8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 1, 2002
01
* INDIANA 73
% OKLAHOMA 64
MARYLAND
97
KANSAS 88
Danaefler
Big Ten Player of the Year Jared Jeffries pumps his fist after the Hoosiers
clinched a shot at their first national title since 1987.
Hoosiers, Terrapins
leave field seeing red
AND THE WINNERS ARE ... : Indiana and Maryland. Mike Davis is continuing
to prove he can coach, and his Hoosiers are continuing to prove everyone's
brackets wrong, as No. 5 seed Indiana will be playing for its first national
title since 1987 tonight against top-seeded Maryland. The Terps, who nearly
blew a 20-point lead in the Final Four for the second straight year, hung on to
beat No. 1 seed Kansas - thanks to 33 points from All-America guard Juan
Dixon - to advance to the NCAA championship game for the first time in
school history.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS: Dixon and Indiana's Jeff Newton. It just couldn't
get any better for Newton. The Atlanta native shocked the hometown fans with
an unsung performance - posting a career-high 19 points, including a crucial
bucket after Oklahoma tied the game, 60-60 with three minutes to go. Dixon
was his usual self, scoring a career-high 33 points and nailing the key shots
when the Terps needed him to. His baseline jumper with 1:14 to go held off the
Jayhawks' rally, and his three clutch free throws with less than 30 seconds to
go put the nail in Kansas' coffin.
KEY MOMENT: With 4:41 to go, Oklahoma's Aaron McGhee - who scored 22
points - fouled out. The Sooners surely missed his offensive talents: While
they eventually tied the game, they couldn't overcome the Hoosiers.
QUOTABLE: An emotional Davis didn't storm out to halfcourt this time, taking
his Hoosiers' magical run in stride in the postgame press conference - where
he relieved himself from all the credit.
"In basketball, coaches get too much credit," Davis said. "I proved that this
year ... Sometimes I have no idea what's going on. No idea. It's true."
Price, Gooden fail as
favorites head home
t
AND THE LOSERS ARE ... : Oklahoma and Kansas. The Jayhawks came oh-so-
close to another title game, but after another stellar regular season, Kansas will
go home empty-handed. The Sooners vaunted defense was expected to handle
the Cinderella Hoosiers, but No. 2 seed Oklahoma couldn't contain Indiana's
reserves - who ended one of the Sooner's most successful years in recent
memory.
BIGGEST GOATS: Oklahoma's Hollis Price and Kansas' Drew Gooden. Price, the
Sooners' leading scorer and MVP of the West Regional, saved one of his worst
games of his-career for the Final Four - shooting just 1-of-11 from the field
and being held to six points, nearly 11 below his average. Even more annoying
was having to hear Dane Fife get all the credit for Price's off night, as Fife was
undoubtedly scratching, clawing and nagging Price all game long. While Good-
en had a respectable 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting, he had just one field goal in
the first half. Instead of leading his team, he was plagued by foul trouble early
on, when the Jayhawks needed him to counter Dixon's offensive explosion.
KEY MOMENT: Late in the second half, with Kansas trailing by five, freshman
guard Aaron Miles made a huge blunder by traveling - giving the ball and the
game to the Terps.
QUOTABLE: Kansas coach Roy Williams, whose Jayhawks made it to the Final
Four for the first time since 1993, explained in the post-game press conference
how his Jayhawks fell behind in the second half and once again let a golden
opportunity to win the title go by the wayside.
"We made some mistakes, we missed some shots and all of a sudden it was an
18-point lead," Williams said.
AP PHOTO
Juan Dixon was magnificent once again for the Terrapins, scoring a career-high
33 points in taking his team to its first ever title game appearance.
40
0
AP PHOTO
Kansas' All-American Drew Gooden, who scored 15 points, couldn't bear to
watch the Terrapins close out their 97-88 victory over the Jayhawks.
AP PHOTO
Oklahoma's Aaron McGhee couldn't believe that the referees called a touchy
foul on him with 4:41 to go, which sent him to the bench with 22 points.
4
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By Courtney
Daily Sports Wr
ATHENS,
Tim Sicilian
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Lewis had just finished eighth out of eight
ter competitors in the consolation race.
Siciliano swam in the second-to-last
Ga. - This was not how preliminary heat that morning, and he
o envisioned the end of knew immediately that his title hopes
individual medley career. were in trouble. He ended up in ninth
sts were introduced at the place, .13 seconds short of the finals.
rming and Diving Cham- "Right when I touched the wall I
iday night, the Michigan looked up, and I was third (in my
id three time defending heat) with a (3:47.43), and I knew it
- swam slow, deliberate wasn't a very good time at all. I was
ol-down pool. really disappointed with that," Sicil-
ailed to qualify for a iano said.
come the second swim- The consolation final that evening
four consecutive 400 IM was the one that mystified him,
make matters worse, he though. Siciliano's 3:51.63 was five
seconds slower than his Big Ten
E TERRORISM Championships pace, and he looked
ism! A little known fact, prof- sluggish and out of sync as he fin-
iana, cocaine, ecstasy, other ished 16th overall.
re funneled into many terror- "I was like, 'Wow (Virginia's
>tan has the largest poppyIwalie Wo (Vrnas
orld; South America has the Christopher Greenwood in the next
ana plantions in the world. lane) must be going really fast,"'
Siciliano said. "And then I touched
the wall and I was like 'He wasn't
ook at the going that fast, I was just going really
side of U of M slow.' I was just like 'Are you serious?
That's my time?"'
With a strong field in front of him
and a tough season behind him, Sicil-
iano knew coming into the meet that
he might surrender his title this sea-
versitysecrets.com
son. But he certainly expected to be
fighting for it in the final heat.
. "Sometimes when you get in the
water, you just don't have it," he said.
"I don't know what happened, I wasn't
ready for that race I guess. My body
wasn't ready for it or something."
Teammate Garrett Mangieri sug-
gested that the extra pressure of trying
to join an elite list of swimmers with
four national championships could
have gotten into Siciliano's head, but
Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek said it
all came down to Siciliano's physical
condition.
"He was not capable of defending
his title - he just didn't have the
work behind him, mainly because of
the injuries he had throughout the
whole year," Urbanchek said. "But the
honest effort was there, and I really
respect him for the effort. But that's
all the body had."
An injured right shoulder limited
Siciliano's training most of this sea-
son, and while his shoulder pain was
gone, he said his whole body hurt this
weekend.
Even though his teammates knew
he had been struggling all year, Sicil-
iano has a history of coming up with a
big swim when he needs one - he
won the 400 IM at Big Tens despite
the injury. So his teammates were sur-
prised when he missed the finals at
NCAAs.
"He has always shocked everybody
once he's gotten here, so we were
expecting the same thing to happen;"
Mangieri said.
He added that realistically, Sicil-
iano's performance "is what should
have happened, but it was definitely
something new for all of us. Since his
freshman year, he has been pulling it
out."
After his cool down on Friday
night, Siciliano watched Southern
California's Erik Vendt win the 2002
400 IM championship, but he had to
turn away during the awards presenta-
tion.
"I was sitting down, I couldn't real-
ly watch," Siciliano said. "I was just
completely bummed out."
Later, Siciliano shrugged it off and
said that he didn't walk away from his
last 400 IM with a bad feeling. But as
he searched for words to explain what
happened and settled on "I don't
know," Siciliano's eyes told a different
story. It was the story of a guy known
for his competitive fire who just did-
n't have one more big race in him.
>after 16th-place finish
sl
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