14A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 3, 1998
Smith makes return
Ellerbe wary of ACC games in December
By Josh Kleinbaum
Daily Sports Editor
Maybe Brandon Smith should fly halfway
across the country before every game.
The sophomore forward flew from Texas to
Michigan just hours before the game. After a
slow start, it was the basketball doing the fly-
ing - from Smith's hands into the net. in a
three-minute span, Smith hit three 3-pointers,
grabbed two offensive rebounds, tipped in his
own shot and hit a free throw, scoring 13
straight Michigan points.
"The first half, I took a little while to get
going," Smith said. "At half ----------------
time, Coach (Brian) Ellerbe Basketball
really jumped all over me. In
the second half, I camp out NOtebOOk
more aggressive looking for -----------------
my shot and I was a little more productive."
Smith, whose grandmother passed away this
past Saturday, was at home in Amarillo, Texas,
for the funeral. He missed Monday's 60-45 vic-
tory over Towson State.
"I've been going through a lot these past
couple of weeks," Smith said. "It was tough to
concentrate. Basketball has been the farthest
thing from my mind. I haven't touched a ball in
three or four days."
GIVE ME AN 'H': If Michigan guard Robbie
Reid were playing a game of horse, pretty
much everyone would have an 'H'.
Everyone knew that Reid has great range.
Michigan'sChris
Young tries to get
a hand on a
rebound in last
night's Michigan
victory. Young
had four points
and five rebounds
in 18 minutes
of action.
MARGARET MYERs/Daily
And if he had any doubters, well, he pretty
much shut them up yesterday.
Midway through the first half, Reid was
dribbling the ball with about 10 seconds on the
shot clock. He tried to pass inside, but had the
ball deflected. When he grabbed it just shy of
midcourt, the clock was running out of time
and Reid was running out of options.
So Reid took two steps forward and
launched the 30-footer.
And he hit it.
"When Robbie Reid hit that 3-pointer, it
took a lot out of us," Bradley coach Jim
Molinari said.
Reid was stellar all day. He hit three long-
range shots in the first half and added one
more in the second, scoring 16 total for the
Wolverines.
WHO NEEDS A CHALLENGE?: While the Big
Ten-ACC Challenge might be great for college
basketball, the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast
Conference, Ellerbe isn't sure how great it is
for Michigan.
"We play Duke every year," Ellerbe said. "I
hope that suffices as our one ACC game. We
don't want to play two ACC teams in
December."
The two-day event, which the two confer-
ences agreed to earlier this week, has nine Big
Ten teams taking on nine from the ACC. Ohio
State and Indiana have already agreed to skip
the Challenge.
REDDY
Continued from Page IA
Luckily for Ellerbe, he hasn't had to d6
that yet. In fact, the Wolverines have
given all they can overthe past coupleOf
weeks, with all five starters avemagiiT
nearly 30 minutes per game.
The trouble starts when Michigats
- big men are forced to do a lot of moving
on the defensive side of the ball. Bradley
coach Jim Molinari directly questione
Michigan's ability to defend athlet
post players - despite getting little pre
duction from his starting frontcourt.
As evidenced by the score, the stami
na that left Michigan during games with
Syracuse and Utah in Maui wasn't a
problem. But in the two losses, the close
contests slipped away just as easily as
did Michigan's legs. And where did it
hurt the most? Just look at the 'little
things' like grabbing rebounds and set-
ting screens - the two facets of tl
game that have hurt the Wolverines tW
most in their losses this season.
"They've been in most games to the
end, but haven't been able to finish,"
Bradley coach Jim Molinari said.
Brandon Smith And that will be the difference
scored 12 points between surprising people this season or
last night, hours living down to exceedingly low expecta-
after getting off a tions. This week in practice, Ellerbe got
flight from his on his players hard for their lack of
Shome in Texas. In aggression and inability to do the litk
one stretch in the things.
econd half, His yelling may have paid dividends
mith hit 3-point- last night, but the question still remains.
ers on three Will it continue?
onte lotrips - Prtnay Reddy can be reachel
aRGd RET MSefl o.y via e-m ail atp l g m iCh.ed'
'M' sinks Bradley in style, 74-44
IN MANY COMPANIES IT TAKES YEARS
TO PROVE YOU CAN LEAD...
ee
~ 1C
r '
WE'L GvEou10 WEES
Ten weeks may not seem like much time to prove you're capable of being a leadec. But if
you re tough, smart aiid determined, ten weeks and a lot of bard work could make y u an
Officer of let nes. And Officer Candidates School IOCS) is where you'll get the chance to prove
you've got what it takes to lead a life full of excitement, full of challenge, full of honor. Anyone
can say they'ye got what it takes to be a leader, we'll give you ten weeks to prove it. For
more informatioii call t-8g0-MARINE, or contact us on the Internet at: wwwMarinescom
The Few The Proud.
kf S N
BRAVES
Continued from Page UA
Braves in the paint, outrebounding
them 35-29.
"Their post players are very physi-
cal," Bradley coach Jim Molinari said.
"And if you're not physical, you're
going to struggle against Michigan."
And although Bullock's big day will
seem to be the storyline in the box
score, Ellerbe gave plenty of credit to
his post players for Michigan's perime-
ter success.
"We were very good in many differ-
ent areas tonight," Ellerbe said. "The
guards are the strength of the team, but
our big guys had to set screens and
help those guys."
Bullock and Reid, who nailed a
team-high four threes in the game,
reaped the benefits of hard work by
players like Josh Asselin, Peter Vignier
and Chris Young.
"We had many open looks tonight,
and that was rare," Bullock said. "If we
can get open looks and make the shots,
that puts a lot of pressure on their
defense."
And while you can't fault the
Bradley defenders for leaving Reid
open from 30 feet, the senior's heave
No Great
recovery:
to Duke
CHICAGO (AP) - Duke had a
great start, Trajan Langdon had a
perfect first half and the fourth-
ranked Blue Devils had enough to
hold off a comeback by No. 9
Michigan State for a 73-67 victory
in the Great Eight last night.
Duke (6-1) had lost the No. 1
ranking it held since the preseason
poll when it fell to No. 6 Cincinnati
77-75 in the championship game of
the Great Alaska Shootout on
Saturday night.
Michigan State (4-2) had the
tough task of trying to make it a
two-game losing streak for the Blue
Devils, and it was the start that did
in the Spartans, who did get as close
as three points in the second half.
Langdon finished with 23 points,
while William Avery had 14 and
Chris Carrawell and Elton Brand
added 12 each for Duke.
Junior forward Morris Peterson
had a career-high in points for the
second straight game, finishing with
24, three more than he had against
Western Michigan. Preseason All-
American Mateen Cleaves finished
with nine points on 3-for-17 shoot-
ing.
Duke's start couldn'thave been
much more impressive on both the
offensive and defensive ends. The
Blue Devils scored the game's first
13 points and Michigan State had to
call a timeout just 3:08 into the
game.
After a Michigan State basket,
Langdon canned a 3-pointer while
being fouled. He made the free
throw, and the Blue Devils led 17-2.
Duke had a 17-point lead three
times in the opening nine minutes,
the last time at 26-9 on a turnaround
jumper by Brand with 11:01to play.
The Spartans, who missed eight
of their first 10 shots and had six
turnovers in the opening 7:50,
was as crucial as it was crowd-pleasing
for Michigan. The wild shot came dur-
ing a mammoth first-half run for
Michigan, one that put the Wolverines
ahead for good.
After Reid's buzzer beater put
Michigan up 18-11 with 9:02 left in
the first half, Bullock followed the
lead of his backcourt mate. He scored
six straight points and assisted on
another Reid three, helping Michigan
go on a 21-3 run in the final minutes of
the half. The Wolverines went into the
lockerroom with a commanding 34-18
advantage.
"Coach made it a point for us to be
aggressive from the start," Bullock
said. "We wanted to attack them from
the beginning."
And when Bullock and Reid gave
their shooting arms a rest, sophomore
forward Brandon Smith took over the
duties from downtown. After a score-
less first half, Smith came out of the
break gunning.
During a one-and-a-half-minute
stretch, Smith nailed threes on three
straight trips down the floor. Smith
went on to score 12 straight points for
the Wolverines as they extended their
sizeable lead over the Braves to 58-27
with 9:43 left in the game.
BRADLEY (44)
FG Ft RED
MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS
Hail 19 2-3 3-4 01 1 2 7
Robinson a8 s-s 5-5 2-5 1 1 12
KirIsh 23 29 4-6 3-7 0 2 8
oye 27 2-7 0-0 0-2 1 5 5
Roberson 27 0-3 0.1 0-3 3 3 0'
Lee 17 2-4 0-1 15 0 1 4
Clancy 6 04 0-0 0-1 0 0
Schairer 16 02 0so os1o051 0
Koita 19 4-7 0-0 1-2 1 2 8
Atkins 8 01 0-0 00 1 1 0
Totals 200 1542 12.17 5.29 81544
FG%:.357. FT%: .705.3-point F: 2-10.200 (ty
1-4, Robinsons1-2, Robersons 0-2, Clancy 0-1,
Schairer0-1).Blocks: 6(Roberson2, Koita 2,
Kirsh 1. Lee 1,) Steals: 5 (Roberson 3. Kirsh 1,
oye 1). Turnovers: 20 (Roberson 5, Dye4, Hall 3
Robnson 2, Kirsh 2, Koita 2, Lee 1). Technical
Fouis: 0.
MICHIGAN (741 PT REB
MIN M-A U-A 0T A PPTS
Jones 29 1-7 0-0 02 0 4 2,
Asselin 20 1-3 1-3 3-6 2 4 4
Vignier 32 2-4 0-0 2-5 1 3 4.
Reidi 33 5-12 2-2 0-4 4 0 16
Buloik 27 9-15 8-10 3-5 2 1 29
Taylor 3 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 15O0
Scott 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
Gibson 1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0
Oliver 9 01 00 01 0 0 0
Dening 1 0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0-
SitS 23 47 1-2 3-4 1 4
Young 18 1-1 2-3 45 1 2
Szyndlar - 3 11 0.0 0-0 0 0 3'
Totals 200 2454 152013-35 12 20 74
FG%: .444. FT%: .750. 3-point FG: 11-23. .478.
(Reid 4.9. Bullock 3-6, Smith 3-5, SzyndIar 1-1,
Jones 0-2). Blocks: 2 (Vignier)S steals: 4 (Reid 2.
Taylor, Smith). Turnovers: 12 (Jones 3, Vinier 3,.
Bullock 2, Asselin, Reid, Smith. Young). Tchnical
Fouls: 0.
Bradley .................... 18 26 - 44
Michigan........................34 40- 74
At: crisier Arena
A PPHOs
Duke's Chris Carrawell tries to get a shot off despite pressure from Michigan -,
State's Antonio Smith in the first half last night.
picked up the defense and finally
made some shots and were within
36-30 with 53 seconds left on a 3-
pointer by Cleaves - justrhis sec-
ond field goal of the game.
Langdon was 6-for-6 from the
field, including four 3-pointers, in
scoring 17 first-half points as Duke
shot 70 percent from the field (14-
for-20).
Michigan State trailed 56-47
with 11:41 left when it went on an 8-
2 run to get within 58-55 on a
rebound basket by Jason Klein with
6:12 to play.
Avery, the MVP of the Great
Alaska Shootout, hit a long 3-point-
er after an offensive rebound a
minute later that started a 6-0 run
that gave the Blue Devils a 64-55
lead.
The Spartans did get as close as
five points twice the rest of the
but the Blue Devils went 7-of-10
from the foul line over the final 90
seconds to seal the win.
The Blue Devils have not lost
consecutive games since early
March 1997 and have not lost two
straight non-conference games since
Dec. 6 and 9, 1989, when they were
beaten by Syracuse and Michigan.
Michigan State has lost four of
its past five games against top
competition, with the lone win c
ing in last year's NCAA Tournament
against No. 8 Princeton.
The Spartans lost their next game
to fourth-ranked North Carolina and
were eliminated from the tourney. It
was their second loss to a top 10
squad in March 1998 - they were
beaten by Purdue in a regular-season
game just weeks earlier.