Page 10 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 6, 1986
I
THE SPORTING VIEWS
By CHRISTIAN M. MARTIN
Now that the NBA season is almost three-quarters
over and the playoffs seem right around the corner,
one would hope that we would have some answers
about the league and its workings. Instead, all we are
left with are a lot of unanswered questions.
*Is the New York Knicks' Hubie Brown really the
best bench coach in the NBA?
'Is Brown always jinxed by drug problems and in-
juries because he rides his players hard during the
season until they are worn down or need a break half-
way through? Witness Bill Cartwright, John Drew,
Eddie Johnson, and Bernard King as examples.
*Why doesn't John Long play?
*Could Ralph Sampson be a dominating center if he
wasn't forced to play power forward?
-Is there anything more annoying than a Celtic fan?
*Why does the league force teams to take back two-
time drug offenders when it is obvious that their
physical presence is more of a detriment than an ad-
vantage? Observe Michael Ray
Richardson and "San" Quintin
Dailey.
*Are the Lakers still the best
team ever?
*Are stress fractures the most
dibilitating of all NBA injuries,
given the fates of Bill Cartwright,
Michael Jordan, Andrew Toney
and Darrel Griffith?
*Why do the Warriors have the
worst record in the NBAwhen they
have one of the most talented
teams?
eGiven George Gervin's recent
play in Chicago are they still
calling him Snowman, or is he the N
Iceman again?
*Will Dick Motta ever be able to
win at Dallas, or is he still just a
"decent big man away," after five
years of saying the same thing?
e Will Red Aurebach insure the
Celtics' bright future for another . .. Hubi
NBA's questions ...
. . . still unanswered
ten years by getting into the draft lottery with the
Sonics pick and grabbing Walter Berry or Kenny Wal.-\
ker?
-Has anyone bothered to tell Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
he should be in the twilight of his career instead of
scoring 24 points a game?
-For the last two years have the Knicks served us
anything except an NBA showcase for players who
couldn't make a CBA roster? Just look at Bob Thorton,
Ron Cavanall, and Eddie Lee Willkins as proof.
eIs Detlef Schrempf still the next Larry Bird?
-Will Bill Wennington or Uwe Blab ever develop?
-What ever happened to Kenny Green and
Alfrederick Hughes?
-What ever happened to the 1985 draft, supposedly
the best ever?
-Could the best trade of the season have been Terry
Tyler for an option to switch first round picks with
Sacremento?
'Wasn't San Antonio supposed to
be washed up this year?
' What would Don Nelson be able
to do if he didn't have to play Ran-
dy Breuer, Alton Lister and Paul
Mokeski in the pivot?
Are the NBA "superscouts"
still predicting Roy Tarpley and
John Salley to go one-two in the
NBA draft?
' Do the best players in the NBA
really come from the basketball
factories or do they come from the
Indiana States and high schools of
Maryland?
o
Hoosiers destroy State
EAST LANSING (UPI) - All-Big
Ten guard Steve Alford and freshman
_ Rick Calloway combined for 49 points
last night and Indiana defused
Michigan State, 97-79, with defense to
set up a Saturday showdown for the
Big Ten title with defending champion
Michigan.
The Hoosiers, a half-game ahead of
the Wolverines, fashioned a 48-35 half-
time lead and the Spartans could
never get inside eight in the second
- half.
ALL-BIG TEN choice Scott Skiles
became Michigan State's all-time -
leading scorer with a game-high 33
points but played the second half with
a pulled muscle in his left side that
limited him to 12 points.
Michigan State cut the lead to 73-65
with 5:58 left but Skiles slipped on his
next trip down the floor, lost the ball
and gave Alford an easy layup.
The 14th-rated Hoosiers, 21-6
overall and 13-4 in the Big Ten, made
10 straight free throws after the 18th-
rated Spartans again shaved their
lead to eight, 81-73, with 3:23 left.
ALFORD HAD 31 points and the
willowy Calloway 18 while Daryl
35 - Thomas added 14 and Andre Harris
10.
Darryl Johnson scored 15 points for
,. Michigan State, 20-7 overall and 11-6
s;in the league. Ralph Walker had 14 for
the Spartans.
Indiana really won it in a 6:15 stret-
ch of the first half when it held
Michigan.State without a field goals
going from a 13-10 deficit to a 29-16
lead.
ALFORD HAD 11 points and
Calloway six in the 19-3 Indiana spurt
Associated Press that led to the Hoosiers snapping a
Andre Harris grabs a rebound over a dumbfounded Larry Polec. Indiana four-game losing streak against the
dominated all the way winning 97-79. Spartans.
Calloway and Harris scored on
several high feeds inside the Michigan
State defense and controlled the of
fensive boards in the first half.
Who knows? Maybe in the last
fourth of the season, the playoffs,
the draft, or maybe during the off-
- season hiring and firing period for
coaches we will be able to find the
hnlsonanswers to some of those
e's victim questions.
Shockers fire coach
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Wichita
State basketball coach Gene Smithson
and his staff were fired yesterday in
the wake of a 14-14 season, a duplicate
of Smithson's career worst.
Smithson, 47, came to WSU in 1978
and recorded a 14-14 year his first
season, which was his lowest win-loss
percentage in his career as a head
coach.
The Shockers finished their 1985-
1986 season with a 78-70 loss Monday
to Illinois State in the first round of the
Missouri Valley Conference post-
season tournament in Tulsa.
At an afternoon press conference,
WSU Athletic Director Lew Perkins
said the firing of Smithson was
"probably one of the most difficult
professional decisions I've had to
make in my life."
He said he became concerned abou
a decline in the basketball program
last year and became convinced as
this season wore on something had to
be done.
Perkins said he decided to opt for a
new coach because players were
leaving the basketball program at an
unacceptable rate, home-game atten-
dance was down and there was apathy
in the program and among fans and
the media.
Gophers look for coach
MINNEAPOLIS (UPI) - The
University of Minnesota yesterday
named a five-member search com-
mittee to select a new men's basket-
ball coach to replace Jim Dutcher,
who resigned in the wake of the
arrests of three players.
Frank Wilderson, vice president for
student affairs, appointed the com-
mittee, which will begin accepting
applications immediately until March
24.
Dutcher resigned after 10 1-2
seasons following the arrests of Mitch
Lee, Kevin Smith and George
Williams for allegedly raping an 18-
year-old Madison, Wis., woman Jan.
24. The three are charged with 12
counts of sexual assault and are
scheduled to stand trial May 5.
Clinton Hewitt, associate vice
president for physical planning at th
university, will chair the committee.
Other members include men's
athletic director Paul Giel, university
adminstrator Richard Heydinger, law
school dean Robert Stein, and student
representative Douglas Lahammer.
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