Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 12, 1990
It's March.
MEN
Continued from page 1
The general mood of the Michigan team was high
upon hearing that they heading West. Sean Higgins, a
California native, was especially happy.
"We were happy just to go out for some sunshine,"
he said.
Fisher said that the team made tapes of all their '
potential foes during conference championships -
including a tape of Illinois State's win over Southern
Illinois in the Missouri Valley conference
championship game. He characterizes Illinois State as a
deliberate team.
"(Coach) Bob Bender has done a terrific job there,"
Fisher said. "Illinois State is going to be ala Duke-with
their passing. They run a motion offense and look to
make four or five passes."
If the Wolverines beat Illinois State, they will play
either New Mexico State or Loyola-Marymount of
California.
Marymount is the better known team of the two
with their characteristic high-paced offense. Marymount
has also been in the news lately because of the sudden
on-court death of Hank Gathers, who had played forward
for them.
Higgins has played with most of the players on the
Marymount team during the summers. He also says that
he was good friends with Gathers.
"Coach Fisher told us that after we go out there we
probably won't be coming back because the next round
is going to be in Oakland," Higgins said. "We're going
to bring a lot of tutors on the road with us.' Mich
cons
If Michigan advances to the regional, their likely 79 vi
opponent in the regional semi-final will be Arizona,
who handed Fisher his first coaching loss in the seasonH
opening Hall of Fame game in Springfield. An upset
against Arizona would pit the Wolverines against Cont
UNLV unless the Rebels are upended.
The tournament committee was kind to the Big Ten, is hi
selecting both Ohio State and Indiana - teams thought the
C
to be on the selection fence. in th(
"They deserve to get in," Fisher said. "There's no «
question about that. The seven teams are among the top good
64 teams. I wasn't sure they would get in though." Mich
after
A definite surprise was the committee's selection of Mich
Notre Dame to the field instead of fellow independent Gree
De Paul. The Blue Demons defeated the Fighting Irish chan
twice this season. Ai
"I'm sure De Paul's upset," Fisher said. "I would be, near
too." ita
its v
Time for tournamen
igan coach Steve Fisher hopes to keep his perfect tournament record intact and celebrate a second V
ecutive national championship with his family as he did here last year in Seattle following Michigan's 80-
ctory over Seton Hall. He begins his quest Friday against his alma matar, Illinois State.
t madness
WOMEN
Continued from page 1
some business to take care of.' And he said it so
serious, like we had done something wrong. Then he
goes, 'Anyone here been to Oklahoma before? How
would you like to go there Wednesday night."'
"We were jumping up and down," senior co-captain
Tanya Powell said. "I know the bus driver thought we
were crazy. We were jumping up and down, hugging
and crying. It's just like a dream come true."
"You would have thought we had won the NCAA
tournament," senior guard Tempie Brown said. "I feel
awesome. It was a dream, it was a goal we set as
freshmen. I didn't think it could happen the first three
years, but the way we've been playing this year I knew
it had to come true.
It was a good thing VanDeWege found out when he
did, otherwise he would have had to find out by
watching the teams being announced on CBS yesterday
afternoon. Michigan was the last team announced on the
Big East halftime show.
"If I had to watch that bracket on T.V., I would have
seen Ohio State announced and said 'that's it we're not
going,"' VanDeWege said.
The Wolverines, needing to win three out of their
last four games to hit the 20-win plateau, believed that
they needed to reach this mark in order to earn a bid.
Two weeks ago VanDeWege said: "I think
realistically we need three wins, before the NCAA
(tournament) will become a reality. Obviously, if we
win three and get in that magical 20-win area, maybe
that's something that will put us over the edge."
Unfortunately for Michigan, two of those games
were against nationally ranked powers, Iowa and Purdue.
This resulted in a Wolverine split of the four games.
Michigan became one of the teams "on the bubble" for
the tournament.
But even after the loss to Iowa, 78-47, the team
remained optimistic.
"Buddy kept saying, 'there's always a chance, there's
always a chance,"' Brown said. "The loss to Iowa really
didn't matter. We needed to beat Minnesota, that was
the key game."
First-year guard Stacy McCall explained the
uncertainty the team felt after the Iowa loss: "We
weren't really sure about the tournament because we
didn't know how deep they (the selection committee)
would go (in the Big Ten), but they went five deep. I
was surprised at that."
Last year only three Big Ten teams made the
tournament, but this year the NCAA respected the
conference by handing out five Big Ten bids to Iowa,
Northwestern, Purdue, Ohio State, and Michigan.
Although the Buckeyes tied the Wolverines for fourth
place in the conference, they received a 6th seed, instead
of a 10th like Michigan.
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inued from page 1
ghly unlikely four teams from
CHA will enter the field of 12
e tournament.
The only thing now is to have a
game against Bowling Green,"
igan coach Red Berenson said
Saturday's 4-3 overtime loss to
igan State. "We thought we
d have to finish above Bowling
n in this tournament to have a
ce to go on."
nd going on should be in the
future for the Wolverines after
ictory over Bowling Green.
Falcon coach Jerry York feels that
Michigan earned an NCCA bid when
he said, "We still feel we have an
outside chance to get in," after
yesterday's Wolverine victory.
The Michigan players agree with
York. "If we beat BG, it would be
unjustified if we don't get in,"
defenseman Todd Copeland said after
Saturday's 4-3 overtime loss to
Michigan State.
The Wolverines also have history
on their side. Last year fifth place
Bowling Green defeated third place
Illinois-Chicago in the CCHA
consolation game and won the right
to a post-season birth.
"We played today with the
expectation that if we win, we
should be in it," netminder Warren
Sharples said.
Michigan entered the CCHA
playoffs ranked 12th in the final
NCAA poll released February 26,
1990 and improved its stock
tremendously with the two games
played this past weekend at Joe
Louis Arena.
"Give Michigan credit. They're
playing more like a first place team
than a fourth place team," MSU
coach Ron Mason said after the
Spartan win Saturday. "(Michigan)
played like it was their last game and
we just played it like any other
game."
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