The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 19, 2001 - 58
"HeQuote of the weekend
"He chest-bumped me, and there's a foot-
ball player on a team who's a big guy, and
coach Monson chest-bumped him."
-Minnesota guard Terrance Simmons on the post-
game excitement of his coach, Dan Monson.
SATURDAY'S GAME
7YI Minnesota 93
Michigan 75
Player of the game
Minnesota guard Terrance Simmons
Simmons shot a blistering 10-of-15from thrifloor and made five 3-
pointers on the way to 30 points. "I told Coach Monson I was
going to take it upon myself to get these guys started" Simmons
said of his outstanding40-minute performance.
Wolverines gave up on game, season
aturday afternoon, Michigan forward And if the players don't care, the coaches formance for Minnesota from be
Chris Young, normally a very outspo- can scream until they turn red in the face point line. The first six field goa
ken member of the basketball team, - something they did often on Saturday - Gophers connected on were 3-po
was so disgusted with the Wolverines' 18- and it won't make a difference. They led the game 21-14 through
point loss to Minnesota that he refused to "The problem (on this team) is with peo- eight minutes, having attempted
speak with the media at all. ple's willingness to listen. They don't want shots from inside the arc.
Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe called the to hear negative things, and they don't want "We didn't do a good job fight
team immature and said that "mentally, I to take criticism," sophomore Gavin through screens, and we didn't d-
don't think we were in Groninger said. "We need to have people job hedging," Groninger said. "T
the game and ready to that want to be led." the first time this has happened t
play." Paying against a team with no starters The Wolverines show nary an
Later, when posed <A«, taller than 6-foot-7, the Wolverines still towards remedying the problems
with the question, only racked up 16 defensive rebounds tormented them and their fans al
"O do you account :.. Saturday - their second lowest output of And Saturday, both the players a
for this type of imma- the season. Michigan only had 11 against looked as though they couldn't w
turity at this point in Michigan State, but the Spartans shot 58 things to end. When Minnesota
the season?" Ellerbe percent from the field. Tavarus Bennett fouled out with
said to ask the players MICHAEL While Minnesota didn't miss much play in the game, a scant number
because he didn't have KERN either, shooting 55 percent from the field, noticed and even fewer broke int
an answer. Finish the Gophers still grabbed 11 offensive lar taunt reserved for such an oc
"It's pretty damn Line rebounds. That means Michigan, which had With more jeers and catcalls tI
frustrating," he said. "I three starters as tall or taller than the coming from the stands these da-
understand we are Gophers' biggest starter, only beat an sure the season can't end quick e
y g and a little immature, but it's pretty undermanned opponent by five rebounds the Michigan coaching staff eithE
fr trating." on its own glass. So maybe the Wolverines shou
The answer to the question is pretty sim- Another problem Michigan struggled all a favor and spare themselves
pie though. Aside from a few individuals, with Saturday, that has plagued it all sea- by simply forfeiting the rest of tI
this team has given up on this season. The son, was its perimeter defense. The this season. That's essentially wh
Wolverines played on Saturday afternoon Wolverines simply did not put in the effort Saturday anyway.
as though they couldn't care less whether necessary to fight through screens and stay
they win or lose the rest of their games all with their man on defense. Michael Kern can be
year. The result was a 14-for-24 shooting per- mkern(a
,hind the 3-
ls the
)inters.
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'hat's not{
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MARJORIE MARSHALL/Dai
reached at LaVell Blanchard, surrounded by three Golden Gophers above,
@umich.edu continues to attract massive defensive attention.
ng it memorabe
SATURDAY'S GAME
Minnesota (93)
M' MA M A O A F PTS
Silling 35 5-7 0-0 1-5 2 2 13
tyntant 32 4-14 4 -5 5 3 12
"ennent 25 6-8 22 3.S 5 5 18
Burleson 14 2.4 0-05111 3 3 6
Simmons 40 10155- s 04 5 2 30
Fiemirg 29 36 7-10 29 2 2 13
wiaesnorg 17 0-1 12 0-5 0 2 1
Hen 5 00 0-000 10 0
Totals 200 3055 s1424133318 19 3
P0%: .545. FT%: .760. 3-point FG: 14-24_ 583.
(Simmons 5-8, Sennet 4-4, Sh iing 3.5, Burlsoan 2-
4,SRychart 0-3). Btocks: 1 (Siling). Stools: 7 ,
(Simmonas 2, Rchart 2, Shillng, tennett, Fleming).
Turnovers:T17 Shilling 5, Simmons 5, vychart 3,
Bennett 2, Burleson, Fleming). Technical fouls:
MICHIGAN (5 FT RE
MIN M-A M-A - A F PTS
Asselin 25 1-3 2-2 1-4 3 3 4
Bianhard 32 7-14 1-1 4-9 2 5 17
Young 33 5- 5-7 2 30 4 15
Q ueen 36 4-12 0-0 2-2 4 2 9
noninger 22 2-5- .2 1 1 15
Jones iS 0-4 6-6 0.2 1 2 6
Robinson 33 511 2-2 0.4 1 1 14
Totals 2011 24-61 21-2413-2912 18 75
P0%: .353. FT%: .875. 3-pont FG: 6-25,_240.
(Robinson 2-4, Blanchad 2-4,SGroningen 1-6. Queen
1-0,-Jones 0.4). Blocks: 5 (Young 3, Asselin 2).
Steals: 3 (Queen 2, Young). Tumooors:.14 (Quien
3, oinson 3,Assein 2, Young 2. Jones 2).
Teolnical fouls: none.
'Ii Minnesota......... ... .44 49-93
Michigan.......................42 33-75
At: cisier Arna
AttenacA: 12.336
BIG TEN STANDINGS
I
chandler
e11nates M;
Ellerbe taunted
By Raphael Goodstein
Daily Sports Editor
Blue-chip prospect Tyson Chandler is no longer consid-
ering Michigan for his college basketball services. The
center is a consensus top-five player, and Michigan was
the only school that got an in-home recruiting visit with
him.
Rivals.com ranks Chandler as the nation's second best
prospect.
During a past "60 Minutes" interview, Chandler wore a
Michigan jersey and noted that he was a fan of the Fab
Five.
ost recruiting experts expect Chandler to declare him-
s ligible for next June's NBA Draft.
STUDENT ANIMOSITY: Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe has
been villainized recently by fans of Michigan athletics. At
Friday's Michigan hockey game, chants of "Fire Ellerbe"
were heard around Yost Ice Arena and when Notre Dame
players were called for a penalty, students added the
coach's name to the age-old chant: "Chump, dick, wuss,
douchebag, asshole, prick, cheater, bitch, whore, Ellerbel"
Similar chants were also heard in the men's basketball
team's 93-75 loss to Minnesota Saturday.
*ILL ABSENT: Freshman guard Maurice Searight did
not play in Saturday's loss. It marked the fourth-straight
game Searight has missed. He was suspended before
Michigan's 72-59 loss at Indiana eight days ago for skip-
ping a practice and did not make the trip with the team.
He was reinstated by Ellerbe in time to dress for
Michigan's 95-85 loss to Iowa.
Searight missed Michigan's loss at Penn State two
weeks ago because of the flu, according to the Michigan
basketball program and Searight would not comment on
the situation.
BOMBS AWAY: Minnesota connected on 58 percent of its
3- int attempts, outscoring Michigan by 24 points from
b ad the arc.
"We knew the matchups weren't good coming into the
game," Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe said. "They didn't
set a lot of screens or anything of that nature. It's about
you guarding your man."
The Golden Gophers' first six field goals were 3-point-
ers.
Guard Terrance Simmons led the Golden Gophers with
five 3-pointers. He finished with 30 points.
"Terrance is a rhythm player," Minnesota coach Dan
Noson said. "When he gets in rhythm, he has games like
this. He was in rhythm today from the outset."
Minnesota center Travarus Bennett finished the game
with 4-for-4 shooting froth 3-point range and forward
Shane Schilling finished with 3-for-5 shooting.
THE SURE THING: Michigan sophomore LaVell
Blanchard scored in double figures for the 13th consecu-
tive game. Blanchard, who leads the team in scoring with
18 points per game, scored 17 against the Golden
Gophers. Blanchard also had nine rebounds.
1
Conference
Team W L
llinois 11 2
Michigan State 9 3
Ohio State 8 5
Wisconsin 7 5.
Indiana 7 5
Iowa 6 6
Pent State 6 6
Minnesota 5 8
Purdue 5 6
Michigan 4 9
Northwestern 1 12
Overall
W L
21 5
20 3
17 9
16 7
16 10
17 8
16 7
17 9
13 11
10 14
9 17
Post
Absence
1 J.. r
Minnesota winning amidst adversity
23 .MARJOSIE MARSHALL/Daily
Although Michigan appeared to have a super-
sized advantage inside at season's beginning,
Michigan's post game has been spotty at best.
Against Minnesota Saturday, the Wolverines
were forced into an outside shooting contest
against a much smaller team.
6-11 Josh Asselin has been struggling of late,
with his points per game dipping below 10 and
his rebounds at 6.4.
69 Chris Young has worked'furiously to
improve his offense, but the team has often
lost sight of him in second-half crunch time.
6-7 LaVell Blanchard (above) has had success
set-shooting, and he has at times been domi-
nant on the offensive glass, but posting up is
not his forte.
7-2 Josh Moore did not see any playing time
against Minnesota. Foul trouble has hindered
Moore's entire first season.
By Dan Williams
Daily Sports Editor
Two years ago, the discovery of acad-
emic fraud left the Minnesota basketball
program in complete ruin. A former
Minnesota tutor admitted to writing
more than 400 papers for 20 different
basketball players from 1993-1998.
The immediate result was the firing of
then-coach Clem laskins. Investigators
found that Haskins was aware of at least
some of the academic misconduct, and
he accepted a $1.5 million contract buy-
out. Four top athletic department offi-
cials were also dismissed.
The current Golden Gophers had little
to do with that saga, but they fight daily
to separate themselves from the fallout.
"We talked a lot this week about how
this team will be remembered,"
Minnesota coach Dan Monson said.
"We don't want to be remembered as a
team that g-t us through sanctions.
The sanctions Monson refers to were
self-imposed by the school and upheld
by the NCAA.
Minnesota received a one-year
NCAA tournament ban (already
served), partial repayment of NCAA
tournament revenue and limitations on
recruiting and scholarships.
These hardships combined with two
season-ending injuries left the Golden
Gnhr Svrl ,,,,~ann- -
seven scholarship players dressed for the
game against Michigan. But a gutsy'
Minnesota team left Crisler Arena with a
win for only the third time in 30 years.
"That was a great team win for u
under our circumstances," Monson said.
"With the limited players, we've got t
have a lot of things go right."
It's clear that Monson, who Minnesota
hired from Gonzaga to clean the pr
gram, is turning things around quic r
than anyone would have expected.
The Golden Gopher' (5-8 Big n,
17-9 overall) are a lock for the NIT i a
year that could have easily been mjer-
able. Furthermore, one of the top
recruits in the country, 6-foot-10 Rick
Rickert decided to stay in state and expe-
dite the rebuilding process.
For the 2000-2001 team, memory is a
major motivation. It would be easy for
them finish the season in the tank and
point to the decimated lineup, simply
awaiing the arrival of Rickert.
Instead, Minnesota believes it can still
make the NCAA tournament - a long-
shot largely because of its weak non-
conference schedule. The team wants to
prove it can triumph over adversity, not
simply wade through it.
"We had a talk at our last practice,"
Junior Kerwin Fleming said. "We want
to be known as the team that plays hard,
not the team that plays hard-and then
GOPHERS
Continued from Page 18
open shooters. He led the game with five assists.
"It was important in this game that we got on track early
offensively," Monson, said. "I really thought our players had a
mindset coming off the (82-62) Penn State loss.
"I couldn't be mor proud to be their coach tonight"
Michigan (4-9, 10-14), on the other hand, was reminded how
much trouble it has hanging with proficient outside-shooting
opponents. The Wolverines shotjust 6-of-25 frombehindthe are
as they scrambled to keep pace with Minnesota.
Freshman Avery Queen and sophomore Gavin Groninger
were a combined 2-for-13 on threes.
"We dared them to shoot from outside," Simmons said. "The
only players we covered were Groninger and (LaVell)
Blanchard."'
Blanchard's play continues to be steady but not enough to
carry the team. Seventeen points on 50-percent shooting and
nine rebounds would usually be a solid day's work. But the
Wolverines have required a dominant Blanchard to win.
The rest of the team shot just 35 percent from the floor, and
no other individual had five rebounds.
Four games under .500 with three regular season contests
remaining, Michigan's postseason hopes have almost complete-
ly been narrowed to winning the Big Ten Toumament in three
weeks. To make the NIT, a team has to finish above .500.
Yesterday's results
WiscoNSIN 59, Northwestern 37
MICHIGAN STATE 94, Iowa 70 '
Saturday's results:
Minnesota 93, MicHIGAN 75
PEN STATE 92, Purdue 71
ABAMA 85, Ohio State 67
Illinois 67, INDIANA 61
Tomorrow's games:
Indiana at Michigan State, 7 p.m.
Purdue at Iowa, 7 p m.
Wednesday's games:
Minnesota at Wisconsin, 8 p.m.
Penn State at Northwestern, 8 p.m.
Ohio State at Iowa, 8 p.m.
Thursday's game:
Illinois at Ohio State, 7 p.m.
Saturday's games:
Wisconsin at Indiana, 1 p.m.
Purdue at khigan, $ p,
Iowa at Illinois, 5 p.m.
Michigan State-at Penn State, 7 p.m
Ohio State at Northwestern, 8 p.m.
BIG TEN
POSTSEASON PICTURE
With two teams distancing them-
selves at both the top and bottom of
the conference, the middle of the Big
Ten is bumper to bumper. Third
through ninth place is changing-
hands fluidly in a race for sin to
seven NCAA Tournament spots,
Despite the fact that parity in the
league may masquerade for a down
year, the Big Ten has the top confer-
ence RPI for the ninth-straight week.
This means schools may get selected
with traditionally subpar resumes. For
instance, PennoState could very like-
ly finish the season 2-2, which would
place it at 8-8 Big Ten (probably tied
for sixth place, 163oerall. This
would likely be good enough to give
the Nittany Lions their first NCAA
berth in five years.
Plummeting towards the bubble this
week was Iowa, which lost to
Michigan for a second time. The
Hawkeyes have lost four straight, and
need to scrape together at least two
more wins to make the Big Dance.
Meanwhile, Ohio State is in solid
position despite getting blown out by
Alabama in Tuscaloosa Saturday. If
the Buckyes can steal a win either at
home against Illinois or at Penn
State, they will likely finish third in
the league, and receive a sixth seed
or higher in the tournament.
TOP 25 FARED
This week's results
Lost to Clemson 7567
Beat Califomia 88-56
Beat St John's 91-59
Beat Indiana 67-61
Beat No. 25 Iowa 94-70
Lost to No. 7 Iowa State 79-71
Beat No. 6 Kansas 79-71
Beat Southern Califomia 105-61
Beat Providence 81-73
Lost to West Virginia 87-76
Beat No. 15 Tennessee 88-82
Beat Florida State 69-66
Beat Baylor-82-60
Beat Seton Hall 74-64
Beat No. 11 Florida 88-82
Beat South Carolina 67-61
Beat No. 23 Wake Forest 73-57
beat Rutgers 76-73
Beat Northwestem 59-37
Lost to LITEP 80-61
Beat Ohio State 85-67
Beat Vanderbilt 79-74
Lost to No. 17 Maryland 73-57
Beat Arizona State 73-68
Lost to No. 5 Michigan State 94-70
MA SI
Junior Leon Jones attempts to faceguArd Minnesota's Kevin Buresor
netted two of the Golden Gopher's 14 3-pointers in the game.j
WEEKI
No. 7lowA STAm 79, No. 6 Kansas
71: Freshmen Jake Sullivan and
Shane Power helped Iowa State
shoot down Kansas again, and
the Jayhawks' Eric Chenowith
can't understand how they did it.
Sullivan made six 3-pointers in
scoring a season-high 22 points,
Power added a season-best 18
with four threes and Jamaal
*insley created havoc with his
quick hands as Iowa State beat
Kansas.
uI thought Sullivan and Power sur-
prised us," Chenowith said. "If I
was a coach, I'd love to have
players like that. To be honest
with you, they really don't have
any business playing Division I
basketball, and they're out there
doing unbelievable things, hitting
huge shots and playing tough
fense."
Ilivan made six straight 3-point-
ers during one stretch and fin-
ished 6-for-8 behind the arc while
going 8-for-1i overall. Power was
5-for-6 and made all four of his
threes.
No. 3 Duke 91, ST. JoHN's 59:
Jason Williams and Duke don't
have many bad games. So it was
END NOTES
no surprise the sophomore
point guard led the third-
ranked Blue Devils to
an impressive bounce-
back performance >
Sunday in a victory
over St. John's.
On Wednesday night,
Duke 12 3) lost 9189 ats
No. 12 Virginia as Williams
shot 5-for-21 and scored 14
points, six below his average.
St. John's, which has last tove of
seven, had little chance of get-
ting anywhere near that many
points. Williams had 26 points,
seven rebounds and six
assists.
No. 11 Florida 88, No. 15
TENNESSEE 82: Brett Nelson
scored 25 points and Teddy
Dupay added 22 Sunday, help -
ing Florida hold off Tennessee
with a victory over the
Volunteers.
Matt Bonner and Brent
Wright - who had surgery 't
on his thumb Tuesday -
added 15 apiece for the0
Gators.
- Compiled from the
Associated Press
BIG TEN ROUNDUP
How THE
No. 3 MicHiGANS TATE 94, No.
25 Iowa 70: Jason Richardson
had 21 points and seven
steals as No. 4 Michigan
State beat No. 25 Iowa
Sunday to extend the
nation's longest home
winning streak to 42
games.
Andre Hutson scored
17 points to lead
Michigan State, which
jumped out to a 13-2 lead after
five minutes and didn't have
trouble maintaining a sizable
edge.
Michigan State has beaten
teams by an average of 22
points during the streak at the
Breslin Center.
The Hawkeyes have been
without Luke Recker since he
broke his right kneecap Jan. 27.
They are 1-4 without Recker
after going 16-4 with him.
Michigan State looked like it
had seven days to prepare for
the Hawkeyes, which it did.
No. 4 Illinois 67, INDIANA 61:
Illinois had too many
weapons, too much depth and
too much defense for Indiana on
Saturday.'
The Hoosiers couldn't with-
stand the combination.
Brian Cook scored 16 points,
Frank Williams added 14 and the
Illini defense stopped the
Hoosiers' inside game as it held
on for the victory.
"I think the difference in the
game was our bench," Illinpis
coach Bill Self said. "If anything.
I think the course of time, it- ad
to fatigue the Indiana starters.
Three of our starters had- oft
nights, but our bench won the
game for us." 1
Penn State 92, Purdue 7;: Joe
Crispin scored 20 points and
Titus Ivory added 17 points as
Penn State defeated Purdue
Saturday.
Gyasi Cline-Herd scored 13
points and had nine rebounds for
the Nittany Lions (6-6 Big Ten,
16-7 overall), who won their third
consecutive Big Ten game.
- Compiled from the
Associated Press
Team
1. North Carolina.
2. Stanford
3. Duke
4. Illinois
5. Michigan State
6. Kansas
7 Iowa State
8. Arizona
9. Boston College
10. Syracuse
11. Florida
12. Virginia
13. Oklahoma
14. Notre Dame
15. Tennessee,
16. Mississippi
17 Maryland
18. Georgetown
19. Wisconsin
20. Fresno State
21. Alabama
22. Kentu;ky
23. Wake Forest
24. UCLA
25. Iowa
+
Record
21-3
23-1
23-3
21-5
20-3
19-5
22-3
18-7
19-3
19-6
18-5
18-6
20-5
18-5
18-7
21-4
16-9
20-5
15-7
20-5
20-5
17-7
17-8
17-6
17-8