12 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, November 7, 2000 Minnesota coach threatened to bar student newspaper Players: Don't blame Thomas 10 By Megan Boldt The Minnesota Daily (U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS --- Dan Monson, Minnesota men's basketball coach, threatened to withhold The Minnesota Dailv's press credentials for the rest of the season after the, paper published a column proposing the "death penalty" for the Minnesota basketball :am. Monson said his actions were an attempt to work things out between his players and the paper. He said he told sports columnist Josh Linehan that The Minnesota Daily would not get the crdentials until Linehan met with Monson. The Minnesota Daily received this season's credentials at a media luncheon Wednesday, after a second column was-published Tuesday, suggesting that current players should not be held responsible for events they could not con- trcl. Marc Ryan, men's athletics spokesman, said the credentials would never have been held, regardless of the tone of the article. "Monson is not the person who distributes the press credentials. Media relations does," he said. Media relations "swould never deny credentials. t as an opinions piece" Linehan's original column suggesting the bas- ketball program be suspended for its actions in the academic fraud scandal rin in the The Minnesota Daily's Oct. 13 issue. At a meeting last Friday, Linehan said Monson told him if he didn't write a more favor- able piece, reporters would be denied access to the lockerroom, game and news conferences. "We understand the paper is entitled to have its own opinion," Monson said. "I just want the facts to be correct." Linehan was contacted by Brad Ruiter, asso- ciate men's sports information director, on Oct. 26 and was asked to meet with Monson and bas- ketball player John-Blair Bickerstaff to discuss inaccuracies in his column. Linehan cited charges of underage drinking against Bickerstaff, but did not mention the charges were dropped, Ryan said. The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 18, which Ryan said Linehan and The Minnesota Daily Editor-in-Chief Julia Grant missed. Linehan said both he and Grant waited for 20 minutes for Monson to finish practice and left Williams Arena. Ihat's when, in the absence of the two Daily employees, the holding of cre- dentials was brought up. At last Frldavs meeting, Grant suggested Bickerstaff write a guest column or another Minnesota Daily staffer who disagreed with Linehan's column write an opinion piece. Monson did not accept. "Your first initial response is you have a duty to report the truth," Linehan said. "But you have two reporters who want to cover basketball and students who want to read about the basketball team" Angered by a column in The Minnesota Daily, Minnesota men's basketball coach Dan Monson threatened to revoke the paper's access. Basketball beat reporter John Carter said Monson would never have done this if the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press had run the column. "Just because we're a student newspaper doesn't mean we have to write just about the positive aspects of the team," he said. Ryan said Monson knew he is not the one to distribute the press credentials. But Ryan did not say whether he or the athletic department knew about Monson's threat before the meeting. Monson said there was no threat to The Minnesota Daily if Linehan met with athletic officials. "If they feel I insinuated that, so be it," Monson said. "I just wanted to work things out between the Daily and my players" CARR Continued from Page 11 In only his second year at Army, Young had the Cadets leading the nation in rushing offense. The wishbone gave Army its most successful seasons in decades, including two Commander in Chief trophies and three bowl bids. Eventually, college defenses adapted to the wishbone. And Carr is confident that his will eventually be able to cover the spread - per- haps after an offseason or two. "We will have learned a lot' Carr said. "Nobody ever said life was easy." PL AYERS SUPPORT Ttio IAS: The blame game could be a long, drawn out affair if applied to Michigan's loss to Northwestern Saturday. But one player the Wolverines refuse to hold accountable is tailback Anthony Thomas - whose fourth-quarter fumble set up Northwestern's game-winning drive. "Anthony's been around the block. He was here in '97 - he's been through it all," said Michigan quarterback Drew Henson, who passed for four touchdowns Saturday. "He's going to go down as one of the best backs we've ever had here." Thomas ran for 199 yards and three touch- downs against Northwestern, but players said his ability to pick up the blitz and protect Henson is Thomas' most overlooked and Nov. 6 standings Team Points 1. Oklahoma 2.76 2. Florida State 6.42 3. Miami (Fla.) 6.81 4. Nebraska 9.67 5. Florida 11.18 6. Washington 14.37 7. Oregon 15.00 8. Virginia Tech 17.62 9. Oregon State 22.80 10. Purdue 23.28 11. Kansas State 26.28 12. Notre Dame 27.26 13. Ohio State 28.80 14. Miss. State 31.06 15. Northwestern 32.71 invaluable ability. "All of us hurt for him," Carr said of his senior tailback. "Anvbody that want to blame Anthony is probably one of those people whose expectations of other people are high- er than expectations of themselves." Thomas will play his last game at Michigan Stadium this Saturday against Penn State. 10 I I4 I I 747-9400 1220 S. 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