The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 15, 2002 -11
Cagers may adopt up-tempo style
ahe Wtot Made
ATfLANTA
- 4
x Gonzaga's
All-American
guard Dan
Dickau is
:. consoled by
teammate Kyle
Bankhead after
the Bulldogs
lost to
Wyoming last
night, 73-64.
Dickau was
just 3-of-14
from beyond
the arc. The
loss ended
Gonzaga's
three-year run
of Sweet 16
- -appearances.
AP PHOTO
lidogs bounced
and 14.6 seconds remaining, Tulsa guard Greg Harrington
nailed a floater in the lane to seal Marquette's fate.
No. 10 seed Kent State led from start to finish against 7th-
seeded Oklahoma State, sending Eddie Sutton's ugly mug
home after a 69-61 win in the West.
No. 10 seed Pepperdine, another popular upset pick, also
couldn't live up to the hype, dropping out at the hands of
Wake Forest 83-74.
Despite a scare from No. 13 seed Davidson, No. 4 seed
Ohio State escaped the first round with 69-64 victory in the
West. Buckeye guard Brian Brown netted a career high 33
points to avenge last year's opening round loss to Utah State.
The No. 1 seeds still have yet to lose in the first round of
the tournament, although No. 16 seed Holy Cross pushed
Kansas to the wire. With guard Kirk Hinrich on the sidelines
holding crutches after he sprained his ankle in the first half,
the Jayhawks rallied behind 19 points from Drew Gooden to
defeat the pesky Crusaders, 70-59.
Stanford and Arizona won a couple of close games late
over Western Kentucky and California-Santa Barbara.
Alabama sweated out a 86-78 win against the upstarts
from Florida Atlantic after trailing at the half.
Duke, Oregon, Kentucky and Notre Dame advanced easily.
Congratulations to Kevin Gebo, who is currently leading
the michigandaily.com/Pizza House Challenge with 15
points. His only loss came in the Southern Cal. game.
By Joe Smith
Daily Sports Editor
A Michigan basketball team that can run with the
"Running Rebels?"
That may be a reality for next year's Wolverines, who
lose most of their size but gain several quick and
aggressive recruits - leading many to believe next
year's group will adopt a "run-and-gun" style of play.
"They're going to have to be creative," said Theinsid-
ers.com recruiting analyst Vince Baldwin. "They're
going to have to play to their strength. If they don't
have a legitimate big man, they have go more up tempo.
"They may turn out to be a '40-minutes-of-hell' type
of team."
It's a style of play that Amaker had previously stated
that he wanted to instill, and his Wolverines showed
signs of it in their two Big Ten Tournament games. A
usually stoic Amaker vehemently yelled at Bernard
Robinson and other Michigan guards to jump into a fast
break right after they grabbed a rebound.
The first-year coach also gave Robinson and junior
LaVell Blanchard, who was finally able to bury his out-
side shots, the freedom to take the ball from the wing
and create for themselves or teammates - resulting in
two of Michigan's top offensive performances of the
year.
And next year Michigan will welcome a potential
superstar point guard in Daniel Horton, along with
swingman Lester Abram, who Baldwin said is a
"tremendous slasher with an uncanny ability to finish
in the lane."
Horton improved his stock dramatically over the
summer by going head-to-head with some of the top
guard prospects in the country, and as Baldwin says,
"coming out on top against nearly every one of them.
"His presence alone should make them win a few
more games next season. (Point guard is) a position
where they've been hurting" in the past few years.
"He has a bulldog tenacity - especially on the offen-
sive end of the court to carry his team to victory," Bald-
win said.
But the problem for Michigan next year is that it has
no "bulldog" in the paint, as Amaker said that "any
more than one post player will be a luxury."
"On the front line, we're going to need any and all
guys in a Michigan uniform to help us out," Amaker
said. "We need guys up front. Size, strength and num-
bers on the frontline are crucial."
And while the three big men Amaker recruited -
Graham Brown, Chris Hunter and Amadou Ba - are
all over 6-foot-10, analysts agree that none of them is
ready to make a major impact in the paint right away.
"Hunter has tremendous talent level, but needs to be
stronger," Baldwin said. "Brown has strength, but needs
to play better competition on a routine basis. Ba has the
longest way to go of any of them."
HoopScoop recruiting analyst Clark Francis agrees:
"Brown has potential, but ideally you may need some-
one else better. They still need a big guy or two."
Unless freshman Chuck Bailey bulks up and learns a
few more post moves, Michigan will be without a go-
to-guy in the post - which will put some extra pres-
sure on the outside shooters to knock down their shots.
Apparently, Horton - just like Dommanic Ingerson
- has the range to do just that, which should improve
Michigan's last-place finish in field goal shooting.
Horton is a "deadly - and I do mean deadly -
offensive player with range past 3-point range," Bald-
win said. "They better pick him up when he crosses
half-court."
Even if the lack of post presence is Michigan's
Achilles' heel next season, Amaker has found some
"team-first" players that he needs to rebuild the pro-
gram.
Baldwin compares Abram to former Detroit Piston
Joe Dumars as far as character is concerned, labeling
Abram as a "tremendous locker room player" who is
essentially a "superstar with a role player's mentality."
"That's a key to any program's success," Baldwin
said. "You have enough things to worry about as a
coach other than kids not being prepared."
Having program-orientated kids "kills 33 percent of
the stress. And maybe it will help Michigan stay away
from the off-the-court antics that plagued the program
for the past few years."
Gone-zaga! Bu
ith another opening day of the NCAA Tournament
Win the books, the usual upsets appeared, but this
e around the victims were new.
No. 6 Gonzaga, the tournament's perennial Cinderella
team, got a dose of its own medicine yesterday in the West
Region against No. 11 seed Wyoming. The Cowboys brought
the Bulldogs' 3-year streak of consecutive sweet sixteen
appearances to an end with a 73-64 upset win.
All-American Dan Dickau struggled, shooting 3-of-14
from beyond the arc to destroy all those bandwagon brackets.
Meanwhile, Mike Davis' Hoosiers found a way not to
choke in the tourney, handing Utah coach Rick Majerus a
plate of cheese fries along with the first opening round loss
of his career at Utah.
In the South, No. 13 seed North Carolina-Wilmington
shocked No. 4 seed Southern Cal. 93-89 in overtime. The
Trojans put up a valiant effort, as they rallied from a 19-point
deficit. But, in the extra period, the Seahawks' tenacious
defense was the difference.
The yearly "Plague of the No. 12 seeds" claimed a both
possible victims. Missouri back-up point guard Wesley
Stokes' giant hair was simply too much for Miami (Fla.) to
handle, as the Tigers advanced in the West Regional, 93-80.
No. 5 Marquette will also be heading home after No. 12
seed Tulsa secured a 71-69 upset in the waning seconds of
yesterday's game in the East. With the score deadlocked at 69
POLO
Continued from Page 10
"The West is tough and we're a
young team that needs seasoning,"
Drury-Pinto said. "But we are a good
team. (The games we lost) were tight
games."
Drury-Pinto also believes that play-
ing at home for the second and final
time this season will be a good experi-
ence.
"This game will be a motivator for
the team since we don't get to play at
home much," she said. "We will get to
honor the seniors before the game and
friends and families can come to cheer
on the team."
For the seniors, this will be the final
home game of their Michigan careers.
"It hasn't really hit me that this is
my last home game because there is
still so much of the season to go,"
Sonda said. "I'm sure that closer to
the end of the season I will start to
reminisce about the past four years of
water polo, but right now I am just
excited to be playing and (spending)
time with my team."
In looking beyond this game,
Drury-Pinto believes that Michigan's
games at Indiana next weekend will be
very important as Michigan ends its
regular season. The road to the divi-
sion conference, and possibly the
NCAA Championship, will have to go
through Bloomington.
"The games in the next two weeks
will be a good measure of our place in
the conference," Drury-Pinto said.
"I am really looking forward to
going to Indiana," said Sonda. "We are
going to have two big games there
against teams like Princeton and Indi-
ana that we will have to beat at the end
of the season to get to (the NCAA
Championship)."
SValpo band goes nuts in Crisler
By Jim Weber
Daily Sports Writer
L The Valparaiso women's basketball
players weren't the only ones that meant
business on Wednesday night.
The Crusaders ran away with a 13-
point victory over Michigan with the
/support of 51 members of the Val-
paraiso pep-band and cheerleading
squad that made the 200-mile trip to
cheer them on.
The pep-band stood the entire game,
often "pop-corning" when the game got
tight. They also heckled the Michigan
women's team throughout the game
with some unfamiliar cheers. Every
time the Wolverines went to the charity
stripe, the band would chant the names
of random states.
Once it was: "AAA - LABAMA,
AAA - LABAMA."
Another time they went west with:
"WYOMING, WYOMING,
WYOMING, WYOMING."
The strategy appeared to work. The
Wolverines shot just 62 percent from
the line.
Just when it appeared they couldn't
go any crazier for their women's hoops
squad, one of the cheerleaders stormed
out of the arena tunnel with a massive
Valparaiso flag that sent Crusader fans
into a frenzy.
"I'm so proud of our entire (school),
not only our players but also our band,"
Valparaiso coach Rick Freeman said.
"Some programs, the band would just
say, 'the guys are playing Kentucky
tomorrow in the NCAA, we won't do
(the women's game).' But they didn't.
That was a huge commitment.
"We felt like in our littlecorner there,
we had a home-court advantage."
The dedication of the band members
and the cheerleaders is even more
amazing considering the size of the pro-
gram and what they did the next day.
"We are not a big budget operation.
There were 51 people riding on a 56-
passenger bus," Freeman said. "Now
they are going to drive 10 hours and get
to our men's game against Kentucky (in
the NCAA Tournament)."
Band director Tammy Harrell said
that prior to this year, she and the band
have traveled to Orlando and Cleveland
to cover Valparaiso women's hoops.
Although the men lost yesterday, the
pep-band and cheerleaders will contin-
ue their tournament run with the
women on Saturday against Ball State.
As Freeman summed up his team
and band, "I call it being poor, hungry
and determined - having a PHD."
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U
A comic opera by Rossini
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Conducted by Martin Katz
Directed by Nicolette Molnar
True love triumphs and inner beauty
prevails in this vivacious opera by the
composer ofThe Barber of Seville.
m