Quote of the w
That's got to be some ki
- Michigan coach,
complete disbelief after he
forward Luke Reckers 22
performance again
Indiana's Luke
*cker was the
beneficiary of
many whistles
g e t t i n g t o t h
line for 24 free
throws in a 73-71
victory over ,
Michigan.
AP PHOTO
Oliver sees b
By Josh Klelnbaum
Daily Sports Editor
BLOOMINGTON - Sometimes the
biggest spark can come from the most
unexpected places. Yesterday, it was Ron
Oliver, the little backup guard with the big
eyes and the bigger heart.
"He competes," Michigan coach Brian
yrbe said. "He goes in there and hangs it
a on the line. We're the last team in
America that should be holding back, and
Ron doesn't hold back."
His line in yesterday's 73-71 loss wasn't
anything special - four points, two assists,
two rebounds and one turnover - but his
hustle and aggressive style of play was.
In his 17 minutes -- the most he's played
in a Big Ten game - Oliver was every-
where, diving for loose balls and jumping
ui for rebounds against guys nine inches
Or than him. But his biggest contribution
was on defense, wheree helped stifle one
of the conference's top perimeter snipers.
Drawing the task of guarding Indiana's
AJ. Guyton, Oliver helped hold the guard
to just 13 points. And it wasn't because
Guyton was having an off day - he hit half
"H ots"MichiganohBra
Ste w e
Amr tate Whudehln bak n
big Ten tite
EAST LANSING - A big, hand-lettered sign in
Michigan State student section said it all: "Ain't no 4
this year!"
This time, the Spartans have the Big Ten chan
onship all to themselves.
Michigan State clinched the conference regular 9
son crown as Morris Peterson scored 13 points Sun(
6-51 win against No. 13 Wisconsin, stretching
Scans' winning streak to 14 games.
"They're a very good team, Wisconsin coach D
Bennett said. "In a league that's really solid, Michi
State is as worthy a champion as you can have. We m
them play half-court and they were good enough to 1
us."
It was the first outright title since 1990 for the four
ranked Spartans (14-1 Big Ten, 25-4 overall), who v
forced to share the conference crown with Illinois al
losing the last game of the season to Purdue in 19'
Wisconsin fell to 9-5 in the conference with an over
rd of 21-6.
is feels good," said Antonio Smith, whose
rebounds helped the Spartans to a 39-19 edge on
boards. "We weren't satisfied last year, you know.'
had to go out there and accept a trophy after just be
beaten." Not this time.
When the final buzzer sounded, Michigan State pl
ers jumped and hugged while hundreds of students
green "Izzone"' T-shirts rushed onto the floor at Brec
Center. A metal ladder was set up under the south 1
ket and each player, starting with the three seniors, t(
A in cutting down the net.
"I've never been on a championship team in my I
Peterson said. "That emotion was unbelievable. It
just overwhelming to me. And I'm so happy for coa
This was all his plan."
No.20 IowA 78, ILLNOIS 72
Jess Settles played 20 minutes and scoring 16 pc
The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 22, 1999 -- 5B
weekend
ind of record."
Brian Ellerbe in
earing of Indiana
-of-25 free throw
st the Wolverines
Indiana 73
( Michigan 71
Player of the game
Shooting guard Louis Bullock
Bullock played with fire, Michigan coach
Brian Ellerbe said, scoring 22 points on 8-of-
24 shooting fiom the field. The senior guard
also added five assists while grabbing six
rebounds against Indiana. C
istle disp fouls
By Andy Latack
Daily Sports Editor
BLOOMINGTON - The whistles
of Big Ten officials are probably
beginning to sound like a broken
record to Michigan coach Brian
Ellerbe. In Assembly Hall yesterday,
they sounded virtually every time
Michigan was on defense.
The result? A mammoth 41 trips to
the line for Indiana, of which the
Hoosiers converted 32. With nearly
half of their points coming from the
line, the Hoosiers were able to rely
solely on free throws to hold off
Michigan's late comeback. Indiana
scored just one field goal in the final
14 minutes of the game, a drought usu-
ally indicative of a team on the bad
side of a blowout.
But during that stretch, Indiana
made 20 of 25 free throws, and never
trailed Michigan despite not hitting a
basket from the floor.
Indiana wasn't in a shooting slump.
Michigan was just being whistled for
fouls before the Hoosiers could get a
shot off.
Luke Recker led the free-throw
shooting contest for Indiana, taking 25
- 10 more than the entire Michigan
team. And this free-throw practice
proved simple for Recker, who nailed
22 of his attempts from the charity
stripe. During one stretch in the sec-
ond half, Recker scored 12 of 13
Indiana points from the stripe.
"We knew some of their guys were
in foul trouble, and I just tried to pen-
etrate and pick up fouls on them,"
Recker said. "We got them in foul
trouble and got easy shots from the
line."
Ellerbe wouldn't have been bothered
by the Hoosiers' trips to the line if his
team made a comparable number of
visits. But the numbers weren't even
close.
By the eleven-minute mark of the
second half, Indiana was already in the
bonus. Michigan, on the other hand,
didn't enter the bonus until three min-
utes remained in the game.
And this isn't the first time his team
has been on the short end of a gross
discrepancy in fouls.
Almost exactly a month ago, against
Minnesota, Michigan was called for 24
fouls - compared to 17 for
Minnesota. The Gophers made 35 of
39 free throws, with Quincy Lewis
going a Recker-like 15 of 16 from the
line.
Michigan made 10-of-14 attempts
in that game. Coincidentally, that game
was on the road, too.
Ellerbe, handcuffed by stringent
league rules that prohibit criticizing
officiating, was reserved after the
game
"How many field goals did Recker
have?" Ellerbe asked. When told that
the sophomore had scored just two
points of his 24 points from the field,
the coach simply looked away.
As for the Hoosiers going to the line
almost three times as often as
Michigan?
"That's got to be some kind of
record," was all Ellerbe could say.
Even though Ellerbe couldn't say
anything about the foul situation, he
didn't have to. The numbers said
enough.
Michigan stats leaders
SCORING
PLAYER VS, INDIANA SON
Bullock 22 20.7
Reid 11 13.4
Asselin 8 8.7
Smith 7 8.6
Vignier 13 6.3
REBOUNDING
Vignier 7 7.3
Asselin 1 5.5
Bullock 6- 4.1
FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
Asselin .800 .547
Young .400 .481
Vignier .625 .480
FREE THROW PERCENTAGE
Bullock .800 .859
Reid 1.000 .811
Jones N/A .754
ASSISTS
Reid 5 3.1
Bullock 5 2.5
Smith 3 2.0
STEALS
Smith 1 1.4
Bullock 2 -1.2
Reid 1 1.1
)ig minutes and delivers
of his shots - it was because Oliver and
the rest of the Wolverines weren't letting
him get open looks at the basket.
With a hand in his face the entire game,
Guyton fired just eight shots. Even when
he hit the game-winning 3-pointer with
2:17 to play, he did it with Oliver draped all
over him.
"Certain parts of my game aren't as good
as the other guys," Oliver said. "I make up
for that with hard work, and that overshad-
ows the little things. Hard work is what we
need right now."
Oliver is seldomly used as extensively as
he was yesterday. He averages just six min-
utes a game, and his four points nearly dou-
bled his season total - he now has nine.
"I feel I can step up at any time," Oliver
said. "I know what I takes to win. I lead by
example, whether it's on the bench or on
the floor."
So when the Wolverines quickly found
themselves in foul trouble - Josh Asselin
picked up his fourth foul with over eight
minutes to play in the first half - Ellerbe
turned to his spunky guard.
And Oliver thrived, even in pressure situ-
ations with the game on the line.
With 4:05 to play and the Wolverines
trailing by just four, Oliver took a pass to
the left of the hoop just outside the 3-point
arc. Indiana's Luke Recker lunged for the
steal, but Oliver grabbed the ball before
Recker got to it and dribbled by the
Hoosier's forward. He took two dribbles
forward, hesitated a second, then fired the
wide-open 14-foot jumper, cutting the
Indiana lead to two.
"Right now, we're looking for leadership
from anywhere," Oliver said. Ellerbe
"called on me and I was ready."
LONG-RANGE HISTORY: Louis Bullock is
racing the clock. With just two games to
play, plus anywhere from one to four more
in the Big Ten Tournament, the Michigan
guard is on the verge of becoming the Big
Ten's all-time 3-point leader. But he can't
afford to slump now.
After hitting a pair against Indiana yes-
terday to push his career total to 329,
Bullock is just two behind Michigan State's
Shawn Respert for second place and three
behind Penn State's Pete Lisicky for the
title.
CONFERENCE
Standings and Results
ConferenceaOverall
Team W L W L
Michigan State 14 1 25 4
Ohio State 11 3 21 6
Wisconsin 9 5 21 6
Iowa 8 6 17 7
Indiana 7 7 20 9
Purdue 6 7 18 9
Minnesota 6 1 15.8",
Northwester 6 8 14 10
Michigan 4 10 *1 17
Penn State 3 11 11 13,
Illinois 3 12 11 16
- Saturday's games:
Penn State 78, Purdue 70
Ohio State 59, Northwestern 49
Yesterday's games:
Indiana 73, Michigan 71
Michigan State 56, Wisconsin 51
Iowa 78, Illinois 72
i
r
3
Michael Lewis and Indiana advanced their NCAA tournament
expectations by defeating Michigan at Asssembly Hail yes-
terday.
HOOSIERS
Continued from Page 1B
When Indiana's Kirk Haston missed a
15-footer along the left baseline and the
rebound went out of bounds to
Michigan with 16.5 seconds left, the
Wolverines called timeout to decide
whether to go for the win or shoot for
overtime.
"We got a good shot," Ellerbe said of
Michigan's final possession. "We were
looking for the best shot available. We
weren't looking specifically for the
three."
Michigan (4-10 Big Ten, 10-17 over-
all) withstood a barrage of second-half
free throws from the Hoosiers, who had
just one field goal in the last 14 minutes
of the game - but scored 22 points
from the line.
Luke Recker led the charge from the
stripe for Indiana (7-7, 20-9), hitting a
whopping 22-of-25 free throws.
"I'd like to get to the line that many
times every game;" joked Recker, who
had just one field goal despite scoring a
game-high 24 points. "I've been work-
ing extra hard on my free throws in prac-
tice, and it paid off."
Despite missing only three times
from the line, two of Recker's misses
came with Indiana looking to put a little
distance between themselves and he
surging Wolverines. With 1:50 remain-
ing and Indiana clinging to a two-point
lead, Recker missed both from the char-
ity stripe, keeping it a one-possession
game.
Michigan starters Josh Asselin and
Brandon Smith and sixth man Leon
Jones were forced to watch the nail-biter
from the bench. The trio had fouled out
by the five-minute mark of the second
half Asselin took a seat with 7:51
remaining.
With the foul trouble, little-used
reserve Ron Oliver saw 17 minutes of
action, his most to date in Big Ten play.
Oliver contributed four points, nailing a
crucial jumper with 4:05 remaining to
bring Michigan within two, 68-66.
Post players Peter Vignier and Chris
se bS s e
MICHIGAN (71)
FG FT REB
MIN *A MA 0-T A F PT5
Assein 9 4-5 0-0 04 0 5 8
Smith 29 2-5 3.4 1-2 3 5 7
ignier 28 5-8 3.3 2-7 0 3 13
Reid 33 313 3-8 0-4 5 2 11
Bullock 37 8.24 4-5 1-6 5 4 22
Jones 21 1-4 0-3 3-7 1 5 2
Oliver 17 2-2 0-0 1-2 2 1. 4
Young 26 2-5 041 3.6 0 2 4
Totals 200 2746 12-1514.3916 27 71
FG%: .409. FT%: .800. 3-point FG: 5-15,-333 (Reid
3-8, Bullock 2-7). Blocks: 3 (Smith 2, Young).
Steals: 5 (Bullock 2, Reid, Smith, Asselin).
Turnovers: 14 (Young 3, Bullock 3, Reid 3, Jones
2, Asselin, Smith, Oliver). Technical Fouls: none.
INDIANA (73)
FO FT RES
MM * A MAO0TA FPM
Recker 28 1-7 22-25 1-3 1 3 24
Richardson 37 8-15 2-7 5-12 0 4 18
Haston 35 5.11 4-4 1-9 0 2 14
Lewis 31 0-0 2-3 0-4 7 2 2
Guyton 36 4.8 2-2 0-3 4 1 13
Fife 13 1-1 0-0 0.1 0 2 2
Jimenez 5 0-1 0-0 0.0 1 1 0
Turner 10 0-2 0-0 0-0 11 0
Gladness 5 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Totals 200 19.45 32-41 7-34 15 16 73
FO%:..422. FT%:.780. 3polnt FG: 3-7.429
(Guyton 3-5, Recker 0.1, Turner 0-1). Blocks: 7
Guyton 2, Recker, Fife, Haston, Richardson,
Gladnes). Steals: 5 (Recker 3, Fife 2). Turnover:
13 (Recker 4, Guyton 4, Lewis 2, Richardson,
Haston, Gladness. Technical Fouls: none.
Michigan............................30 41-71
Indiana...............................37 36 - 73
At Assembly|Ha|l
Attendance: 17,149
AP PHOTO
Center Calvin Booth helped Penn State, formerly the last-place team in the Big Ten, surprise No.17 Purdue 78-
70 in West Lafayette on Saturday.
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