The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 31, 1997 - 11 I 1 1 1 1 1 i 1 Takizgit one cliche at a tine, Michigan readto o N ew coach. New players. New momentarily. "I don't know, maybe if T H E schedule. Same script. The I'm blindfolded." Michigan men's basketball team Even the usually animated Traylor made its first official appearance yes- was reserved, saying he hopes the terday at Media Day, and the cliches Wolverines can make the season "the were flowing just as freely as Robert best it can be." He did, however, show Traylor's shorts. some signs of life when asked why And with all that has happened to most publications have picked the team over the past year, you'd think Michigan to finish in the lower half of Media Day didn't feature a whole lo there would be some interesting new the Big Ten. of news. in fact, most of what was conversations circulating. That wasn't "Everybody has an opinion, he said was old and worn. Here are the the case. said, shaking his head and smiling. Wolverines' favorite cliches, and Delayed for more than two weeks - "We have an opinion as a team, and who said them: thanks to the firing of Steve Fisher and we think we're gonna finish first. the subsequent search for a man to fill Nobody else can control where we fin- "1 think we're going to get better a his position - the day began with a ish in the Big Ten except for us, so the season progresses." press conference what people say doesn't really bother Ellerbe Conlan by coach Brian me." Bullock Ellerbe, then pro- Senior Travis Conlan, who captains ceeded with indi- ' the team along with Traylor, echoed "'I do whatever it takes for this vidual and team his teammate's sentiments, saying, "I team to win." pictures before ... 's_. haven't read a newspaper in about a Ward Baton culminating in a year and a half." But don't count Traylor Reid merry-go-round Conlan out when it comes to the art of of player inter- JIM the cliche - he's a captain for a rea- We're capable of playing views. ROSE son ConianyBullock Ellerbe wasted Rose "There's a sense of urgency around no time getttng Beef here now," he said. "Every practice "It's time for us to step up and win. acquainted with counts. I feel a sense of urgency Bullock the media, and myself, because I want to go out on a Traylor Baston though he has been head coach for positive note. I want to leave Michigan only a week, he displayed full com- a winner." "We're looking forward to playing mand of the required clich6 rhetoric (a But the undisputed King of the some basketball." must for any big-time coach or ath- Clich6 (at least for the day) was much- Ellerbe Conlan lete). maligned forward Jerod Ward, whose Traylor Bullock "We're excited about getting started" injury-ridden career has met with non- Ward Baston after the coaching change," Ellerbe stop criticism by members of the Reid said. "It's been an adjustment, but media for the past three years. So it's these guys are very mature, and they're no surprise that he knows how to the game of basketball is more ment very understanding ... that's where the deflect a few questions here and there. than physical. We're just looking to chips fell, and we've had to deal with "I'm not worried about how much I improve on last year's performance. it. That's the nature of the business play, where I play or when I play," But, as Ward might say, that's wat we're in," Ward said with a straight face. under the bridge. They're taking it o After the chaos of recent weeks, the "Players play and coaches coach, so game at a time. players and coaches are ready, he said, I'm just concerned with helping this -- Jim Rose can be reached via e-m to finally start doing what they pre- team find a way to win. At this point, at jwrose @umich. )t is tal er ne tail edu *ding his pet dog outside his Ypsilanti apartment, David Bowens talks reflects on his time as a Michigan football player and what went wrong for him academically. Bowens is taking extension courses now through the University in an attempt to regain his eligibility, and he is working full-time in order to pay his tuition and rent bills. HOOPS Continued from Page 9 to face larger obstacles than Jansen. His academic troubles, he said, were caused by poor time management and the emotional turmoil that fol- .:ed the shooting of a close friend. Bowens, who would not identify the friend, said he spent much of his free time with the friend at the hospital as his grades dropped. After Bowens was delcared ineli- gible for spring practice, Carr helped him transfer during the summer to Eastern Kentucky, where Bowens said he would have prepared for an NFL career. But he was able to get t of the deal. I was mad at myself," Bowens said. "I took advantage of being a student-athlete by neglecting the academic resources available to me that the school was providing. I com- mitted to Eastern Kentucky, but when I came back (to Ann Arbor), I changed my mind." Intervention by several of his teammates - including Woodson and former Orchard Lake St. Mary's teammate DiAllo Johnson, who is a defensive back at Michigan - con- vinced him to make a comeback. Woodson, Johnson and other play- ers have worn Bowens's old No. 6 on their wristbands this season as a show of support. "We care about him, and we want him to know that," Woodson said earlier this year. Bowens is living in an Ypsilanti apartment, working full-time to sup- port himself. With no football scholarship, he has had to pay for school himself. "It's really difficult," Bowens said. "I've realized the opportunities that I had, and I'm still a die-hard Michigan man. I want another chance. "(To) everyone who was a fan of David Bowens, I want to say I'm sorry for letting them down. But I have problems of my own. I let myself down, Coach Carr and every- one who represented me. I wasn't a student-athlete; I was an athlete. And that's going to change. "I'm going to be eligible, and bas- ketball is going to happen." sumably do best (maybe even better than recite cliches): play basketball. "We feel like practice is going pretty well," Ellerbe said. "The guys are all ready to play, and they're ready to have a better season than last season." Ellerbe ranked high on the cliche- meter: he even managed to use the term "barking up the wrong tree" twice during his time behind the microphone. But much of the day's focus sur- rounded Robbie Reid, the 23-year-old Brigham Young transfer guard whom many have touted as the backcourt general Brandun Hughes was not. Ellerbe, however, hinted that Reid's role may be as more of a shooter than a point man: "Robbie is one of the three guards," Ellerbe clarified. "Right now, his shooting is ahead of everything else" he does. Ellerbe said Reid's absence from competitive play - Reid recently completed a two-year Mormon Church mission in Greece, in which the final 15 months were spent without him even picking up a basketball - would make his development a slower process than some might expect. For his part, Reid agreed that he is still making the transition back into basketball mode. He had no problem, however, making the transition back into clich6 mode. "I'm a very intense player, and I'm very competitive, and I'll do whatever it takes to win," he said, with no appar- ent Greek accent. "Overall, I think it will be great for me to play at a place like Michigan, where the competition is tough, night-in and night-out." One of Reid's backcourt mates, sharpshooter Louis Bullock, said Reid's adjustment has been fairly smooth. According to Bullock, Reid "has been getting comfortable with the rest of the guys." Bullock also said, not surprisingly, that it was "time for Michigan to step up and win." Bullock strayed from cliche auto- pilot only briefly - and only because his shooting prowess was called into question. Earlier in the week, Ellerbe claimed that he - Ellerbe, not Bullock - was Michig 's best shoot- er. "He might be," Bullock said, emerg- ing from his interview-induced trance MARGARET MYERS/Daily When they weren't spouting cliches, Maceo Baston, Louis Bullock and Robert Traylor found time to be jovial in a tumultuous time at Media Day yesterday. t 1 JOIN DAILY SPORTS. CH'O! CHOOW RIDE IT!. :C :} r' ; : } ax.-. ,$ 4 'a 'a 'a a AUTHOR BOOK SIGNING The Class of '57 by Jerry Harju A46Ufk saga of "higher" education is about higher education - mine. Some of the education was formal - some informal... It's a narrative - often humorous - of my days at the University of Michigan where I pursued a degree in engi*neering... The story includes my co-op job at White Sands Proving Ground during the earliest days of U.S. missile development when nobody in this country was a rocket scientist," -Jerry Haju Popular humor writer Harju, author of Northern Reflections, Northern D'Lights and Northern Passages,this time takes readers along on his six years of "education" and 1950s university life when attitudes on world affairs morality, women's role in society, and other matters were much different from today. ISBN: 0-932212-97-2 BOOK SIGNINGS AT: Barnes & Noble, 3245 Washtenaw Sunday, November 2nd 12:30p.m. Borders Books & Music, 612 E. Liberty Co'oOsTuoIsO Monday. November 3rd 7:30p.m. 1-800-722-9925 inD GO ID LS Shaming of the Sun U sCM Offosrc of Xsjor svents Prgaentation Reserved seats at the Michigan Union Ticket Office and all Ticketmaster outlets. Charge at 763-TTB.