Frieder Offers Study in Intensity

Less than 24 hours before their biggest game of the season, the sixth-ranked Michigan Wolverines are tucked away in the back of the school’s intramural building for a final walk-through.

They’ve been displaced from Crisler Arena by a wrestling meet and a women’s basketball game, and the team couldn’t even get on a court to practice until a forfeit in one of the intramural games allowed them to lace up their sneakers and go to work.

You think Bobby Knight ever has to put up with such nonsense? Does Dean Smith have to coach pivotal games with walk-ons serving as officials, as was the bad-weather case with the Wolverines the next day at Illinois? No wonder it’s impossible for Bill Frieder to sleep nights, the coach wandering aimlessly about his home, watching the sun rise and wondering what misfortune will next befall him.

But somehow, Frieder, whose record at Michigan is 182-82, always bounces back, and so do his Wolverines. Even after Saturday’s 96-84 loss to the second-ranked Illini -- his ninth straight loss at Assembly Hall -- Frieder was able to crack a couple of jokes and prepare to move on to the next contest.

The players, while obviously disheartened, looked forward to the March 11 rematch at Crisler Arena even before they boarded their bus outside the arena in Champaign.

“Am I anxious to play them again?” asked Glen Rice. “It’s the last game of the Big Ten season; be in Ann Arbor and you’ll find out.”

“That’s the best thing about our program,” added Frieder. “We make good adjustments, we bounce back after tough losses.”

Not that there are very many defeats to deal with. After all, Michigan did carry that lofty ranking into the game at Illinois and kept it in the Associated Press poll this week. Despite the loss, the Wolverines are 15-2 with what may just be the best combination of size, athletic ability and savvy in the league.

Leading the way is Rice, a certain first-round NBA draft choice. The 6-foot-7 forward led the Big Ten in scoring last season and ranks among the current national leaders at 25 points per game. Loy Vaught, a 6-9 senior, doesn’t start but merely leads the nation in field-goal percentage, 72 percent.

Starting at guard are Sean Higgins, a Los Angeles native who was one of the most highly recruited players in the country two years ago, and Rumeal Robinson, a junior who attended Rindge & Latin High in Cambridge, Mass., the school that nurtured Patrick Ewing.

Robinson’s play (14 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals per game) has helped the Wolverines overcome the loss of four-year starter Gary Grant, but Michigan still lacks back-court depth, as evidenced when the team faltered after Robinson got into early foul trouble against Illinois.

“Gary Grant did so much for us, but we looked up after four years and he was gone,” said Frieder. “We didn’t know who would do all the things he did for us. Robinson is capable of doing a lot but our guards ... are a problem and they will continue to be a problem.”

You have to believe he prefers it that way, though. His need to find solutions for his team’s woes -- real and imagined -- provides the justification for his nocturnal restlessness.

Early this season, he held an open house at home, where he autographed copies of his book “Basket Case,” a diary of the 1987-88 season. Interviewed on a radio show, he invited the public to drop by any time before 5 a.m.

“What the heck, I’m going to be awake anyway,” he said. “I might as well have some company.”

He was in his glory the day before the Illinois game, walking about the intramural building in baggy sweat pants, his hair tossed about his head as if his afternoon nap had been rudely interrupted. Truth was, the coach hadn’t slept at all, not even the night before.

“Who needs sleep?” he asked. “I am intense, I’m a nervous guy -- I work at it.”

“He’s the most intense man I know,” said forward Mike Griffin. “Sometimes you see him and say hello and he’ll walk right past you -- he doesn’t even know that you’re there. He’s not being rude; he’s just thinking about basketball. He wants to win so bad.”

Frieder has an affinity for those who share that philosophy. That’s one reason the feisty Griffin, who averages barely over three points, plays 23 minutes a game, often directing the offense. And why Rice also appears to have a special place in Frieder’s heart.

“Some kids are just different,” he said. “There are some players who have had difficult home lives and they’re hungrier, they play harder than the ones who have been in more stable situations or babied all their lives. Glen is like that. We’ve got guys, like Vaught, who might knock someone down on their way to the basket but instead of shooting they’ll stop to pick them up and then apologize. Glen would just step on ‘em.”

If Frieder has his way, before the season’s over, all of the Wolverines will be using fallen opponents as launching pads. You can bet he’ll lose a little sleep trying.