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Uate 3idi- OWLI
SPORTS

WEDNESDAY
MARCH 21, 2001

8


Drew

say

'Goodbye,

Pitino

Henson misses practice to
attend Yankees physical

say

'Hello'?

JON
SCHWARTZ

By Dan Williams
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan star quarterback Drew Henson
missed football practice yesterday because
he was in Florida getting a physical with
thevNew York Yankees.
Henson, who was traded from the
Cibcinnati Reds to the Yankees yesterday,
h] doubled as Michigan's starting quarter-
back during the fall and as a minor league
thirdbaseman for the Yankees and Reds for
theilast three seasons.
The Yankees hope to sign Henson to a
multi-year contract in the area of four to
five million per year. The contract would
decree that he give up football, a baseball
official told the Associated Press yester-
day.
"-Gearing up for their annual World Series
tuNu, the Yankees originally traded Henson
to the Reds this past July for Denny Nea-
gte. Henson speculated that he wasn't sure
whether it was baseball or the Yankees that

he loved, and that he would have to rethink
his priorities.
The Yankees drafted him out of high
school in 1998.
Henson passed for over 2,100 yards and
18 touchdowns in 2000. Should he stay,
he's considered a Heisman Trophy candi-
date and a potential first-round NFL Draft
pick in 2002.
DIRTY DOZEN: Athletic Director Bill
Martin said that Michigan will not be play-
ing in one of the football preseason games.
"We aren't going to pursue the 12th
game any longer," Martin said in a press
release. "We decided it was time to move
on. Our ticket renewal applications are
behind and we felt that getting those to our
season ticket holders was critical. The time
came for us to make a decision and we felt
it was in the best interests of our student-
athletes, coaches and support staff to opt
out of an additional game."
Michigan will open its season against
Miami (Ohio) on Sept. 1.

Rick and Michigan, a
match made in heaven

Drew Henson may have played his last game for the Maize and
Blue. Reports are saying that he feels better in pinstripes.

Automatic bids give NCAAs a new look

By Ryan C. Moloney
Daily Sports Writer
-Michigan hockey coach Red
Berenson was not surprised when
the NCAA Tournament brackets
were announced Sunday afternoon.
-The predicted teams ended up in
their predicted slots, but that
doesn't mean all the right teams
were served.
.The tournament is still not
wire it needs to be, but this was
pretty predictable, the teams that
are in," he said.
'erenson spoke at length this
week about the NCAA's selection
process, touching on perhaps the
tournament's most notable denial
this season - Clarkson.
A top-10 team for the latter half
of the season, Clarkson's NCAA
snafu was a product of a new rule
instituted by the NCAA this year
which allowed the tournament
champions of the MAAC to receive
an automatic bid, as opposed to
stronger, at-large hopefuls. The
NIAAC began play in the 1998-99

season.
"The change from last year's
tournament cost Clarkson a bid,"
Berenson said. "There are schools
that are going to be disappointed
and Clarkson is one of them. They
earned, under last year's rules, an
automatic bid."
Clarkson was the No. I seed in
this year's ECAC tournament, but
was ousted by the No. 10 seed Ver-
mont, thereby squandering its
opportunity to secure a postseason
berth under the new guidelines.
"I can't tell you I am a big fan of
an unknown conference getting a
bid," Berenson said. "But I am a fan
of the growth of college hockey.
Somewhere in between there has to
be a fitting apprenticeship, and I
don't know if just being a confer-
ence for two years is an appropriate
apprenticeship.
"When you think about it, in two
years you've still got a lot of Divi-
sion II and Division III players
left."

third-seeded Wolverines, given the
gift of unestablished MAAC cham-
pion and sixth-seeded Mercyhurst
for their first-round matchup, could
hold the best chance of any team
playing without the first-round bye
to make the Frozen Four. Second
round opponent St. Cloud is a rela-
tively unproven tournament team.
Berenson praised Mercyhurst,
saying the Lakers are strong in all
areas.
"The best team coming out of
their conference is what you are
going to see," he said. "It's not
about respecting Mercyhurst - it's
about respecting the NCAA Tour-
nament. We better play well, or
they'll be our last opponent."
In typical fashion, the Wolverines
refuse to look ahead to the second
round, but St. Cloud's lack of tradi-
tional credibility in comparison to
the rest of the top four - Michigan
State, North Dakota and Boston
College - might prompt even the
most pessimistic Michigan fan to
make advanced hotel reservations
in Albany.

But any claims toward St. Cloud's
inexperience draw a blunt refute
from Berenson.
"St. Cloud, to me, is the sleeper
of the whole tournament - I think
they are the best team," Berenson
said. "They've played in a tough
conference and slowly worked their
way up - the word I hear is that
they are the team to beat in the
tournament."
INJURY UPDATE: While defens-
man Andy Burnes and forward Josh
Langfeld both sustained injuries
this past weekend, Langfeld was the
only one that practiced yesterday -
making it through the full session.
Langfeld left Saturday night's game
after aggravating his already-
injured right knee.
Burnes left the game very early
Friday night because of a blow to
the head. Although not on the ice
yesterday, Berenson said that he
expects Burnes to practice today.
"He suffered a concussion last
year," Berenson said of the fresh-
man . "He said he felt fine the next
day "

n the ever changing world of sports
and the many ideas swirling through
the mind of Rick Pitino, I can't say
for sure whether anything that happens
today will shed new light on the vacan-
cy in Michigan's basketball program.
I can say that it should.
I speak as both a student at the Uni-
versity and an objective journalist when
I say that the bases are loaded and Ath-
letic Director Bill Martin and basketball
coach extraordinaire Pitino are collec-
tively holding the bat - the bat that
can change the face of the athletic
department for years to come.
And from my seat in the stands, the
pitch appears to be fat. It's time to send
it over the fence.
This could be the conclusion a mis-
sion that was started when Tom Goss
was forced out of the positionof athlet-
ic director and continued when former
basketball coach Brian Ellerbe was
fired a week ago yesterday.
Coach Pitino, as a student I beg you
to make the choice that will reinvigo-
rate fans of Michigan sports. Be they
Maize Ragers, former players fed up
with the program or the curious fresh-
man who heeded the advice of friends
and stayed away from Crisler Arena all
season, let them - let us - have a
basketball program that we can be
proud of.
I hope that you can appreciate the
fact that the students that gather on the
Diag at noon today for a rally in your
honor are the students who are going to
support you if you choose to take the
job. Have you seen anything like this at
Louisville?
These students are screaming loud
and clear that Bo Schembechler, while
still an exemplary football coach and in
many ways a Michigan hero, does not
speak for them when he demands that
Michigan remain and forever be a
"football school."
Now as ajournalist, I remind you of
what you can do for yourself in saving
what is a dead program as a write this
- but one that can be revived with a
simple change of heart.
This program does not lack for tal-
ent. What it was missing for the past
four years was a bona fide "winner."
Sure, Brian Ellerbe can hang his hat
on the Big Ten championship that he
won as an interim head coach in 1997.
But he will never be able to shake the
reputation that he developed, the fact
that he made excuses for failures, the
fact that he accepted losses to the hated
Spartans as a great team beating an up-
and-coming team. Most importantly,
the fact that even as his team walked
out of the United Center after losing in
the first round of this season's Big Ten
Tournament - again - he was too
proud to acknowledge that the job that
he had done had been less-than satis-
factory.

AP PHOTO
Rick Pitino might be taking his act to
the Crisler Arena sidelines.
I have a hunch that you wouldn't let
things come to that. I also have a suspi-
cion that if they did, you'd blow up like
nothing Jim Mom ever saw.
Simply speaking, if you turn this pro-
gram around - which you've proven
you can do (see: Kentucky, 1992) - 6
you can hang your laurels on it for the
rest of your life.
Mr. Martin, as a student I implore
you to satisfy the demands of the
4,000-plus students who signed a peti-
tion for Pitino, students hoping against
hope that the ghost of Ellerbe could be
replaced by - in their minds - the
brightest star in the sky.
As a journalist I offer you a chancee
to keep a promise. As athletic director,
you have yet to taste a national champi-
onship. Instead, you have dealt with one
of the most tumultuous periods in the
history of the department.
But at the press conference announc-
ing your hiring, you stated that you
"want Michigan to be the best academi-
cally, athletically, ethically and finan-
cially. That will be my agenda"
If that is still your agenda, then you
have no choice. Rick Pitino can make
your program the best. He took Ken-
tucky from 13-19 in the year before he
came to 29-7 in his third. He won a
national championship and cut down
the nets at three other NCAA Regional
championships.
If you want my advice, and hey, if
you read this far, maybe you do, give
this man everything that he wants.
Bill, Rick could be the move that wil
change the Michigan Athletic Depart-
ment for years to come. All that you
have to do is swing the bat.
After every game, win or lose, the
band plays "The Victors" Let's make
the song mean something.
Let's create a team that can be more
than the "Champions of the West"
Let's make this team NCAA champi-
ons.
Jon Schwartz can be reached at
jlsz@umich.e4

From
change

a numbers standpoint, the
benefited Michigan. The


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