Page 10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 14, 1989
a6
The ceiling's the limit with
Spo r'. g fw o~f : r . ?s :, th.\ sportNerf basketball in the kitchen
he soortia views the sootin * vies 8 hesor'
BY JAY MOSES
If you love basketball, you know the feeling.
Every fan has experienced it at one time or
another. You're either playing a basketball game
or watching one, and you are suddenly overcome
by an insatiable urge to slam-dunk one home.
I've felt it. Lots of times.
And have you ever been able to satisfy that
urge on a basketball court? Me neither.
I HAVE NEVER dunked on a regular
basketball hoop (at least not by my own power),
and, barring a freak act of nature, I never will.
But my childish, irrational need to be able to
dunk was too strong to be thwarted by my cursed
gene package which left the 6-foot-6 frame of my
dreams stranded at 5-feet 10 inches.
I took action. And you can, too.
The solution to The Problem of the Dunk is a
very simple one. I have been slamming them
home every way imaginable for, oh, about 12
years now.
All you need to do is make a trip to your local
toy store. Bring about $7 - a small price to pay
for membership in Phi Slamma Jamma - and
buy yourself a Nerf Hoop.
You've seen them - those little orange
plastic hoops with kite string for a net and a
fluffy, orange sponge for a ball.
You can kiss years of frustration good-bye.
NERF HOOPS are not new items. They
have been around for as long as I can remember,
which is not to say that they have not been
subject to changes. The Nerf Hoop has evolved
over the years. My first Nerf Hoop was metal,
which is sort of like saying my first football
helmet was leather. It cost me about $3.
My metal Nerf Hoop succumbed to my Darryl
Dawkins imitation, and by that time, technology
had taken over. The metal was replaced with
cheaper, indestructible plastic.
I now have two Nerf Hoops. One travels with
me pretty much wherever I go. The other has
been a permanent fixture in the kitchen at my
* house for about 10 years.
That's right. My parents' kitchen.
Growing up, I spent literally hundreds of
hours bounding around the kitchen while my
family was trying to get things done. Many a
family dinner were seasoned with the distinct
flavor of an errant, dirty Nerf ball.
I think my mother only let me put it there in
the first place because she figured I would
outgrow the toy before long.
WRONG.
As I grew, my passion for Nerf basketball
didn't diminish; it flourished. In addition to being
a pastime for me, Nerf Hoop became my therapy.
At times, it was more a habit than anything else.
When the driveway court was snowed in, it
was the closest I could come to being able to
shoot baskets. When I left for college, and the
CCRB was a long, cold walk away, the Nerf
Hoop was right there.
The possibilities with a Nerf Hoop are
limitless. You can shoot around, you can play
one-on-one or two-on-two (full contact is the
most fun), you can play H-O-R-S-E or around
the world, or you can make up your own game.
My field-goal and free-throw percentages have
doubled, and my three-point field goal percentage
has increased in some sort of arithmetic
progression.
And then, there's my dunking.
Who says I can't do a patented, high-flying,
360-degree slam, as the Nike commercial with
Mars Blackman goes? On my Nerf Hoop, I can
do just about anything.
Michael Jordan, eat your heart out.
M'
tennis star wins indoor tournament
BY ANDREW GOTTESMAN
Michigan's Malivai Washington,
the No. 1 collegiate tennis player in
the country, overcame a dismal
second set to defeat teammate Dan
Goldberg 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in the Rolex
National Indoor Intercollegiate
Championship Sunday.
The tournament was held at the
University of Minnesota in Min-
neapolis and included the top 32
collegiate players in the nation.
"In the first set, I started out
really fast," said Washington, the
tournaments top seed. "No matter
who I was playing, I knew it was
going to be tough to keep that kind
of play up."
With the win, Washington
captured his second Collegiate Grand
Slam tournament of the year. In
October, he took the Volvo Tennis
Collegiate Championships, but also
lost that month in the quarterfinals
of another Grand Slam event, the Du
Pont National Clay Court Cham-
pionships, spoiling his chance at the
title. The final leg of the College
Slam is the NCAA Championships
in May.
EN ROUTE TO the finals,
Washington beat Grant Sacks of
Pepperdine 6-4, 6-7 (2), 6-3; Trevor
Kronemann of UC-Irvine 6-0, 6-1;
Stephane Simian of South Carolina
4-6, 6-4, 6-1 and UCLA's Brian
Garrow, the fourth seed, 6-2, 6-4.
Washington, who is from Swartz
Creek, Mi., tried to put the fact that
he was playing another Wolverine
for the championship out of his
mind. "I wanted to go out with the
frame of mind that I could win this
match and just make myself play
well," he said. "I knew exactly what
he was going to do and he probably
knew my game too."
Although Goldberg, of Avon,
Conn., ultimately lost, he seemed to
have an easier time than Washington
in getting to the finals. In not
dropping a set through the first four
rounds, Goldberg defeated Colum-
bia's Robert Kresberg 6-1, 6-1; Joby
Foley of West Virginia 6-3, 6-0; Jeff
Tarango of Stanford 7-6, 6-1 and
David Harkness of Brigham Young
6-3, 6-2.
TARRANGO, the tournament's
second seed, competed in the U.S.
Open last summer.
"In the first set, I made a lot of
mistakes," Goldberg said. "In the
first two sets, there were probably
50 players in the country that could
have beaten us. I thought that if I
could stay on him early in the third,
I think that I would have been out of
there. He wasn't playing well, but I
just couldn't sustain it, unfor-
tunately."
Playing behind the best in the
country, however, is not an easy
position to fill, as Goldberg knows.
"I've been the consummate brides-
maid in college tennis," he said. "I
think I've actually been the runner-
up in probably six events in college
and never won one.,,
A third Wolverine, David Kass,
also competed, but was defeated by
Harkness 4-6, 7-6, 6-1 in the second
round.
JESSICA GREENE/Daly
Christine Furlong, one of Michigan's best performers, only
competed in two events against Michigan State. Her absence in the
other two events may have had a part in the team's 182.35-179.9 loss.
Women's gymnastics
suffers setback at MSU
BY MARK KATZ
The Michigan women's gymnastics team's season-long trend of
improvement came to a close last Sunday when the team lost a dual meet
at Michigan State, 182.35-179.9.
The Wolverines entered the meet determined to rid themselves of the
main thing that was keeping them from performing up to their potential:
falls on the bars and the balance beam. However, if anything, the team
ended up regressing in that category, causing its overall score to plummet
almost two points from last week's score of 181.65 against Minnesota.
"We suffered 2.5 points worth of falls, and that really killed us," coach
Dana Kempthorn said. "We had the same kind of major mistakes that we
have been having in the past."
Kempthorn attributed the high number of falls to a combination of
factors, including a "lack of concentration" as well as the "sense that the
kids are still holding back a little in their routines."
Another reason for the low score could have been that Michigan's
three standout all-around performers, senior Angela Williams, sophomore
Christine Furlong, and senior Janne Klepek, only performed in two
events so that other members of the team could have an opportunity to
compete. Nevertheless, Kempthorn felt that "if the kids would have hit
their routines, we could have won the meet."
Furlong thought the loss resulted from other factors in addition. "The
Michigan State meet was the fifth weekend in a row that we competed,
so maybe some people were tired," she said. "I think the enthusiasm was
there, but with a sport like gymnastics, you never know what's going to
happen."
The only true bright spot for Michigan came from the ever-reliable
Williams, who recorded a season-best score of 9.5 on the balance beam,
which earned her first place, and a second-place score of 9.45 on the bars.
In addition, first-year gymnast Kim Crocker scored a personal best, 9.2,
in the floor exercises.
The Wolverines compete in their second home meet of the season
Saturday, when they take on Missouri at Crisler Arena.
INFO *FST
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February 14
5:OO-7:O0pm
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