The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - November 18, 1991 - Page 3
Carril
The underdog coach discusses
NCAA sports in the Ivy League
Jeff Sheran
Over the years, Princeton bas-
ketball coach Pete Carril has
gained a reputation as one of
college basketball's best coaches.
le has repeatedly led Princeton to
conquests over more talented
teams. Daily Sports Writer Ken
Sugiura recently spoke with Carril
about college basketball.
Daily: In your career at Prince-
ton, you have pulled off several
upsets, including victories over
North Carolina, Indiana, Duke, and
Michigan. Is there a secret to the
success of your team?
Carril: I wouldn't say so. It's
the same thing that everybody else
does. You've just got to work hard,
play very hard and smart, and try to
play up to your strengths and sort
of hide your weaknesses..
D: In recent years, especially
around NCAA Tournament time,
your team has gained a following as
everybody's favorite underdog. Why
do you think this has happened?
C: Well, because we are the un-
derdog. It's a natural phenomenon
for this country down through the
years to root for the underdog.
D: Dick Vitale, among others,
has named you "The Professor of
Hoops." Do you feel deserving of
this title?
C: Well, I don't think so, but
that's all right. See, I don't have a
beard, and I don't have a mustache.
That's how you get to be a profes-
sor, right?
D: Thus far during your tenure at
Princeton, you have been offered
jobs at more glamorous college pro-
grams, as well as positions in the
NBA. What has kept you at
Princeton?
C: Well, I think it gives me a
chance to live the way I want to
live. The goals I set out for my life
when I was younger pretty much
correspond to the way I'm living
now, and that's what I want.
D: What sorts of goals are
those?
C: I want to be a happy person
and to get involved in teaching. In
this case, I would say teaching bas-
ketball. I'd rather not be involved in
the glamour and the publicity and
all the hoopla that goes with big
time sports, I guess I'd soon stay
out of that. Which is not to say that
it's wrong; it doesn't mean it's
wrong. I wouldn't be comfortable
there. Some people enjoy that, and
that's fine.
D: In 1979, Penn went to the
Final Four. Do you think that your
team, or any other Ivy League
school, can ever get back?
C: I think it's going to be hard to
do that. If you recall, two teams
from the Ivy League, had been to the
Final Four before, Princeton and
Penn. At that time, you used to stay
within your region. You had an
Eastern region, a Southeast, a
Midwest, and a Far West.
Now, our league is rated not
among the powers. So we're going
to get a 16th seed, or a 13th seed, al-
though last year, we had as high as
the eighth seed. So you're always
going to play one of the best teams
around. And that didn't always
exist.
So I think it's harder now, it was
always hard for the Ivy League, but
'I'd rather not be
involved in the
glamour and the
publicity and all the
hoopla that goes with
big time sports... I
wouldn't be
comfortable there'
it's now even harder. You don't give
athletic scholarships and your aid is
based on individual need.
Just take a look at what happened
to Big Ten football, because there
was a series of years there when they
were based on need, and they went
out and played in the Rose Bowl,
and got killed every year. So you
just do a little historical research
there, you see what effect that has.
D: The coach of that Penn team
was current Pistons coach Chuck
Daly. He eventually left partly be-
cause he didn't want to deal with
the difficulty of recruiting. Has this
been similarly difficult for you?
C: It's hard to talk to a kid. We
just lost one the other day whose fi-
nancial aid was not very good, and so
he took a scholarship.
You lose 'em every year. Then
you have to go around looking for
grades. You don't get over 500 min-
imum (SAT verbal score), you can't
come. We haven't taken too many
guys with 500 minimum verbal. My
lowest guy is around 1180 total.
D: Last season your team was
nationally-ranked all season long,
despite the fact that none of your
players are on scholarship. How do
you think you would do if you
didn't have the added strains on your
recruiting by being at an Ivy League
school?
C: I think you'd do okay. Talent
is very, very important and I think
we'd do alright. I wouldn't do any
better than the coaches who have the
talent now. As a matter of fact,
there are hardly any bad coaches in
the United States today. I can't
think of a single one.
When I first started, there were
always a couple of guys who didn't
belong. But now, schools are getting
great coaches. There are no bad
coaches around that I know of. So, I
wouldn't do anything to improve on
what anybody else was doing. I
would just do okay.
'M' fans should learn
to appreciate success
I think the t-shirts said it all. You know, the ones that people flocked
to buy a few years ago - the ones that read "Michigan: 1989 NCAA
Basketball Champions" on one side and "As if that weren't enough...
Michigan: 1989 Rose Bowl Champions."
That was my first year at Michigan, my first exposure to big-time
collegiate athletics. Considering the ultimate goal of the collegiate
experience, I think Michigan's athletic dominance did a poor job of
preparing me for real life.
I left Ann Arbor that summer thinking this would happen every year.
That every New Year's, I'd be watching Michigan win the Rose Bowl.
That every March, I'd be watching Michigan in the Final Four. That
every winter, the swimming teams would win the Big Ten.
Business as usual.
People wonder why students here are so elitist. We might not be if
our athletic teams didn't win so much.
Browsing at campus stores in Champaign, I found that Illinois
students place special emphasis on beating Michigan, as evidenced by the
bumper stickers, keychains, and shirts that defamed our institution.
And Illinois isn't alone. Other schools throughout the Midwest all
claim Michigan, which has probably beaten them for much of their
history in Division I, as one of their archrivals.
However, with the exception of Michigan State and Ohio State, no
Big Ten school has a true footabll rivalry with Michigan. Even
Minnesota, with the contrived jug competition, doesn't incite the
Wolverines the way a trip to East Lansing or Columbus does.
But Michigan doesn't acknowledge these schools as rivals. This
probably incites them further, like a child who cries when ignored.
Only last year, when the Wolverines lost to Michigan State and Iowa,
did the concept of a Big Ten loss hit home. You see, until Oct. 13 of my
junior year, I had never seen Michigan lose a Big Ten game.
Michigan went to the Gator Bowl, the pinnacle for some, but the left-
overs for us. It didn't seem right.
But the Wolverines compiled 715 total yards of offense in a 35-3
thrashing of Ole Miss, while Washington crushed Iowa in the Rose
Bowl. It reminded the nation that Pasadena is Michigan's town.
Now that the Wolverines have earned a Rose Bowl bid, Michigan has
restored its hegemony over the Big Ten. Next season, when nobody on the
Wolverines will have any memory of not winning the conference title,
the question will be, "Who's gonna finish second in the Big Ten?"
Standing on the field at the end of Saturday's victory, I watched the
team celebrate - it was triumphant, but not particularly climactic.
Maybe it was winning on the road. Maybe it was because this team is not
the vocal group of years past. Maybe it was because it hasn't yet achieved
all of its goals.
Maybe it was business as usual.
But for our sake, let's remember it can't happen every year. Every time
we win the Rose Bowl, win the basketball championship, win the swim-
ming tiles, it means another Big Ten team doesn't. When one school beats
out nine others year after year, they'll all be aiming for that school.
I guess the satisfaction of being a Michigan student comes from
watching them try and fail. Hail to the victors.
E CHIGAN I ILY
Women swi
by Rich Mitvalskyr
Daily Sports Writer
This weekend at Northwestern
and Wisconsin, the Michigan1
women's swimming team revealed
some of the conference's top indi-
vidual swimmers, as well as a mass
of team depth, crushing Northwest-
em, 193-106, and Wisconsin, 157-87.
Against the Wildcats, junior
transfer Kirsten Silvester led Mich-;
igan, winning the 200 and 400-meter
freestyles; the 200-meter back-;
stroke, and the 200-meter medley
relay
"I'm very happy with my times
immers' de]
right now," Silvester said. "I'm al-
ready going my tap-red times, and
we are working really hard in prac-
tice."
Alecia Humphrey, a first-year
swimmer, grabbed victories in the
100 and 200-meter backstrokes, the
200-meter individual medley, and
also in the 200 medley relay.
"I'm really happy with my
swims," Humphrey said. "They are
my best untapered times here, and
all the freshmen are swimming
well."
Sophomore Karen Barnes starred
for Michigan against Wisconsin,
pth keys ea
swimming to victories in the 400
and 800-meter freestyles, as did
Humphrey again in the 200 back-
stroke and 200 I.M., and the 400
medley relay.
Most noticeable, though, was
the especially large number of
Wolverines finishing in the second,
third, and fourth positions.
"While we don't have as many
top-level swimmers on this team,"
head coach Jim Richardson said, "we
haven't had a team with this kind of
depth here at Michigan. Our second,
Gophers
onds, respectively. In addition, he
and fellow teammates Van Tassell,
Kevin Glass, and Hay claimed vic-
tory in the 400-meter freestyle re-
lay with a time of 3:35.27.
"I was happy with my times. I
thought I would be slower," Borges
said. "It was a relatively good meet
for us and it gave us a chance to see
where we were at."
Brian Gunn, who finished second
in the 400 and 800- meter freestyle
and the200-meter butterfly felt the
meet proved that the Wolverines are
as strong as ever.
sy victories
third, and fourth swimmers in each
event are very good."
Michigan, now 2-0, improved its
series records to 6-2 and 13-2 over
Northwestern and Wisconsin, re-
spectively. Yet, Richardson stresses
the fact that the Wolverines have
room for improvement as a team, as
well as on the individual level.
"What this team needs to do is
prove it's capable of being aggres-
sive," Richardson said. "We are not
the same kind of team we've had in
the past."
Men tankers burn Badgers,
by Chad Safran
Daily Sports Writer
The weather outside may have
been cold, but the men's swimming
team heated up the indoor pool Sat-
urday in Madison with overwhelm-
ing victories. The Wolverines
smashed Wisconsin, 165-77, and
crushed previously undefeated Min-
nesota, 160-92.
With five first-place and four
second-place finishes, the men upped
their record to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in
the Big Ten.
Steve Bigelow proved why he is
the defending conference champion
in the 200-meter backstroke, swim-
ming to victory in 2:08.57.
Newcomer Steve West made
quite an impression in his first con-
ference meet for Michigan. A rookie
from Huntington Beach, Calif.,
West triumphed in the 200-meter
breaststroke with a time of 2:25.43
and helped Bigelow, Tom Hay, and
Rodney Van Tassell win the 400-
meter medley relay in 3:54.60.
Gustavo Borges, a rookie from
Brazil, captured the top spot in the
50 and 100-meter freestyle events
with times of 23.50 and 53.26 see-
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