"W -W w -1 --v- -W -19 - - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 7, 2000 - 29A Griffin booted off fHawkeyes Melinda Mawdsley Daly Iowna ibwA CITY (U-WIRE) -- Senior I .Griffin was released from the Iowa men's basketball team in an anneuncement from coach Steve "ford on Sept. I. Rob has been dismissed from the team due to repeated violations of team policy," Alford said. Current Hawkeyes contacted said y could not comment further egarding Griffin's situation. Griffin joined the Iowa program ast season following his playing days at Southeastern Community College in Burlington. As a junior for the Hawkeyes, Griffin played in all 30 games, start- 19. APPHO } riffin finished tied for second on Here's Rob Griffin, when he still had a team in scoring, averaging 12.2 semblance of an athletic future. Griffii nts a game. was kicked off Iowa's team on Sept. The 6-foot-6 shooting guard also averaged 3.6 rebounds, while shoot- the 2000-01 Iowa team will be force ing 39 percent from the field and 40.1 to take the floor minus a starter an percent from 3-point range. scoring threat. Griffin's success on the court was However, after posting a 14-1 'often overshadowed by what he said record last season, the Hawkeyes d and did off it. have two starters and six letterme Griffin landed in Alford's doghouse returning for Alford's second year early last season for academic prob- the helm. lems, as well as comments he made The hole left by Griffin will b r the Jan. 5 game against filled by former Kentucky play rthwestern. Ryan Hogan and Arizona guard Luk The Ypsilanti native, said he was Recker. 'looking forward to the Michigan Both Hogan'and Recker are cligib State game so we could get another this season after Hogan sat out th win." required one year after transferring. 'The Spartans blew Iowa away, 75- Junior college transfer Reggie Evan 53, and held Griffin to just one point. joins five incoming freshmen as othc Griffin said later he was "learning new faces on this year's squad that to be more humble." expected to be a dark-horse contend The problems never subsided, and for the Big Ten championship. t~nada unlikely site for Woods history Notre Dame-Husker hype usurped only by ticket frenzy _. To at in 1. ed nd 16 do en at be ,er ke )e he ns er ' s er* SOUTH BEND (AP) - When Notre Dame coach Bob Davie sat down with reporters to talk about playing the top-ranked Cornhuskers, the first words from his lips were the same as those being asked by fans. "Do you guys have any extra tick- ets?" he joked. Ticket prices were nothing too laugh at though. Tickets for Saturday's game were selling on eBay Wednesday for more than $200 each. Face value of the tickets are S36. Alumni said they've heard of tick- ets selling for more than $1,000 each. "It's ludicrous," said Chuck Lennon, the executive director of Notre Dame's Alumni Association. People were advertising in the newspaper everything from a trade for tickets to next years Notre Dame-Nebraska game in Lincoln to a weekend of duck hunting on the Platte River for tickets. "We're seeing a little bit of everv- thing. One of our customer service representatives was offered money over the phone for their personal tickets they receive for being an employee," said Jim Fraleigh, Notre Dame's director of tickets and mar- keting. "We're being besieged by Notre Dame folks and Nebraska folks look- ing for tickets." Notre Dame had 32,000 tickets available to alumni and received requests for 47,865, the second high- est demand ever for a home game. At Nebraska, there were more than 28,000 requests for the 4,000 tickets the school was allotted, and 500 of those had to be set aside for students. "The frenzy here is almost as much as it was for the national cham- pionship game when we played Florida in the Fiesta Bowl," said Ed Paquette, executive director of the University of Nebraska Alumni Association. "At least when we go to a bowl game you're getting a much larger number of tickets." Notre Dame has sold 44 corporate tents, more than double the previous record of 18 for the Michigan game in 1998. And for only the third time ever, the pregame. prep rally Friday night is being moved from the I 1,418-seat Joyce Center to Notre Dame Stadium because of the expected crowd. The two teams have won 16 national championships between them and played in more than 150 games combined involving teams ranked No. 1, so the fervor may seem a little much for a game against a team ranked only No. 23. But the Irish are known for knock- ing off No. 1 teams, with an 8-13-1 record overall against top-ranked teams and 7-4-0 since 1971. Given the inspired way in which Notre Dame beat Texas A&M last weekend, the Fighting Irish could have a fight- ing chance. "Everybody's thinking that this could be a Notre Dame moment," Lennon said. The Cornhuskers have had a few moments of their own, including being tle only team to beat the Irish during the Four Horsemen era during the 1922-24 seasons. And they did that twice. In the last meeting between the two teams, Nebraska beat Notre Dame 40-6 in the Orange Bowl in 1973. The Irish hold a 7-6-1 edge in the series. Officials at both schools say they expect thousands of Nebraska fans without tickets to travel to South Bend for the weekend. "Nebraskans are pretty optimistic people. When they want to see the Huskers play they find a way of doing it. It wouldn't surprise me to see at least 10,000 to 15,000 Nebraskans in the stadium," Anderson said. "There's a lot of Nebraskans that just want to be there even if they have to go to a local tavern or one of those tailgate parties to watch a game." The Chicago chapter of the Nebraska alumni association has Tracey Wistrom and his Nebraska teammates have stomped on the rest of the country for several years. This weekend, they finally get a crack at Notre Dame. rented out the College Football Hall "I think people just want to have a of Fame, located in South Bend,'and piece of this history," Paquette said; will be holding their pregame "Notre Dame holds what, 80,000' "Husker Huddle" there. Fans who My guess is 10 years from now If, don't have tickets to the game can you count up everyone who says they' watch the game in the hall's theater were at that game it 'will probably be' for S20. 160,000." OAKVILLE, Ontario (AP) - Tiger Woods already has the career Grand Slait. .&ext up is a chance to win the Triple blown, a feat not nearly as prestigious but no less iare. That's not the reason Woods has selected the Canadian Open as his final tournament of an unforgettable summer, bathe is aware of what a victory would mean. Only Lee Trevino, in 1971, has won the U.S. Open, British Open and Canadian Open in the same year. "Lee has taught me a few things in * game," Woods said yesterday. "It wuld be nice to share something in common with him." He might as well, since Woods shares something in common with just about every other great player in golf history. Already this year, Woods had the longest PGA Tour winning streak since Ben Hogan in 1946, won the most tour- naments in back-to-back seasons since Byron Nelson in 1944-45, and joined Hgan, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen Gary Player as the only players to wIn all four majors. 'The Canadian Open, which starts today at Glen Abbey Golf Club, was first played in 1904 and ranks as the third-oldest national golf championship behind the British Open (1860) and the US. Open (1895). Woods won those by eight strokes ad 15 strokes, respectively, and anoth- *omp would not be terribly surpris- After all, he is coming off an I1- stroke victory against a world-class field in the NEC Invitational at Firestone. That was followed by his Monday Night Golf exhibition loss to Sergio Qarcia, when Woods was dragging from fatigue and the flu and !ooked as if he were in dire need of some time off. That will have to wait one more week "After this tournament, I can shut it sn for a while and get ready for my home stretch," Woods said "I know that this is my last tournament for a while, which means I can go ahead and take it hard." This is the first time Woods has played the Canadian Open since 1997, when he suffered the only blemish of his young career at Royal Montreal -- he missed the cut. SI have gotten a little bit better since then," said Woods, whose streak of 55 consecutive cuts made is the longest ative streak, and fifth-longest in tour Food for Thought Invasion or civil war? Many leaders of the National Liberation Front *nd Viet Cong fled South Vietnam and became "boat people" themselves after North Vietnam's victory. The reason was that they learned they had been duped all along by North Vietnam as to its intentions in South Vietnam. Sources upon request. Gary Lillie & Assoc.,Realtors www.garylillie.com history. The Canadian Open used to be one of the top events in golf. While never reaching the status of a major champi- onship, it still attractedi Ihdiagst naites in golf and has a toll iall oh In ia ch'ampions that includes Walter HIagcit Sam Snead, Bobby Locke and Arnold Palmer By David Uchlyama "When I was a kid, winning the Indiana Daily Student Canadian Open was a big thing," said defending champion Hal Sutton. "I BLOOMINGTON always looked at the Canadian Open Former Ohio State a as a national open and I wanted to win coach Les Fertig has it, and I think that has a great deal to basketball coaching do with why Tiger is in the field this istrative assistant. week. Fertig arrived on "To win the U.S. Open and the and was in Assembly British Open and the Canadian Open, coaching basketbal all three in the same year, that has a morning. He will spi large impact as.to why he is here." week moving fron Woods says it isn't so, but he always Bloomington and a seems to raise his game when history - Sept. 12. any kind of history - is riding on the "There are two ap outcome. tion," Fertig said. "0 "It does have a wonderful history,"he Knight and having t said. "This is one of the biggest tourna- work with someonet mients there ever was on the tour, and it's second is that I'mv a tournament you'd like to win:" ia hoops has tolerance for new assistant I (U-WIRE) - ssistant basketball joined the Indiana staff as an admin- campus Monday Hall teaching the 1 class Tuesday end the rest of the m Columbus to ssume his duties peals to this posi- ne is coach (Bob) he opportunity to of his ability, and working at a pro- gram that is one of the nation's finest, in terms of basketball tradition. "When the opportunity was offered to me and I jumped at it. I feel very for- tunate to be here." Fertig will handle administrative duties for Knight and help assistant coaches Mike Davis, Pat Knight and John Treloar with their duties. Norm Ellenberger held the position before he took an assistant coaching job with the Chicago Bulls earlier this summer. "While I can't go on the floor and coach during practices, I'll do things along the line of scouting our own team, so I get a lot of coaching input," Fertig said. "And I'll be teaching the (coaching basketball) class and doing other administrative things to help Coach out. "This isn'tjust a job, it's a special job in major college basketball. It's one of the premiere opportunities in Division I basketball." Treloar is said he is excited to have Fertig on the staff. "He's coming on board, and I think he's going to bring a lot of knowledge and experience," Treloar said. "He's been in the Big Ten, so he's seen what it takes to win in the Big Ten. I think he's going to be a great asset." Junior Mike Ward, a student in Fertig's first coaching basketball class, was impressed with Fertig's teaching ability. "He's a smart coach,"Ward said, "He realizes that this class needs to go at a slower pace. He had us do a footwork drill that didn't even involve a ball." Fertig, 55, started his coaching career at the University of Oklahoma working under coach Dave Bliss who was Knight's assistant at West Point and Indiana. He then coached at West Point and at Ohio State from 1989-92, but he's been out of the profession for the last eight years, working various business ventures. "I want to continue to learn and get back into the profession," Fertig said. "I've seen the other side. I've been away from it, and like a lot of situa- tions, you learn to appreciate it and realize that you're in it because you love it. "I found that this is what I really want to do. This is what I think I'm best at. Very few people get a second chance when they've left it."