Wolverine Notes

Wolverine Notes

By Wayne DeNeff

Michigan All-America Cazzie
Russell was a hard man to con-
sole after the Wolverines had
been beaten by Kentucky and
his brilliant collegiate career
had come to an end on a los-
ing note.

He turned his big palms up-
ward, shook his head and
seemed to be asking, "H o w
could we lose?

Russell never seems to un-
derstand Michigan defeats and

Russell's Scoring
Is Rounded Off

Cazzie Russell finished his
scoring at Michigan in nice
round figures.

Russell, who set individual
single-season records with
670 points as a sophomore
and 694 points as a junior,
scored 800 points his senior
year.

His 53 in the Mideast Re-
gional Tournament were add-
ed to the 747 he had scored
during the regular season.

his reaction was similiar in the
few other times the Wolverines
lost.

This one hurt a little more,
however.

Russell had looked forward' to
bringing a national champion-
ship to Michigan ever since he
enrolled here.

It really was his No. 1 aim
despite his many other accom-
plishments.

"It's been a great three years
to be able to play for Michi-
gan," he said, "but do you know
what hurt the most? The big
prize always got away from
me."

o —— o

Kentucky Coach Adolph Rupp
said he didn't decide to use a
zone defense against Michigan
until he saw that Western Ken-
tucky was having success with
it against the Wolverines in
Friday night's game.

"That zone disturbed Michi-
gan," Rupp said, "so we decid-
ed to try it."

Funny thin'-; is. Michigan
Coach Dav' k has never
been concern; ipn an oppo-
nent has thro\ one de-
fense against the Wolverines. |

He has often mentioned that
Michigan had the firepower to
break up a zone defense and the,
Wolverines have demonstrated
it enough during the past three!
years.

But this time they weren't hiti
ting even though their passing
in the second half was quick
enough to get men free. 1

"You newspaper men can
call it a zone if you want to,"
said Rupp, "but I never use a?
zone. That was a trap defense
you saw out there tonight." The!
I Wildcats tried to force the ball
j over to the left side to "trap"|
the Wolverines, 'i
o —— o i

Western Kentucky won t h e
Mideast Regional consolation
game from Dayton but it turned
into a losing night for the Hill^
toppers anyway. ^

The Hilltoppers thought theyl
were robbed by the officials in
the last few seconds of their^
game with Michigan but they'
were really robbed the n e x t|
night, j

While the Hilltoppers were onl
the floor playing the Flyer s,
thieves rummaged thron"*- ^--r
locker room and took li|
an estimated $700 in caaii diid-s
watches. |

0 —— 0

Western Kentucky fans just
co"^ir-'-* set over the foul call
(i iinith which led to Rus-
iseli .^ ^tine-winning points Fri-
day night.

They were inviting people to
see films of the jump ball which
they said showed that Russellj
actually fouled Smith. T h e yj
claimed the ball was thrown up^
improperly and that Smith had
to lean over Russell to get it.
They said Russell put an arm
into Smith.

Official Steve Honzo said he
didn't know how the "ball was
thrown up but he said he did|
see Smith move into Russell i
and that's why he called t h e|
foul.

0 ——— 0

How often does a team score|
as well on field goals as from!
the free-throw line?

Not very often but Kentucky
almost did it against Michigan.
The Wildcats had 37 of 72 from
the field- for .514 and 10 of 19
from the free-throw line for .526.