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 --+ Q0Z A 0 " No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 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. 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