Backcourt bombers

rian Ellerbe sits in his office, entertaining a reporter for the millionth time in his team's first week of practice, tension and stress gripping his face. But the moment the words "3-pointer" escape the reporter's mouth, the stress slips away.

"Great topic," Ellerbe says, reaching across the table that separates him from his inquisitor. His large hand finds a scarlet-and-white book and flips through it. He grins, then he points.

Right there, under the heading of 'Field Goal Percentage - Career' in the Rutgers basketball media guide, Ellerbe's name tops the list.

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Ellerbe was stellar from long range at Rutgers, hitting better than 42 percent of his shots from beyond arc, best in school's history. But he didn't shoot the bomb that much. "Coaches didn't know how to take advantage of the line then," Ellerbe explains.

That won't be a problem for the Wolverines this year. Although Ellerbe insists that the 3-point shot won't be emphasized this season any more than in past ones, he and his staff have been working to "utilize the tools" he has at his disposal. And he has the tools to make the trifecta a fixture in the Michigan game.

The tools: Louis Bullock, Robbie Reid and Brandon Smith. The three all have the ability to hit from outside, and they pose different looks to opposing defenses.

"We're such a guard-oriented team, the 3-point shot is going to have to be important," Reid says. "Me, Lou, Brandon, we're all going to have to hit shots from the outside to bring the guards out and open up the inside game."

While Smith, a small forward, can shoot from long range, he doesn't do it that much, preferring to drive to the basket. He can still spot up from outside. Regardless, as any of Michigan's opposing coaches will tell you, Bullock and Reid are the two to watch.

Bullock is an opportunistic shooter. As one of the team's primary ball handlers, he utilizes screens and picks to get open looks at the basket. He also uses his speed, of both foot and hand, to get himself open, with moves like a crossover dribble.

Reid, on the other hand, is a straight shooter. He waits for the defense to collapse, then gets himself open, taking a kick-out from the inside and spotting on a dime for the three. He describes himself as a "scrappy" player, and also says he is very streaky. "When I'm on, I feel great," Reid says. "But when I'm not ..."

Both Bullock and Reid look back to throwback players, the greats of the '80's, for inspiration.

Growing up watching Isiah Thomas play, Bullock could relate to the Piston; both were short, playing against guys who were tall. To a young Bullock, it didn't make a difference that, rather than playing against the NBA players Thomas had to face, he was playing his cousins. To Bullock, it was the same thing - his cousins were taller. If Thomas could do it, so could he.

"He was small and I was small," Bullock says. "He pushed me to be better."

Now, Bullock, like Thomas, has a great outside shot, great ball-handling abilities and complete confidence in himself. The best 3-point shooter Bullock has ever seen? "Me, on a video tape," he says.

Reid followed one of Thomas' contemporaries, Larry Bird. Bird played on a Celtic team with several former Brigham Young players that caught the young Mormon's eye. And once you were watching the Celtics, you couldn't miss their superstar.

Like Bird, Reid has excellent range. And like Bird, if the game is on the line, Reid wants the ball.

"If you hit the shot, you're a hero. If you miss it, you're a zero," Reid says. "I'm willing to take that chance."

But a new challenge awaits the bombers this go-round. With the absence of a proven post game, open looks will be much rarer. Defenses won't leave Reid open for the kick-out. Opposing teams won't give Bullock a second to breathe, let alone shoot.

"If I were an opposing coach, I'd focus on me and Lou," Reid said. "They know we're the only returning starters."

The Wolverines have a solution to the problem, or at least they think they do. They've been working on putting more picks and screens in the playbook, and of all different styles, too. Set picks, staggered picks, double screens, more screens from the big men, the sliding screen door to the kitchen...

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Somewhere in between talking about picks and screens, Ellerbe slips back in time.

Basketball was a different game in his day. It was more than a year after Ellerbe's 1985 Rutgers graduation that Gary Grant hit the first Michigan 3-pointer from beyond the 19-foot-9 line. That's because the NCAA didn't institute the arc nationwide until 1986. The Atlantic 10 was experimenting with the arc, and Ellerbe benefited.

But the rest of the country didn't. As a result, players were much more skilled from the nine-to-19-foot range than they are today. Passing and dribbling were emphasized. Turnovers were nearly non-existent. The game was a slower, halfcourt one - fast breaks were seen about as often as Haley's comet. In short, the game wasn't as exciting for the fan.

At first, the NCAA was hesitant to deviate from the status quo and add the 3-point line. But then several conferences experimented with the arc. The Atlantic 10 went with a 19-foot-9 line. The ACC tried a short 17-foot line for the 1982-83 season. Even the Big Ten had a short-lived experiment the same season with a 21-foot line.

The ACC's arc was obviously too close - North Carolina State's Thurl Bailey, a power forward, led the conference in 3-point field goal percentage that year. The Big Ten coaches didn't want to stick with it - "Coaches weren't daring enough to utilize it," Purdue coach Gene Keady explains - but the Atlantic 10's experiment went remarkably well.

In 1986, the NCAA finally mandated that schools across the country buy some paint. A line, just two inches wide, 19 feet, 9 inches from the basket, was to be painted on all collegiate courts.

"It wasn't a landslide vote," Ellerbe says. "The unknown scares people. Some coaches were excited, but some were leery."

One of those leery coaches was Bill Frieder. Frieder, coaching the Michigan squad, was hesitant to draw up plays designed for the trey right off the bat. He wasn't confident in his team's ability to shoot it.

"We've got guys that think they can shoot it from out there," Frieder told the Daily before the 1986-87 season. "I never see it going in, but I keep reading about all my shooters and that they can shoot it."

In the first game of that season, a preseason NIT game versus Bradley on Nov. 22, Frieder's fears became reality. Michigan was blanked from long range in the first half. Gary Grant missed his first four 3-point shots, and the Wolverines went 0-for-6 in the half. In the second half, Grant finally connected, but he still shot just 1-for-6 on the day, while the Wolverines were 1-for-10.

But the arc made for a higher-scoring game, with Michigan winning, 115-107. "I'd rather watch a game like that than take NoDoz and watch a game that's 50-45," Bradley coach Stan Albeck said after the game.

Frieder didn't utilize the shot too much over the course of that season. The Wolverines took 366 long-range shots, more than 200 fewer than last season's squad did.

But the shot became a staple in the game. It grew on people - coaches, players and fans alike.

By the 1988-89 season, Frieder's last at Michigan, the Wolverines took more than 400 3-point shots during the season. Glenn Rice, who as a sophomore in the 1986-87 season took just 12 from beyond the arc, took 192 his senior year to lead the Wolverines to a national championship.

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As the reporter finishes up with the interview with Ellerbe, he asks the second-year coach a simple question: Ellerbe vs. Bullock, 3-point contest, who wins?

"As long as the game's not on the move, I'll beat him today."

11-12-98