V -- V V W I 7W mmomommoommla - ---w ^ AWI w -IV v (t~i~ k Feldman looks forward to her belated senior season By Lory Knapp WEEKEND/ALEXANDRA BREZ Michigan forward Lorea Feldman is the Wolverines' fourth all- time leading scorer with 1260 points. Lorea Feldman, a fifth-year senior and starting forward for the Michigan women's basketball team, has lived what most athletes would consider a fairy tale life. Feldman attended a high school in that basketball- crazed state of Indiana, where her graduating class was about the size of a very small lecture class - 75. "I came from a small town where there was nothing else to do," said Feldman. "(Basketball) was mainly entertainment." Coming from such a small school made Feldman's accomplishments as a player even larger. BECAUSE she was named first-team All-State her senior year, as well as being a runner-up for Indiana's Miss Basketball (the award given to the state's best basketball player), Feldman found herself surrounded by publicity. "It (publicity) didn't really bother me that much," said Feldman. "Its nice to see that people appreciate what you're doing." "Sometimes it bothers me when after a game people say 'You didn't play very well because you didn't get 20 points', but that is not the most important thing to me. "If I have 12 points, and we win the game, and I played well, that is all that matters. "That is what I don't like about newspapers." GOOD THINGS continued to happen to Feldman after graduation. Turning down an offer to play at Indiana because of a dislike for the coach at the time, Feldman accepted an athletic scholarship with the University of Michigan. "Coming to a big university, I needed someone who would be a friend to me, not a disciplinarian," said Feldman. She found that friend in Gloria Soluk, Michigan's head coach at the time. Feldman adjusted well at the college level, winning a starting role in her rookie season. Her sophomore year, Feldman was second in the nation in free-throw percentage, shooting 91 percent. She has received honorable mention All-Big Ten honors each of the three years she has played for the Wolverines. Feldman is Michigan's fourth all-time leading scorer, without having played her senior season. It looked as if she would move even further up the ranks during the 1987-88 season. Disaster struck Feldman's fairy tale life the summer before her senior season - she was declared academically ineligible. Feldman had to take classes both Spring and Summer terms in order to have enough credits to play the following season. SHE FAILED her summer class, however, and was thus ineligible for her senior season. "The day before the (final), I got cornea abrasions, I was blind for four days," said Feldman.' Feldman had prepared for the make-up test by writing the essay questions out beforehand and getting extra help from a tutor. Yet, she received a D in the class. "I was shocked, just couldn't believe it," said Feldman. For most academic casualties, the ineligibility merely means sitting out for a season. For Feldman, a senior, it meant the loss of her scholarship and watching from the sidelines for the first time in her life. "(Not playing) was really hard. All of a sudden you're not out there - you're not playing," said Feldman. NOT PLAYING was the least of Feldman's worries, as she now had to pay for school. Coming from an Indiana farming family, this was not easy. However, through help from her parents, grants and loans, Feldman was able to remain at Michigan to continue both her education and her basketball career. Along with monetary concerns, Feldman suddenly lacked confidence in herself, not only as a player, but as a person. "When you're in the hole, it's so hard to get back out," said Feldman. Fortunately for Feldman, there was someone there to help. Academic advisor for female athletes, Kathy Beauvais, took Feldman under her wing. "It wasn't anything to do with my grades, but more that (Beauvais) gave me the confidence. She said: 'Hey, you're not really that bad. It happened to you and now you have to go on,' If it wasn't for her, I probably would not be here right now." ALL OF THAT is behind Feldman now. She is back on scholarship and is looking forward to her final season as a Wolverine. It may be difficult at first for Feldman to return to game situations after such a long lay-off. However, this has not affected her personal goals for the season. "One of my goals is to be on the first-team, All-Big Ten. (However), my main goal is for the team to do well, that is,the only reason I want to do anything." Upon the completion of her final season, Feldman says she will probably move on to another realm of the basketball world -coaching. "Lorea understands the game so well, she will make an excellent coach," said Michigan head coach, Bud VanDeWege. After all of the rough times of last season, Feldman views the incidents positively. "I'm a lot more ready to play than ever before, and sitting out the season helped my ankle injury a lot. "Everything happens for a reason and all that matters is how you come back." 0 Doug in Deep BY DOUG VOLAN As the Michigan basketball squad prepares for its upcoming season, Wolverine fans can't help but wonder if this will be the year that their team finally advances to the Final Four. After all, the Wolverines are ranked No. 1 in the nation by Inside Sports magazine. And Street & Smith (No. 3), Sports Illustrated (No. 4), Sporting News (No. 5) and Sport (No.6) aren't far behind. From past experience, however, Wolverine fans know in the back of their minds that this can be nothing more than just a cruel hoax. For the past three years, the Wolverines have been ranked near the top of all the preseason polls, yet have disappeared come tourney time. In both the 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons, Michigan failed to get past the second round of the NCAA tournament, losing to Iowa State and North Carolina, respectively. THE WOLVERINES also lost to the Tar Heels last season in the West Regional semifinals. Each loss was disappointing to Michigan fans, because on paper, the Wolverines couldn't be beat. The 1986 Big Ten championship team featured such players as Roy Tarpley and Gary Grant, both of whom went on to become first-round draft picks in the NBA. Tarpley is now a key member of the Dallas Mavaricks, last year's winner of the NBA's Midwest division. He was last year's winner of the sixth-man award for outstanding play off the bench, and plays a power-game in the NBA that he showed only flashes of at Michigan. GRANT PLAYED on the 1987 and 1988 Wolverine teams along with senior Glen Rice, a certain first-round pick in next year's NBA draft. Joining them last season were Rumeal Robinson and Terry Mills, two of the top five high school players in the country in 1986. Both are likely to be drafted in the first-round as well. That's four players the Wolverines had last season who will probably be in the NBA within the next two years. Yet Purdue still managed to win the Big Ten. Only two of their players, forward Mel McCants and guard Everette Stephens, have a shot at the NBA. guarantee for. And last year's NCAA champ, Kansas, had only one player, Danny Manning, who could make it in the NBA. SO WHAT'S THE DEAL HERE? The problem is too much talent not being able to mesh together. Often, when there are so many outstanding athletes on one roster, the players cannot be comfortable with their roles. The Boston, Celtics are successful year after year because they play together - as a team, not as a bunch of individuals. Each member of the team is comfortable with his role. Other teams may have more talent, but the cohesiveness of the Celtics is what usually brings them out on top. Last year's Michigan team, however, was filled with outstanding one-on-one players who could not successfully blend together their talents. Grant, for example, was second in the Big Ten in scoring despite being the team's point guard. AND THIS YEAR'S TEAM faces the same problem, with Robinson moving from off guard to point guard. Although Robinson vows to "keep everybody happy," he still has a shooter's mentality, which could lead to the Wolverines' downfall. In fact, the key to this year's team will be how well Robinson can make the transition to point guard and fill in for Grant. In addition to Robinson, Rice and Mills, Loy Vaught and Sean Higgins also like to put the ball up. But according to Robinson, Rice will shoot 75 percent of the team's shots this year. Although Robinson might have exaggerated this figure, it is clear that the Wolverines will be looking to Rice when they come down on the offensive end. If this is so, there are going to be an awful lot of unhappy players, including Higgins, who Frieder last year called Trigger because of his love for shooting. Rice admits there could be a problem: "We've got the players who might want to step out and do too many things at once. With all our talent, there's a chance of that happening." Indeed, Frieder's greatest task this season will be to make sure that doesn't happen. If Frieder fails, Wolverine fans will once again be shaking their heads at season's end - wondering what might have been. success Sean Higgins, a deadly three-poi trigger-happy Wolverines. FREE QU 1QT. C with the p Deep Dis F1 Voted Best F "The Michigan Daily High rankings no U - MAIN CAMPUS 665-6005 -..... ~.. 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Great people. 711 N. University 668-6915 Mon-Sat 9-6 902 S. State St. 668-7296 Mon-Sat 9-5 November1D.4Nov. 25 - Dec. 4 & t.1m Thurs. - Sat. 8pm {c sunday :1pm sundays m Sundays 6:30pm S 4 Supported, in part, by the Michigan Council for the Arts, OPEN 24 HOURS 540E.Liberty 761-4539 OPEN 7 DAYS Michigan Union 662-1222 OPEN 24 HOURS 1220 S. University 747-9070 PAGE 8 WEEKEND/NOWEMBER 11988W WEEKEND/NaVEMBER 18, 1988