Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 19, 1990
Blue escapes Redbirds,
76-70,
by Taylor Lincoln
Daily Basketball Writer
LONG BEACH- With a
minute-and-a-half left in Friday's
Michigan-Illinois State first round
NCAA tournament game, Redbird
forward Rickey Jackson stole a
Demetrius Calip pass and took it the
length of the floor for a dunk.
The basket completed a ten point
comeback for the Redbirds, who
finished the season with a record of
18-13, tying the game at 70-70 with
1:32 remaining.
Considering that Terry Mills had
four fouls (along with only 7 points)
and Sean Higgins had shot a 24-foot
airball on the preceding possession,
it looked like Michigan was
unraveling.
After a time~out, the ball went
quickly to Higgins (who also had
only seven points at the time), who
hit a three-pointer which gave
Michigan the lead for good.
"I wanted to strangle him when
he took the one three-point shot and
missed it, and wanted to kiss him
when he took the other one and made
it," Michigan coach Steve Fisher
said.
"The first one was not a good
shot with respect to the situation,
the distance, and the way he shot it.
The second one was a great shot."
Jackson, who led the Redbirds
with 22 points, failed in an attempt
to match Higgins' shot when he
fired an off-balance attempt from
well beyond the three-point circle.
Illinois State then fouled Rumeal
Robinson, who sealed the game b;
making both free-throws. Michigan "
forward Loy Vaught added another
free throw to give Michigan its final
76-70 margin.
Robinson led Michigan with 24
points on 9-17 shooting.
"I was scared," Fisher said. "We
got a little tentative, did not play
particularly good inside defense on
(Jarrod) Coleman and allowed them
to come back.
"But we played hard and we're
just pleased to escape with a win."
BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK
'M', Loyola break
tournament records
by Taylor Lincoln
Daily Basketball Writer
LONG BEACH- Marymount's
149 points destroyed the previous
NCAA tournament record of 127,1
scored by St. Joseph's against Utah1
in 1961. That game took four
overtimes.I
Michigan's 115 points was a
tournament record for points scored
by a losing team in a regulationi
game.1
The 264 points scored by Loyola
and Michigan also eclipsed the record
for total points in a tournament1
game.
The combined 25 three pointers by<
the two teams also set a record.
Marymount's 21 three pointers
broke the previous record of 14 by1
Providence over Alabama in 1987.c
Their 40 three point attempts breaks1
their own record of 39, set againsti
North Carolina in 1988.
CLIMBING THE LADDER:
With his 17 rebounds againstl
Marymount, Loy Vaught movedI
past Phil Hubbard into third place on;
Michigan's all-time list. Vaught
ends his career with 993 rebounds.
His 19 points left him five short of
Hubbard's 1455 - 10th on the all-
time Wolverine list.
SCHEDULING SNAFUS: Just
over an hour prior to Michigan's
game against Illinois State, the
Wolverine players sat with bored
faces on their bench. Chris Seter
listened to his walk-man, Sean
Higgins read the tournament prog-
ram, and the rest of the players
simply waited.
According to Michigan Assistant
SID Mike Murray, the team had
shown up with the intention of
shooting around but tournament
rules say that teams can only
practice for a specific half-hour
period prior to games. The Wolver-
ines designated time had yet to
begin.
BOOST FROM AN ALUMNI:
Former Michigan guard Gary Grant
was in attendance at Friday's game,
he is waiting for a broken ankle to
heal before he can return to playing
for the NBA's Los Angeles
Clippers.
The injury required that "five pins
and a plate" be put in his ankle. He
is hopeful to return to action for the
playoffs if the Clippers make it.
Michigan coach Steve Fisher
apparently would welcome his help,
broken ankle or not. "You got your
shoes in case we need help?" Fisher
asked Grant as his team took the
floor prior to the game.
MORE BAND AID: Last year,
Michigan's athletic department en-
dured considerable criticism for
hiring a band for the opening rounds
in Atlanta.
This year, the athletic department
stepped up its act a notch, sort of.
Michigan alum Stan Biart put
together a sixteen member "L.A.
area alumni band."
In related "team support" news,
Michigan brought together a four
member cheering contingent of Todd
Campau, Jack Brothers, Kristin
Willson, and Laura Gibson.
When asked who paid for the trip
coach Annette Schmidt said "I don't
question it, we're just happy to be
here."
She was undaunted by the fact that
the other seven teams in the regional
brought their full cheering squads.
FLYING INTO L.A.: provides
an undeniable reminder about the
side-effects of industrialization. A
gaseous cloud, the color of brownish.
mustard, hangs in suspension over
the city as if it is pant of the
ecology.
Locals say that the cloud sometimes
drifts as an entity, out over the
ocean. Those are the nice days.
AP Photo
Wolverine center Terry Mills hits the floor with Illinois State's Elvin Florez in a second-half scramble for a
loose ball. Mills scored seven points in Michigan's 76-70 in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.
If it had been a regular season
game and not a tournament game-
in which any win is inherently
positive- Fisher may not have been
so pleased.
The game saver was Vaught. The
senior stemmed several potential
Redbird rallies with fierce rebounds,
on his way to a career high 21. He
also had 18 points.
"Loy Vaught is definitely one of
the biggest and strongest players we
ever played against," Bender said. "It
wasn'ta big surprise that he did as
well on the boards as he did."
Illinois State shot only 32
percent yet was still in a position to
win in the final minutes. Through-
out the game, the Redbirds surprised
Michigan by hurrying the ball up
the floor.
"We talked all week long about
the fact that we had to stay in
character to what we do, we wanted
to push the ball up the floor and we
caught them a number of times not
back in transition and got some easy
buckets. "
Fisher agreed with Bender that
Michigan was affected by the up-
tempo game, though he denied that
the Wolverines were caught off
guard.
"They had open practice
(Thursday) and they were doing a lot
of fast-break conversion stuff,"
Fisher said. "(Assistant coach) Jay
Smith told our kids 'You better be
able to sprint and run, because
they're going to try and beat you
down the floor'."
Despite the near victory, Bender
refused to admit that he was pleased.
"We're disappointed that we didn't
win. We didn't come in with any
feeling that we wanted to just make
a good showing for ourselves."
LMU
Continued from Page 1
to be in tremendous condition."
For most of the first half, the
Wolverines stayed with Marymount,
largely because of Terry Mills' 19
first half points. However, in the
second half, he only scored four.
Mills attributed Marymount's
frantic pace as the reason he was not
able to be more effective .in the
second half. "We got caught up in
the running game," he said. "It's
hard to get it set up in the post when
they're running up and down the
court.
"Before you could get to one end
they were shooting a three on the
other end," he added.
Perhaps the most important
reason that Marymount was so
effective was the play of Kimble's
supporting cast. Fryer's 41 points
led all scorers and Stumer added 21,
including 5-8 three point shooting.
"Once they started to distract my
shot," Kimble said, "I found other
guys like Fryer and Stumer."
Lowery, who averages just over
one three pointer per game,
uncharacteristically made 3 three
point shots. "I said before the game
that I didn't want everybody
shooting from 30 feet," Westhead
said. "If you want to put it up I said
Bo, go ahead, Jeff go ahead, Per go
ahead.' Then I looked and said
'Terrell,' everybody laughed and I
said 'what the hell, go ahead."
Kimble lent the impression that
he thought Marymount had the game
in hand from the start. "Even in the
first half, I happened to be looking
at the other players and they didn't
look confident. They didn't seem to
know what was going on."
Read
Lincoln's Minutes
in the Michigan Daily
LINCOLN
Continued from page 1
Sometimes it's hard to tell if the
Gathers' questions are concerning the
death of human being, and associated
feelings, or the livelihood of a
basketball team whose survival
depends on winning the next round.
Kimble is asked to seriously
consider how Marymount, a smaller
team, can hope to rebound well
against Michigan in Gathers'
absence.
His answer is painful in its
practicality. "Rebounding with Hank
out is definitely going to be a task,"
he says. "I'll have to focus more on
that part of my game."
The mediator of the press
conference mentions to Westhead
that his team had the longest layoff
of the 64 teams in the tournament
field. He asks him if it feels good to
have finally played.a game, so that
the players could start putting the
tragedy behind them.
Westhead finally lends som'
perspective on the division between
tragedy and basketball. "I think the
two things are really unrelated. How
we as individual deal with this is
going to take more than a game and
more than several months.
"As a team, we needed (the game)
to get by our first-round jitters just
like every other team in the
tournament, so that our real team
can show up."
Somebody asks Kimble if
playing the defending champions,
Michigan, will be a motivator.
Westhead laughs sadly and puts his
hand on Kimble's back. All week
the press has focused on what an
emotional high Marymount would
be on because of Gathers' death.
"If we want to win the national
championship we have to get by the
national champions," Kimble says.
"So, yes, in that way it's a
motivator."
I'm waiting for someone to ask if
the two motivating factors will
augment each other or cancel each
other out. Thankfully nobody does.
Marymount's pace too
much for Wolverines
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by Taylor Lincoln
Daily Basketball Writer
LONG BEACH - Many people
thought that the prospect of playing
another running team would be the
right tonic for Michigan to raise its
game to the level that has been
expected of the team all season.
But Marymount's pressure de-
fense and run-and-shoot offense left
the Wolverines in a bewildered funk
as they watched their hopes of
repeating as champions slip away.
"We knew we couldn't run with
them the way they play for 40
minutes," coach Steve Fisher said.4,
"We talked before the game about
selectively running, running when
we had the numbers off the press.
When we didn't have them, 'slow it
up and throw it inside to, number
one, Terry Mills.' We didn't do 't
well enough."
Marymount's style is difficult to
counter with any sort of set offense.
When a team is fortunate enough to
beat their press they usually have a
good, open shot.
"They make you push it up the
floor and they show you wide open
shots off the floor. They tempt
you," Fisher said. "What we wanti d
You almost can't avoid playing fast
with the waywe play. It's a quicl.
outlet offense and 'find the first opc .i
shooter you can."'
Since the NCAA began i;s
current seeding format in 1979, the
lowest seeded team to win the
national title has been Villanova, a
ninth seed in the 1985 tournament.
Marymount was seeded 11th, yet
Fisher believes that the Lions have
the talent to win it all. "They made
NBA three point shots, they mace
them with people guarding them. ';
they can keep shooting like that, I
don't know who's going to be. t
them."
Marymount forward Bo Kimble
said, "We just want to go out there-
and play because we're doing it fog
Hank (Gathers). We don't think any-
thing is going to get in our way."
Westhead opened the press
conference by saying, "To show you
that we are vulnerable, Bo does foul
out."
Kimble, who has played much of
both tournament games with four
fouls, fouled out against Michigan
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to do is pass up those shots for with 16 seconds remaining. It was
better shots." an intentional foul to stop the clock.
Marymount coach Paul Westhead
concurred: "We need the game to go "only because he told me to
fast and our defense makes it go fast. Kimble said, smiling.
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