MEN'S BASKETBALL INDIANA 81, Penn State 57 No. 6 Duke 62, VIRGINIA 61 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL No. 2 Old Dom. 97, NC-Wilmington 58 No. 5 N. CAROL. 79, No. 22 Clemson 72 No. 6 Georgia 76, No. 13 LSU 65 No. 7 ALABAMA 89, Auburn 57 No. 8 Tennessee 90, South Carolina 59 PRO BASKETBALL NEW YORK 97, Washington 92 CLEVELAND 105, Philadelphia 94 New Jersey 104, ORLANDO 98 MIAMI 104, Detroit 91 CHICAGO 103, Charlotte 100 San Antonio at Dallas, inc. PRO HOCKEY Ottawa 5, N.Y. ISLANDERS 5 L.A. Kings at COLORADO, Inc. Boston at CALGARY, inc. Wednesday February 12, 1997 ____ =ME=" You're hired! JEANNIE SERVAAS/Daily Michigan wrestler Chris (Pitbull) Viola leads his team with seven major decisions. The Wolverines are 9-0 when Viola wins his match. *Viola Wlay fought like itbui Guevara earns job after seven months By Richard Shin Daily Sports Writer On July 10, former Michigan State assis- tant coach Sue Guevara was named interim coach of the Michigan women's basketball team. "This opportunity is a dream for me," Guevara said at the time. "(Athletic Director Joe Roberson) is letting me live my dream for a year. and I know it is going to be longer, because I totally believe in the commitment the University has made to women's basketball, and they have made a commitment to me.' Call her a fortune teller. Call her prophetic. But most importantly, call her the coaci, Yesterday, Roberson announced the removal of "interim" from Guevara's job title. Terms of the contract will be deter-' mined after the end of this season. The decision to forgo a national search for a new coach - a search that last year, Roberson adamantly stressed would take place - was not something that concerned the athletic director. "There are a number of constituencies who I talk to on a regular basis involving decisions like this, and in this case, (there was) absolute unanimous consent," Roberson said. "Whether it be any of the coaches who are here, the fans, (or) most importantly, the players - they feel, and'i agree, that we have found that person." The decision came with four regular-sea- son games remaining for the Wolverin , who are currently in ninth place in the Big Ten. The search for a permanent head coach started shortly after last season, following the departure of former coach Trish Roberts. Guevara was named interim coach in July and was confident that she would earn the job. "I honestly believed seven months ago that I was going to be here 20 years,' Guevara said. "I told Jeff (Long, assistant athletic director), when I first met with hiin,i that I would gladly (be interim coach), and? I was going to make it very difficult for hin to get rid of me. The theme for our progranT this year was, 'A New Beginning.' Let met tell you-- it is only the beginning. See GUEVARA, Page 1Q-. By Tracy Sandier Daily Sports Writer They call him Pitbull. It's a name that started when he was a high school stler and just never went away. One hundred eighteen-pound Michigan wrestler Chris (Pitbull) Viola has put together quite a season, with a 19-5 overall record (9-3 in dual meets). He has recorded victories in his last five matches, while posting a team-best seven major decisions. Basically, he has wrestled with the intensity of a pitbull. "In high school, we had our matches' televised, and the commentator just start- calling me Pitbull one day, because at's how I wrestled," Viola said. "It kind of stuck. I put it on a recruiting tape and sent it up here. When I got off the plane (Michigan assistant coach Joe) McFarland was like, 'Hey Pitbull, over here,' right in the middle of the airport. Then, he st started intro- 'cing me that way" Michigan coach Dale Bahr sees the nickname as one that is very appropriate. "His nickname's Pitbull because he likes to get after people, score a lot of points and beat them as bad as he can beat them'" Bahr said. Before he was a Pitbull, Viola was a sixth-grader looking to get involved in *hletics. Due to his small frame, there were not a lot of sports in which he could participate at a competitive level. His grandfather got him interested in wrestling and Viola has pursued that interest ever since. Since he wrestles the first match of every meet, Viola has the ability to make or break Michigan's day. The team is 9-0 when Viola wins his match. "I've always maintained that the first d last weight classes wrestled in a dual meet - Chris starts us off and Airron (Richardson) finishes us off- are very important psychologically," Bahr said. Me first weight class is probably worth / t2 times the other weight classes, fause you come out, you're nervous, tAkids have warmed up. y fThe tempo is generally set with the t-pound bout. When he gets out and s after people, it kind of sets the ipo for everybody that follows him." die of Viola's favorite aspects of wrestling is the competitive nature of each match. "I kind of like to think (of a match) as trying to fit eight minutes of wrestling into seven minutes of time;' Viola said. "I like to go out there and really go after a guy. Everybody's got a breaking point, if you push them hard enough. "You get them to a point where you can sense it coming and you can also just sense it when the guy breaks, because they drop their head or whatever they do. That's when the fun part comes in, because you just start beating them up.' As much fun as he has beating people up during matches, Viola is more of a victim during practice. "Chris is a great competitior," Bahr said. "He's a much better competition wrestler than he is a practice wrestler. A lot of people will beat him up here in practice. But when it comes to the matches, he has the ability to psycholog- ically take himself to the next level." Stemming from his competitive atti- tude comes a will to never give up. However, Viola knows that without the proper technique, wins become scarce, whether he works hard or not. "I don't give up," Viola said. "I'll get down in a match or something and battle my way back. I need to work on techni- cal stuff down on the mat. I have a hard time with long, skinny guys." His will to succeed stretches beyond wrestling to his academic life. Currently enrolled in the School of Kinesiology, Viola is working toward the goal of transferring to engineering. "When Chris came out of high school, he was a good student, but he wasn't a great student," Bahr said. "When he came to Michigan, he told us he wanted to get into the engineering school. He's got his grade point up to the point where now he wants to transfer to engineering, which is a real asset to him" When he's not wrestling, Viola likes to travel and help out in the community. Last spring, Viola and his roommate, Michigan wrestler Brian Aparo, spoke at a DARE graduation ceremony for ele- mentary school children. Viola says he likes working with younger children. "I like playing with little kids," Viola said, "and they like me, because I'm about their size." As much as he cares about his team, Viola sometimes likes to do things a lit- tle differently than everyone else. "Chris came in very much an individ- ual;" Bahr said. "Sometimes I say he travels to the beat of a different drummer than some of the other kids. Over the years, he seems to have been more con- forming. He's very team-oriented, but he might show up to a banquet in shorts, just to be different" A happy Sue Guevara entrtins question shortly after being named the permanent replacement for former Michigan women's basketball coach Trish Roberts. This decision is long overdue By Richard Shin Daily Sports Writer Undoubtedly, the big question on everyone's mind after the announce- ment of the hiring of Sue Guevara was: What took so long? It has been seven months and one day since Guevara took the posi- tion at the helm of the Michigan women's bas- ketball team on an interim basis. It has Q Y .:>: >: i tackle a project of a program at Michigan - one that won a grand total of four games in the Big Ten over the past three seasons. Michigan Athletic Director Joe Roberson realized the risks that Guevara was taking in accepting the job on an interim basis. "Last summer, Sue Guevara made a commitment and took a chance," Roberson said. "Guevara was willing to make a commitment to Michigan with no promises of security and knowing full well the magnitude of the challenge she would face." Faced with that prospect, Guevara still took the job. Let's examine the job she has done: U Non-conference: Michigan started the year with five straight vic- tories and entered Big Ten play with an 8-1 record, the school's best start ever. Big deal. Last season's squad start- ed with a 6-3 record before a horren- dous 1-15 conference mark. This season's squad, however, has won a tournament title and also nar- rowly missed beating then-No. 1 Stanford, eventually losing by three points. Three points away from a 9-0 mark. The Big Ten: After an 0-18 debacle in 1994-95, then last season's 1-15 record, the Wolverines have put together a respectable 4-8 mark this season with four games remaining. In several of those losses - includ- ing defeats at the hands of Purdue and Michigan State, two of the con- ference leaders - the Wolverines were still in the game entering the final minutes. Michigan's inspired play has earned the praise of coaches around the league. The Wolverines also have the opportunity to finish in other than 10th or 11 th place in the conference for the first time in a long time. See OVERDUE, Page 10 been one day since she was given the job permanently. Seven months ago, Guevara left a comfortable job as associate head coach at Michigan State to take the job as interim coach, leaving job security and a successful program to M' women's swimming Close to collapse By Josh Kleinbaum Daily Sports Writer It's as automatic as night and day. When there is a Big Ten women's swimming championships, the Michigan Wolverines are there to win it. For a decade, the Wolverines have owned this meet. The last time they fin- ished anything other than first, Ronald Reagan was president and the New York Mets won the World Series. i that respect, they have nothing to worry about. And as Michigan coach Jim Richardson has been saying for the past month and a half, as he watched his team slide, that the dual meets mean nothing. Once you're in, you're in - anything can happen. Richardson is confident. His team has been training hard for the past month and a half for the Big Ten and NCAA championship meets, and it is because of this hard training that the Wolverines have lost half of their dual meets. Richardson thinks he has the talent to win the Big Ten title. And he does. There is no question that the best swimmers in the conference are on the Michigan team. But there's one problem - they have not been in top form since December. And maybe Richardson shouldn't be so confident. It was at Miami (Ohio), Dec. 5-7, that the Wolverines showed their dom- inance. In that weekend, a handful of Wolverines recorded times that were fast enough to qualify for the NCAA championships. In the two months since that meet, only Shannon Shakespeare recorded an NCAA qual- ifying time. And Shakespeare had already qualified in other events. The fact is, Michigan is swimming slowly. The Wolverines peaked in December, while they need to be peak- ing now. Northwestern is doing it right. The No. 15 Wildcats have a record similar to that of the Wolverines - 9-4. But since the new year, they have only lost twice, and not at all since Jan. 18. They swam their fastest times of the season in seven events just this past weekend when they beat the Wolverines. The Wildcats are peak- ing. They are dangerous. The Wolverines' problem could be morale. After a strenuous training trip in California over winter break, a fatigued Michigan team dropped its next three meets. It's tough to come back from that and still swim your fastest. The problem could still be .fatigue. The Wolverines have trained hard so that they will be ready for the Big len and NCAA championships. Their sea- son has snowballed since the trainjng trip, and they still might not lpve recovered strength-wise. This week, they will only be practicing at-40 per- cent of their normal workout level. Out it could be too late - they could hive pushed it too hard. Regardless of the cause of their slow swimming, the Wolverines have to fix it, and they have to do it fast. A strong Northwestern team is poised to do2he impossible, to knock off the chanpi- ons, to beat Michigan. It hasn't happened in a decade. But if the Wolverines don't do something quickly, it will happen next week."' In a week and a half, that could all change. Last Saturday, the Wolverines lost their first Big Ten dual meet since the 1992-93 season. Their 8-4 record is deceiving - since the new year, they are only 4-4. The Big Ten powerhouse is ready to fall. The Wolverines have qualified nine swimmers for the NCAA champi- onships and could still qualify more. In i ! New netters are fresh By Rhonda McGee r he Daily The Fantastic Four has arrived. No, not the wonderful Marvel Comic charac- ters' but rather Michigan's women's ten- nis team. :Yes, the Wolverines have added four freshmen to the team. Meet Tenley Hardin, Brooke Hart, Danielle Lund and attitudes and enjoy the game;' Hart said. The singles' performance from the four women has been outstanding, con- sidering the fact that they are only fresh- men. Hart, Lund and Weggenman were successful against Wisconsin. Hart played a close match, prevailing, 3-6, 7- 5, 6-3, while Lund easily defeated her opponent, 6-1, 6-1. Weggenman had an I I;,.