The Michigan Daily - Thursday, December 2, 2001- 11
ABBY ROSENBAUM/Daily
The 3-1 Michigan soccer team was home this weekend against Cleveland State but traveled to Penn State. This weekend it
will travel to Louisville before remaining home for the rest of the month.
soccer takes off for Bluegras
*State before long home stretch
By Chris Burke
Daily Sports Writer
A trip to Louisville awaits the
Michigan men's soccer team this
weekend. It's the last trip the team
will have to take for a while because
after two games at the Louisville
OInvitational, the Wolverines will not
leave the state of Michigan for more
than a month.
The only two road games that will
face Michigan between Sunday and
an October 26th trip to the Florida
International Invitational in Miar4i,
Fla. are treks to Oakland and Michi-
gan State.
"We just had a good experience on
*he road at Penn State in terms of not
having to deal with the distractions
of being home - having friends and
family around all the time, things like
that," Michigan coach Steve Burns
said. "It's a better environment on
the road in terms of being focused on
one task and one task only."
But the abundance of home cook-
ing is something Michigan will con-
centrate on after this weekend.
,Wollowing a 4-0 loss to Penn State
last Sunday, the Wolverines will be
tested with match-ups against Cal
Poly-San Luis Obispo and Louisville.
It's an important weekend for the
Wolverine team that currently sits
with a 3-1 record, as it attempts to
bounce back from a tough loss
against the nationally-ranked Nittany
Lions. Cal Poly-SLO and Louisville
also pose unique challenges because
they are teams the Wolverines don't
normally see on their schedule.
"We still have to be concerned
with how we're prepared and address
the style of other teams," Burns said.
"Our style would be considered more
of a possession team - we play
shorter balls, try to pull the other
team out of position and then catch
them with long balls one-on-one.
"But teams can take that away
from you and we have to prepare for
that. Right now we're in the process
of learning how Louisville plays, but
Cal Poly-SLO will be more difficult
because we have less connections in
trying to learn their type of play.'
Prior to the loss to Penn State, the
Wolverines had won three-straight
games - the longest winning streak
for the team since it gained varsity
status last year. The early streak was
spurred by the play of redshirt fresh-
man goalkeeper Joe Zawacki. In the
Wolverines' first three games,
Zawacki allowed only one goal
behind a fairly young team. Howev-
er, in the loss to Penn State, Zawacki
was able to take away something that
might prove even more valuable than
a win - experience.
"He's a very good goalkeeper and
for the first half of the game, he kept
us in it," Burns said. "Obviously that
sort of experience is extremely
important in terms of the develop-
ment of a scholarship goalkeeper."
The team as a whole also took
strides in the match at Penn State and
is ready to roll into Louisville this
weekend. ,
"It's not something I want to call
upon often and say 'We're a young
team and we learned from this expe-
rience,' but we have to call it like we
see it," Burns said. "Unfortunately
Penn State was the better team last
weekend, but we are a young team
and our young team is learning to
compete."
No need for luggage
After this weekend's trip to Louisville,
the Michigan men's soccer team will
stay close to home, thanks to a
schedule that includes seven out of
nine games in Ann Arbor.
Graduation rate
among college
athletes flattens
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Graduation rates among college
athletes held steady in the most recent NCAA figures, but
the rate among men's basketball players dropped to its sec-
ond-lowest level since 1984.
The rates, which were released yesterday and are
announced annually, reflect graduation patterns for athletes
who entered college in 1994-95.
While graduation rates for all Division I athletes remained
at 58 percent - the same as surveys conducted the last two
years by the primary governing body for college sports -
the rate among men's basketball players dropped from 42
percent to 40 percent.
The rate among white male basketball players in Division
I declined 4 percentage points to 52 percent. But the rate for
black male basketball players, however, increased by 1 per-
cent to 35 percent. That's 4 percentage points higher than the
black male student body.
Richard Lapchick, head of the Center for the Study of
Sport in Society at Northeastern University in Boston, called
those figures encouraging.
"That is a halt of the decline of black graduation, so it's
kind of consistently ratcheting down," Lapchick said.
Lapchick added that the rates are "still low enough in bas-
ketball that we have to build in safeguards" to ensure athletes
have a realistic opportunity to complete college degrees.
Black female basketball players in Division I showed the
single largest increase ever, graduating 61 percent from the
class that enrolled in 1994 - a 9 percentage point jump
from the previous year and 19 percentage points higher than
the black female general student population.
Division I white female basketball players also showed a
slight increase, graduating 70 percent in the 1994 group,
compared with 69 percent among students who entered in
1993.
Overall, women basketball players at Division I schools
graduated at a rate of 65 percent, up 2 percentage points.
Graduation rates for Division I football players also
improved, from 48 percent to 51 percent.
After dropping to an all-time low of 55 percent in the 1993
group, the graduation rate among Division I-A white football
players improved to 60 percent. The rate for Division I-A
black football players rose three percentage points, from 42
percent to 45 percent.
Experts say the NCAA's figures must be interpreted with
caution.
"The problem with graduation rates always is it's a snap-
shot of a single year," Lapchick said. "That may be a distort-
ed year."
The NCAA began tracking graduation rates in 1984, using
a formula that counts all transfer students - even if they go
elsewhere and graduate - against the rates of their original
school. It allows six years to complete a degree program, so
graduation rates for the 1995 freshman class will not be com-
piled and announced until next year.
And although eligibility standards were set for incoming
freshmen in 1986, graduation rates have hovered between 57
and 58 percent. Still, the graduation rate among athletes
remained 2 percentage points higher than the rate for the
general student population.
Knight coached at Indiana before being let go last September.
Indian1a AD wants
to forget Knight
BLOOMINGTON (U-WIRE) - A lot has changed since
Indiana University President Myles Brand fired former bas-
ketball coach Bob Knight Sept. 10, 2000.
Indiana hired a new athletics director. Knight found a new
job 1,100 miles away. Indiana's spokesman during the firing,
Christopher Simpson, left to start his own business. The stu-
dent at the center of the firing, Kent Harvey, transferred to
IUPUI.
Of the key players involved one year ago yesterday, only
Brand remains at Indiana.
And he says it's time to move on.
"It was a tumultuous year. Coach Knight has a position at
Texas Tech. I wish him well," Brand said. "We've moved
on."
Brand fired Knight last year for violating a "zero-tolerapce
policy" established by the University on May 15, 2000 - a
policy that would have been outlined and approved at the
board of trustees' Sept. 15 meeting.
"The problem is that he has continued a pattern of unac-
ceptable behavior which is similar to the pattern he had prior
to May 15, except it's gotten worse," Brand said at the news
conference announcing Knight's firing.
"There wasn't just one instance. It was ongoing."
Knight grabbed freshman Kent Harvey at Assembly Hall
the Thursday afternoon before he was fired, setting off a
chain of events that would lead to his firing.
The Indiana Police Department began investigating the
incident, details were leaked to the media and high level talks
considering termination of Knight began.
At the N.C. State football game that Saturday last year,
Brand told former athletics director Clarence Doninger that
he was seriously considering termination, Doninger said.
Meanwhile, Knight had left for a brief vacation in Canada
Saturday morning, despite a request from Brand that Knight
stay in town.
Sunday morning, Brand offered Knight the chance to
resign during a 10-minute phone conversation. Upon hearing
Knight's refusal, Brand told Knight that he was being
removed - effective immediately.
DATE
9/21
9/23
9/28
9/30
10/3
10/7
10/11
10/14
10/21
OPPONENT
BUTLER
NORTHWESTERN
DAYTON
WESTERN MICHIGAN
OAKLAND
INDIANA
BOWLING GREEN
MICHIGAN STATE
WISCONSIN
LOCATION
ANN ARBOR
ANN ARBOR
ANN ARBOR
ANN ARBOR
ROCHESTER
ANN ARBOR
ANN ARBOR
EAST LANSING
ANN ARBOR
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