BASKETBALL
The Michigan Daily - SPORTSWednesday - January 8, 1997 - 7B
4fter a huge collapse, Michikan mustfind an answer now
VANSTON - It seems almost like last
Less than three weeks ago, Maurice
Taylor was answering questions about whether
this bunch of Wolverines had finally eclipsed
the legacy of the Fab Five.
Michigan had just beaten Arizona in overtime
wth Taylor stricken with such a bad case of the
, he needed an I.V the day before. Starting
point guard Travis Conlan was hobbled by a
swollen ankle.
And yet the Wolverines, about to be the No. 4
team in the nation, put away then-No. 6
Arizona, a team the Fab Five never beat.
"Now it seems like we won't have their shad-
ow hanging over us," Taylor said after the game.
"We're a different team. The comparisons were
always unfair, but now we have an identity of
our own"
*le is certainly right. After conquering Duke
- another team the Fabbers had no success
against - Michigan went on to throttle St.
John's and Louisiana State, two squads with
rich basketball traditions and respectable teams
this season.
And then, while students, faculty and staff
went on vacation, so did Michigan's talent,
desire and national respectability.
The Wolverines fell to a 4-4 Memphis team
in the opening round of the Rainbow Classic in
,waii. Then, after barely holding on to beat a
poor Washington State ballclub, they were
ripped by Pittsburgh, a 6-6 squad that wasn't
even that good.
Three days later, after returning from Hawaii,
Michigan let Ohio State, a Big Ten bottom-feed-
er, steal a conference win in Crisler Arena.
Michigan's win two days later at Northwestern
- the worst team the Wolverines will play all
season - was hardly any consolation, just an
indication that Michigan
isn't a complete flop.
In the span of 27 days,
the Wolverines went from
SportsCenter darling to
major disappointment.'
Maybe they got big
heads. Maybe they were a
little tired. Maybe they J
haven't been receiving the JOHNI
best coaching. LEROD
But what is certain is Out of
that every Wolverine for- Bounds
got how to box out. They
made bad passes. They played with defensive
lapses inexcusable in high school games.
They folded like a canvas tent on a rainy
night.
If any team can be accused of playing down
to its competition, Michigan can.
How can a team that beat Arizona lose to
Pittsburgh?
I don't know. A loss to Memphis is under-
standable. A bunch of 20-year-olds in Hawaii
coming off final exams and a big win. No team
this side of Kansas should have any realistic
expectations of running the season undefeated,
but Michigan should certainly be beating up on
these teams.
A ballclub with this much talent and any
sense of pride would have sucked it up and
destroyed both Washington State and Pittsburgh.
And after the worst appearance in Honolulu
since Elvis did Blue Hawaii, when the
Wolverines should have been pissed off,
Michigan opened the door for Ohio State to pull
off a stunning Big Ten upset - absolutely inex-
cusable.
You can't lose any more than two conference
home games and expect to win the Big Ten.
"There's a lot of anger in this lockerroom
right now," said Michigan forward Maceo
Baston, one of a minority of Wolverines whose
efforts haven't been on hiatus.
"I don't know what we've got to do, but
something has got to be done quickly."
Baston knows the team has to rebound and
play defense for 40 minutes. What he meant
was, every player and coach knows what they're
doing wrong and they've known all season, but
nothing has been fixed - an indictment of both
coach Steve Fisher and the lack of leadership
that a team laden with juniors should enjoy.
More often than not, this team looks disinter-
ested on the court. They let up when the game's
not close and when their opponent isn't Duke or
Arizona. A dunk will get them riled up for a
moment, but they quickly stumble back to lack-
adaisical play.
Taylor has pulled a disappearing act equalled
only by Jimmy Hoffa's. He took just six shots
against Ohio State and Northwestern and only
four against Pittsburgh. With just 14 points in
three games from their best player, its no won-
der the Wolverines have no spark.
Fisher says teams are keying on Taylor offen-
sively, which would explain his disappearing
scoring output.
That is no excuse.
Teams always try to shut down opponents'
best players. And, usually, they are unsuccessful
- that's why they call them best players.
And even that doesn't explain why a 6-foot-9
power forward supposedly destined for NBA
greatness amassed a measly nine rebounds
against the not-so-mammoth front lines of
Pittsburgh, Ohio State and Northwestern.
If things don't change soon, Taylor can expect
a phone call from NBA commissioner David
Stern asking him to stop wearing the socks
emblazoned with the NBA logo during games.
Stern can't have that kind of spokesperson for
the league, can he?
Don't get me wrong, the criticism is not lim-
ited to Taylor - not by a long shot: it should be
shared by everybody. Fisher said at the begin-
ning of the season that he would be the team
captain until somebody wrestled the leadership
reins away from him.
Nobody has made much of an attempt to grab
them, and it appears Fisher is losing his grip.
That's not to say that this team isn't close -
they are. Maybe too friendly. The lockerroom
after the Northwestern game was pretty jolly.
Taylor, Baston, Louis Bullock and Robert
Traylor all admitted that they still haven't quite
shown a 40-minute effort on the glass or on
defense. But there was no sense of urgend. The
place reeked of ambivalence as much as it did
of sweat.
This is the most important week of
Michigan's season. While it may have made
some mistakes and lost some games it shouldn't
have, Michigan's season is far from a disaster.
The season starts now. The Wolverines host
No. 25 Illinois on Thursday and travel to now-
Big Ten favorite Minnesota on Saturday both
very losable games.
These next two games will let all of us know
if Michigan can compete for the Big Ten cham-
pionship.
A 1-3 conference start will almost certainly
translate into a middle-of-the-pack conference
finish, a lower-than-anticipated NCAA tourna-
ment seed and a first-round exit - something
all too familiar the last few years.
On the contrary, two wins will go a long eway
to erase the memories of a poor winter break
and lay the foundation for improvement of the
mediocre teams Michigan has produced since
the Fab Five departed.
When asked what the difference is between
the Wolverines now and the ones who beat
Arizona on Dec. 21, Fisher said he had no
answer.
He had better figure it out pretty soon. He's
already had five games to do so. Two more'will
be too little too late.
- John Leroi can be reached over e-oai at
jrleroi@umich. edu.
Wisconsin
takes out
No.12
Indiana
Minnesota strong in
conference opener
MADISON (AP) - Wisconsin
scored the game's first 17 points and
went on to a 71-58 victory over No. 12
Indiana on Saturday, the Badgers' first
win over the Hoosiers since 1980, a
span of 31 games.
Sam Okey, Sean Daugherty and Paul
Grant each scored 13 points to lead
Wisconsin (1-1 Big Ten, 8-3 overall).
Indiana (1-1, 14-2) was led by Michael
is with 19 points, while Andrae
Patterson had 15.
The closest the
Hoosiers ever got
CONFERENCE -was 39-34 early in
Roundup the second half.
But Duany Duany
and Mike Kosolcharoen hit consecutive
3-pointers and Grant made a free throw
as Wisconsin stretched the lead back to
46-34 with 12 minutes remaining.
WA 59, PumuE 56
'Iowa gained a crucial road victory at
West Lafayette last night, holding off a
late run by the Boilermakers to cement
the 59-56 victory.
Iowa led by nine at the half in dealing
Purdue its second home loss of the sea-
son. The Boilermakers only lost one
home game in each of the past three
seasons.
With the win, Iowa improved to 3-0
in the Big Ten and 12-3 overall, gaining
, half-game lead on Minnesota in the
'3onference standings.
Purdue, meanwhile, dropped to 1-1
in Big Ten play, and 6-6 overall.
ILLINOIS 72,0OH10 STATE 64
Kiwane Garris turned into a one-man
gang Saturday night, matching his
career scoring average against the
Buckeyes with 23 points to lead No. 24
Illinois to a 72-64 victory.
Garris also had six rebounds and five
*sists as the Illini (1-1, 11-3) bounced
back from a 75-69 home loss to Purdue
on Thursday night.
Kevin Turner added 13 points for
Illinois and Matt Heldman had i1. Five
players were in double figures for Ohio
State (1-1, 6-5), which was coming off
a 73-71 road upset of then-No. 8
Michigan.
MINNESOTA 68, MICHIGAN STATE 43
No. 15 Minnesota went on an 18-0
P late in the second half, holding
"ichigan State scoreless for 8:28, and
defeated the Spartans, 68-43, on
Saturday.
x ohn Thomas led a trio of double-fig-
ure scorers with 12 points as the
Gophers (2-0, 13-1) posted their eighth
straight victory and second straight con-
ference win.
It was the second straight game in
which Minnesota held a Big Ten oppo-
&nt to less than 50 points. The Spartans
?-2, 7-3) shot only 30 percent from the
field. It was the fewest points scored in
a Big Ten game by Michigan State since
a 52-39 loss to Illinois on Jan. 9, 1993.
One year after surgery,
Ward confident in role
By Will McCabllI
Daily Sports Editor
EVANSTON - On the third day of January last
year, Jerod Ward had surgery to repair a torn ante-
rior cruciate ligament in his left knee. The opera-
tion was an unpleasant reminder of the year just
past, which had seen Ward's freshman season with
the Michigan men's basketball team cut short by an
injury to his right knee in March, and the torn ACL
just 10 games into his sophomore season.
The 6-foot-8 small forward had come to
Michigan as the top high school player in his class,
and yet the start of Big Ten play in 1996 found his
second season as a Wolverine already over.
Heading into this season, Ward was a question
mark, an unknown factor. The departure of fellow
swingman Albert White put even more pressure on
Ward, making him a key player on a preseason top-
10 team.
Last Friday, the day before then-No. 8
Michigan's 75-57 victory over Northwestern, Ward
celebrated the first anniversary of his last surgery.
And indeed, he had much to celebrate.
Ward had started all 12 of Michigan's contests to
that point. He was averaging 9.3 points per game
on 36 percent shooting, and was hitting 3-pointers
just about the same clip. He chalked up 16 points
- one short of his career high - in the season
opener against Ball State, and led the Wolverines
with 15 points in their loss to Memphis in the first
round of the Rainbow Classic.
He had looked unsure of himself at times, reluc-
tant to make a strong move to the hole, passing up
dunk opportunities, even in practice.
From the start, and more often lately, there have
been flashes of the talent that made Ward one of the
country's most sought-after high school basketball
players. Exploding to the hoop after a quick first
step, or pulling up and coolly draining a three.
On Saturday, with the Wolverines in a slump -
having lost their Big Ten opener after losing two of
three games in Hawaii - Ward was again in the
starting lineup.
Ward opened the game quietly, finishing the first
half with just two points. But the second half was
all his.
Early in the second frame, a Northweste-fl al
set up guard Joe Branch for an easy break ay
dunk that would cut the Wolverines' lead to gt.
But Branch came up short, slamming theball
into the front of the rim and sprawling to the r.
Immediately, Michigan was running the otheaway,
and Bullock hit Ward just past the arc.,
Shot, swish, and a 43-30 Michigan lead. 2
On their next possession, the Wolverines nt
back to the well, and Ward canned his sixth;"v-
enth and eighth points of the contest.
Forty seconds later, Ward beat his man he
boards for a putback, putting him in double s
for the seventh time this season.
Late in the half, the Wildcats had the crornd
momentum in their favor, and had cut the MidIan
lead to 11. But Northwestern couldn't find the bas-
ket, and when Ward hit another trey with 2:42 left
to play, the coffin slammed shut on the Wildcats.
Ward finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shoot-
ing, including three of five attempts from beyond
the arc. He also grabbed nine rebounds, nearly
three times his season average and just one shor'of
his career high.
After two frustrating seasons, Ward is finally
getting back into the flow of game, warming to all
those things that were so familiar to him three years
ago.
"As the year goes on, I'm getting more comfort-
able with my knees, more comfortable with
myself," Ward said after the contest. "I'm getting
my legs back."
The difference is evident in Ward's play. He's
more aggressive on both ends of the floor, playing
with an attitude that wasn't apparent at the start of
practice in the fall.
"I'm happy I'm able to play basketball with con-
fidence, and I'm finding my shot," Ward sai4'
"Yesterday was a year from surgery, s avis
looking forward to this day."
And just as he had his own private celeb tin
the day before, Ward had the best public ceIera-
tion possible - a solid performance ia
Michigan victory.
BIG TEN
Continued from Page LB
Although the victory couldn' aW e
come at a better time for Michi i t4e
Wolverines still haven't regaine heir
early-season form.
Indeed, in last Thursday's BigTen
opener against Ohio State, Michan
looked as though it was still feelintle
effects of its trip to Hawaii.
The contest started poorly fotthe
Wolverines with both Taylor and brt
Traylor turning the ball over, an Io
State building a 7-2 lead. ^"
Bullock led the Wolverines backrht-
ting a 3-pointer with just under 10 in-
utes left in the half to give ke
Wolverines a 23-16 lead. .A'
After a Taylor slam with 6:23 rerft1-
ing in the half put Michigan up, 3,,
the Buckeyes went on a 15-6 7 | Ao
close out the period. The Wolverines ld
by just one, 38-37, at the break. 7
In the second half, however t }s
started to slip away from the WolveMes.
Five minutes into the period, Ohio State
was up by seven points. Michigan rer
let the deficit get any bigger, but te
Buckeyes always seemed to have'In
to the Daily answer to the Wolverine challengesw-
n 12-4f Michigan had its chances in th ama-
higan. ing seconds. With Ohio State up '7b,
. with eight seconds to play, senio Jaid
Don Jantonio intentionally $Ded
Brandun Hughes wasn't the only Wolverine to run past Northwestern. Hughes had nine points and his
backcourt mate Louis Bullock had 25 in Michigan's 75-57 victory over the Wildcats in Evanston.
Over the break
Win over nemesis Arizona
prequel to Hawaiian debacle
By John Lerol
and Will McCahill
Daily Sports Editors
The Michigan basketball team was
about as busy as Santa Claus over win-
ter break and traveled almost as many
miles.
Although the Wolverines did get a
great gift - an overtime victory over
Arizona -- they also picked up some
coal in their proverbial stockings, losing
twice on their way to a sixth-place fin-
ish at the Rainbow Classic in Honolulu.
PITTSBURGH 85, MICHIGAN 78
Playing its third game in as many
days, Michigan - having fallen to No.
8 - faced Pittsburgh in the Classic's
fifth-place game.
As in their earlier loss to Memphis,
the Wolverines went into a game
against a .500 team (the Panthers were
6-6) - and once again came out on the
short end, losing 85-78.
Already playing with a short bench,
Michigan's worst nightmare came true
as foul trouble took its toll.
With junior forward Maurice Taylor
and junior guard Travis Conlan already
the Wolverines hanging on to a 37-36
lead.
Michigan began to pull away in the
second half, even though the Cougars
outrebounded the Wolverines by a 39-
32 margin.
MEMPHIS 73, MICHIGAN 72
Michigan's hopes of a Rainbow
Classic title were quickly dashed when
the Wolverines dropped an opening-
round game to 4-4 Memphis.
The contest started out in the worst
fashion imaginable for Michigan, as the
Tigers started the game on an I11-0 run.
But the Wolverines were able to regain
their composure, and led, 38-37, at the
half.
Free throws and turnovers con-
tributed most to Michigan's first loss.
With the Wolverines down by two in the
waning seconds, Taylor went to the line
to shoot two free throws.
Taylor nailed the first, but came up
way short on the second, and Memphis
had its upset, 73-72.
MICHIGAN 73, ARIzoNA 71 (OT)
Michigan climbed to No. 4 in the
polls after edging then-No. 8 Arizona in
I . - w- .a
JONATHAN LURIE/Specialt
Buckeye point guard Damon Stringer torched the Wolverines for 21 points on
14 shooting and dished out eight assists in Ohio State's 73-71 win over Mic
MICHIGAN (75)
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NORTHWESTERN (57)
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