16 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 17, 2002
HORN
Continued from Page13
1999 - the Knicks were the No. 8
seed in the Eastern Conference. They
defeated the No. 1 seeded Miami Heat
in the first round on an improbable
Allen Houston runner that rolled
around the rim for a good 25 minutes.
The Knicks went on to defeat the Pac-
ers in the Eastern Conference finals.
The conspiracy theorists suggested that
Stern and the boys rigged that series so
the Pacers - from the meager Indi-
anapolis market - wouldn't face the
Spurs in an unprofitable final.
So if you're trying to decide what
will happen to the beloved Pistons this
year, consider the markets. In the East-
ern Conference, the teams would be
ranked as follows, according to mar-
ket: 1) New York (Nets), 2) Philadel-
phia, 3) Boston, 4) Detroit, 5) Orlando,
6) Charlotte, 7) Milwaukee and 8),
well, David Stern would sooner sell his
own mother to Mark Cuban before a
team from Canada is playing in prime-
time on NBC for seven nights in June.
The good news for Pistons fans is
that any time the Lakers are in serious
position to represent the Western Con-
ference, the East is wide open. Con-
versely, when the Bulls were
dominating the East, the Western
Conference Championship was any-
body's game. Still, from a historical
perspective, it is more likely that a
Philadelphia or Boston will play in the
Finals than a Charlotte or ... haha
... Toronto.
David Horn will be rooting for the Spurs
because he's a Spurs fan, and the Rap-
tors because a San Antonio-Toronto
championship wouldn't make the NBA a
dime. He can be reached via e-mail at
hornd@umich.edu.
Tigers end
11-game
losing s
DETROIT (AP) - After waiting
two weeks for their first win of the
season, the Detroit Tigers made sure
to celebrate.
Randall Simon drove in three runs
and Jose Lima pitched six scoreless
innings as Detroit snapped an 11-
game skid with a 9-3 win over the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays last night.
With the crowd standing and
chanting "Let's go Tigers," Juan
Acevedo pitched a scoreless ninth
to end it.
After he got Brent Abernathy on a
comebacker after the final out,
Dmitri Young jumped in Acevedo's
arms and began to gyrate.
"I knew if I was involved with the
last out, I was going to do something
special, something stupid," Young
said with an ear-to-ear smile while
opening a can of beer. "It feels great
to get that first win out of the way.
It's just too bad we won't be in the
national spotlight anymore because I
think this team is capable of playing
some good ball."
It was the first win for manager
Luis Pujols, who replaced Phil Gar-
ner after six games.
While Young and Acevedo -
nearly 500 pounds of them - were
hugging and dancing near first base,
Pujols was engulfed in several
embraces near the mound as the
crowd of 13,256 cheered wildly.
"They hugged me, so I have no
Weekend critical for
postseason standings
By Brian Steer.
Daily Sports Writer
IBUHG
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PIP'
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AP PHOTO
Detroit Tigers' Craig Paquette celebrates the team's 9-3 win over the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays last night with Dmitri Young and Juan Acevedo.
I
choice but to hug them back," Pujols
said. "It made me feel very good.
They were playing hard to get the
first win out of the way."
Tampa Bay swept the Tigers to
begin Detroit's 0-11 start.
Only four major league teams
since 1900 started worse: The 1920
Tigers and the 1904 Washington Sen-
ators began 0-13, the 1997 Chicago
Cubs lost their first 14 games, and
the 1988 Baltimore Orioles set the
record with an 0-21 start.
"With the chemistry this team has,
we are capable of winning 12 or 13
in a row just as easy as we lost
them," shortstop Shane Halter said.
Simon's solo homer in the fourth
gave Detroit a 2-0 lead and his two-
run single began a five-run sixth,
which made it 7-0 and prompted the
crowd to give a standing ovation.
"It's a great feeling because we've
been looking for it," Simon said. "It
seems like a couple years."
Lima (1-2) gave up five hits and
two walks while striking out four.
He had given up 10 runs in 6.2
innings this Season, including four
A look at the
underside of U of M
www.universitysecrets.com
runs in two innings of a 9-2 loss at
Tampa Bay on April 4, and had lost
seven of his last eight starts.
"I'm happy that we were able to
stop the bleeding," Lima said.
Delvin James lost in his major
league debut after giving up two
runs and five hits in five innings.
James, called up from Triple-A
Durham on Monday, apparently
wasn't following the Tigers' saga.
"I had no idea they hadn't won a
game," James said. "I knew they had
started the season off with a bunch
of losses, but I thought they must
have won by now."
James was relieved by Steve
Kent, who faced just four batters
and gave up four runs on three hits
and a walk.
Streakin'
For diehard Tiger fans, it may seem
like more than a year since the
Tigers won their last game during
the regular season. But, in reality, it
had been just six months. Here is a
look back at their 12-game losing
streak.
Date Team Score
9/7/01 Kansas City 10-4
4/2/02 Tampa Bay 9-5
4/3/02 Tampa Bay 2-1
4/4/02 Tampa Bay 9-2
4/5/02 Cleveland 10-1
4/6/02 Cleveland 5-3
4/7/02 Cleveland 5-1
4/9/02 Chicago 8-2
4/10/02 Chicago 7-5
4/12/02 Minnesota 4-2
4/13/02 Minnesota 7-3
4/14/02 Minnesota 13-7
The Big Ten season has certainly
been a challenge for the Michigan
men's tennis team. After compiling a
9-2 nonconference record, the
Wolverines have fought their way to
the .500 mark in the conference.
Except for a few lopsided affairs,
all these contests have been
extremely close, with
each outcome being
decided by just one or BLOOM
two matches. AND WOO
Coach Mark Mees Who: Michiga
cites parity in the Big 13-6 overall) v
Ten as a main reason 6-14), Purdue(
for the close results. When: 12 p.m
"Everyone's pretty 12 p.m. Sunda
good," Mees said with Latest: Michig
a smile. "Right from in third place in
the top of the confer- th a strong d.
ence down to the bot-
tom, the difference between winning
and losing is pretty small."
Michigan (4-4 Big Ten, 13-6 over-
all) will conclude its Big Ten season
this weekend on the road against
Purdue (4-4, 9-10) and Indiana (0-8,
6-14), two teams that will both be
hungry for a victory. The Boilmakers
are trying to close out their confer-
ence campaign above .500, while the
Hoosiers are still searching for their
first Big Ten win of the season.
"We've got a tough weekend on
the road at Indiana and at Purdue,"
Mees said. "Both teams are very
capable (of winning). It will be a
nice test for us leading into the Big
I
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ay
an
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inis
Ten Tournament."
The conference tournament will
begin next Thursday in Columbus,
which makes these last two matches
critical for Michigan.
"I don't get too caught up with
where everybody is, but your seed-
ing at the Big Ten Tournament all
comes into play down the stretch,"
Mees said.
Michigan is currently tied with
Purdue for fifth place
in the conference and
JGTON still has a chance to
AFAYETTE capture the No. 3 seed
4 Big Ten, if it can garner a sweep
ndiana (0-8, this weekend.
4, 9-10) Without question, the
turday, Wolverines' biggest vic-
tory of the season was
could finish their 4-3 upset of then-
e Big Ten No. 4 Notre Dame. That
hthisweek- win gave the team a
feeling of confidence
that it could hang with the elite
squads. Michigan will need to main-
tain that toughness if it wants to
make a postseason run.
"It's still in the back of our minds that
we are a good team because we beat a
top-10 team in the nation," Anthony
Jackson said. "For us, I would say a lot
of it is mental because we have the
players that are capable of doing very
well on this team."
Following the Big Ten Tourna-
ment, Michigan will have a two-
week break before the NCAA
Championships begin. The Wolver-
ines will be looking to earn a bid for
the fifth consecutive year.
OPEN FRIDAY AT STATE THEATER
CALL FOR SHOWTIMES 761-8667
Senior Ben Cox hopes to pick up'two victories at his No. 2 singles spot to help the
Wolverines capture two wins this weekend against Indiana and Purdue.
i .
ATTENTION SENIORS
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