fJ tciAtn Nftg
MAJOR LEAGUE
BASEBALL
American League
Baltimore 4,
CLEVELAND 2
Cleveland leads
series, 3.2
National League
Game 6: Florida at
Atlanta, tonight 8:07
Florida leads series,
3-2
PRO
FOOTBALL
Dallas at
WASHINGTON, inc.
PRO
HOCKEY
FLORIDA 2,
NY Islanders 2
ST. LOUIS 3,
Carolina 1
Chicago at
PHOENIX, inc.
VANCOUVER 3,
Edmonton 0
Boston at
ANAHEIM, inc.
PhiladeIphia at
SAN JOSE, inc.
Tuesday
O ctober 14, 1997
9
4 rss gets
the search
underway
By Ii3tllman
Daily ts Writer
Ayes are on Ben Braun as the.
arch for a new Michigan men's basket-
nal coach kicks into high gear.
Since the dismissal of coach Steve
Fsh ?-n Saturday, rumors have run
rinan concerning who might take over
toej, gram. The man conducting the
sarct- Athletic Director Tom Goss-
$st right confirmed and discredited
sitmjtf the rumors surrounding the
- G confirmed that he asked permis-
Sonif m California Athletic Director
. hiiwasser yesterday to speak with
$ra-ithe Golden Bears' head coach,
aboudi~e Michigan position.
i Jo Roumanis, who used to run the
'Fowetlnn in Ypsilanti, said he knows
1raumid is still close friends with him.
We'e spoken almost every day,
Nourmais said. "From what I under-
Jand i's interested in the Michigan job. Above: Ste
"=bre he went to California, I'd say his first -
at .: ching at Michigan would be of his fathe
enTream job. But now, I don't know.
t1e rl1y likes it in California." Below left:
Gb also said that he called former for her gran
?lichigan legend Cazzie Russell yester- Below right
fay igarding the job but did not hear
}ackZissell is now a coach at Savannah
tol I of Art and Design..
"1,' ven't talked to either of them,"
iosiid. "I spent (Sunday and yester-
ay} king to coaches that I respect
soun the country, getting names of
eoptthey really like that hold the val-
res-ts. been talking about."
QGs=said he will conduct phone inter-
1iemWith candidates, "then I'll narrow
heim own to four or five and have live
Inteiiivws within the next 10 days"
Ni Carolina assistant coach Phil '
1oriiho has been suggested as a can-
ida~said yesterday that he was "hon-
fred it not interested"
_h e Goss began the search, Fisher
Iel ress conference yesterday after-
qo q speak his mind about the events of Dutcher
Jhath4 to his firing. Afterward, several Goss said,
playasaid they hoped assistant Brian Whoever
Dutdh would become the new coach. fire from th
sB' then asked about the possibility than Dutchi
eose-knit' def
y Man Goldenbach
Vii or Editor
'Ith. Michigan defense is the close-knit family that
bost Jle Rob Renes suggests it is, then is it any won-
fer iahe Wolverines have banded together to become
Vfareiter unit than anyone imagined?
Theiation's second-ranked defense, holding oppo-
nts to just 211.8 yards per-game, was labeled at the
beginng of the season as, more or less, a bunch of no-
mes led by All-American Charles Woodson.
But all those unheralded youngsters have risen to lev-
;As f rabove expectations because of the family atmos-
teir'at has permeated the unit and, inturn, given
s'erft e pride in playing their roles.
r "lJ ven't been on a defense who has been so close-
1it and no one really cares (about getting credit),"
t deneocgd. "If (defensive tackle) Josh Williams makes
i9Abk it's almost like I made the sack.
'matrride that we're taking is not necessarily can we
uttis team out, or I'm the greatest or he's the great-
t, but what we're doing is getting the job done. We're
t looking at records, we're looking at winning."
every game it's been another member of the family
Oern_-up big. Michigan had a different leading tack-
lt iieach of its first four games (Dhani Jones has led
Michigan two weeks in a row with 11 each game.)
jght different Wolverines have more than 20 tackles
on the season.
'-" t's all we do, we either work together or not at
al,"Ted Williams, who moved into the starting lineup
once Sim of the veterans, Ben Huff went down with a
New coach will have it
tough
- he's not Dutch
IV 1w iI
AP PHOTO
ve Fisher announced yesterday that he would leave his last press conference in exactly the same manner as he left
with his arm around his son, Mark, who is a freshman at the University. Mark Fisher was 10 years old at the time
r's first press conference.
Robert Traylor's grandmother was vocal in supporting Steve Fisher, and after the press conference, she looked out
ndson while he spoke to reporters in the rain.
: The Michigan basketball players were on hand yesterday to lend support to their former coach.
PHOTOS BY MARGARET MYERS/Daily
By James Gokistein
Daily Sports Writer
The wall moved aside in Steve Fisher's
press conference yesterday as the wall
went up between the Michigan basketball
team and Athletic Director Tom Goss.
Like a scene from a movie, the entire
team appeared standing side by side with
serious looks on their faces as the hotel
employees opened the partition on the
left side of the Sheraton Hotel's Grand
Ballroom.
Cameras flashed, a standing ovation
ensued, and after the applause died out,
the press conference began.
Robert Traylor
and Travis
Conlan - last
season's captains
- decided with Y
their teammates
Saturday morn-
ing that they
would be there in
full support of ,
their coach.
Traylor said Goss told the team that it
would not be in the players' best interests
to show up and be hassled by the media.
Yet when Goss spoke to The Michigan
Daily last night, he said that once he was
convinced by the team, he told the play-
ers to go and support their coach. He was
just worried that the media would take
advantage of them.
Why did Goss need convincing? Goss
might have said that he wanted the play-
ers to go, but the logical assumption is
that he did not want them there. It looks
bad for the entire team to be present at
the former coach's independent press
conference. But there they were in the
hotel's ballroom, lined up like a battalion
in the army.
"I am here for two reasons," Traylor
said after the press conference. "That is
to support coach Fisher and hopefully,
that as a team, we can get a say into who
is going to be our next head coach:'
That man, the team hoped, was stand-
ing next to the players in the hotel room
- assistant coach Brian Dutcher.
The attitudes of the players at the press
conference were not just, "We support
Steve," but "We want Brian."
"(Dutcher) has been here for 10 years
ana knows the system," Traylor said. "It
will be hard for us to induct a new guy
and respect him the way a head coach is
supposed to be respected. I think it % ould
only be fair to us if Brian is given a
chance to coach the team."
Conlan agreed.
"We want Dutcher to be our head
coach, Conlan said. "It doesn't mean
any disrespect to (interim) Coach (Brian)
Ellerbe at all, but we want Dutch."
Well, Robert and Travis - you aren't
going to get him. When asked last night
if he was going to consider hiring a
Michigan assistant coach, Goss said:
"That's not going to happen."
You really can't blame Goss for going
outside. He wants a clean slate. Goss
wants to establish his system. He wants
to concentrate on maintaining the good
values and standards as an athletic
department.
And none of this involves Dutcher.
This creates a problem. All the players'
hopes of Dutcher taking over as coach
will leave the next coach in an awkward
position and the relationship between
him and his new players unstable.;
Whoever the new coach might be,
whether it is Braun - no matter how
highly he is thought of as coach - or
somebody else, it will take a good few
weeks for the players to get accustomed
to their new head coach.
Traylor said that if he knew Fisher was
going to be fired before he decided to
come back to school instead of entering
the NBA Draft this past summer, he
wouldn't have returned to school.-
Point guard Robbie Reid, who ,tams-
ferred from Brigham Young to Michigan
in early September, also said he would
not be at Michigan if he knew Fisher
wasn't going to be the coach.
How is it going to be a smooth ransi-
tion if two of the players claimed they
wouldn't be here if Fisher wasn't? How
can the players and Goss function togeth-
er if the players' first choice for coach is
not going to be considered at all?
"Somebody is going to be coaching
my team starting Saturday - it's my
team;' Fisher said. "It's always going to
be my team:'
That is true, but it could be a problem
when the new coach comes in.
becoming the head coach, "The athletic director and president together. I guess it's just us against
"No, that will not happen." are going to appoint someone (to) run them."
Goss chooses, it may draw the team the way they want it to be run," - Daily Staff Reporters Heather
he players if it's anyone other Bullock said. "We know what we want; Kamins and John Leroi contributed to
er. we want our coaching staff to stay this report.
ense relies on new face weekly
season-ending injury. "Our main goal is to play togeth-
er and get the job done together."
The togetherness has also been somewhat force-fed
to the Wolverines with new NCAA rules that have
reduced the number of scholarships available to teams.
"There has to be a sense of unity," Renes said,
"because there's no room for cliques with only 85
scholarships."
Unity has become even more imperative with the
injuries to co-captain and linebacker Eric Mayes and
Huff. The loss of the veterans in the huddle has brought
the younger players together as a sign of respect for the
ones who taught them the ropes.
For example, when Williams recorded his first career
sack two weeks ago at Indiana, he dedicated the sack to
Huff, saying that his predecessor has "been a real inspi-
ration for me."
Emotions like that make a lot easier to believe
Williams when he describes this team as "shockingly
close."
BIG TIME IN THE BIG TEN: This week's game against
Iowa marks the start of Michigan's stretch run where
only one of the Wolverines' final six games can be con-
sidered "a breather" that being a Nov. 1 home date with
Minnesota.
But the five other games are all against teams cur-
rently ranked in the top 25 - Iowa (No. 15), Michigan
State (No. 12), Penn State (No. 1), Wisconsin (No. 24)
and Ohio State (No. 11). Sixth-ranked Michigan is the
only one of the six teams to play the other five on its
schedule.
"Everybody's done a tremendous job in the non-con-
ference season to have six teams (in the top 25) at this
point in the season," Michigan coach Lloyd Carr said.
"But most of those teams are going to be playing each
other in the next five weeks, so it's obvious that we're
not all going to be there when it's over.
"But it's very physical conference and that takes it's
toll. Injuries take play a big part of Big Ten football
because it is so physical."
Unfortunately for Carr, many people are looking past
this week's game and toward next week's tilt against
Michigan State. If both teams win this week, it will be
the first time since 1961 that both teams have met as
undefeateds. Both were 2-0 going into the game at
Michigan Stadium which the Spartans took handily, 28-
0.
"The key to being successful is being focused at the
task at hand," Carr said. "We'll find out how good I was
at making sure they remained focused"
The task at hand is what Carr calls, "the best team
we've faced yet."
Each team has some schedule quirks working for it
going into this game. Iowa is coming off a much-need-
ed bye-week following a 23-7 loss at Ohio State.
Michigan, on the other hand, doesn't want to rest, but
rather to ride the momentum of its five straight victories.
"For us I'm excited we do get to keep rolling and we
don't have a week off" Renes said. "I think the biggest
advantage that we have is that we're going to be home.
That's an advantage you can't make up with a week
off."
MARGARET MYERS/Daily
Clarence Williams carried the ball seven times in Saturday's win over
Northwestern and had 95 total yards for the game.
4
U I
Read Daily Sports
What else are you going
to doin class?
BU~lK5?0;.0trda
,~~vuruu vs ren ~a ~t~ ~ viu ~ . y
Stye>: Art m .: I 1 iT i7Ti i "
1119 \A"/V