Ellerbe: Guards are best around

WARREN ZINN/Daily Robbie Reid teams with Louis Bullock to give Michigan one of the country's best backcourts this season.

By Josh Kleinbaum
They don't wear tights and they don't wear capes and, well, Louis Bullock doesn't look a bit like Adam West. But if the Michigan basketball team is going to be successful this season, Bullock and sidekick Robbie Reid just might have to do their best impressions of Batman and Robbie.

"Holy backcourt, Louis!"

The dynamic duo is the heart and soul of this Michigan team. Bullock, the soft-spoken sharpshooter from Maryland, leads with his actions, spotting up for 3-pointers or driving to the hole for short jumpers. Reid, the talkative, friendly surfer-dude from Utah who is also lethal from the perimeter, fills the vocal gap left by Robert Traylor's departure.

But more important than providing leadership, Bullock and Reid will have to score points. With an inexperienced frontcourt, Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe will rely on his guards this season.

"I wouldn't trade our backcourt for any backcourt in America," Ellerbe said. "Not only because they bring some athleticism and some size to the table, but they bring experience - you just can't measure that in any way, shape or form."

But experience and success brings publicity, which means opponents will know exactly on whom to focus. The duo, which combined for 25.3 points and 6.3 assists per game last season, will have to sift through double- and triple-teams to find open looks at the basket, or dish the ball off to a big man.

"We're the only names that people recognize from last year's team," Reid said. "But the other guys can play. I look at it as a nice little secret."

Bullock and Reid do, in fact, provide one of the best backcourts in the country. They both can shoot, they both have been working on their penetration and they both can dish the ball - their utility belts are packed with weapons. But after Bullock and Reid, the Wolverines' backcourt is extremely thin.

Ron Oliver, Donté Scott and Darius Taylor are the only other guards returning, and none of them saw more than mop-up duties last season. Leon Jones, a freshman from Battle Creek, will split time between shooting guard and small forward and will likely be the first guard off the bench for Ellerbe, but his only experience has been the Wolverines' two exhibitions.

Which makes a backcourt injury - not an unlikely possibility - Ellerbe's worst nightmare. A year ago, point guard Travis Conlan broke his wrist and missed the first month of the season. A similar injury to Bullock or Reid could break more than a bone - it could break the team.

Then the Wolverines might need the real Caped Crusaders to save their season.

Big shoes, paint to ll for frontcourt

After seeing little action in his first two seasons, center Peter Vignier will be asked to play a major role in Michigan's post game this year.

WARREN ZINN/Daily

By Andy Latack
The critics are not being kind, and understandably so. To hear the so-called experts tell it, Michigan is in some serious trouble.

Just as its backcourt is seen as one of the conference's elite, its frontcourt is viewed as one of the nation's thinnest.

"Nobody you ever heard of," writes The Sporting News.

"Thinner than former forward Maceo Baston," points out Street & Smith's.

And it isn't hard to see what the pundits are basing this on.

Last year, the Wolverines had one of the top frontcourts in the nation. Baston, Robert Traylor and Jerod Ward accounted for almost two-thirds of Michigan's point and rebound production. And the hefty Traylor's presence in the paint ensured that nobody would dare accuse Michigan's post lineup of being thin.

But Traylor and Baston's departure to the NBA and Ward's graduation have left a gaping hole in the post for this season's Michigan squad. And those previously responsible for spelling the trio are trying to fill their sizable sneakers.

Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe admits that he enters the season with some questions about the frontcourt.

"Obviously, we need to develop our post play," Ellerbe said. "There's always a question mark somewhere. That's not uncharacteristic going into any season."

Centers Josh Asselin (6-foot-11, 230 pounds) and Peter Vignier (6-11, 260) will assume the bulk of the load underneath the basket this season. And, speaking of bulk, both big men have added some over the summer, thanks to a rigorous weight-training regimen.

"I think our conditioning program and the intense running we've been doing will only help us in the long run," Asselin said. "Especially with us post players, because we're always getting pushed, shoved and hit. I can tell a difference - I've gained 20 pounds since last year."

At first glance, Asselin's added strength is apparent, but one will have to wait until the season to see another development in the sophomore - his playing ability.

Last summer, Asselin and small forward Brandon Smith accompanied Ellerbe on the Big Ten's men's basketball foreign tour, during which a group of Big Ten players competed against pro teams in Europe.

Ellerbe, who took the job so he could bring Asselin and Smith on the trip, was thrilled with the experience his young players got overseas.

"Josh and Brandon got an excellent sense of what they need to do to become quality Big Ten players," said Ellerbe, who routinely pitted the two against stronger and more experienced opponents, many of whom dealt the skinny Wolverines some bruises.

"They now realize why we have emphasized the weight-training so much, and why it has been a big part of our offseason program," Ellerbe said.

Smith, like Asselin, has put on some considerable muscle over the summer. The athletic sophomore showed flashes of brilliant ability last year and, with his added strength, has Ellerbe very excited.

"Brandon is as good of a Division I athlete as you will find," Ellerbe said of the 6-7, 200-pound Smith. "He is a slasher, but he can also step behind the 3-point line and be a weapon from there. I definitely feel that we will get points from people other than Lou (Bullock) and Robbie (Reid), and that will primarily come from Brandon."

Smith will start at small forward, with Asselin and Vignier in the post. They will be joined by freshman Chris Young, a 6-10, 210-pounder out of Detroit Catholic Central in Plymouth.

After Young, the bench does have a fairly Baston-like quality. Actually, the rest of the bench is more like Albert White - it's not here anymore. Asselin, Smith, Young and Vignier will have to produce and, with that unit having limited experience from last year, it is easy to see why people are skeptical. But Asselin doesn't want to hear any of it.

"Nobody's expecting us to do anything, so I feel that all we can do is prove ourselves," Asselin said. "I think we're up to the challenge and ready to do that."

11-12-98