the Pistons with 18 points apiece.
The game was played back and forth
until the third quarter when Detroit
pulled away to a 12-point lead.
THE PISTONS extended their lead
to 15 points in the fourth quarter when
a series of scuffles broke out between
the two teams. Detroit's Rick Mahorn
and Seattle's top scorer Tom Cham-
bers were ejected from the contest.
"He (Mahorn) hit me in the jaw
with a forearm, elbow, whatever,"
said Chambers. "If a guy hits me I'm
going to hit back. I have to show that
I'm no pushover, especially when it's
Rick Mahorn."
The Sonics closed the score to 114-
111 with 15 seconds to play but could
not do any more. The Pistons finished
off the Sonics by the score of 118-113.
"No one said it would be easy," said
Pistons' coach Chuck Daly. "It was
pretty ragged but we'll take the win."
The game brought the return to
Michigan of former Wolverine star
Tim McCormick who scored one point
after returning from an eye injury in
the first quarter.
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