The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 29, 1993 - Page 3 q&4Y?4i r 4ww 11491k John Niyo Vaught A member of the '89 NCAA champs discusses his career in basketball R t The last time Michigan fans saw the men's basketball team win a na- tional championship, forward Loy Vaught was a key member of the squad. The Wolverines' most effi- cient shooter, Vaught set a Big Ten record for shooting percentage in conference games his senior year, 1990. Vaught entered the NBA draft in 1990 and was selected 13th overall by his current team, the Los Angeles Clippers. Since 1990, Vaught has made an admirable contribution to the Clippers, averaging 21 minutes a game. Daily Sports Writer J.L. Rostam- Abadi spoke with Vaught recently in a phone interview. Daily: How has your pro career developed? Are you where you imag- ined you'd be when you left Michi- gan? Loy Vaught: I think I've made some improvement. Playing with a lot better players has allowed me to get better, because you see more, and in turn you learn more from these guys. I've been up and down, as far as the improvement and the playing time. I've proven that whenever I play, I normally play pretty well. D: The Clippers have always been sort of an enigma. They've been bad for so long, then they got some top draft picks, and then Larry Brown came aboard, and the team began to have some expectations to live up to. How do you think the Clippers have developed as a result of that? V: Well, since Larry's gotten here, I think that, especially imme- diately after he arrived, our team made dramatic steps forward in the right direction. We're playing with enthusiasm again, and we're playing with a will to win. And like you said, we'd always been labeled as losing. Some of the guys that have been here for awhile, sort of became too accepting of losing games. But now I think' we compete every night, and if we lose, it's not as accepting as it was. D:. Do you think the Clippers will ever rise out of the Los Angeles Lakers' shadow? V: I sure hope so. It's turning into a nice cross-town rivalry. It used to be really lop-sided in favor of the Lakers, but now we're capable of beating them. You never know, per- haps one day, we'll be spoken of be- fore the Lakers. D: What was your favorite expe- rience at Michigan, aside from the championship? V: Being a part of the student body everyday, going to class and -meeting some of the people who were not athletes. I made some good friendships. D: How do you see the careers of your fellow Wolverines progressing? V: I think everybody's done re- ing to be matched up with? V: I had them with North Car- olina. I have them beating North Carolina to win it all. D: What's your opinion of the Fab Five? Do you think they're re- ceiving too much attention from the media? V: No, I don't think so. I think that stuff, the media attention that they receive, that's out of their hands. They have no control over what gets in the paper and what does not. But I think as a whole and as a group they seem to be very comfort- able with each other, very at ease with each other, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of jealousy. That's great. And that's the reality. D: Do you think Chris Webber and Jalen Rose have enough experi- ence to turn pro? V: I think both of them could turn pro. D: At this early age? V: Yeah, ... I think they would serve themselves better if they waited. But Chris is a different story, though, because from what I hear, if he went pro, he could go very, very high in the draft. But Jalen, I think he would go very, very high in the draft if he waited, although he could survive now. D: Do you think they should wait until they win it all, before go- ing pro? V: Oh yeah. I think that they have an agenda, and I think on that agenda, winning a national champi- onship comes before turning pro. D: Who do you see as the next impact player in the NBA? V: Well, there are several; I think Jamal Mashburn, Calbert Cheaney. There are a lot of guys out there who are great players, it all matters who gets the right situation. D: What's the most difficult as- pect of being a professional basket- ball player, in your opinion? V: Sometimes you just have to be really careful that the people that you hang around with are sincere in their intentions. You have to make sure that people like you for you first. And especially out here in L.A., where I'm at, you run into a lot of materialistic people. You just have to be careful, because some- times people try and take advantage of you. It's a great lifestyle (being a NBA player). D:.Do you think Steve Fisher disciplines the Fab Five enough? There have been some questions. V: I'm so removed from this whole situation that I can't really say, because I don't really know very specifically. D: Do you think the '89 cham- pionship team could take on the Fab Five? V: Definitely. I think we'd give them a run for their money! Swimmers ide iM basketball's shadow It is late March. They are competing for an NCAA title. Some of them went so far as to shave their heads. And, still, the other guys get all the attention. For doing exactly the same thing. Swimmers, you see, don't steal too many headlines. The guys in Seattle, in Charlotte, in St. Louis, in East Rutherford. Those are the ones who command the spotlight this time of year. The guys on television. The ones CBS-TV paid a billion dollars - literally - to hype as something called March Madness. We are glued to the sets, watching as the Fab Five made it back to the Final Four. Meanwhile, Michigan's other Fab Five - Namesnik, Wunderlich, Borges, Wouda, Sharp and Gunn (O.K., so that's six.) - toil in relative anonymity. Rose and Webber and Co. were fending off George Washington on Friday. At the same time, sophomore Marcel Wouda and senior Eric Namesnik were touching the wall in the 400 IM, finishing in second and third, respectively, at the NCAA swimming and diving championships. The lead story on ESPN in such a case, of course, is that Vanderbilt leads Temple, 24-18, at the half. Followed by plenty of highlights. Then we'll see Dottie Mochrie is leading the latest stop on the LPGA tour. Followed by plenty of highlights. And oh, yes, Stanford leads the NCAA swim meet in Indianapolis. Followed by commercials. And then Speedweek. Now. Swimming is one of those sports - track and field also comes to mind - where the team relies mostly on individuals and individual performances. Sure, there are relay events. But, for the most part, it is every man for himself. You race like hell to finish first, then you throw your points into the team's pot. There are no fastbreaks, no screens, no pick-and-roll plays. It is simply a bunch of athletes who go out trying to break records every time they jump in the pool. For instance, the guy who beat Wouda and Namesnik in the 400 IM - Greg Burgess of Florida - explained his pre-tourney plan of attack: "My goals coming into the meet," he said, "were to break both American records." Burgess, a 20-year-old sophomore, says this without a TV camera in sight. But Mr. Webber, when he tells us that he will be satisfied with nothing less than a national title, does so in front of the whole nation. Performances like Burgess' will stay etched in memory only for those who were there, then, and for no one else. Those who packed into the IUPUI Natatorium saw some memorable performances. And Michigan swimmers, without a doubt the most successful group of athletes on this campus, provided a lion's share of those performances. There was Wouda, the Dutch import, who Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek heaped praise upon when it was all over. "In my mind," Urbanchek said, "he was the swimmer of the year." Florida's Burgess was named the swimmer of the meet this past weekend, but Wouda was the main reason Michigan was able to finish as the NCAA runner-up, realizing a season-long team goal. Wouda finished first in the 1650-yard freestyle, smashing a new Michigan record in the process. He also took first in the 500 free, second in the 400 IM and swam the first leg of the Wolverines' record-breaking 800 free relay. In all, he accounted for 57 of Michigan's 396 points, which tied him for high-point honors for the three-day meet with Miami's Dean Panaro. Brian Gunn also came up big in his last meet for the Wolverines, finishing second in his specialty, the 200 fly, then dueling Stanford's Joe. Hudepohl to lift Michigan in the 800 free relay. Gunn was emotionally drained as he talked to reporters after his last race. The meet and his college career were both over. When it counted, he had performed to his peak. So had his teammates. Stanford was unbeatable. And second-best really isn't so bad. It's just too bad nobody noticed. Former Wolverine Loy Vaught is currently playing for the Los Angeles Clippers. He played for Michigan's only basketball National Champion. ally well for themselves. D: Do you keep in touch with Rumeal (Robinson) and' Terry (Mills)? V: Only when they come to town, or when I go to their town; it seems like, to be honest, we've sort of grown apart. But when we're in town, we make an effort to stop by the hotel, or call someone up and take them to dinner. D: Now that it's been a few years since you and the rest of the '89 Wolverines won the national championship, has the feeling changed? Does the title mean more to you? V: It just is like a sweet memory and it's a feeling of a great accom- plishment now. Then it was a feel- ing like we were just the best. But now the feeling that I have is of great pride. It's hard to believe, and it didn't even sink in for quite an amount of time, but now it's great. D: Can you compare the '89 team to this year's Michigan squad? V: I can, in that I think they are very similar. We had several pros on the team: myself, Rumeal, Glenn, Terry Mills, and Sean Higgins; we had five players who are in the NBA right now. And then Mark Hughes, he's in Europe now, and Demetrius Calip had a little stint in the pros and Mike Griffin's playing over in Japan professionally. So both teams I see a similarity in just terms of talent; just God-given, you know, talent. D: How far do you think the '93 team can go? V: I'm pulling for them to go all the way. I think they can do it. They have an extra year of experience. D: Who do you think they're go- Tar Heels nip Bearcats, 75-68, in overtime Healthy males, ages 18-40, may qualify for medication research studies. Research volunteers are paid for participation. Interested? Call Liz or inn at (313) 996-7051, Mon. - Fri., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Warner-Lambert/ Parke-Davis Community Research Clinic, 2800 Plymouth Road, inn frbor, MI 48105 EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - A dunk didn't do the trick in regulation so North Carolina went to the 3-pointer in overtime and advanced to the Final Four for the ninth time under coach Dean Smith. The top-seeded Tar Heels (32-4) had a chance to beat second-seeded Cincinnati (27-5) at the regulation buzzer Sunday, but Brian Reese missed a dunk after taking an inbounds pass with .8 seconds to play. Once the overtime started, Donald Williams took care of things, making consecutive 3-pointers to help North Carolina beat the Bearcats 75-68. Because Cincinnati, a 1992 national semifinalist, failed to return to the final four, Michigan is the only team to make a repeat visit to the "big dance." North Carolina will meet Kansas, the Midwest's second seed, in the national semifinals next Saturday in New Orleans. That is a rematch of the 1991 semifinals when Roy Williams, Smith's long-time .aS.s'a . at t Tr.. T.Q:c whim Exel, holding him to two points after halftime. Williams, North Carolina's only legitimate perimeter threat, finished with 20 points, but he hit the two overtime 3-pointers, which gave the Tar Heels a 74-68 lead with 1:53 to play. Smith, the winningest coach in NCAA tournament history with a 53-23 record, has won just one national championship. That came in 1982 in New Orleans, when freshman Michael Jordan hit his famous jumper. The Tar Heels had a chance of winning in regulation, but Reese missed a dunk as the buzzer sounded. Television replays showed that it would have been too late, but referee Jody Silvester said the basket would have counted if it had gone in. Cincinnati tied the game 66-66 with 36 seconds to play when Tarrance Gibson went the length of the court with a loose ball after North Carolina was charged with a 45-secnnd hnt elk violation. shooting 10 for 41 from the field, finished 8 for 24 after going 7 for 14 in the first half. Erik Martin added 16 points for Cincinnati. With Van Exel in control, the Bearcats took a 29-14 lead with 7:09 left in the half on his fifth 3-pointer of the game. His sixth and last of the first half came from NBA distance and it gave Cincinnati a 33-20 lead with 4:50 to play. North Carolina then clamped down on Van Exel and took advantage of a serious shooting drought by the rest of the Bearcats to take a 36-35 lead 37 seconds before halftime. Montross started the run by scoring on a dunk and a layup after a lob, but the rest of the rally was without the 7-foot junior, who was Sports Nutrition & Body Building Products *Vitsmins R r4 nnij'm(-ntc poked near the eye with 2:54 left in the half. The Tar Heels scored the next 12 points to take their first lead since 5- 2, but it was short-lived when Terry Nelson hit a foul line jumper with two seconds left to give the Bearcats a 37-36 halftime lead. I Located in the Colonial Lanes Plaza on S. Industrial FA~ ST, FREE DELIVERY PIZZA WE OPEN AT 4:00PM MON - THURS TRY OUR NEW GARLIC CRUST I Order Any 20" Pizza and G UM RY AID . Get 1 Free 2 Liter POD THE GUMBY *