Indiana Makes Its Point

Townsend was one of two new faces in the lineup since the Indiana debacle. The other was David Greenwood , a freshman center who was just plain rash. " Lonnie Shelton of Oregon State is the best center I've guarded," said Greenwood. " Benson 's not in his class. I've never feared any player. I know what he does and he doesn't know one thing about me. He has to worry about the freshman showing up the All-America."

Indiana has a remarkable ability to get emotionally ready for each game. Considering that they had destroyed UCLA once, the Hoosiers might have been excused for showing a surplus of confidence, but Knight was in no mood for excuses. Perhaps his biggest headache was how to handle Richard Washington, the Bruins' sharp-shooting 6'10" forward who was the star of the 1975 NCAA championship. Since May and Tom Abernethy are considerably shorter. Knight decided to put the 6'11" Benson on Washington . Good on paper, perhaps, but bad on the court. Before the game was two minutes old Washington had scored five points, the Bruins had a 7-2 lead and, worst of all, Benson had committed two fouls. Time out, Indiana .

When play resumed, Abernethy was guarding Washington , doing it so well that the UCLA star did not score again until 13 minutes were left in the game, and by then the Hoosiers had things under control. UCLA 's weakness in the backcourt, which had troubled Bartow beforehand, was never more glaring, and once Indiana realized it could not be hurt by outside shooting from the UCLA guards, the Hoosiers sagged, clogging the middle. Marques Johnson , the other fine UCLA forward, rarely saw the ball and Washington had to go looking for it on the perimeter, making him the tallest guard in America .

Control swung to Indiana midway in the first half, and by intermission the Hoosiers led 34-26. Even though May was having the kind of lukewarm afternoon he has once every leap year, Indiana was able to widen the lead to 45-32 with 13:20 left.

Then the cocky Greenwood, who had been benched in the opening half, began grabbing every rebound in sight, and UCLA made it 48-42 with more than eight minutes left. But after a time-out, Indiana slowly and patiently worked the ball around, running the Bruins through a maze of screens before Abernethy, who is All-Unsung, broke loose underneath for an easy basket. You could hear the generators go off in the UCLA boiler room. At the far end of the press section a man in his mid-60s sat in silence. John Wooden , who coached UCLA to 10 national titles, could do nothing to help.

The rest of the way the Hoosiers conducted a clinic in the delay game, neatly snapping around their passes and winning 65-51. "They made us feel very helpless, just like North Carolina State did two years ago," said Johnson .

If Indiana 's victory over UCLA was easy, Michigan 's over Rutgers was, well, a little sad. The Scarlet Knights arrived in Philadelphia with a 31-0 record. Three of their players wore beards, an unofficial NCAA record, and the team had an exciting, racehorse style, playing as if time was about to run out. The one major criticism leveled at the team was its meatless schedule, a charge that the Knights only dated losers. "Why do we have to apologize for being unbeaten?" said Coach Tom Young before the game.

Against Michigan the Knights looked eminently beatable, from the very beginning. They shot miserably, playing a holding defense that leaked layins, and never found a way to clip the wings of Michigan 's fleet Green. Before the game, Rutgers reserves Mark Conlin and Steve Hefele had mused about what they would do if they won the national title. "I don't know," said Conlin, "I'd probably just go to sleep." Which is what Rutgers did.

The team's floor leader, Ed Jordan, picked up two offensive fouls trying to drive past the flitting Green; Phil Sellers shot as if the rim were in motion; in the first 10 minutes Rutgers missed a half dozen close-in shots. Everyone got anxious, and suddenly the team was in serious trouble. Before it played Michigan , Rutgers had not trailed all season by more than seven points. Now it was down 17 with about a minute before halftime and, worse, thinking "no, I can't" instead of "yes, I can" whenever it threw a pass or took a shot. The second half wasn't any better. The margin became 23 before the Wolverines eased off, winning 86-70, leaving Rutgers no longer undefeated, just unimpressive. "We're just back to being normal citizens again," said Rutgers ' Mike Dabney.

Two days later, after losing to Indiana for the third time this season, Michigan knew just how Rutgers felt.