Ice Hockey
vs. Miami (Ohio)
Yost Ice Arena
Friday & Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
the Michigan Daily
BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
Crunch time nears for
Ohio StateIndiana
Icy Taylor Lincoln
WSPORTS
Wednesday, February 21, 1990
Men's Volleyball
vs. Notre Dame
CCRB
Friday, 7 p.m.
Page 9
FISHER IS GUARD'S GREAT PROVIDER
Calip
inspired
Daily Basketball Writer
With five games remaining in
most team's schedules, Big Ten
coaches are bracing themselves for
the annual NCAA crunch..
Purdue, Michigan State, and
Michigan - each with over 19
wins - are shoe-ins, while Min-
nesota (17-6) and Illinois (18-6) are
virtual locks.
That leaves Ohio State and In-
diana to battle for the last possible
slot. Ohio State (7-6, 13-10) has a
one-game lead in league wins, but
Indiana (6-7, 16-7) has the better
overall mark.
"We've got to win four or five
of our remaining games," Ohio
State coach Randy Ayers said. "If
we only win three, that will put us
on the bubble."
The Boilermakers could solidify
their conference title chances when
they travel to Illinois Thursday.
Coach Gene Keady hopes his team
will be able to bounce back after
the big win against the Hoosiers.
"You're probably not going to
be in the concentration area that
'you want to be," he said. "We've
never been able to beat Indiana and
Illinois back-to-back since I've been
here."
Even with a win Thursday, the
Boilermakers will not easily shake
Michigan State. The Spartans trail
Purdue by only a game and the
teams finish their season against
each other - in East Lansing.
MSU coach Jud Heathcote
credits his team's somewhat sur-
prising success with the continually
improving play of 6'10" redshirt
center Mike Peplowski, who has
emerged from his chronic knee
troubles.
"Mike seems to play a little bet-
ter and a little longer each game,"
Heathcote said. "If we're looking to
a key to our late-season surge, it
could be him. He's a great space-
taker."
Meanwhile, Michigan still en-
tertains, "a ghost of a chance," to
win the league in the mind of coach
Steve Fisher. But he concedes that
the Wolverines will have to win all
five remaining games in addition to
having some help from other
teams.
-Purdue center Steve Scheffler
was named Big Ten Player of the
Week for his play against Wis-
consin and Indiana. The senior
center averaged 22 points and nine
rebounds in the two wins. Fur-
thermore, his .787 field goal per-
centage is almost certain to break
the conference record of Jerry Lu-
cas, who shot 68 percent for Ohio
State in 1962. Interestingly, Mich-
igan's Loy Vaught missed the
record by a fraction of percentage
point last year.
by Mike Gill
Daily Basketball Writer
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.
- Hebrews 11:1
It is a passage Demetrius Calip can recite at a moment's notice. The
words quickly come to mind. For Calip, they are his words to live by -
those that push him to continue - even when he feels like salesman Willie
Loman, and sees the world closing in on him at all sides.
There is another quote Calip closely guards, but this one did not come
from an ancient Biblical text.
Fisher is the one that is going to come through for you.
Those words were said by none other than Calip's
mother, who saw a parting of the sea in her son's
future, which at the time, Calip never could have
envisioned. Bill Frieder's exodus ended the captivity of
Calip's life and basketball career at Michigan. -
Faith had brought hope. Now, the evidence could be
seen.
Until Frieder's departure, Calip's existence in Ann
Arbor seemed beset with misery. After his first se-
mester, Calip found himself without a team or a chance
to play when he was declared academically ineligible.
Then, midway through his sophomore year, Frieder told
him it might not be a bad idea for him to find a different
place to play basketball.!
It was a time for soul searching. A time to rely on
that biblical passage. A time to possibly find a new
home.
"I try to keep (Hebrews 11:1) in my head when I
have hard times," Calip said. "If I just continue to'
believe that - even though I don't see things C4a l i p
happening, eventually things will work out."
Now, the junior finds himself as the starting point guard on the
defending National Championship basketball team. Since Calip moved into
the starting rotation five games ago, when Sean Higgins went down with an
injury, he has led a more control-oriented offense and is averaging 8.2 points
per game.
"I guess you could probably say it's been like a storybook season for
me," Calip said. "I think it will come to a conclusion for me as the starting
point guard on a National Championship team. Starting off the season, I
was coming in providing a pretty good spark off the bench. Now I'm the
starting point guard. What can I say?"
What can one say?
After Calip's arrival and subsequent academic ineligibility all anyone
could say was, "another dumb jock." The label fit as well as Nancy Reagan
in one of Barbara Bush's dresses. Calip had graduated from Flint Northern
with a 4.0 grade point average, was named in Who's Who Among American
High School Students, and held the title of homecoming committee
chairman.
He figured college would be as easy - then found himself ineligible and
CLASSIF
,B 1
from above
"frustrated with the world."
So Calip worked hard. Hard to improve his game. Hard to improve his
grades. Last semester, Calip pulled a 3.4 GPA and called it "disappointing."
He wanted a 4.0.
His goal this semester has again been set at perfect, with the hope that it
will make him an Academic All-American. "I'm not sure (what GPA it
takes to get All-American) but I want to get it as high as possible to make
sure," Calip says.
Recently a professor hailed Calip's playmaking ability on the basketball
court in a communication's lecture. "He's also in this class, I understand,"
the professor continued. "And I hear he's doing a real good job."
His on-court performance did not really exist in
Calip's vocabulary before Steve Fisher walked into the
head coaching position at Michigan. Frieder told the
backup guard that he would have a chance to play his
sophomore year, a reward for his hard work over the
summer.
Instead, he sat.
Finally, before the start of the Big Ten season last
year, Calip asked his coach what he could expect.
"Do you see me playing here," he asked.
"Well, I really don't see you playing, so you might
want to consider going somewhere else," Frieder replied.
A heart broke. And Calip looked to transfer
immediately to Eastern Michigan. But such a move
would leave him without his teammates, without the
academic excellence of Michigan, and without elig-
ibility for another year.
"I don't think God would bring me here to this uni-
versity for no reason," Calip said. "If it's no other
reason than to get a great degree, then I'll focus on
education."
And in the meantime he remembered his mother's words: "Fisher is the
one that is going to come through for you."
Of Frieder's departure Calip said, "I think his move was maybe God
letting me know a message - that I had to be patient and be humble."
Fisher immediately called on Calip in big situations. In Fisher's first
game as coach, as the Wolverines struggled against a pesky Xavier (Ohio)
team, Calip had his number called more than ever before.
The new coach came through for Calip, just like mom prophesied.
And Calip came through for Fisher, scoring a career-high nine points.
Throughout the tournament, Calip became a new dimension to the team.
This year, he gained recognition for putting Michigan back in the conference
race before Sunday's setback against Ohio State.
For a person born premature with many birth defects; for a person whose
grandmother hated to see him play sports because of asthma; for a person
forced to sit out, then advised to leave, one can only say, "not bad."
"I thank God for this happening to me and I remember where I came
from," Calip said. "I remember that I wasn't even playing that much last
year at this time.
"So I just thank God."
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and important,
EA LIT
Engineers
numerous
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1990, sponsored in part by UMEC. For
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1990 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Rick's Cafe'
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