10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 1, 1994
Fans, coach make Iowa
Hawkeyes a class act
By BRENT McINTOSH
DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER
IOWA CITY - This is women's
basketball?
That was the thought that wedged
itself into my mind upon entering
Carver-Hawkeye Arena Friday. The
atmosphere for the Iowa-Michigan
women's hoop matchup felt ... well,
frankly, it felt like men's basketball.
Don't call me a sexist; call me a
realist.
Women's basketball atlowa is, sim-
ply put, a different species from that at
Michigan. It's not the quality of play
that is the obvious difference, though.
It's the crowd.
The Hawkeyes average more than
5,000 fans forevery game, whileMichi-
gan draws just over 900.
That's the difference between a
smattering of fans at Crisler Arena
and full sideline sections in Iowa
City.
You don't need to search for the
dichotomy. It's obvious as soon as
you walk into Carver-Hawkeye.
There were 5,881 fans in the stands
to see the No. 4 Hawkeyes take on
Michigan, not a perennial Big Ten
power. The Wolverinesdrewonly 8,828
fans for the entire conference season
last year.
There were even people sitting in
the last row, but the attendance Friday
didn't compare to some crowds Iowa
has drawn in the past.
The Wolverine women can only
dream of a sellout. The Hawkeyes
have sold out Carver-Hawkeye Arena
- in advance. In fact, they drove the
fire marshal crazy by stuffing 22,000
fans into a 15,000-seat arena.
Hawkeye women's basketball is
not taken casually in Iowa. The crowd
stands for introductions. The whole
crowd.
They applaud wildly for the home-
town players. They perform chants or-
ganized by the band and the cheerlead-
ers.
And speaking of those two groups,
the crowd in Iowa can actually drown
out the yelling of the band and the
cheerleaders, unlike Ann Arbor where
the two dominate the noise.
This is not to say that a Michigan
women's basketball crowd is missing
something qualitative. The problem
withthefansinAnn
RT Arbor is that there
URT just aren't enough
of them to compare
ESS to Iowa City.
What causes
... .people to flock in
droves to Carver-Hawkeye in the dead
of winter?
"It's pride, it's enthusiasm,"
Lorma Stagg, a Hawkeye fan, said.
"It's Vivian Stringer."
C. Vivian Stringer - Iowa
women's basketball coach.
But that explanation is too simple.
Stringer is much more than a simple
coach. She is a true basketball legend,
and yet paradoxically, most fans who
only follow the men's game couldn't
tell her from Trish Roberts,
Michigan's coach.
Stringer is a terrific recruiter, with
players from more states than Rob-
erts has players. She is the continuing
influence in a streak of 20-win sea-
sons that will almost certainly reach
10 this February.
The list of honors she has received
is long and distinguished - from
National Women's Coach of the Year
last year to leading the United States
team at the 1991 Pan-Am Games.
In the eyes of the Iowa fans,
Stringer can do no wrong.
"She respects her players, treats
them with respect," Stagg said.
"Vivian's cool - she's always cool.
Everybody respects her."
And that's the truth. Several of
Iowa's players said Stringer is the
sole reason they are in the Hawkeye
program. Perhaps the greatest praise
JOE WESTRATE/Daily
Michigan's Jennifer Keifer and the rest of the women's basketball team can only dream of a packed Crisler Arena.
comes from ar'valwho is searching for
the key to building a program.
"I have a great deal of respect for
Vivian Stringer and what she's done
for the Iowa program," Roberts pro-
fessed. "She's a role model for me.
I can remember back when I played
and she coached at Cheyney State,
and the type of program she had
there.
"I think for a lot of young black
coaches, she is a role model. She's
going to continue to do great things
here at Iowa. She's always been a
success."
Stringer's greatest individual ac-
complishment came when, aftercoach-
ing for 22 years, she tallied her 500th
career college basketball victory in
Friday's game against the Wolverines.
She is one of only three active
women's basketball coaches with that
many wins.
However, she has always main-
tained that 500 is just a number, and
following the momentous victory, she
stuck to her guns, though the look of
relief on her face betrayed her emo-
tions.
"I just want to get the next game,
No. 501," she said.
In watching Stringer and listening
to fans rave about her, the truth has
become very evident.
Gender is not the issue where
Stringer is concerned. This is not a
question of men's basketball,
women's basketball, Iowa basketball,
Michigan basketball.
This is just basketball, pure and
simple, done with class, and respect
for the game.
Gymnasts'.
depth helps
Blue defeat
Chippewas
By TOM BAUSANO
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
The women's gymnastics team
showed its depth on Saturday when it
defeated Central Michigan 189.375
to 184.825.
Coach Bev Plocki was forced to
make some last minute adjustments in
the lineup when junior Li Li Leung had
back spasms during warm-ups. Leung'
injury was not serious, Plocki said.
"Being able to fill in when some-
one goes down is the true sign of a
strong team," Plocki said. "Our num-
ber seven, eight and nine people have
to be ready."
The Wolverines set a new school
record of 49.075 on the vault. Wendy
Marshall led the way with a 9.90,
which turned out to be the highest
individual score of the meet.
"Vaulting was good for everyone,"
Marshall said. "It was the first time
that I had even done bars in a meet, so
now we know where I'm at. I did well
for being under the pressure of being
thrown in at the last minute."
Sophomore Dianna Ranelli per-
formed well,scoringa9.82on the vault,
9.20 on beam and 9.62 on the floor.
"The meet went pretty well,"
Ranelli said. "My (beam) routine was
under time (less than the 1:10 require-
ment) so I got a two tenths deduction.
I didn't have all my skills in on the
beam, but it was hard."
The other Wolverines also gave
way to meet jitters on the balance
beam, scoring 45.575.
"The meet was okay,"senior Wendy
Wilkinson said. "We had three people
fall on beam, but this score lets us get rid
of the 187 from earlier this year."
There is a new system for getting
into post season competition this sea-
son. Qualifying for regionals is based
on the combination of the two highest
home scores, two highest away scores
and any other two scores a team elects
to use.
The high and low scores are
dropped and the remaining four scores
are averaged. Unlike years past, na-
tional qualifying is based solely on
the regional competition rather than
the one third based on the regional
qualifying score and two thirds on the
score earned at the regionals.
Junior Beth Wymer had an out-
standing competition, scoring a 9.85
on the vault and 9.875 on both bars
and beam. Wymer had not expected
to compete on beam and had only a 30
second touch warm-up to prepare for
the routine.
lost for the season Jan. 8 when he
suffered a torn anterior cruciate liga-
ment in a match. Sophomore Jesse
Rawls, Jr. also has a hurt knee and is
questionable for this weekend's home
matches against Ohio State and Pur-
due.
In addition to these injuries, Bahr
has significant concerns about the di-
rection in which the team is heading.
"When you're struggling, there are
only two things you can do. You can
pick up and keep working or you can
quit - and quitting is not an option.
We just have got to keep regrouping."
This weeK's Associated Press
men's basketballTop 25 with
records through ian. 30. First
place votes in parentheses.
Women's runners roll to
impressive win at Eastern
WING IT! AT
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Team Record
Duke (51) 15-1
North Carolina (3) 17-3
Kansas (2) 19-2
UCLA (1) 14-1
Connecticut (7) 18-1
Arkansas 14-2
Kentucky 16-3
Purdue 17-2
Louisville 16-2
Temple 13-2
Massachusetts 16-3
Arizona 16-3
Michigan 13-4
Indiana 12-4
Syracuse 13-3
Wisconsin 13-3
Ala.-Birmingham 16-2
St. Louis 16-1
California 12-4
Missouri 14-2
Maryland 12-4
Minnesota 13-6
New Mexico St. 16-1
Florida 16-3
Cincinnati 14-5
By DOUG STEVENS
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
After running its first two meets in
the comfort of Ann Arbor, the Michi-
gan women's rack and field team hit
the road to compete in the Eastern
Michigan Quadrangular meet Friday.
While this was the Wolverines' fourth
meet of the year, it was only the team's
first in which team scoring was com-
piled.
Led by strong performances across
the board, Michigan got its first offi-
cial win under its belt. The Wolver-
ines finished with 63 points, followed
by EMU with 30, Pittsburgh with 25,
and Toronto with 11.
One aspect of the team that was
very impressive was the performance
of Laura Jerman. Jerman, normally a
pentathlete, won the 55-meter hurdles
with a time of 8.04. Jerman's race
prevented Pitt's strong hurdling arse-
nal from sweeping the event. Coach
James Henry called Jerman's perfor-
mance, "outstanding, good for the
team's momentum."
"I am excited about running this
fast this early in the season," Jerman
said.
Another runner who had a very
strong day was Tearza Johnson. The
sophomore won both the 55-meter
and 200-meter dashes, and broke her
own school record of 24.81 seconds
in the latter. She surpassed the mark,
which she set last week, by crossing
the line with a time of 24.44 seconds.
Michigan's distance runners also
performed very well. The team swept
the top four spots in the 3,000-meter
run. Courtney Babcock led the way
with a time of 9:53.51, while Chris
Szabo, Emily Shively and Molly Lori
occupied spots two through four, re-
spectively. In the mile, Molly
McClimon led the field, followed by
Karen Harvey.
Michigan's Kristine Westerby
won the 800-meter run, finishing with
a time of 2:11.28, with fellow Wolver-
ines McClimon and Jessica Kluge tak-
ing second and fourth, respectively.
G RAPPLERS
Continued from page 9
filling in for the injured Jesse Rawls,
Jr., fell to Roger Williams, 8-2.
The Wolverines made the final tally
a respectable 25-15 by closing with
consecutive victories. Junior Jehad
Hamden (190) pinned Jason Case and
senior All-American Steve King
(HWT) won by forfeit.
Injuries can partly be to blame for
Michigan's current slide.
Freshman Brandon Howe (126) was
s
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