College Basketball Notebook : Counting Cards Helps Michigan Recruiting

Michigan Coach Bill Frieder is a card-counter--the worst sort of winner for Las Vegas casino bosses.

Card-counters remember which cards have been played, thus increasing their odds. The practice is particularly effective in blackjack.

“If you’re just lucky, they tolerate it because they know they’ll get you later,� said Frieder. “If you’re cheating, they’ll catch you and arrest you. But if you can count cards, they’ll eventually bar you.�

Frieder said he was barred after he had regular winnings in blackjack a few years ago when he was a Michigan assistant. He said since he became head coach in 1981 he has considerably curtailed his card-playing.

But his expertise did help with the recruiting of Richard Rellford and Butch Wade, two players in the 1986 class who helped Frieder get the Michigan program headed in a winning direction.

“I was out there for a (high school) tournament, and saw Rellford and Wade in a casino,� Frieder said. “I went up and sat right between them.

“It was illegal for me to talk to them. But I could talk to the dealer. So, I introduced myself, told him who they were, and said, ‘Now, I can’t talk to them but I want you to know that I’m going to recruit the heck out of those two and I’m not going to stop until I get ‘em.’ �

Frieder said Rellford and Wade kept laughing and slapping hands behind Frieder’s back. The players also got a close view of Frieder’s ability at the gaming table. As usual, he won.

“Oh yeah, that impressed them too,� Frieder said.

Two-Edged Sword--The Big Ten championship will become meaningless if league presidents approve the coaches’ proposal to cut back to a 14-game schedule in conjunction with a postseason tournament.

The tournament is inevitable--the financial possibilities are too great to ignore. The tournament alone cheapens the regular season title. But dropping from a round-robin 18-game league schedule to 14 makes the regular season nothing more than an exercise to determine seeding.

No matter how it’s worked out, the schedule can’t be equitable when one team plays at Indiana but not at Northwestern and another goes to Wisconsin but not to Iowa.

Let’s hope the Big Ten presidents vote tradition over money and reject the tournament.

Mourning Line--Georgetown still is the choice to land Alonzo Mourning, the country’s top high school prospect from Chesapeake, Va.

But Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim felt better about his chance after Mourning visited the Orangemen the weekend of Syracuse’s football victory over Penn State.

“I really don’t think Alonzo has made up his mind,� said Boeheim. “I don’t know what our chances are but I feel better about them. I think Alonzo had a good time. Usually, kids leave the football game at halftime but that one was pretty exciting.�

Mourning was one of three top prospects at Syracuse the same weekend. Billy Owens of Carlisle, Pa., came to see his brother, Michael, who is a tailback on the Orange football team.

Mourning has said he will choose from among Georgetown, Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia and Georgia Tech. He also said he would sign during the Nov. 11-18 period.

Quote of Note--Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs likes to say that his basketball Sooners have their own version of the football team’s famed wishbone:

“We like to run and nobody likes to pass,� he says.

Notes

Syracuse center Rony Seikaly paid $2,000 to attend a big-man summer camp run by Pete Newell, one-time U.S. Olympic and University of California coach. . . . Michigan guard Gary Grant, nicknamed “General� by ESPN analyst Dick Vitale, has been given a demotion of sorts. Grant was named captain of the Wolverines. . . . Pitt officials are getting heat because they have attached a surcharge to some priority seating in Fitzgerald Fieldhouse. About 1,900 ticket-holders are being asked to donate $100 or $250 to be eligible to buy season tickets at $140. New ticket-holders will be asked for a minimum donation of $1,000.