8 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 31, 1994
Big Ten foes next on
menu for men netters
Women's basketball
coaches air concerns
By JENNIFER DUBERSTEIN
FOR THE DAILY
The Michigan men's tennis team
will begin its Big Ten season this
weekend with a home match at Ann
Arbor's Liberty Sports Complex.
Saturday, the Wolverines take on
Minnesota, a team that has won the
conference title the past two years.
Sunday, they will play another tough
Big Ten foe - Iowa.
This weekend's match against
the Golden Gophers will be one of
the biggest in the Wolverines' sea-
son thus far for Minnesota is ranked
No. 26 in the nation.
Its top singles player, Paul
Pridmore, is ranked 51st nationally.
Pridmore plays Mich-igan's best,
Dan Brakus, who is No. 28 in the
NCAA.
Despite their success of a year
ago, the Gophers lost five of their
top nine players to graduation.
"Looking at Minnesota's team,
they have lost a couple of key play-
ers from last year's team," Michi-
gan coach Brian Eisner said. "But
of course, they have added some
very good freshmen. It would ap-
pear as though their team is very
similar to the team they had last
year, and we played them very
close."
Eisner added, "The two teams
are evenly matched ... Somebody's
got to be able to beat them."
Sophomore Peter Pusztai was op-
timistic about the Wolverines' hopes
against the Gophers
"Against Minnesota, we have a
really good chance," Pusztai said.
"They've lost a couple of players,
and we still have everyone."
The weekend does not get any
easier when the Hawkeyes come
into town for Saturday's matchup.
Iowa (1-1 Big Ten, 6-5 overall)
finished fifth in the Big Ten last
year. So far this season, the
Hawkeyes have beaten Penn State
and dropped their match against
Minnesota.
Their top singles player Bob
Zumph (6-6) seeks to move his
record above the .500 mark when he
plays Brakus.
"Iowa is a very good team,"
Eisner said.
The Wolverines are coming off a
three-week layoff, having last
played March 11, when they shut
out Eastern Michigan, 7-0.
During the long break, they have
worked on doubles play and indi-
vidual problems. The hiatus is not
expected to inhibit their perfor-
mance.
"It's not going to hurt us," Pusztai
said. "We've taken some time off,
but I don't think it will make a
difference."
However, the matches will pro-
vide Michigan with more than a
chance to improve its record.
"More than anything, it will give
us a good feeling of where we are,',
Eisner said.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The
Women's Final Four is supposed to be
a time to showcase all that's good about
the growing and increasingly visible
sport.
That's not necessarily the case this
week.
As the four survivors of the 64-
team NCAA tournament gather in
Richmond, some of the growing
pains associated with the ascent of
women's college basketball also are
on display.
Alabama (26-6) will meet Louisi-
ana Tech (30-3) in one semifinal Satur-
day at the Richmond Coliseum, fol-
lowed by North Carolina (31-2) against
Purdue (29-4), but there's plenty of
news off the court as well.
The sport is in the midst of a seven-
yearcontract with CBS, which alsohas
the men's Final Four coverage. The net
effect is that the women's champion-
ship is played 24 hours after the second
semifinal ends. The men's winning
semifinalists get 48 hours to regroup
before their championship.
"It is really unfortunate," Louisiana
Tech coach Leon Barmore said. "We
sure do need to get away from that kind
of setup as soon as we can."
Job security is another concern, es-
pecially among some of the male mem-
bers of the Women's Basketball
Coaches Association. They wonder if
the rising popularity of women's bas-
ketball will create a wave of anti-male
sentiment when it comes to hiring
coaches. The subject has prompted
Michigan's top player Dan Brakus brings his No. 28 national ranking into the
Wolverines' weekend matches with Minnesota and Iowa.
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AGAIN AT
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some of the male coaches within the
WBCA to form a Male Coaches of
Women's Basketball Committee.
Then there's the issue of pay dis-
parity. Asa group, coaches of women's
teamsstill lag farbehindtheircounter-
parts on men's teams, and the matter
has led to court action.
"Is it getting better? Yes," said
Purdue's Lin Dunn, inher23rdyearof
collegiate coaching and her seventh
season with the Boilermakers. "Is there
still a way to go? I don't think there's
any question about that. I think the
issue is far from being over."
Alabama coach Rick Moody, who
has led the Crimson Tide to a 104-46
mark in five seasons and to its first-ever
Final Four appear-
ance, has a differ-
enttypeofproblem:
He's working with-
out a contract.
"As our sport
continues to grow ;
and as universities
begintopourmore 4
and more money
into their programs,
I think you're go- Dunn
ing to see increased
pressure, which in my opinion is going
to make us more and more insecure,"
Moody said. "As the pressure grows, I
think we as coaches are going to have
to take a stand on this issue and possi-
bly be a little more demanding in our
pursuit of security."
"I haven't even thought about it
lately, to be honest with you," he said.
"But once the season's over, we'll sit
down and discuss it. The university
will take care of it."
North Carolina coach Sylvia
Hatchell said the issues of pay andjob
security tend to getclouded in an argu-
ment of women's programs being au-
tomatically entitled to whatever the
men have. While men's programs have
already established themselves in the
eyes of fans and administrators, the
women need toprove themselves, she
said.
"And I do think that's happening
pretty much around the country,"
Hatchell said. "But when you win
games and put a quality program to-
gether, I do think you should be re-
warded for it."
On the matter of playing semifi-
nals and the championship on con-
secutive days, the women's coaches
are accepting the arrangement for
now, but that doesn't mean they're
happy with it.
This is Barmore's seventh trip to
the Final Four with the Lady Techsters.
He remembers the emerging days of
women's basketball when ESPN cov-
ered the semifinals Friday nights and
CBS televised the championship Sun-
day afternoons.
The current agreement with CBS
runs through the 1997 Final Four.
"The coaches realize that you have
to give up a little to get the exposure,"
NCAA spokesperson Cindy Van Matre
said.
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The Wolverines continued their preparations for Run
Saturday's Final Four showdown with Illinois.
Led by Kendall Gill and Nick Anderson, the
"Flying lilini" entered their third matchup of the
season with Michigan at 31-4, including two
wins over the Wolverines in the regular season-
Despite their lack of success against Illinois,
the Michigan players remained confident.
"The question is not how can Michigan beat
Illinois," Wolverine center Terry Mills said. "But how can Illinois
stop Michigan."
indeed, the lilini needed to concern themselves with Glen Rice,
who was averaging 31 points per contest in the tournament.
"People are going to focus on stopping Glen Rice," Michigan
interim coach Steve Fisher said. "But saying it and doing it are
sometimes difficult tasks."
Although the Wolverines were in the Final Four for the first time
since 1976, students' enthusiasm remained tempered.
"A lot of the kids don't even know what the Final Four is," said one
vendor selling tournament t-shirts and sweatshirts.
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