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. Doing the Wing Thing AGAIN AT SiSTAUXANI SPORTS UAS I 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. I m1. "It 200,,,,,,,,,,,.a wing $3.25........pitcher $S~o...J..ptchr Coors Lt Long Isla MARCH 31, 1989: "un 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. NO COVER 1220 S. 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