Michigan toasts Champagne, Oakland

Michigan 82, Oakland 62

Sorry - got caught in traffic.

Heavy thunderstorms and Michigan's freshmen wreaked havoc on Oakland this past Friday night. The rain and traffic caused the Golden Grizzlies to arrive late on their 50-mile trip to Crisler Arena.

The tardiness carried over to the game as Oakland fell flat in the first half, while the Michigan men's basketball team cruised to an 82-62 victory.

The Wolverines won their first season opener and first home opener under coach Brian Ellerbe, thanks to a huge offensive rush in the first half. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies looked like they were late and lost, netting only seven field goals and 19 points in the first 20 minutes.

DAVID KATZ/Daily Michigan sophomore Leon Jones had 22 points Friday in the Wolverines' season opener against Oakland. "I can't be shy ... if I'm going to be a leader," Jones said.

"I can't tell you what happened in the first half, I don't know," Oakland coach Greg Kampe said. "It might be my fault, we left at 4:30 and we couldn't get here. It was after seven and we're just getting in. Our players were in a panic and we played like it."

On the other end of the court, everything looked fabulous for Michigan's freshmen. Gavin Groninger and LaVell Blanchard began their Michigan careers with a 3-pointer each, as Michigan went on runs of 6-0, 15-1 and 17-2. The Wolverines at one point led 40-10, before Oakland cut the margin to 42-19 at halftime.

"We came out with unreal intensity and we were all over the ball," starting center Josh Asselin said. "Everyone was moving the ball. I think we stressed that we wanted to come out and defend our home floor. That's our pride."

While many fans focused on the Wolverines freshmen, a sophomore rose as the high Michigan scorer in the final stats.

Sophomore Leon Jones backed up Ellerbe's decision to place him in the starting lineup, tallying 22 points and five rebounds, while providing a strong slashing presence.

"I think Leon has gained a lot of confidence over the summer," Asselin said. "Everything he's done in preseason and over the summer has shown that he's really come to play. Last year he might have been a little hesitant, but now he realizes as one of the veterans that he has to step up."

Oakland stormed back in the second half, giving the young Wolverines a jolt of reality.

"I think one of the things with young teams is when you get up early, you get a false pretense of why and how you got up," Ellerbe said. "Young guys think they got up because they made a lot of shots, and they got up because they played defense.

"The shots we started to take in the second half were good shots, but they weren't timely shots. We should have worked the ball around more."

Taking advantage of Michigan's cold stretch, the Grizzlies broke out of their shooters' block and pushed the ball inside to forward Dan Champagne, who scored 26 points.

Oakland hit four straight jumpers at one point to trim Michigan's lead to nine. On the Grizzlies' next possession, however, Jason Rozycki's jumper swum around the rim before trickling out. The miss turned into an easy Blanchard dunk at the other end, along with a momentum change Michigan wouldn't relinquish.

"There was a sense of urgency," Asselin said. "All of sudden we had a big lead and it was diminished to nine. We realized we had to step up again and it showed a lot of poise from our team."

The freshmen showed their all-around talents in the victory, as four out of five of them hit their first career shots. Guard Jamal Crawford had 21 points. Guard Kevin Gaines added six assists and Blanchard chipped in 12 points and six rebounds.

Still, turnovers were a problem.

"We scored 82 points and we had 27 turnovers," Ellerbe said. "If we can cut that in half, we can probably be where we want to be - in the 90's close to 100.

"But that's youth. They're going to drive me nuts, but we're going to stick with them. We're going to have a lot of mistakes, but we never can not work hard. We aren't going to accept that."

Ellerbe benched freshman Kevin Gaines for the first several minutes as punishment for breaking an unspecified team rule.

"We had to make sure that he has to follow suit and adhere to all the rules," Ellerbe said. "No one is bigger than the program. He served his time."

11-22-99