Men's Basketball vs. Oklahoma State Friday, 10:45 p.m. (EST) Lexington, Ky. SPORTS Men's Swimming and Diving at NCAA Championships Tomorrow through Saturday Indianapolis Page 9 The Michigan Daily Wednesday, March 25, 1992 -- - ------------- - - ------------ - --- - ---------------- - - - --------------------- Back to the Barn Former Kentucky coach expects raucous return to Rupp Arena o need for speed: orevoke the race rule by Adam Miller Daily Sports Writer Sometimes "progress" is not progress. The Michigan men's tennis team experienced first-hand the NCAA's }new non-conference rule last Saturday, and it probably wishes that things had remained as they were. A regulation that can only be called the "race ule" says that should one of the teams win four of the singles matches, it automatically wins the team match. Don't even think about doubles. The first team to four wins. "This Indianapolis 500 approach to tennis scoring was instituted to shbrten match times. Tennis matches often last upward of four hours when thy" three doubles contests are played. Michigan lost, 4-0, to Tennessee last weekend on this very rule. Here's thekicker: the Wolverines' No. 1 and 2 singles players, David Kass and "Dan Brakus, didn't lose. How's that? Their three-set matches, lengthy af- fairs indeed, were stopped in the middle. The final contention of the new regulation is that after four victories, the other matches don't count for the eam, so they just don't count. -There are few words to describe this situation, but here's some of them: silly, preposterous, ludicrous and wrong. The race rule may not seem that different from the accepted practice of not playing doubles if singles play ends with a 5-1 or 6-0 score - since even a doubles sweep would result in a loss - but it is. Here's why: 1 Four is an artificial number at which to declare victory. With nine matches to play, four does not win. Say a team is down, 4-2, after singles. If that team sweeps doubles, it wins the match. The other matches are asked to stop in the middle. This is ridiculous. ras and Brakus are both ranked individually - Kass nationally, Brakus regionally. You don't tell them not to finish the job. Collegiate tennis is nd a day at the country club - play a few games and hit the pool. Serious by John Niyo Daily Basketball Writer Much has been made of the nostalgic trips back to Lexington, Ky., that Michigan coach Steve Fisher and Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton are making this weekend. But that's what happenstwhen scores of media scramble to fill their pages all week long, awaiting the Friday night matchup between the two teams. Fisher has been asked countless times what it feels like to re-trace his early steps as Michigan's interim coach during the team's national championship run in 1989. And Sutton, with his son Sean, has been asked more times than he cares to remember what it will be like to return to the school which he left three years ago. "My only concern in going back to Kentucky," Eddie Sutton said in Atlanta after clinching a spot in the Sweet 16, "is that the media will forget the purpose of the tournament - and the fact that you have four teams trying to make it to the Final Four - and just focus on Sean and I going back to play in Rupp Arena." Sutton coached Kentucky from 1985-1989, but departed from Lexington amid controversy, leavi- ng the rabid Wildcat faithful with a two-year probation and a tarnished basketball program. The most incriminating allega- tions of wrongdoing under Sutton revolved around the recruitment of Chris Mills, now playing at Arizona. Charges alleged that an enve- lope containing a videotape and $1,000 in cash was sent to prep standout Mills in Los Angeles by former assistant coach Dwayne Casey. 'I'm going to take the team to the same horse farm Michigan went to in 1989. I want our guys to touch the same horses that Glen Rice did.' - Eddie Sutton Oklahoma State coach But the package, with both Mills' and Casey's names on it, accidently opened and its contents were found by a postal employee. Kentucky officials claimed that they were framed. Obviously, the possibility of an Arizona-Oklahoma State matchup had the media drooling. Still, the question of how the fans - in a state as in love with basketball as Kentucky is - will react to Sutton's return remains. "I'm not sure about the kind of reaction we're going to get from the fans," Eddie Sutton said. "But I'm excited to go back to Lexington. I have so many pleasant memories. Ninety-nine percent of the people in Kentucky always treated me as well as I could be treated." Fisher feels Sutton is probably right. "A majority of the fans will be See SUTTON, Page 10 SPORTS INFORMATION Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton will return to his former coaching home Friday night to guide his team against the Wolverines. Pitchers show BASEBALL NOTEBOOK improvement _____________imroemn Kass competition should be completed. The players deserve the opportunity to Gish. This rule lends itself to the unethical practice of suicides, playing a low-seeded player at No. 1 and shifting the rest of the lineup down to achieve mismatches. Most do not do this, but there is nothing that would giop a desperate team from playing its No. 6 seed at the top spot, and 'aving their No. 1 play at No. 2, No. 2 at No. 3, etc., all the way down the liie. Even with a loss by the No. 6 player at first singles, the uneven pairing of talent would probably produce many quick, lopsided victories - precisely what the race rule rewards. There's an incorrect assumption that the matches need to be com- Aleted quickly. Tennis is not basketball, where two hours does it. Major professional tennis matches, especially those in Grand Slam events, can Iast five hours or more and no one complains. These matches are by nature lunger than those at the collegiate level, going three-of-five sets instead of two-of-three. But no one tells Jimmy Connors or Stefan Edberg to move it T1ong. After examining the facts, two questions persist. First of all, why make matches shorter? To make them more attractive to fans? Maybe some think tompetitions take too long, but devoted tennis fans are superfans - ready, yilling and able to watch six matches at once. 1 In Michigan's last home match against Purdue, I was watching the No. 2 affair between Brakus and Scott Micus, a logical thing to do since the seats are at the side of the court closest to the No. 1 players. Brakus and Micus were in the middle of a long point, when suddenly a huge cheer erupted from the crowd. "What was that for?" I asked bewilderedly. "Great shot on court five!" someone exclaimed. e See what I mean? Your regular kielbasa-gulping fan could not make it here. Besides, is shortening the matches really going to increase the atten- dance from under a hundred to thousands? Probably not. . Secondly, even if shorter play was desired, there's a much easier way to Accomplish this: return to no-ad deuce. When a game reaches 40-40, instead of sending the players into a seemingly endless series of points as one attempts to win by two points (advantage in, deuce, advantage out, deuce, advantage in ... ), settle the game on the next point. College tennis used to be played this way, and some high school tennis still is. The time saved is often substantial. Hopefully, the race rule will remain the temporary, experimental format it is now. It's a program that should not be repeated. It is arbitrary. It is "isrespectful to the players. It must be repealed. by Ryan Herrington Daily Baseball Writer The Michigan pitching staff received some encouraging signs on the road last weekend when the team split four games with Wright State and Dayton. The Wolverine hurlers, who had allowed eight or more runs in five of their first 11 games, showed that they might be set- tling down just in time for the Big Ten season, which opens Saturday at Purdue. Michigan held its opposition in check in three of the four games, including a 1-0 com- bined shutout for Eric Heintschel and Todd Marion Saturday against Wright State. Heintschel pitched eight strong innings, scat- tering three hits while striking out seven Raider batters and walking but one. The vic- tory was his first to go with his three previous losses this season. Even in one of the Wolverines' losses, a 3- 2 decision against Wright State, Michigan's Dennis Konuszewski had a good outing. The righthander pitched his second complete game loss of the season, giving up the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning of the seven in- ning game when Bill Osmanski snapped a 2-2 tie with a base hit. Michigan coach Bill Freehan is pleased with the adjustments his staff has made and feels the team can continue to better its game. "Our pitching staff has made improve- ment," Freehan said. "We started off poorly in terms of our base-on-balls to innings-pitched ratio. Now we're back to at least reasonable ratios in regard to comparisons between us and our opponents." Yet, Michigan's early-season problems have not totally vanished, as evidenced by the Wolverines' other loss last weekend, a 15-4 drubbing at the hands of the Raiders. Fifteen runs is the most Michigan has allowed in a game thus far this season, showing that the Wolverines still have room for improvement. HOW DO YOU SPELL RELIEF: With a 1- 2-3 ninth inning, Michigan's ace reliever and senior co-captain Marion saved the 15th game of his career, tying the school record set by Greg Everson in 1987. Marion's 15 saves have come in 18 attempts. Saturday's save marked Marion's first of the year in his first attempt. Marion is also approaching another Wolverine milestone. Saturday's game marked the 55th appearance of his career, leaving him one short of a tie for fourth place on Michi- gan's all-time appearance list. He still has a ways to go before he can catch Mike Ignasiak, who is first on the appearance list with 76. ROOKIE SHINES: First-year infielder Ron Hollis seems to be overcoming his rookie jit- ters. After hitting .083 in his first five games, Hollis, who was Mr. Baseball in the state of Michigan in 1991, has gone 6-for-15 (.400) to up his average to .259. He has a five-game hit- ting streak going into this weekend's games against Purdue. ARE YOU SURE IT'S SPRING?: The Wolverines' contest against Eastern Michigan, scheduled for today at 3 p.m. in Ypsilanti, has been postponed due to last weekend's snow. The game has not yet been rescheduled. Michigan relief ace Todd Marion and his fellow hurlers enjoyed a more successful weekend. TIE MICHIGAN DAILY GET T HE FACTS GETTHE DAILY Call GET THE FACTS 764-0552 GET THE DAILY for GET T HE FACTS mo GET TI-IE DAILY info GET T HE FACTS GET THE DAILY NEWS eSPORTSeARTS OPINION & PHOTO Newsletters Newsletters Newsletters ~V z.. E~iFJS4P" 17wa