r" list uan 1d The new AP top 25 Men's College Basketball Poll with results from the past week. 1. Kansas (67) 2. Wake Forest 3. Minnesota (4) 4. Kentucky (2) 5. Utah 6. Duke 7. Clemson 8. Cincinnati 9. Iowa State 10. Maryland 11. Arizona 12. South Carolina 13. New Mexico 14. Michigan 15. Colorado 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. e votes in parentheses North Carolina Louisville Villanova Xavier Illinois Texas Tech Stanford Tulane UCLA Charleston Tuesday February 11, 1997 I.- LeO's shot scores in Big Apple r: :. r .' Legg deserves to be remembered for bzger things ike Legg came out of the lockerroom as always, after everyone else, striding along slowly. He looked a bit like James Dean, his face boyish and smooth from his host-game shave, his hair wavy and stiff, the corner of his Mouth turned up in a cool, cocky grin. 2 He gave the trainer a playful punch in the stomach, laughed, Ond ducked into a side room to talk to reporters about the Wolverines' 3-0 victory over Miami (Ohio) on Jan. 25. He had mun, answering every question with a joke, a smile and a casual nk. And then came the question. The one about The Goal. Remember? The goal Legg scored in last year's < NCAA quarterfinals by flipping the puck flat on his stick, whipping it around, and dunking it in the top corner k . of the Minnesota net to tie the game? The one that was plastered all over ESPN last month? The one that won NICHOLAS J him the ESPY for Outrageous Play of the Year last night in a glittery ceremo- ny at Radio City Music Hall in New he Greek York City? The one that helped give $~peaks Michigan a national title and Legg national notoriety? * Remember? Legg can't forget it. "That's all anyone asks me about anymore;' Legg said, look- ig down and playing with one of the buttons on his gray over- oat, his smile gone. "Everywhere I go, it's, 'There's the guy vho scored The Goal,' or, 'Hey, can you show us how you did T'All the time." Who's the freak? Legg never wanted that. Of course, The Goal has been fun for him. It surely was last fight, when he frolicked with the biggest stars in sports and saw more cool things than he ever did growing up in London, Ontario. (Yasmeen Bleeth and Tyra Banks aren't Canadian.) But now, one day after he received his award and 10 months after he scored The Goal, he is still the same player with the same cocky grin, the same pleasant demeanor and the same impressive puck-handling skills. He's still the same player who tied the national championship game but didn't get much atten- tion, because he used a simple snap shot. He's the same good player he always was. And no one seems to care, because The Goal is more interesting. While senior center Brendan Morrison has supporters court- ing votes for his Hobey Baker bid, a treasured honor voted on by a select group of less than 20 experts, Legg had people plugging him for an ESPY, something for which any idiot with Netscape could vote as many times as he wanted. Junior center Matt Herr told his computer class how they could vote for Legg on ESPN's Internet site. And senior defenseman Harold Schock, one of Legg's housemates, still kids him relentlessly. "I tell him that after his hockey career is over, he can get to have a sort of halftime show" Schock said. "He can go out ,Wtween periods as entertainment, like the Hanson Brothers." Entertainment? Outrageous Play of the Year? Is it an honor, or is it a circus? Legg doesn't seem to know anymore. He just knows he's the one everyone's pointing at. "It's not outrageous," Legg said. "I practiced it all the time before I tried it." All the time? Legg practiced it thousands of times. He is always the last one off the ice, often standing alone, helmetless, with steam rising from his soaked head, practicing on an empty rink. The place is usually so empty, you can hear the echoes, the grunts, and of course, Legg's laughs, as he picks up the *uck and flips it into the net. Over and over again. Every day. Ever watch warm-ups? The move is the last thing he does before he leaves the ice. Every game. It was the last thing he did in warm-ups before the Minnesota game, too. That's why it was so important. That's why his teammates mobbed him afterward. That's why it changed the tide of a game Michigan was losing badly. Everyone close to the team had seen it before and knew how hard Legg had worked at it. The Goal wasn't theatrics; it was the perfect move at the perfect time. But sadly, it's made him a clown, the answer to a trivia question. Legg kept the national championship ring he eamed last spring, but he will send home his ESPY with his father. It's not that he doesn't care. He does. He'll continue to prac- tice the move that made him famous. Over and over again. Every day. Like he did before that game last year. But one act, one play, no matter how novel or outrageous, should not make an identity. "I'm Mike Legg," he said, looking up hopefully. "I'm a pret- ty good player." And that's what should be remembered. - Nicholas J. Cotsonika can be reached at cotsonik@wnich.edu. Michigan hockey player Mike Legg brings home an ESPY for The Goal 'The most amazing thi I've ever seen I I~~~ 1*.* WARREN ZINN/Daily Photo credentials were so difficult to get for yesterday's ESPY Awards Ceremony that the only photo of Legg at Radio City Music Hall was one of him outside of it. T annaekeLegg r' s 15 mi1nutes T en and 20 years from now, in the legends of hockey lore, it will still, even then, be simply known as The Goal. Never before in modern history has anyone done any- thing like it. But Mike Legg did. Perfectly. "I don't believe I just saw what I think I just saw," barked Michigan radio announcer Al Randall, a full five seconds after the red light went on. My reaction was not surprisingly similar. I joined the dozens of reporters who climbed back up to the press box at Munn Arena in East Lansing to take a look at the replay and see if our eyes were deceiving us, or if Legg had just performed the most phenomenal magic trick ever performed on ice. To this day, I still can't believe I was there. I still quiver when I see replays. No still photographer gof the shot. All we have is the video" JOHN footage. And no one will likely Ver LEROI get the chance to see it again. Last night's ESPY only brought Out of to the nation's attention what hock- Bounds ey fans - college and professional - already knew. Legg's goal was the most magnificent in hockey histo- ry. The goal amazed hockey fans all over the world It was named the Goal of the Year by Inside Hockea Swedish magazine. What was just another one of Legg's quirky stick triks made him famous. He had done it a thousand times in practice at least. I've seen him do it. Only there was to goalie, no defenseman, no pressure. This time it was different. There were only 20 seconds left in a Michigan power play during the second period of the Wolverines' NCAA quarterfinal match with Minnesota last season. Minnesota penalty killers were busy covering Wolverines in front of the goal mouth. Legg found him- self alone with the puck behind the Golden Gophers' net. He pressed the shaft of his stick to the ice, flipped the puck onto the blade of his stick, and, in one fluid motip, wrapped his stick around the net, tucking the puck past: Minnesota goaltender Steve DeBus. The goal was reminiscent of a lacrosse play - a spc6 Legg claims he's never played. "I've never seen anything like it," a stunned DeBus said after the game. He lied. He didn't even see it. What was even more amazing about Legg's wizzardry is that it came at a crucial time in the playoffs. Without that goal, Michigan would have lost. The Wolverines would have never set foot in Cincinnati. The national championship they won a week later would have gone to somebody else. Michigan was down 2-1 and the Wolverines were clearly being outplayed. The Wolverines ended up win ning by just one goal. Legg's goal. = "I have to be alone behind the net," Legg said. "If . there's somebody on me, there's no way I can-do it. B1I figured I'd give it a shot. It's something I try out and test and see if I still got it." He's tried it once in a game since then, but to no avail. It's something that will probably never be repeated. Not by Mario Lemieux, not by Wayne Gretzky, not even by Mike Legg. It was a trick he picked up from former Western Michigan standout Billy Armstrong, who now plays for the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League. Legg and Armstrong practiced the trick together every week the summer before. It turned into a superstitious habit. Everyday, before Legg left practice, he performed the trick at least once, never thinking he would ever use it in game. I still can't believe he pulled it off. It's something that 1 will never forget. I don't think anybody who's seen it ever will. - John Leroi can be reached over e-maihat jrleroi@umich.edu. By Dan Stillman Daily Sports Writer When Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick of SportsCenter announced the winner for Play of the Year at the ESPYs last night, some Wolverines were not as thrilled as you might expect them to be for a winner from Michigan. That's because it was the wrong Wolverine as far as they were con- cerned. The "right" Wolverine, Mike Legg, did win the ESPY for Outrageous Play of the Year, which was announced during the ESPY "pre-game" show. Anticipation grew during the main broadcast among Michigan hockey players as the presentation for the coveted Play of the Year neared. Legg's lacrosse-style goal, despite qualifying as one of three finalists, did not receive enough votes to cap- ture the prize. It was former Wolverine and cur- rent Green Bay :Packer Desmond Howard, nominated for his 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the Super Bowl, that beat out Legg's feat and one other finalist for the Play of the Year. Left wing Greg Crozier put the result in perspective just after the announcement. "It's pretty hard when he's up against Desmond Howard," Crozier said. Don't get Crozier wrong, he thought his teammate should've won, but he did have his own explanation for why he didn't.. The only pictures of Legg's goal are from television footage. No still pho- tographer got the shot. "He should've won because he did something you never see," Crozier said. "Maybe if the United States was more of a hockey-oriented coun- try, Legg would've won." The ESPY saga began for the Wolverines almost immediately after Legg performed the incredible act in the NCAA West Regionals last spring. "We started getting on him after the goal that he'd win an ESPY," senior Chris Frescoln said. Although Legg will bring home an ESPY today, he didn't get all the credit he deserves according to sophomore Bubba Berenzweig. "We all think that 99 yards is a great feat," Berenzweig said. "But what Legg did was pretty incredible." See CELEBRATION, Page 11 "Maybe f the United States was moreefga hocke-orented counigL woud have won," - Greg Crozier Michigan left wing "We all think that 99 ards zisa great fat, but whatLe did was pretty incredib," - Bubba Berenzweig Michigan defenseman I For more info on Mike Legg, watch the Wolverines take on Notre Dame at Yost this weekend. You are welcome to Ash Wednesday Meditative worship for Campus and Community An ecumenical service of Scripture, prayer, silence, meditative singing of music from the Taiz6 Community, - - - .~. - ~ ..L - .... U ^I111 / '..d...... m The Valentine's Weekend Comedy Explosion 19)7 T~tT(TR11H D presents: (Ibaww I 43U 1N i 1"1W U&PLW I (7 j,~