4

Pace 10- The Michigan Daily- Tuesday, February 11, 1986

The Kean Eye
By Tom Keaney
Dear Occupant of Crisler Arena:
This is to inform you that you are part of the worst
excuse for a basketball crowd anywhere. Your silence
and inattentiveness at Michigan home games is ap-
palling. In short, your version of support is neither
necessary nor desirable. In fact, it's a bad joke. We
ask, therefore, that you either get out of your padded
seats and show some semblance of enthusiasm or for-
feit your tickets to the remaining home games to some
real fans.
IT'S MY version of an open letter from the Michigan
basketball players and coaches which I drafted af-
ter talking to head coach Bill Frieder yesterday.
It's addressed to you, Joe P. Alumnus, sitting pretty
in the blue section with your maize-and-blue checked
double knit slacks, your Michigan Tam covering your
receding hairline, and that obnoxious "don't you dare
yell in my ear" look on your face.
It has your name on it, John Q. Student, with your
physics book in your lap as you watch one of the best
basketball teams in the country in one of the best
arenas in the country. I've seen you leaving at the end
of the first half. I've seen you telling your friends to
scalp your ticket to the Illinois game because you have
to go to the library. You're so worried about your 3.2
grade point average that you couldn't care less about a
3-2 zone. You make me sick.
You should be reading this, Suzy and Sam
Knownothing. You who ask "What's that guy in the
coat and tie doing with that towel on his shoulder?" or
"Why do they have to sweat so much?" You who wear
pearls or argyle sweaters to a sporting event. Go find
yourself a party to be seen at.
I hope this is hitting home with you ignorant elitist
pieces of garbage that sit behind the Michigan bench
(perhaps the best seats in the place) who write Frieder
letters asking him to make his players stay seated so
that you can see the game without having to stand. A
hearty "get lost" to you, and please, don't send your
kids here.
"The next letter I get (like that), I guarantee you,
I'm going to take their seats away from them."
Tell 'em, Bill.
"We have got to get our band and our cheerleaders
and our students into this basketball game," said

Hey you...
how. .out some noise
Frieder. "They're always waiting for our team to
initiate it. We need to get the fans and the students to
the point where they're sparking the team.
"We're just at a decided disadvantage. It's by far
the worst crowd in the league when you talk in terms of
their effort."
Getting the picture?
"We go to Purdue and when the team comes out,
there's 14,000 people standing. Our people aren't even
here yet," added Frieder. "When the game starts,
there's 14,000 people standing, and then they're stan-
ding and cheering for 40 minutes. Our people sit back
in these comfortable chairs and they do nothing."
I've been to every arena in the Big Ten and every one
of them makes Crisler sound like a church. At Illinois
last Saturday, the players couldn't relay the plays to
one another five feet apart.
Don't even try the lame excuse of the seat cushions
absorbing the sound; Carver-Hawkeye Arena has the
same kind of seats and that crowd blows the roof off the
building. The Minnesota crowd is probably the loudest
I've heard all year and the Gophers only have half as
many players as Michigan.
"We need our fans to be like other people's fans,"
said Wolverine co-captain Butch Wade. "We go into
other team's arenas and their people are hostile,
callingus names, stuff like that. Here it's louder after
I make free throws than it is when we do something"
good. We need some help from our fans.
Richard Rellford blames the comfortable environ-
ment of Crisler Arena. "Our seats are too soft. We've
got movie seats in a basketball arena. I think we should
put spikes in the seats so that whenever they sit down
they'll have to stand up again."
"When we do something good, most of the time our
crowd just sits there," said Roy Tarpley. ."I guess
they're waiting for Michael Jordan to come in here and
make everything look spectacular."
"They're waiting for me," said Steve Stoyko.
For all you people who yell for Stoyko or clap when a
Wolverine slams one, congratulations, you've scrat-
ched the surface. I hope you didn't get your hair
mussed.
The rest of you are lame. A legitimately good
basketball team begging for fan support is proof.
But I dare you to prove me wrong.

Doily Photo by DAN HABIB
Bill Frieder, assistant coaches Mike Boyd (left) and Steve Fisher (center), and Garde Thompson (far right)
look on in consternation in an earlier game against Wisconsin. A present concern of the Wolverines is lack of
enthusiastic fan support at Crisler Arena.
'M gmnasts trm U

By GREG MOLZON
Michigan's men's gymnastics team is
on a roll. The Wolverines notched
their fifth straight win this past
weekend in East Lansing with a
tightly contested victory over
Michigan State-264.2 to 263.45.
It was a highly exciting meet with
the lead changing hands after each
event.
"IT WAS A real cliffhanger," said
Michigan coach Bob Darden. "We

were trading scores throughout the
meet like basketball teams trade
baskets."
The Wolverines started the meet on
the right foot by taking the top three
places in the floor exercise. Scott
Moore won the event with a 9.5 and
was followed by teammates Greg
Nelson and Brock Orwig, who tied for
second with identical scores of 9.25.
Gavin Meyerowitz and Nick Lan-
phier then placed second and fourth,
respectively, in the pommel horse and


the team held the lead by a mere .55
after two events.
AS THE MEET proceeded,'
Meyerowitz scored a 9.05 and placed
third on the still rings. Moore won the
vault with a 9.45 and Orwig received a
9.2 in the same event, good enough for
a third. Craig Ehle then garnered a
second place on the parallel bars with
a 9.0.
At this point in the meet, with only
the horizontal bar remaining,
Michigan was down to the Spartans by
a score of 219.4 to 219.25. These scores
were good enough for second and
third place, and gave the team its
slight victory margin of .75.
Said Darden: "Our gymnasts, with
their backs up against the wall going
into the last event, came through like
true athletes, not letting the pressure
bother them."
After beginning the season at 0-3,
Michigan has now won five con-
secutive meets, including two in the
Big Ten. The team has already top
ped last years victory total of two, and,
has improved its team score every
week. This week's score of 264.2 was
the highest of the season and avenged
an earlier loss this year at the hands
of the Spartans.

Women

I

gymnasts
toppled
twice

By DOUGLAS VOLAN

I

It was a disappointing weekend for
the Michigan women's gymnastics
team which lost both of its meets. The
first meet, Friday against Kent State,
resulted in a 176.7 to 170.05 defeat for
the Wolverines.
"We had execution problems and
some falls," said coach Dana Kem-
pthorn. "And once you fall, its hard to
make it up."
THE ONE BRIGHT spot for the
Wolverines was the performance of
w junior Heidi Cohen. She finished first
in the all-around with a score of 35.60.
This included a 9.15 on the floor exer-
cise, good for first place.
"Heidi came back strong (after not
placing in the previous meet against
Ohio State)," Kempthorn said. "She
had better confidence."
"I just concentrated more on men-
tal preparation before the meet," sai
Cohen.
SUNDAY TURNED out to be even
worse for Michigan as it was crushed
by Michigan State, 179.95 to 156.50.
"I was very disappointed," said
Kempthorn. "We didn't do the best
job that we could."
In all fairness though, luck was not
exactly on the side of the Wolverines.
The team had to perform without alli
arounders Angela Williams (out for
the season) and freshman sensation
Janne Klepek (out for one or two
weeks).
Also out was Alexandra Klass, a
specialist on the parallel bars and the
balance beam, which incidentally was
Michigan's weakest area this
weekend.
"The beam 'and bars were Ourf

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