SPORic i~n ~s~
Tracking 'M' teams
The Michigan men's swimming team competes in the
NCAA Championships this weekend at Auburn, Ala.
The meet will be held from Thursday to Saturday.
Check in Friday's Daily for results.
Wednesday
March 18, 1998
13
Practice makes Yost a kinder,
But there's another Yost - another Yost that most
people never see or hear. This
Yost overflows with an icy
quiet. The crisp air isn't
warmed by packs of people
shouting at the tops of their
}< >lungs. The bleachers don't
creak or groan under the strain
of thousands of fans sitting
CHRIS down or standing on top of
FARAH them.
Farah's In this Yost, every single
Faucet noise reverberates throughout
the building unimpeded,
bouncing off the bare seats and
walls. The cry of the hockey player as he scores a
goal, the curse as he misses a pass or the laugh as
gentler place
he jokes with a teammate.
This is the Yost of the Michigan hockey team's
practices, a Yost I had never experienced before this
year. Unlike the other revenue sports, hockey holds
open practices, usually three or four times a week in
the afternoons.
Practices are open to anyone - the press, die-
hard Michigan fans, old-time hockey buffs or chil-
dren whose parents bring them to watch "the big
guys" play. Usually that means about six or seven
people in Yost's gigantic stands. In other words,
finding the perfect seat isn't a problem.
You can get close enough to see the faces of the
Wolverines as they heave and gasp for breath after
conditioning exercises, or far enough away to watch
the strategy of the plays unfold in front of you like a
See YOST, Page 14
Reid forgotten in stretch run
Guard must
team
next season
A fter Sunday's loss to UCLA,
the Michigan basketball lock-
rroom, as expected, was
solemn. Some players dressed, others
sat around, and in the bowels of the
Georgia Dome, most pondered the
worst three-point defeat of their bas-
ketball careers.
While none of
the Michigan
players were
pleased with
the scenario,
all of them
answered the
MARK m media's ques-
SNYDER tions in a calm
Mark My and polite
Words manner.
Almost all,
that is.
Ironically, Robbie Reid, the last
player to join this Michigan team,
was the first one out the door.
But as difficult as the loss was to
handle - remember, Reid had not
dealt with the end of a season in the
past three years while on a Mormon
mission - the overriding factor in
his departure must have been his
lack of impact in the second half of
the biggest game of the season.
After draining 3-pointers with his
smoothest stroke all season in the
first half, Reid barely saw the ball
following the intermission. In the
first 10 minutes after the break, dis-
tribution became the key as
Michigan attempted to climb back
into the game despite an 1i1-point
halftime deficit.
Reid was Michigan's key player in
the first half, matching UCLA shot
for shot, working to keep the
Wolverines close. But it obviously
wasn't enough to warrant shots in
the second. When a team has a
shooter like Louis Bullock - one
who has proven himself over three
seasons compared to Reid's three
weeks - that's who the coach will
feature.
See REID, Page 15
LOUIS BROWN/Daily
All-American runner Kevin Sullivan was named the Indoor Track Athlete of the Year
on Monday by the U.S. Track and Field Coaches Association.
Sulliv.,;an namedf
athle'wte of the year .ei
By Josh Borkin
Daily Sports Witer
What more can you ask of track
"god" Kevin Sullivan? He has broken
almost every Big Ten record, won
almost every race he has ever competed
in, and yesterday, he was named the
1998 indoor track athlete of the year by
the U.S. Track and Field Coaches
Association.
Sullivan is the first Michigan runner
ever to garner the award.
"This is a great honor, of course,"
Sullivan said. "Considering that this
award was decided by all of the NCAA
track coaches, and considering that
coaches from different teams around
the country voted for me, I am very
proud."
Sullivan did not participate in the
season's first meet - he was coming
off a minor injury and needed more rest.
Sullivan, however, did not need a lot
of time to qualify for the NCAA
Championships.
In his first meet back, Sullivan qual-
ified provisionally for the mile run. They
next week, Sullivan broke a 12-year-old;
Michigan record, running the 3,000
meters in 7:51. The time was not only a
Michigan record, but the best time in
the nation this year.
Sullivan also recorded maybe one of
the most impressive victories of his
career when he defeated American mile
champion Paul McMullen in the mile ate
Notre Dame.
McMullen won the U.S. Indoor
championship in South Bend two weeks
ago.
But all of Sullivan's efforts in they
regular season were merely a prelude to
this past weekend's NCAA
Championships.
Sullivan completed his comeback
from foot surgery with his second
national championship in the mile run.
Sullivan also anchored the Wolverines',
distance medley, which placed third at
NCAAs.
Sullivan has been noted as being
See SULLIVAN, Page 16
SARA STILLMAN/Daily
Michigan guard Robbie Reid torched UCLA during the first half of Sunday's game. But he all but disappeared as the
Wilverines could not complete their comeback in the second half and lost, 85-82.
Why can't women's hoops get respect?
By Josh Kleinbaum
Daily Sports Writer
The Nykesha Sales debacle was the biggest trav-
tv in sports history.
The NCAA ' handling of the Alabama-UCLA
game shows everything that is
--------- i rong with women s college
Basketball basketball.
The womren 's game .just isn 't
Commenta? exit.Itl never be popular
x -----among the average sports fans.
For the past three weeks, talk-show hosts across
the nation on the all-sports radio networks have been
saying what is wrong with women's basketball.
But while they're hung up on the few things that
ave troubled the sport lately, they are overlooking
everything that is right with it.
. Tennessee, perhaps the best team in the history of
the sport, is working on an an undefeated season and
a third-straight national championship. Pat Summit,
the coach and mastermind of the Volunteers, three
weeks ago became the first-ever female coach to
appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The maga-
zine's cover asked if Summit was the best basketball
coach since UCLA's legendary John Wooden. They
didn't answer their own question, but they didn't
have to.
Michigan put together a pretty good team itself,
right in our own backyard. The Wolverines' 19-10
record was the second-best in school history, and
coach Sue Guevara was named the Big Ten's coach
of the year.
The biggest upset in college basketball history -
men's or women's - was pulled off just under a
week ago in the NCAA Tournament.
No, it wasn't the Valparaiso men's team. Saturday
night, the 16th-seeded women's squad from Harvard
shocked top-seeded Stanford in the Battle of the
Brains.
But Tony Kornheiser and Mike Lupica didn't
notice this rags-to-riches story of the Scholarship-
less Wonders from Cambridge.
Instead, they focused what little attention they
gave to the women's game on the Sales incident.
Sales, a senior at Connecticut, injured her leg
while driving to the basket in the Huskies' second-
to-last game of the regular season - seemingly end-
ing the All-American's career just one point shy of
the Connecticut career-scoring record.
In one of the most meaningful gestures I have
seen in sports, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma
and Villanova coach Harry Perretta, after getting the
go-ahead from the Big East, let Sales score an
See HOOPS, Page 14
Sampson contacted by Michigan
NORMAN, Ola. (AP) - Coach Kelvin Sampson says he's happy at
Oklahoma but will listen to what Virginia and Michigan athletic officials have to
say.
Athletic administrators from the two schools, as well as Alabama, have asked
for permission to talk to Sampson about basketball coaching openings. Sampson
said Monday that the schools had called but he hadn't returned their messages.
"I'm very happy at Oklahoma," Sampson said. "I'm not looking for another
job. I never said I wanted another job, but I never said I wouldn't listen. That's the
extent of it right now.
Michigan Athletic Director Tom Goss has said he has narrowed his list of can-
didates to five, but has refused to identify them, saying only that interim coach
Brian Ellerbe is among the candidates.
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