Page 6 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 8, 1988

WINTER

'M' b-ball

steams like Rice

I

BY JEFF RUSH
Picture this: A basketball lineup
with a player who last year was "the
second best player in the country,"
three former high school All-Ameri-
cans, and a fifth player who is
sometimes the most exciting player
on the court.
You ask what team this is? The
Los Angeles Lakers? The Boston
Celtics?
Nah. It's just ol' Bill Frieder's
Michigan Wolverines, a team that
has gone to the NCAA tournament
for the past four seasons and won the
NIT the year before.
FORGET THE summer heat as
you read this - imagine yourself
slipping and sliding to Crisler Arena
on a frigid night in January looking
forward to Michigan's first home
Big Ten game. The only hot things
in Ann Arbor now are the tempers of
the two opposing coaches.
Frieder paces up and down his
side of the court, a strained look on
his face and a limp towel over his
shoulder.
"And now the starting lineup for
Michigan," intones the public ad-
dress announcer. "At forward, a 6-7
senior from Flint, Michigan, Glen
Rice."
Rice flows onto the court in the
always present liquid motion that

lulls opponents into thinking this
skinny kid can't do any harm.
ONE THUNDEROUS dunk
into the game, that notion is gone.
ym wry.:.

Though not one of the team's
high school All-Americans, Rice has
proven he can play with the best.
His 22 points per game prompted
former All-American teammate Gary
Grant to call him "the second best
player in the country."
"The guy's a great scorer," said
Iowa forward Roy Marble, who
played against Rice in high school
and college. "If you chase him for 40
minutes, that will be about as many
points as he will score at the end of
the game."
Minnesota found that out the hard
way one night at Crisler when Rice
scored 25 points in the second half
on his way to 40 for the evening.
"At the other forward, a 6-10 ju-
nior from Romulus, Michigan,
Terry Mills."
MILLS GREW up playing
basketball with Uncle John Long -
a former Detroit Piston - and
friends. It shows.
Mills seems to love to have the
ball in the open court, dribbling as
well as any big player, and doesn't
always play as close to the basket as
he might. No matter. With the past
year of starting experience, Mills
should be more consistently danger-
ous this season.
"At center, a 6-9 senior from
Grand Rapids, Michigan, Loy

i


Rice...
leads team.

Rice's vicious jams are legend in
Ann Arbor. To avoid being embar-
rassed again, Rice's opponent plays
too far back on defense and gets
burned by one of Rice's rainbow
three-pointers. His shots bring no
rain, just the wrath of the opposing
coach.

Junior Rumeal Robinson
Michigan's leading guard

JOHN MUNSUN/Daily
will step into the limelight as
this season.

Vaught."
Vaught's being voted most like-
able in high school hides his on-
court persona. Like Rice, he is a
great jumper and dunker, at times
dominating games.
A senior academically, Vaught


Cagers to scale

BY MIKE GILL
Grab a rubber ball. Spike it as hard as you can
against the cement.
How high did it go? That's how high the ex-
pectations are for the 1988-89 version of the
Michigan women's basketball team.
In the past, it's been easy to classify this
team. Youthful, immature, and inexperienced.
Now that's beginning to change.
BUD VANDEWEGE is entering his fifth
season as coach, still very young, but starting to
lose his inexperience. Now his moves should
gel, make sense and - in the end - help con-
tribute to the victories.
Then there are the "Golden Children" of Van-
DeWege's superb 1986 recruiting class. The four
players to whom everyone pointed - Tempie
Brown, Tanya Powell, Leslie Spicer, and Lisa
Reynolds - are now juniors. They don't come
with diapers and suckers. They come ready to
play.

Last year they showed great pot
carrying the team. Now they shoul
team to a new level. After two year:
age is slowly being unwrapped.
SENIOR LEADERSHIP is a
Last season, Vonnie Thompson and
ford played this role to perfection. TI
the team on the court. Basford, wh
previous years, found her playing ti
severely due to the "golden package
plaints. Just a positive attitude.
What resulted was a special teamc
never seen in years before. As they
gether off the court, the women's bas
came together on the court.
This year Mary Roskowski and f
nior Lorea Feldmen may fill those
roles.
And Carol Szezchowski is a year
ring sophomore jinx, her strong1
bring smiles to the Wolverine faithfu

new peaks
ential while THIS SEASON the Michigan's women's
Id carry the basketball team should get the respect it deserves.
s, this pack- If all goes right, this season could be a fantasy...
Picture this - and let your imagination wan-
nother key. der - Michigan wins the Big Ten champi-
Sarah Bas- onship.
hompson led Picture this: The Wolverines receive a NCAA
o started in bid.
me reduced Picture this: 13,000 jam into Crisler to watch
." No com- Iowa face Michigan.
Picture this: Bud VanDeWege's picture hang-
camaraderie, ing, not only in his father Moe's Sport Shop,
molded to- but in all of Ann Arbor, right next to where
ketball team General Bo's picture is mounted...
NOW LET'S picture a realistic scene.
ifth-year se- This year the Michigan women's basketball
leadership team should win, and it should lose - but win
more, and lose much less, than in seasons past.
r older. Bar- A top five finish in the Big Ten should be ex-
play should pected. A top two or three finish should be the

was red-shirted his first year and thus
has two seasons of eligibility re-
maining. Wolverine fans are not
complaining.
"AT GUARD, a 6-9 sopho-
more from Los Angeles, California,
Sean Higgins."
"Trigger" is what Frieder calls
him, both because of his ability and
his love of shooting the basketball,
though he's- not what you would call
a great passer.
After a well-publicized effort to
void his letter-of-intent to play at
UCLA, Higgins became an immedi-
ate outside threat for the Wolverines.
That came to a halt when his fall
term grade point was not high
enough, forcing him to sit out the
whole Big Ten season and NCAA
tournament.
The only question about Higgins
is whether he can do well' in the
classroom. His court ability leaves
no doubts.

-4

,,

"AT THE other guard, a 6-2
junior from Cambridge, Massachus-
setts, Rumeal Robinson."
Gary Grant made Michigan fans
forget Eric Turner. Robinson won't
make Michigan fans forget Grant,
but oh, how he could remove the
pain of losing him.

l.

goal.

A

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Foes wrestle with 'M' skill


BY STEVE COHEN
The Michigan wrestling team
will remember last season as the
year the team climbed up a long,
winding mountain and saw the top.
This season should be the year they
reach it.
Last year, the team started some-
what inauspiciously. The early open
tournaments didn't indicate what was
to follow. 134-pound All-American
John Fisher did, however, defeat
three-time former NCAA champ and
Olympic gold medalist Barry Davis
at the Midlands tournament in
Chicago.
GRADUATE WILL Waters,
who sat out the season before, was
ready to return early in the year. In
the past, whenever there was Will,
there was a way - Waters had fin-
ished second and third in the Big Ten
in other years.
The other late addition to the
Wolverines was 150-pound Sam
Amine. Sam, the younger brother of
167-pound Mike Amine, came to
Michigan with a 158-6 high school
record.

The insertion of Waters and
Amine in the Wolverine lineup
prompted head coach Dale Bahr to
speculate about the rest of the
Michigan season.
"We feel that we can go through
the rest of the season undefeated,"
Bahr said. "We are not going to have
a weak link in the lineup."
DESPITE Bahr's prediction,
Michigan did lose one match - to
defending NCAA champion Iowa
State in Ames, Iowa - after Waters
and Amine arrived. And the Wolver-
ines squandered a 15-8 lead to the
Iowa State Cyclones, who had
beaten them convincingly, 42-3, just
a season earlier.
"I'm proud that we went against
the defending national champs and
intimidated them," Bahr said after the
meet. "We now know we are a top
ten team."
After Iowa State, the next major
test for Michigan was the Big Ten
championship ratch in Ann Arbor.
Though Michigan fell tantalizingly
short in its bid to end Iowa's 14-year
stranglehold on the conference title,

the Wolverines did qualify eight
wrestlers to compete in the national
tournament.
Sam Amine, 126-pound Dave
Dameron, and heavyweight Bob Po-
tokar finished fourth in the confer-
ence. Waters, 142-pound Larry
Gotcher, and Mike Amine finished
third. Joe Pantaleo, at 158-pounds,
came in second, and Fisher won his
second straight Big Ten title.
WHILE THE Wolverines' per-
formance at the Big Ten tournament
was formidable, it was even more
impressive at the nationals. Four
Michigan wrestlers earned All-
American status, the most Wol-
verines since 1973.
Gotcher and Mike Amine were
the biggest surprises. Though both
were unseeded, Gotcher finished
fourth, and Amine second.
With the loss of Waters and 190-
pound Jerry Curby to graduation,
eight starters return to the team -
making Michigan the team with the
most returning points of any in the
national tournament.

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