Frier The coach talks about Arizona State, * Steve Fisher and leaving Michigan. As head basketball coach at Michi- gan from 1980 to 1989, Bill Frieder won 191 games, second in school history to Johnny Orr (209), and led the Wolverines to consecutive Big Ten Championships in 1985 and 1986. In 1989, he moved on to the Pa- cific 10 conference. to coach Arizona State. Frieder has led ASU to post- season play in each of hisfive seasons in Tempe, including four NIT ap- pearances and one NCAA tourna- ment berth. Priorto his arrival in March 1989, Arizona State didn't have a winning season oradvanceto post-seasonplay since 1983. This season, Frieder's troops went 15-12, including 0 Saturday's 94-87 upset over seventh- ranked A rizona, and advanced to the NIT and post-season play for the fifth straight season, a school record. His career highlights as coach of the Wolverines include five straight NCAA tournament appearances (1985-89) and six straight 20-plus win seasons (1984-89). Frieder is one of only eleven active coaches to win 200 career games before losing 100. In March 1989, FriederleftMichi- gan prior to the NCAA tournament amidst much controversy. His re- placement, Steve Fisher, led Michi- gan to the NCAA Championship. Recently, Daily sports writerBarry Sollenbergerspoke with Friederabout Michigan, Arizona State and college basketball in general. Daily: What are the major differ- ences you've experienced in coach- ing at ASU compared to Michigan? Frieder: Well, the biggest thing is ASU, at this point, does not have the tradition or the alumni support of a Michigan, Notre Dame, Duke, Ken- tucky or North Carolina and so you always fight that. Secondly, ASU does not have the winning tradition in basketball that Michigan has. Michigan has now de- veloped a pretty good winning tradi- tion over 30 years. My years in the '70s whenI was an assistant (to Johnny Orr) were very good and in the '80s we built it to a national program, a top-five, top-ten program and it has been that ever since. ASU hasn't had that. We came into ASU where they hadn't had a winning season in (six years) and attendance was down and everything was down and you had to build and we are slowly building that. We've turned it around and we are building it. We just still have a ways to go. D: What ties, if any, do you keep with Michigan'? F: Just basically with close friends back there and Steve Fisher, who is one of my closest friends. There was a big misconception when I left. First of all, the change in athletic directors had a lot to do with my leaving. People misconstrue my comments about Bo (Schembechler) as being comments about Michigan and they shouldn't because I love Michigan. I've got two degrees from Michi- gan. I grew up in Michigan. I was a Michigan fan all of my life and still am. I was in Ann Arbor almost half of my life, between being a student, as- sistant coach and full-time coach. People back there, however, seem to think I ran out on Michigan and I did not do that. I left Michigan as a result of a lot of things. People don't understand that Bo Schembechler gave Arizona State per- mission to talk to me in February (1989). (Former Athletic Director) Don Canham would have never done that. Don Canham would have told them to wait until the end of the sea- son, but they gave ASU permission to talk to me. Well, one thing led to another and then all of a sudden I was going to be the next coach at ASU when the sea- son ended. Well, word started to leak out and I'm on my way to Atlanta with my team and I had a decision to make. Was I going to lie to the Ari- zona press and the Michigan press in Atlanta or was I going to be up front? I decided to be upfront and say that when the season was over, I was go- ing to Arizona State. I was kind of chastised for that. I was criticized for being honest and upfront. Maybe I should blame myself for getting my- self into a no-win situation. But people have to understand that I love Michigan. I root for Michigan every time they are out. There are still chills up and down my spine when I watch them play Notre Dame in football or watch them in the Final Four or anything else. I love Michigan. That's my school. That's basically it. D: Do you keep in touch with your former players that are now in the NBA such as Glen Rice, Rumeal Robinson and Gary Grant? F: All of them. Every one of them. Every month. They are all very good friends. At least three or four of them have helped me work my camp here in the summer. Most or all of them, including Tim McCormick, havebeen on my TV show. D: Who are your best friends in the coaching field? F: I would say that Fisher is num- ber one. Gene Bartow of Alabama Birmingham might be outside of someone I haven't worked with. Bartow and I go back to when I was a high school coach at Flint Northern. Eddie Sutton is another one. I would say that those are three but there are several others. This has never been in print be- fore. When it was clear that I wasn't coming back to Michigan, I told Schembechler that, well, at least you have a great coach in Steve Fisher. Just like when Johnny Orr left Michi- gan he wanted me to get the job; when I left I wanted to see Fisher get thejob. That's never been in print before. D: How does coaching in the West compare to coaching in the Midwest? F: There's not as much pressure out here. It's more laid back. It's not as intense and there is not nearly the pressure. You don't think of practic- ing or playing when it is 75 degrees outside. It's a little different that way, but I enjoy it. After being in the pres- sure packed phase of it for so long it's nice. D: Compare the quality ofcompe- tition in the Pac 10 to the Big Ten. F: I think the big difference is that we don't have the number of great players that the Big Ten has from top to bottom. I think that Arizona, Cali- fornia and UCLA compare well to the top of the Big Ten, but the bottom of this conference can't compare with the bottom of the Big Ten. D: You've always had the reputa- tion as being one of the best if not the very best recruiter in the nation. How has recruiting changed over the last 10 years? F: Well, I think that it has been a little bit blown out of proportion be- cause I was blessed with great talent at Michigan. It's easy when you're recruiting guys like Glen Rice 10 minutes down the road in Flint. I'm a nuts-and-bolts kind of guy and have beat other coaches by just working harder. I must have been to Terry Mills' high school 4,000 times. There was no way anybody else was going to get him. You can't do that anymore now and I think it's helped the cheaters and the major programs that play on national television all of the time. D: Are you on the road recruiting more or less than, say, 10 years ago? F: Much, much less. D: How do the facilities here com- pare with the facilities at Michigan? F: I think that ASU has the great- est facilities in America. Our football stadium isn't as big as Michigan's, but it is much more modern. The (basketball) arena is really nice and track, baseball and tennis are second to none in the country. They are phe- nomenal, the overall facilities here. Great facilities. D: Much has been made of your being "under-appreciated" at Michi- gan. Do you feel you've experienced any of that here at ASU? F: No. Everybody here has been just phenomenal. Just the opposite. Everybody here has been just fantas- tic. D: Do you follow Michigan bas- ketball? F: I watch every game. D: Earlier this year, Michigan was pounded in Tucson (by Arizona, 119- 95) at McKale Center. How does McKale compare tosay, tough places to play in the Big Ten? F: McKale is the toughest place to play. Ever. Pullman (Washington State) is the toughest crowd because of the abusive language and vulgar- ity. Talking about your mother and stuff like that. D: What was the best team you 'There was a big misconception when I left. People misconstrue my comments about Bo (Schembechier) as being comments about Michigan, and they shouldn't because I love Michigan., coached at Michigan? F: I would say the national cham- pionship team. We lost to Illinois in the (final regular season) game, but won our previous five games. We were on a mission to win it all. People think that we started to play well only when I left and that is not true. D: What do you think about the distance of the 3-point line in college basketball today'? F: Ilike it. Ithink ithas added alot to the game. I don't think that it is worth three points, but I like it. D: Did you get to know the "Fab Five" through recruiting? F: I met Chris Webber in the ninth grade. And I'll tell you some- thing, I always thought that he was destined to go to Michigan. Not to take anything away from Fisher, because I think he did a great job with the others. I just always felt that Webber was destined to go to Michigan. D: What do you think about the 35-second shot clock? F: I don't have any problem with it, either. The only thing I don't like is when they hurt defenses by taking away the five-second closely guarded rule. D: Do you look forward to a future encounter with Michigan? F: We actually won a tournament with Michigan in it (1990 Tribune Classic in Tempe). Texas beat them and then we beat Texas. I know that weprobably can't beatMichigan now, but if we meet (in the future), fine. The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, March 14, 1994 - 3 RYAN HERRINGTON The R.H. Factor Conference tourneys make no sense at all Y esterday, the Purdue Boilermakers took the Big Ten men's basketball title the old fashion way - they earned it. That's more than most of the 1994 conference champions can say. After 10 days of ESPN's self-proclaimed 'Championship Week" it has become obvious that most college conferences in America care about their regular seasons about as much as the National Hockey League does. While logic has never been something that the NCAA, or the rest of the powers that be in college sports, have possessed, the way in which automatic bids to the NCAA tournament are given out seems as reasonable as Dennis Rodman playing an entire game without being ejected. Instead of rewarding teams that have played consistently well throughout the season with a bid, it has been decided that their fate should be left up to how they do in the three-day vigil known as the postseason conference tournament. Thus, as you begin to look over your NCAA tournament brackets don't be surprised if you've never seen or heard of many of the select 64 teams that make up this year's field. Until last week, no one knew anything about Southwest Texas State except that it was in Texas, presumably in the southwest portion of the state. The post-season tournament idea started with the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 1954. While recognizing the regular season champion, the ACC has long considered its tournament winner to be the conference's standard bearer. As the years moved on, other conferences began to sniff the monetary aroma of the ACC tourney and decided that they too wanted some of the spoils. Copying the ACC format, postseason tournaments began to appear more frequently than Dick Vitale on ESPN. Surprisingly, the Big Ten has not followed suit. While it would probably not be as profitable as the $6 million take that it gets from the Rose Bowl, the conference could make a sizeable sum by hosting a four- day outing at the Hoosier Dome. Yet, it has balked at the idea, claiming that the 18 games played between January and March are more than enough to determine the best team in the Midwest. For a conference like the Big Ten, which annually receives multiple bids to the NCAA tournament, a post-season tourney's significance isn't that great. But for smaller leagues, like the Colonial Athletic Conference, everything is on the line. Without a victory in the finals, James Madison would never have made the Big Dance. To the detriment of the game, many program's whole seasons ride on three days of play. See HERRINGTON, Page 4 Read Close But No Sugiura in Daily Sports t r ATTENTION 0 ! Bay Midland Tuscola County Students Q~j This Fall, why don't you tak something back to college besides your suit case? Earn extra academic credit this Spring/Summer at Delta College and transfer the credits back to your university this fall. Here's a sample of the courses we will be offering this Spring & Summer: e Test prep is a big investment. We have the only INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED grad test score improvements. No other company can back up their scores like we can. Official disclaimer - The Princeton Review is not affiliated with he Educational Testing Service nor Princeton University. THE PRINCETON REVIEW we score more 166.3-21631 rr i s The student members of the Judicial Board will convene an Open Hearing on proposed amendments to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities on: Wednesday, March 16, 1994 Accounting Advertising Algebra (4 levels) American Government Analytic Geometry & Calculus Anatomy & Physiology Art History Astronomy Autocad Biology Business Communications Business Law Career Decision Making College Composition Computer Literacy Computers/Programming Criminal Justice Differential Equations Drafting Economics Geography Geology History Inorganic Chemistry Keyboarding Literature Management Marketing Master Student Medical Terminolo~v Microbiology Music Organic Chemistry Philosophy Physical Education Physics Pre-Calculus Psychology Sales Sociology Spanish Speech Statistics Trigonometry I