Press enter after choosing selection

Michigan To Face Wildcat Center Who Likes Defense

Michigan To Face Wildcat Center Who Likes Defense image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
March
Year
1966
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Michigan To Face
Wildcat Center
Who Likes Defense

^i^ioi w — ——. blocked shots has been accumu".
EVANSTON, 111. — Not since ^^ at the expense of some of ^
the days of hook-shot specialist ^ nation's most prominent c

(Special to The News)

^.tnwe^ ce^on^ted Pivotmen, among them a couple o
Dig Ten basketbaU games as of seven-footers, Geor ms ^
Jim Pitts has this season, of Purdue and Crais of p

While Ruklick earned All- Tulane, and such standouts a?
America recognition primaray Qy^g Lee of Vanderbilt, Thad g
for the fluid hook shot that Kentucky and Chuck a
made him Northwestern's a 11- Ja Colorado. ?
time top scorer, Pitts only m- \Jaiw '- .,
frequently has wound up as a Gardner last year's aII Big

•me's leading scorer, usually Eight center, was on his way
>king second to the Wildcats' to developing a severe complex t
ti-scoring guard, Jim Burns, as Pitts bloc! ots ^

. ,; in two other important cat- in the first _ _ ai
i „, ..id de- Boulder. Afterv »lorddo e

^ , ,,,;,,; peer officials said the;. ;- ^cow- \

..hp Rip Ten tered a defensive player oft
Gomg Into his last two games Pitts' caliber since they faced

• - against Michigan in Ann Ar- San Francisco's Bill Russell in ^
. bor on Saturday a n d against the 1956 NCAA finals. v
^ ome on Monday - Although his rebounding and ^

,,,r seems certain to defensive play have overshad-^
,i th-e Big Ten rebounding owed his offensive perform, e
" ances, Pitts is far from a slack- v

1 'After 12 conference games er on the attack. He averaged"

this year, Pitts has an aver-14.5 points lnhlshrst^)

•aep of 157 ' far and ference games (12.6 overall)

• atay the ' hi,,K-i m the B i g and has outscored opposing cen- ^
? rpan ters. v

• putts' overall season's total of . He has outrebounded oppos-

• '. for 22 games ing pivotmen. In both of his ^

„ , , . ; well within range encounters a§alnstIowass
1 of Ruklick's school record for a George Peoples, Pitts out-

• season,206. Pitts must average scored and outrebounded the ^
1 just six rebounds in his two Hawkeye standout. _ ^
remaining games to set a new During his prep days at Chi

Sard There's little question cago's ^arsha^^^^^^^
1 but what he would have broken played on thestate^^^^^ g
> the mark a year ago, had not ship team hat ^eluded s^uch ^
'• a late-season injury and early eventual college stars as ^in g
[ season knee trouble kept h i m cmnati's George Wilson and ^
: sidelined for long periods. As it ast year 'sN^thwe stern c a ^ ^

• was he led the Wildcats to a tain, Don Jackson. It' .n
new'team rebounding record for school that Pi Us can. ^ ^
one season, enabling them to the knee ailment that has^ since ^
rank a close second to cham- required him to undergo sur ^
pion Michigan as the Big Ten's gery twice. That he has com^ ^
Itop rebounding club. back in superb style ^s e v i

,11 defense, Pitts is the big-denced not only by thestatls a:

;l "intimidator" to hit Big tics but by the fact that he was ^

Ten baSall in years. He has chosen Most Valua^^^ P
averaged five blocked shots per both the West Coast Cl as s icl
game a figure approached by tournament, in Portland in 19<;

no other conference player. Not and at the Memphis S t a t , ^
only has he demoralized oppos- Classic in 1965
ing centers, but his reputation Pitts was the center on the
for slapping shots into or bit All-Big Ten academic team
Ss caused Wildcat foes to for- last year and has averaged
get about driving the lane for close to straight A the past tv
faviin atfpmnt. years as a political science md
, 1 of 115ljor. _______-————