28B The Michigan Daily - Ti '97 - Thursday, November & 1997 As. I fliIJ~ti~Jt, Ut %~~Lfl llIiS., I I i1:JOiTrf m ,Raw qw w w _W IIlutaucly, lwvul1W 10, 1a:11 l q. ... "9=W- T 1w _, w A United venture?. Despite dissent, the Big Ten will host its first men's basketball tournament this season The next Fab Five?' Three years later, that's s Mateen Cleaves will lead Michigan State to Chicago for the Big Ten tournament. NEW YORK PIZZA DEPOT 605 E. William St. " Ann Arbor 669-6973 . 669-NYPD EAT-IN TAKE-OUT CATERING By Mark Snyder Since its inception in 1894, the Big Ten conference has maintained a prece- dent of selectivity. As the NCAA's most financially suc- cessful organization of schools, the Big Ten holds the power to admit members as it chooses instead of as necessity dic- tates. The Big Ten's individualism may have played a role in its reluctance to institute a men's basketball tournament - until now. Finally, the Big Ten has relented and will follow the lead of numerous other con- ferences with its own postsea- son bonanza, to be held March 5-8 in Chicago. For the first two seasons, the tourna- ment will remain in Chicago's United Center - the city where the Big Ten was born. As progressive as the idea of postsea- son play seems, the tournament's approval at the December 1996 confer- ence meetings passed with dissension among the ranks. Minnesota coach Clem Haskins, whose team dominated the Big Ten con- ference last year, voiced his objection to the four-day adventure at this year's Big I Ten preseason media luncheon. "I didn't vote for the tournament," Haskins said. "I feel you compete for the year." His Golden Gophers rolled through this past Big Ten season, compiling a 16-2 record in the conference, and without a conference tournament, coasted to a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. While it may be assumed that Haskins fears losing an edge during the conference tournament, he maintains that his players' well-being is his top priority. "We ask them to play, and we exploit them once again and not reward them' he said. He is not alone in his anti-tournament stance. Bobby Knight is also a staunch opponent of the NCAA tournament warm-up. But despite the shadow Knight casts, the tournament will go on - with all 11 teams participating. To accommodate the unbalanced numbers, the tournament's format fea- tures three play-in games in the first round. No day will see more than four con- tests, with the championship being Sunday's lone game. The process of instituting the Free Delivery (mm. $7.00) X-LARGE LARGE 14 INCH I 18 INCHPIZZA PIZZA !Ei0$ 7,000us ito=n+ 2 24 oz i with 1 topping 1 I &iks (exedus duwn, feiaa, & dooflo diww) I ("xdudss dlidren, fela, &icofla die") a n"'e$1 *" I a ,diahn isms $1 .76 emch coupons may not be cam@UO-M@fl fl f ebe combined with any other offer I L -- -.. .....- - - --- --.--- - --.- - - March Madness The Big Ten will host its first men's basketball tournament March 5-8, 1998, at the United Center in Chicago. While few details about the tournament have trickled out of the confer- ence offices, here's what is known: a All 11 teams will participate. t The top five regular-season teams will receive first-round byes. CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 will provide television coverage. The tournament winner will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tour- nament. tournament and garnering support was hardly the simple task one might expect. "We discussed the (prospect of a) tournament with the coaches over a five-year period," Big Ten commission- er Jim Delany said. "There was a criti- cal mass of support." University athletic directors were also consulted during the inquiry, and were in nearly unanimous agreement that a tournament should be instituted. The lone dissenter was former Michigan Athletic Director Joe Roberson. Delany said various factors pro- longed the decision to bypass postsea- son conference play for so many years. "It was partially because we wanted to do things to differentiate from the other conferences." he said. "We were having success in the (NC AA) basket- ball tournament, and we had pride in the full round-robin schedule." While teams can compensate by scheduling non-conference games - as Michigan did with Michigan State last season - the contests are no sub- stitute for action that impacts the stand- ings. But for all of the negative reaction, disputes and contentions, a majority of the coaches fully endorse the concept. "I'm a big proponent that it's an event the players enjoy," Illinois coach Lon Kruger said. "All of the sudden, you're playing with a lose-and-gd- home type of mentality. That's the men- tality you have to have in the NCAAs, so I think that's good preparation." Early round NCAA tournament exits by Big Ten teams in recent years ate another spark that pushed the confer- ence towards postseason play. "We haven't been as successful as we wanted in recent years," Delany said. And success translates to profits, a common perception about the reason for the postseason playoff - a charge the commissioner adamantly denies, because the Big Ten was financially successful before the tournament. And come March, 102 years of Big Ten tradition will fall by the wayside - it'll be tourney time. t was unfair from the very beginning. Everything about them mentioned their potential, their talent, their future. The thing-, they would do for Michigan basket- ball were limitless, people said. That poten- tial. That youth. -They were the "Fresh Five," sometimes even the "next Fab Five" - a hopelessly unfair label - and theirs was the future of Michigan basketball. They had their picture taken at center court, just the five of them, in their uniforms -just as the original Five " had done before them. The picture ran in all the .magazines and papers, oftentimes along- side a shot of the one taken back in 1991 with Chris Webber, Jalen Rose and the rest. And while most people realized the new group could never equal the brashness and exuberance of the once-in-a-lifetime Fab Five, the comparisons were inevitable. The talent was there, people said. The tools were in place. It was only a matter of time. Michigan basketball was at a crossroads, and this group was to be The One. It sure seems like that was an awfully long time ago, doesn't it? What remains of the Fresh Five - the supposedly new and exciting changing-of-the-guard for Michigan basketball - is a tired trio of players that has never won an NCAA tour- nament game, much less a national champi- onship. Two of the original five members are gone: Willie Mitchell transferred and Maurice Taylor left for the NBA. Only Jerod Ward, Travis Conlan and Maceo Baston remain. u Their college years have been spent under a microscope of public scrutiny that most players will never face. An NCAA investi- gation sullied the only title - last season's NIT - that they've ever won together. Their coach was fired just before their final season. And that potential, like their future, has evaporated with shocking speed. What happened since they posed for the cameras back in 1994? What happened to that potential, that youth - that future? So much has happened to this team in the years since the Fresh Five came to town - and so very little of it has had anything to do with basketball. Players have transferred, and others have been told to leave. Stories s, have made An senior have bright poten nearin Bac them. numb to see past c Wh to the For Y g, JIM ROS Rose Beef onshil Thi photo seaso shot.T amon memb The three, remai baske the pr Bul they c ing at future Ho that. I and ju. some FILE PHOTO Maceo Baston was a member of Michigan's first big recruiting class to follow the Fab Five. He and his fellow seniors enter their final season as Wolverines after three years in the shadow of perhaps the greatest class ever. Briarwood Mall 327-9999. Sorry. no double discounts. Offer valid fMondiay through Thursday Present student I.D. ReGIs HAIRSTYLISTS 'A.1' A + - , .. . , I.,I.~1* * *l VA *..4~ 4 a -A -. A .,1 .4,',--