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LOOMINGTON - After the
opening tipoff had to be done
twice, you just had a gut feeling
that Michigan was not going to have
an easy time with Indiana.
After losing to Minnesota, which
saw the Wolverines drop to 2-2 in the
Big Ten, the goal was to win the next
three games - at home against
Purdue and Iowa, which they did, and
at Indiana.
Winning at Indiana is not an easy
k, especially since the Hoosiers
were 20-4
against the
Wolverines at
Assembly Hall.
And from the
start of last
eight's 72-70
loss, the
Wolverines
seemed to be DANIELLE
ht in a RUMORE
irwind of Rumore
frustration. Has It
There was
Michigan coach
Steve Fisher ripping off his sport jack-
et, throwing it on the floor, his
already-red cheeks brighter than the
red sweatshirts of the spectators in the
stands. He was throwing a tantrum at
the officials over Jerod Ward's person-
* foul and subsequent technical foul,
called for throwing the basketball at
7:51 of the first half.
' And next to the Hoosier's bench,
Indiana coach Bobby Knight stood
straight up, with his hands in his pock-
ets, looking a little like a choir-boy.
Oh yes, it was going to be a long
night.
This was Assembly Hall, the home
of the famous chair-throwing incident,
e site of Calbert Cheaney's supposed
whipping, the home of sarcasm and
dry humor and bad red sweaters. For
goodness sake, it's Bobby Knight's
home.
Need I say more?
So how could this be, Fisher, up in
arms. Fisher, who really does look like
a choir boy.
This was a sick joke.
But he was upset, and it had to do
See RUMORE, Page 13

'M'held off
by Hoosiers
Late run falls short in 2-point loss

By Alan Goldenbach
Daily Sports Editor
BLOOMINGTON - Michigan
could have gotten the message from its
first three possessions. They could have
avoided heartbreak and gone home
early.
Instead, the Wolverines chose to bat-
tle back and ignore the message.
But ultimately, they came up empty.
Louis Bullock's 3-point attempt as
, Indiana 72
Michigan 70
time expired clanged off the rim, and
No. 21 Indiana (3-3 Big Ten, 16-4 over-
all) sent the 13th-ranked Wolverines (4-
3, 13-5) away from Assembly Hall with
a loss for the eighth time in nine sea-
sons, 72-70.
"Perfect,' was how Bullock
described his look at the basket from
the right wing, directly in front of the
Michigan bench.
"We had the play all set up," the
sophomore guard said. "I was wide
open. I just missed the shot."
Being in the position to win the game
was an accomplishment in itself, con-
sidering that Michigan was playing
with several of its key players in foul
trouble the whole game, and was down
by 15 halfway through the second
frame.
However, credit must be given to
Indiana, which was playing without its
top scorer and rebounder, Andrae
Patterson, -who was nursing a knee
injured in practice Monday.
"(The Hoosiers) did a great job of
executing without ... Patterson,"
Michigan coach Steve Fisher said.
That great job began at the opening
tip.
Junior forward Maurice Taylor took
the first shot of the game and, with

Haris Mujezinovic's hand in his face,
fired up an airball.
After a layup by Indiana's Neil Reed
Michigan's Jerod Ward was promptly
whistled for traveling.
A Mujezinovic dunk made it 4-0, and
Robert Traylor was whistled for the
first of his three first-half fouls.
All that in just 78 seconds. But it was
enough, because the Hoosiers never
relinquished their lead.
In addition for the Wolverines, they
had to deal with 40 minutes of poor
shooting, an Indiana offense in constant
motion and major foul trouble.
Traylor picked up his second foul
less than a minute later. And then, after
sitting for six minutes, he re-entered
and was called for his third two minutes
afterward.
"Traylor has been our energizer and
emotional leader," Fisher said.
"Tonight, he took himself out of the
game especially early, and you can't
allow that to happen.
"We need Traylor on the floor longer,
for longer periods, if we're going to be
good defensively."
But the game's turning point came
with 7:51 left in the first half. After
being called for a personal foul, Ward
slammed the ball down and was
assessed a technical foul.
Reed sank both shots for the person-
al foul, and one of the two on the tech-
nical. When the Hoosiers took posses-
sion after that, Michael Lewis hit a run-
ning jump shot to give Indiana an eight-
point lead, 31-23.
"I don't think he meant to throw the
ball like that;' Fisher said. "I think he
meant to slam it down and catch it and
he didn't catch it. And he got a techni-
cal that obviously hurt.
"You can't do that, much less on the
road against a quality team when you're
struggling to stay in it."
Reed burned Michigan for the sec-
ond year in a row on his home turf,
tossing in a game-high 20 points. In last
year's 99-83 Indiana victory, Reed
See HOOSIERS, Page 13

Michigan guard Brandun Hughes charges into Indiana center Haris Mujzenovic early in the first half of last night's 72-70
Indiana victory. Hughes finished with nine points in 32 minutes of action.


Despite negative publicity, Blue women gymnasts praise sport

By Sara Rontal
Daily Sports Writer
For a typical 6-year-old, a day usu-
ally consists of finger painting and
learning the ABCs.
However, for a 6-year old gymnast,
'is is not the case.
Imagine it. Your day starts at 6 a.m.
You eat a small breakfast because
weight cannot interfere with the com-
petition you have this afternoon.
Being nervous is out of the ques-
tion. If you do not win, you do not
advance to the next round of the tour-
nament. Who knows what your par-
ents and coach will say after you lose.
You are 6 years old.
It seems that the most sensational
stories are the only ones that make the
news.
What most people do not realize is
how the media create distortions
about a single specific incident.
This is what happens often in the
world of gymnastics.
One sees gymnast Cristy Henrich
die of anorexia and assumes that all
'ymnasts starve themselves to win.
But the horror stories of gymnas-

tics only constitute a small percentage
of what the sport is really about.
Much of this controversy about
gymnastics comes in response to a
movie based on the book, "Pretty
Girls in Little Boxes," by Joan Ryan.
A television movie with the same title
aired on Lifetime Television Sunday
night.
The book details the struggles of
young women gymnasts and figure
skaters, pushed to the brink in order
to excel in their sport.
The movie specified one girl's trou-
bles within the sport in terms of com-
petitive parents and eating disorders.
With all this negative light shining
upon gymnastics, one has to wonder
how a little girl would even want to
participate in such an activity.
But the University of Michigan
women's gymnastics team sees its
sport in a different way.
To them, gymnastics has only been
a positive influence in their lives,
much unlike what the rest of the mod-
ern world thinks.
Freshman gymnast Sarah Cain
started gymnastics at the age of seven.

Although it may seem young, seven
could be considered old.
For Cain, gymnastics was always
something that she enjoyed.
"I have always loved gymnastics,"
Cain says. "If you don't love it, you
can't be motivated to do it."
Teammate Kate Nellans also felt a
love of the sport.
"I never felt any negative influences
in my decision to compete," Kate says.
"It was fun then as it is fun now."
When neither of these successful
gymnasts have experienced negative
influences, it seems hard to visualize
the aggressive parents and coaches
that Ryan's book and other publica-
tions show.
Maybe that is because the
Wolverines have Beverly Plocki as
their coach. The 1994 National Coach
of the Year, Plocki has the experience
and the attitude that make her team as
successful as they are.
Plocki only brings positive things to
the women's team.
And she hates how the media, as in
Ryan's book, only focus on the nega-
tive.

"The book was rotten," Plocki says.
"It is bad to categorize gymnastics as
detrimental to young women when
many have benefitted from it.
"It is unfortunate that the media
today creates negative stories."
Plocki does not deny that there are
some negative aspects to gymnastics,
but argues that when looking at the
sport as a whole, only a small fraction
of girls have these problems.
"In those situations you have to
look at the parents and the class level
that the athletes are competing on,
Plocki says.
"It is highly competitive out there.
Only six athletes in four years make
the Olympic team. It is a small per-
centage to look at for an ugly situa-
tion."
While college gymnastics competi-
tion is not quite at the level of the
Olympics, it does not mean that they
are any less qualified.
For instance, look at sophomore
Beth Amelkovich.
When she went to the World Trial
Qualifications, she competed against
Olympic medal-winner Dominique

Dawes.
And not once did Amelkovich ever
say that she did not like gymnastics or
that anyone pushed her to do it.
"Gymnastics taught me a lot,"
Amelkovich says. "It taught me disci-
pline and how to budget my time."
For her, as with Nellans, gymnastics
is a lot of fun.
When asked about "Pretty Girls in
Little Boxes," she said many aspects
of it were exaggerated.
"It was blown out of proportion,"
she said with a laugh.
"It is not looked upon favorably in
the gymnastics world," she says of the
book.
"It is a one-sided view which only
presents the negative."

Without gymnastics, Amelkovich
would never be where she is today.
"I wouldn't be at the University of
Michigan without gymnastics, and I
wouldn't want to be anywhere else;'
Amelkovich says.
Unlike the gymnasts in Ryan's
book, the Wolverines exhibit none of
the ill effects of the pursuit of gym-
nastic excellence.
Michigan, currently ranked
eleventh in the nation, ought to be
under as much pressure as any other
team.
For whatever reasons, the
Wolverines have not fallen prey to the
negative aspects of gymnastic compe-
tition - unlike that sad little 6-year
old.

3 1

University of Wisconsin-P

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