The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 9, 1992 - Page 5
BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK Bailey jinx continues
in third Indiana loss
by John Niyo
Daily Basketball Writer
Damon Bailey has had his ups and
downs this season in conference play.
Yesterday's game provided further evi-
dence of that fact.
The Hoosier floor leader played only
12 minutes - four in the second half -
against the Wolverines and did not score.
He attempted only two shots and finished
with three rebounds and one assist.
In the first Michigan-Indiana contest,
Bailey played a big role in the victory
with 22 points, five rebounds and five as-
sists. Not surprisingly, Michigan's Jalen
Rose - who only scored five points on 2-
for-11 shooting in Bloomington - was
pleased with results of the rematch.
"It was funny to me because I was
guarding him," Rose said with a smile af-
ter the game. "I was just determined to
show them that it's not an everyday thing.
'Don't get used to it."'
Rose was glad to get the second chance.
"I wanted to help spark the team to-
day," Rose said. "I didn't play very well
the first game."
For Bailey, the woeful afternoon is an-
other addition to one of the more mysteri-
ous statistics in college basketball. In
each of Indiana's three Big Ten losses -
at Michigan State, at Minnesota and now
aly at Michigan - Bailey has. failed to score.
KNIGHT WATCH: It's hard to know
when to believe Indiana coach Bob Knight.
Well known for his short temper and bit-
ing sarcasm, he is literally feared in
postgame press conferences.
Yesterday, the sarcasm was in evidence
again.
"I thought the game was really well
played and well officiated," Knight said
after the game.
And in response to the laughter in the
room after that comment, he responded.
"No, I really did. But I know you guys
won't print that. But if I thought it was
poorly officiated, you guys would make
headlines out of it. What do you know
about officiating? It was a goddamn well-
officiated game."
But Knight spent a considerable
amount of time verbally accosting the of-
ficials yesterday, especially in the first
half. So was he serious? Only The General
knows for sure.
NO MERCY: One thing Knight did
know for sure was how the Michigan stu-
dents felt. When he walked onto the court
before the game - stopping to chat with
Steve Fisher - Knight was greeted with a
chorus of "Go home, Bobby."
And two signs stood out in the crowd
as well.
One read "Caution: Flying Chairs,"
referring to the infamous chair Knight
threw in a fit of rage several years ago.
The other altered a Knight statement that
made headlines a few years back, when he
quoted as saying "that rape victims should
"sit back and enjoy it," instead of risking
further harm. That sign read:
"Bobby, if defeat is inevitable, just sit
back and enjoy it."
CEREMONIES: At halftime, Mich-
igan honored some of its most successful
athletes this year. David Ritter, a starting
safety on the football team, was pre-
sented with the Honda Scholar Athlete-
of-the-Year Award.
He was followed by the women's
swimming and diving team, which re-
ceived its trophy for winning Big Ten
Championship.
Then Desmond Howard and his
Heisman Trophy took center stage and
that brought a standing ovation from the
crowd. Howard was interviewed by Jim
Nantz and Billy Packer for CBS as the
halftime drew to a close.
TO BE ANNOUNCED: This week-
end's Michigan-Illinois gametime will be
announced by the Big Ten conference of-
fice today.
No previously mentioned times are ac-
curate. A CBS programming decision is
the reason for the uncertainty. The net-
work has kept the starting time and date
up in the air, waiting to decide between
the Michigan game and Indiana at Purdue
for its national telecast.
Indiana coach Bob Knight yells instructions at his players during yesterday's game.
Victory pushes'
Wolverines should head into
by Albert Lin year. The Wolverine
Daily Basketball Writer. to be a sure thing for
The Wolverines won a basketball
game yesterday, and in the process
may have done a lot more. The 68-
60 victory over the second-ranked
Indiana Hoosiers likely assures
Michigan a spot in the upcoming
NCAA Tournament.
"It was a very big win," frosh
Jalen Rose said. "We wanted to be
on an upswing going into the tour-
nament, and we're on it."
The Wolverines' loss last
Tuesday to Ohio State dropped the
team to fifth place in the conference.
Many observers felt at that point
that Michigan was on the tourna-
ment bubble.
While it is likely that the Big
Ten will have five - maybe six -
representatives at the big dance, the
loss, coupled with the Wolverines'
remaining schedule, meant the team
would have a tough road ahead.
"We felt we had been getting bet-
ter, we just hadn't gotten into the
win column," captain Freddie Hunter
said. "We knew we were capable of
this, and the win proves it."
Had the Wolverines lost yester-
day, they would have faced the
prospect of a possible three-game
losing streak toward the end of the
all season, but a s
which would have1
17-10, began to bring
Yesterday's vic
those thoughts.
"I was'always con
get in. This boosts o
lot going into th
frosh Chris Webbers
The Wolverines
fight the overconfi
,I know we cc
any team in t
country, and
that in frontt
anybody.'
- C
Michig
come after conque
team in the nation.
two tough upcomin
Purdue Wednesda
Saturday vs. Illino
could lose.
The Boilermaker
65-60, in the Wolve
home-opener in Jan
M' over bubble
a tourney with momentum
9 have appeared Illini upset Michigan State Saturday
r the tournament behind Deon Thomas' 26 points.
treak like that, But yesterday, none of that was
left the team at on the players' minds. They know
g out doubters. they are out of the conference title
tory erased all race, but this victory was a sweet
one nevertheless.
nfident we would "We may have spoiled (Indiana's)
ur confidence a chances of possibly winning the Big
e tournament," Ten title outright," said Rose, of
said. dropping Indiana into a first-place tie
s now have to with Ohio State at 13-3. "But we
dence that may don't mind playing the role of
spoiler."
an beat "This is a very good confidence
the builder for us," frosh Juwan Howard
said. "We had been winning here,
I'll Say losing there, and we just gotta get
of consistent, have everyone believe in
each other."
hris Webber The team's goal this last week of
rhe regular season is to remove the
ran forwvard'inconsistent' tag off its play, while
it awaits Sunday's announcement of
the tournament pairings.
ring the No. 2 "I know we can beat any team in
They still have the country, and I'll say that in front
ig games - at of anybody," Webber said. "Whether
ay and home we do or not is up to us."
is - that they Added coach Steve Fisher:
"We've got a young team that has
s won at Crisler, started scratching the potential that
rines conference they feel they have, but we still have
uary, while the a long way to go."
NiYo
Continued from page 5
particular - have said that they knew they were capa-
ble of such a feat.
Before and after the close loss to No. 1 Duke in
December, Michigan's players said they expected to
win. The other big games have been no different.
Meanwhile, the fans and media have sat and waited,
maybe a little too impatiently, for it to happen.
Yesterday, it did.
And it happened in rather amazing fashion.
Michigan simply outworked, outhustled and outplayed a
team that supposedly never lets that happen.
"We knew we had to take it to them, and put the
pressure on them," Freddie Hunter said. "We knew we
couldn't just sit back on defense."
They didn't. The consensus among the players in the
lockerroom after the game was that they had played
their best defensive game of the year.
Indiana shot below 40 percent from the field in both
halves, and the Hoosier's leading scorer, All-America
candidate Calbert Cheaney, was hounded all day and
held to just 10 points on 3-for-13 shooting.
A far cry, for Cheaney, from his 29-point outing
Wednesday at Iowa, and certainly not a typical day
overall for a Bobby Knight-coached team. All courtesy
of an intense Michigan effort.
"When we play hard and when we play good defense
we're a tough team to beat," Webber said.
And when asked about Cheaney's rough day,
Webber was quick to give individual credit where it was
due.A
"If Ray (Jackson) didn't play the kind of defense that
he did on Calbert Cheaney, we wouldn't have won to-
day.
But Jackson was quick to pay his teammates respect,
noting that the defense yesterday was a complete team
effort.
"He's a great player," Jackson said. "I just concen-
trated on trying to force him baseline, to my help de-
fense."
That help defense broke down in previous games, as
did the Wolverines composure. Last Tuesday, Michigan
watched a five-point lead evaporate as it committed
three straight turnovers that led directly to a 77-66 loss.
The players pointed to that painful memory as a big rea-
son why they were able to hold on to this victory.
"At Ohio State, we just gave that game away," said
Webber, shaking his head. "We learned more from that
game than any other this year. People asked if we
learned from the Duke loss. More so than Duke, we
learned from our mistakes at Ohio State, and we re-
membered that on the bench."
King agreed, comparing the late minutes at Ohio
State, with yesterday's finish.
"We kept reminding ourselves, 'Let's not do what
we did at Ohio State,"' King said. "We knew we had to
be strong with the ball."
And Howard, along with the rest of the team, echoed
those sentiments.
"This time I feel we outsmarted our opponents,"
Howard said. "We learned a lot from Ohio State.
"People criticized us and said that we played 35 min-
utes of good basketball. And you can't argue with that.
Today, we proved that we could play 40 minutes."
They proved that and more. The last time the
Wolverines had a chance to showcase their ability in a
Sunday CBS national game, they looked awful. A 13-
point first half against Ohio State that day couldn't be
overshadowed by second-half rally that got them close.
Against Indiana, though, that TV audience was un-
doubtedly left with a different opinion of the Michigan
basketball team.
People can no longer look at this Wolverine squad
with five first-year starters and talk only about how
good they will be someday. Now, they have to start talk-
ing about how good they already are.
That is what the players have been trying to say =all
along. Finally, they got their message across.
INDIANA
Continued from page 1
A James Voskuil three pointer
with 3:08 left broke Indiana's back.
Michigan was riding high, and the
Hoosiers could not find the basket.
Until a Greg Graham three at the fi-
nal buzzer, Indiana had made only
one field goal in the last seven min-
utes.
"We put the pressure on them
defensively," Howard said. "In a
way I'm surprised (Indiana was.
missing), because they do hit those"
clutch shots."
Jimmy King had a big game for
Michigan, scoring 18 points, includ-
ing 10 in the first seven minutes
when the Wolverines jumped out to
a 20-6 lead.
"I thought he was sensational in
the first half," Fisher said, "He got
us going."
"Michigan played extremely
well at the start of the ballgame,"
Knight said. "They really played as
well early as I've seen anybody play
this year."
INDIANA (60)
Fa FT Rob.
1M. U-A M-A O-T A F Pte.
Cheaney 32 313 4-6 0.2 2 3 10
Henderson 33 9-17 1.5 4.10. 0 4 19
Anderson 35 3-13 6-9 2-5 4 4 12
Graham 19 4-5 0-1 1-1 1 3 9
Bailey 12 0-2 0-0 1-3 1 0 0
Meeks 26 2-4 0-0 1-1 3 1 5
Reynolds 31 0-4 0-0 2-6 2 5 0
Nover 12 1-3 3-4 0-0 0 0 5
Totals 200 2261 .14-25 15-35 13 20 60
2sFG%- .361. FT%- .560. Three-pont goals:
I2-5, .400 (Meeks 1-1, Graham 1-2, Cheaney 0-1,
Bailey 01). Team rebounds: 3. Blocks: 2
2, Bailey, Meeks). Steals: 7 (Meeks 2, Reynolds
2, Cheaney, Henderson, Anderson). Technical
fouls: none.
MICHIGAN (68)
FG FT Rob.
Min. M-A M-A O-T A F Pts.
Webber 32 4-10 2-2 6-18 2 3 11
Jackson 16 1-2 0-2 0-3 1 4 2
Michigan's Chris Webber dunks home two of his 11
points in yesterdays 68-60 victory over Indiana.
Arizona crushes Stanford, 89-83
No. 4 Arizona 89, Stanford 83
The Wildcats (24-4, 13-3) won
their final home game and remained
in the Pac-10 race. Arizona led by 14
in the second half only to see the
Cardinal (16-10, 8-8) pull even. Matt
Othick broke the final tie with a 3-
pointer with 1:53 to play.
No. 5 Ohio St. 93,
Northwestern 78
The Buckeyes (21-5, 13-3) de-
feated the Wildcats (818, 1-15) and
set themselves up for the first-place
tie in the Big Ten behind Jim
Jackson's 26 points.
lead the Wildcats (23-6, 12-4 SEC).
Allan Houston and Carlus Groves
each had 23 points for the visiting
Volunteers (17-13, 8-8), who were
within 71-70 with seven minutes to
play.
No. 12 Oklahoma St. 77,
Kansas St. 69
The visiting Cowboys (24-6, 8-6)
set a school record with 11 3-point-
ers, five each by Sean Sutton anj
Corey Williams. Kansas State (15-
12, 5-9) needs a good showing in the
Big Eight tournament to make the
NCAA field.
their first season in the new Great
Midwest with the road win behind
Nick Van Exel's 24 points. Memphis
State (18-9, 5-5) will probably need
at least two tournament wins to
make the NCAA field.
No. 15 DePaul 66, Notre Dame
65
Notre Dame coach John McLeod
was assessed a technical foul with
the score tied and two seconds to
play. Stephen Howard.of the Blue
Demons (20-7) made one of two free
throws for a career-high 31 points
and the home win.
Michigan forward Chris Webber shoots over Indiana's Alan Henderson
yesterday at Crisler Arena in the WnIvArines' 6R-60 victorv.