28 - The Ahigan Daily - Tipoff Thursday, November 12, 1# 1nsidIe Tipoff '98 Thursday, No mber 12, 1998 - Is Michigan State all it's cracked up to be? Who are the 3 other team to watch In the Big Ten? Let our team previews serve as your guide to the upcoming season., With a sharp-shooting backcourt, Michigan will rely heavily on the 3-point shot. After waiting his turn last season, Brandon Smith could be poised for a breakout year. Josh Asselin has overcome his share of personal tragedy to get where he is today. I 'V ill~; Meet this year's Wolverines. Daily Basketball Writers' Preseason PicksRICK FREEMAN Michigan Big Ten finish F 5th Big Ten champion Michigan State Ail-Big Ten team Mateen Cleaves - Mich. St (Player of the Year AJ. Guyton - Indiana in bold) Louis Bullock - Mich. Antonio Smith - Mich. St. Evan Eschmeyer -- N'west Big Ten Coach of the Year Brian Ellerbe All-America team Mateen Cleaves - MSU1 KLEINBAUM LATACK REDDY Michigan's baCkcourt is superb, but quesons abound down low - check out our position previews. The envelope, please... The Daily's experts make their preseason picks. sth Purdue t. Cleaves Michael Redd - Ohio St. Bullock Calvin Booth - Penn St. Eschmeyer Bobby Knight 5th Purdue Cleaves Scoonie Penn - Ohio St Luke Recker - Indiana Brian Cardinal - Purdue Eschmeyer Gene Keady 5th Michigan State Cleaves . Michael Redd - Ohio St. Recker Quincy Lewis - Minnesota Eschmeyer Knight Cleaves Albert White - Missouri Hamilton Tim James - Miami (Fla.) Brand Let Ellerbe swprke you Laron Profit - Marvlond Andre Miller ...; Utah (Player of the Year in bold) +Fiw ~ f v.. e.",. ar tlt/svva tuu. -fit - M yrvktfu fnflum1"idiIGr- Vuta -- -. --- - .. -- - ..- -'' ...... .. .. B.J. McKie - So. Car. Vonteego Cummings - Pitt. Arthur Lee - Stan. Richard Hamilton - Conn. Hamilton Hamilton Trjan Lingdon - Duke Lee Nailon - Tex. Christian James Posey - Xavier Elton Brand - Duke Brand Brand Not more than a month ago, I was walking into the office of Brian Ellerbe. I sat down in the corner of his office, about to discuss the upcoming season with Michigan's newest head basketball coach. I'll be honest, I was the biggest skep- tic you could find when it came to dis- cussing the basketball team. Graduation left this year's squad with Louis Bullock and Robbie Reid running the show, and a bunch of role players surrounding them. Not a pretty sight, I thought. And I was confident sitting in Ellerbe's office that he wasn't going to convince me otherwise. But he did do something in the hour or so I spent in his office - something that completely took me by surprise. He interested me. He made me look forward to the upcoming season - a season without Traylor, Baston and the rest. I actually couldn't wait to see guys like Josh Asselin, Brandon Smith and Pete Vignier take the floor. Huh? Sure, these guys were no more than role players a year ago, but something about Ellerbe's pitch made me believe that they could be much more. So why should we believe him? The better question is: Why shouldn't we? If you recall, this time last year, no one was high on a Michigan team with- out Maurice Taylor. And after the tur- moil surrounding the NCAA investiga- tion, Steve Fisher's firing and early losses to teams such as Western Michigan and Bradley, it seemed like there was no reason to get excited about Michigan basketball. I know I wasn't. Slowly, things began to turn around. The Wolverines upset No. I Duke. They pulled off a stellar victory against Indiana and a Big Ten Tournament vic- tory over Purdue. Ellerbe and the Wolverines started surprising people. All of a sudden, Michigan was the hottest team in the country heading into the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines took care of Davidson in the first round, and people were excited about Michigan basketball again. Sure, they ended up losing in the second round to UCLA - but it was fun, wasn't it? NCAA Final Four Duke Duke Duke Maryland (Champion in bold) Connecticut Connecticut Connecticut Kentucky Indiana Washington UCLA Michigan State Stanford Stanford Purdue Stanford Surprise NCAA team Miami (Ohio) lona California Miami (Fla.) Best name in the game Nacho Rodriguez - BU Duany Duany - Wisc. Frantz Pierre-Louis - Wagner Obinna Ekezie - Mary. Best football player Antwaan Randle El - Ind. Jermaine Sheffield - E. Mich. Ronald Curry - UNC John Lumpkin - Ohio St. Michigan MVP Bullock Brandon Smith Smith Bullock Daiy Top 25 Team Coma 1. Duke ( 1) After '91 2. UCLA (1) You see 3. Stanford Chelsea 4. Kentucky AshleyJ 5. Utah Utes ha 6. Michigan State (1) Saban c 7. Detroit Second 8. Long Island Who nee 9. Connecticut (1) Most ex 10. Xavier Stop prc 11. Oklahoma State Ride 'ei 12. Syracuse McNabi 13. Purdue Cardina 14. Davidson Two str 15. Athletes In Action Bad cal 16. Indiana Should' 17. North Carolina So, Dea 18. Miami (Ohio) Oppone 19. Akron Returnc 20. Lee Bollinger House p 21. lona Should' 22. Wofford . Coot na 23. Cleveland State Yikes! 24. Prairie View band Tromboi 25. Northwestern Would h; Others receiveing votes: John Glenn (yes High School, Vanderbilt, Cleveland St. Ig College Prep, Elizabeth Hurley, Alan Gokc Michigan fast facts First season of play: 1909 Overall record: 1,193-759 Big Ten record: 624-538 Big Ten titles: 13* Last Big Ten title: 1986 NCAA Tournament appearances: 20 NCAA Tournament record: 41-19 Last NCAA title: 1989 First-team All-Americans: 4 First team All-Big Ten selections: 2C *1998 Big Ten tournament champs Most overrated team Ugliest Tipoff writer Kentucky Reddy Michigan State Latack Maryland Kleinbaum Connecticut Freeman Elierbe and new staff a perfect fit It w as fun finally wvatching a Michigan basket- ball team exceed your expectations, as opposed to lag- ging behind them. For all the Fab Five accolades and the next Fab Five' hype, we never saw the Wolverines actu- ally reach their PRANAY- R EDDY R eddy or Not potential. But this season, there's no danger of that. No one expects anything from this team - and maybe Ellerbe prefers it that way. When you tell him where 'experts' predict Michigan to finish this season, Ellerbe just smiles knowingly. He smiles because he's seen it before - and he surprised people then, too. - Pianav Reddv can be reached via e-mail at pk7-pClawnich.edu. By Andy Latack After taking over as Michigan's inter- im coach before last season, Brian Ellerbe had a lot of things going for him. One of the most sought-after jobs in the country. An incredibly talented squad. Hundreds of screaming Crisler fans. But one thing he didn't have was time. Thrust into the head coaching position less than a week before practices began, Ellerbe didn't exactly have months to prepare to lead the Wolverines. He didn't even have a week. But this year, after being named head coach in March and securing a long- term deal in August, the former Loyola College (Md.) head coach can finally plan to run the Michigan basketball pro- gram the way he wants to run it. And despite his newfound job securi- ty, Ellerbe isn't relaxing. "In some areas, (the stability) allows you to breathe a sigh of relief,' Ellerbe said. "But at the same time, the intensity doesn't dwindle. There's a lot of chal- lenges we need to tackle." One of those challenges presented itself to Ellerbe shortly after he was hired. He was given full control of selecting a coaching staff, and set out to find people who could do the job the way he wanted it done. Less than two months after the interim tag was removed from his job title, Ellerbe found those people. He already had the services of assistant coach Scott Trost, who was returning for his third year. with the Wolverines. Before the month of May was over, Ellerbe had added two more assistants. The first addition to the coaching staff was Lorenzo Neely, then an assistant coach at nearby Eastern Michigan. Neely also played for the Eagles in the early 90s, and his combination of youth and recent playing experience sold Ellerbe on the Detroit native. "Coach Neely has endless energy," Ellerbe said. "Being an ex-player at the college level himself, he really knows how to develop skills in individual play- ers. That's a big part of today's game." Neely filled the gap created by the departure of longtime Fisher assistant Brian Dutcher, who resigned in May. Administrative assistant Tom Soroboro, who served as a Loyola assistant coach for a year under Ellerbe, also was hired along with Neely. Ellerbe solidified his new staff shortly thereafter, hiring former Eastern Kentucky head coach Kurtis Townsend. Before that, Townsend played at Western Kentucky, where he got a chance to play under two of the most revered coaches in college basketball today. Purdue's Gene Keady was then the head coach of the Hilltoppers, and Minnesota coach Clem Haskins was an assistant under Keady. "Kurtis has a great background of being around some of the better defen- sive minds in college basketball," Ellerbe said. "I'm anxious to get deeper POLO GREGTOMMY GREiAT BRAND CAVI BJ(AiTD $KLEIN STUDENT DISCOUNTS ON EYE EXAMS AND EYEGLASSES HOURS MON-TU ES-TH U-FRI 9-5:30 R chardson' WE I.&SAT 9-1 320 S. STATE ST. (LOWER LEVEL OF DEC R KD RS) 662-1945 into the philosophies of defensive bas- ketball with him." Townsend credits all of his former coaches with shaping the way he thinks today. He not only mentions Keady and Haskins, but also Bud Presley, Townsend's coach at Menlo (Calif.) Junior College. Presley later went on to coach with the Portland TrailBlazers. "All of my coaches influenced my style of play and what I believe in," Townsend said. "Intensity, toughness and the 'defense wins championships' philos- ophy - I got a lot of that not only from Gene Keady, but from Bud Presley" Townsend will specifically work with Michigan's post players, and he special- izes in teaching defense. He also assists Ellerbe with the program's abundant recruiting duties. Ellerbe feels that the new staff's strengths complement each other nicely. "We have a very difficult combination to put in place with our staff, which is experience along with youth and enthu- siasm," Ellerbe said. "I think we're very lucky." o - f[ I '.7--1 - - Uwm~l TV~ Ann Arbor 241 E. Liberty Ann Arbor 998-0008 Fax 998-0303 Mon.-Sat. 11-12 AM Sun. 12 noon- 10 PM ili i ipoff '98 str Basketball writers r Soup or Cold Drink, - --- - - - 2) Buy one dinne a Rick Freeman Josh Kleinbaum Andy Latack Pranay Reddy Staff Editor-in-Chief Managing Sports Editor Sports Editors Photo Editors Cover Art Special Sections Manager Special Thanks Laurie Mayk Jim Rose Sharat Raju, Mark Snyder Warren Zinn, Margaret Myers David Meng Marnie Kadish B.J. Sohn g old bn d ceanersff QUALITY DRY CLEANING & SHIRT SERVICE 332 Maynard (Across from Nickels Arcade) 668-6335 I I I - - 3) $2 off for pt 4) $5 off for pi Limit one offer per at time of pu ---- - m- . L