The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 10, 2003 - 38
FRIDAYS'S GAME
Nowhere to go but up for Blue
STEVE
4 Michigan
Purdue
50
72
JOSH IoLMAN
ON WOMEN'S HOOPS
JACKSON
Gueva-rant
"I certainly didn't see this, and it's
not something I want to experience
again,"- Michigan coach Sue Gue-
vara's final thoughts on her team's dis-
appointing collapse.
Key Stat
50
Michigan's offensive output, the sec-
ond lowest total of the season. After
scoring 83 the previous day against Illi-
nois, the 43-point turnaround was as
puzzling is the rest of their season.
Stat of the Season
.500
Michigan went 8.0 when they made
more than half their shots. Unfortunate-
ly, the Wolverines only shot 40.6 per-
cent against Big Ten teams this season.
Daily's Season MVP
jennifer Snhth
Smith has been one of the few bright
spots for the Wolverines this season.
An Honorable Mention All-Big Ten selec-
tion, she finishes the season leading
the team in points, field goal percent-
age and three-point percentage.
FRIDAY'S GAME
MIchIgan (50)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS
Pool 24 3-14 0-4 2-9 3 0 6
Gandy 30 5-11 1-2 1-4 1 1 11
Smith 30 5-10 5-5 1-4 0 1 15
Carney 22 0-4 0-0 0-1 2 3 0
Reams 28 1-6 1-2 5-9 0 3 3
Andrews 14 2-5 0-0 0-1 3 1 4
Hauser-Price 12 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 2
Goodlow 9 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 3
Burlin 8 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 2
Bies 23 1-2 2-2 0-0 1 4 4
Totals 200 20-6 9-15 12-3414s15 50
FG%: .328. FT%: .600. 3-polat FG: 1-7, .143 (Good-
low 14, Pool 0-2, Bies 0.1, Burlin 0.1, Carney 0-1,
Smith 0-1). Blocks: 5 (Gandy 2, Andrews, Bies,
Smith). Steals: 11 (Pool 3, Bies 2, Gandy 2,
Andrews, Goodlow, Hauser-Price, Reams).
Turnovers: 15 (Pool 4, Carney 3, Andrews, Burlin,
Gandy, Goodlow, Hauser-Price, Reams, Smith).
Technical Fouls: none.
PURDUE (72)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A 0-T A F PTS
Hicks 27 3-7 0-0 1-4 5 1 6
Wright 30 3-10 57 1-8 4 0 12
Noon 21 6-11 0-0 3-8 1 4 12
Jones 23 2-3 2-2 0-0 2 2 8
Valek 32 7-14 2-2 2-5 1 1 19
Taylor 14 0-2 0-0 0-3 2 2 0
Howard 2 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0
Keys 4 0-0 0-0 00 0 0 0
Duncan 11 2-3 0-0 2-3 0 2 4
Webb 20 1-2 0-0 1-2 3 1 3
Heikes 16 4-7 0-0 0-5 0 1 8
Totals 200 28-59 91i11-43 1814 72
FG%: .475. FT%: .818. 3-pont FG: 7-11 636 (Valek
3-4, Jones 2-3, Webb 1-1, Wright 1-1). Blocks: 4
(Hicks, Noon, Webb, Wright). Steals: 7 (Hicks 2,
Wright 2, Duncan, Heikes, Webb). Turnovers: 15
(Valek 4, Webb 4, Jones 2, Noon 2, Duncan, Hicks,
Taylor). Technical fouls: none.
Michigan .............23 27-- 50
Purdue ......................35 37 - 72
At: conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
Attendance: 5,743
' M' STATS
It was an unflattering end to an unflattering season. No.
12 Purdue handily finished off the Michigan women's bas-
ketball team, 72-50, in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tour-
nament on Friday.
There is no shame in losing to Purdue - a team that
could walk away with the Big Ten title tonight in Indi-
anapolis and can certainly look forward to more success
in the NCAA Tournament - but shame may have been
the prevailing feeling among Michigan players, coaches,
fans and media.
The Michigan family Wasn't ashamed that Michigan
couldn't topple the mighty Boilermakers. It was ashamed
because any chance that the Wolverines had of redeeming
themselves this season had ended, along with one of the
darkest chapters in the program's history.
"It's disappointing. I don't think there's any doubt
about that," Michigan coach Sue Guevara said. "I certain-
ly didn't see this, and it's not something that I want ,to
experience again."
The 2002-03 basketball season was a failure in one aspect
or another. Not one member of Michigan would say other-
wise. Someone may try and spin some of the positives that
came from it, but the fact remains that this team came
nowhere close to reaching the goals set for itself at the outset
of the season.
But that's a fact that everyone knows, so why continue to
pound it down everyone's throat? There's no way to figure
out why this team imploded, otherwise Guevara would have
fixed it ages ago.
Guevara said herself after the team's 67-38 loss to North-
western that a lesson should be learned after every loss, and
rest assured, Michigan will learn those lessons and pick up
the pieces next year, because there's nothing else to do.
For starters, this team will grow up. The Wolverines were
composed of five freshmen this year,.two of whom started
much of the season. But while the quantity of play may have
been consistent, the quality of play was not.
Guevara echoed this observation following Friday's game.
It was obvious to everyone that the team that had shocked
Illinois 83-59 on Thursday was not the same a day later.
"It was what's been haunting us all season," Guevara
said. "It was just the inconsistency from one game to
the next."
Experience breeds consistency, but it also spawns another
attribute that may have been sorely missed on this year's
team - leadership.
Senior co-captains LeeAnn Bies and Raina Goodlow
will ride into the sunset following a season that treated nei-
ther of them very kindly. Bies was demoted to the bench at
,the start of the Big Ten season, and Goodlow only aver-
aged 14.8 minutes per game all year. It begs the question,
how effective a leader can you be if you're not given the
opportunity to lead?
By the end of the season, junior Jennifer Smith had
become the most consistent performer and a model for the
young players to follow. Guevara alluded to the fact last week
when asked about how the freshmen would handle their first
collegiate postseason. Instead of crediting the seniors, Gue-
vara said it would help the youngsters by watching how
Smith handled herself.
Her fellow senior captain next season will likely be.
Stephanie Gandy, normally the most vocal and emotional
Wolverine on the court, and also the team leader in min-
utes played.
Even if those two don't live up to expectations, Michigan
should have no problem investing some trust into freshman
Rachael Carney. She has received nothing but praise from
players and coaches since she took over the starting point
guard role.
This season was more than just turnovers and poor shoot-
ing. The problems Michigan experienced ran deeper than
the hole it sat in at the bottom of the Big Ten, but there's still
a chance to correct them. The tools are there.
There's no need to pull the plug on this team just yet. The
program may have looked terminally ill after a handful of
losses, but if you check, it still has a faint pulse.
Pres deserves much of
blame in Bonnie scandal
ccording to americancatholic.org,
the real St. Bonaventure was a
oly man with great intelligence
and determination. After overcoming a
terrible childhood illness, he went on to
become one of the greatest Franciscan
theologians of the 13th century.
But sadly, people are now calling him
the patron saint of quitters because the
men's basketball team at the university
baring his name voted to go on spring
break this week in lieu of playing their
final two games.
As a result of an NCAA violation
(playing an academically ineligible
player), the team was forced by the
Atlantic 10 to forfeit its two remaining
conference games and sit out of the
upcoming conference tournament.
In the national media onslaught that
has descended upon the quaint town of
Olean, N.Y., the word "quitter" has been
plastered over this school like a dozen
buckets of paint'hurled against a brick
wall. The place is literally dripping with
it at this point, which is bad news when
you realize that the sports world reserves
a special place in hell for its quitters.
Drug users? It coddles them and
gives them a chance to reform - that is
if they face meaningful testing at all.
Wife Beaters? Rapists? Their
actions are all too often simply ration-
alized away.
Coaches that backstab their recruits
and take jobs in the NFL? Apparently,
that is part of the business.
Power forwards for the Sacramento
Kings that lie to grand juries? Judges
allow them to finish their season before
standing trial.
Day after day, we support and defend
the most vile, selfish, me-first schleps
in the athletic biosphere, but the Bon-
nies are shoved down to the lowest,
darkest possible corner of existence
because they made one emotional
choice that never should have been an
option to them.
Don't get the wrong idea. I don't
agree with the players' choice. No one
does. If the 1970 Marshall football team
can find a way to field a squad after a
plane crash killed most of the team, I'm
sure the school had other options.
But lambasting the "quitters" con-
stantly, as the mass media has done,
misses the point and ignores the real
causes of the insanity at St. Bonaventure:
corrupt President Robert Wickenheiser.
We are preconditioned to think that
NCAA violations are caused by some
combination of selfish athletes, sleazy
coaches, and greedy athletic directors.
We immediately assume that the univer-
sity president will be the one person
with his priorities in the right order.
Not so in this case.
The ineligible player in question, 6-
foot-8 junior Jamil Terrell, failed to
meet academic standards when he
transferred last year from Coastal Geor-
gia Community College.
So how did he get in with just a weld-
ing certificate and no high school diplo-
ma? Wickenheiser made it happen.
According to local newspaper
reports, Wickenheiser and head coach
Jan van Brenda Kooff formed an
alliance to sidestep the university's tra-
ditional recruiting avenues to admit ath-
letes with questionable eligibility.
Sources told the Buffalo News that
Terrell was not the only player to have
his transcripts approved by Wickenheis-
er, and other players on the team might
not have been accepted if Barbara
Questa, the director of compliance, had
the final say.
St. Bonaventure pushed the registrar
at Terrell's junior college to send a letter
stating that his credentials were some-
thing more than what they were. When
that didn't work, Wickenheiser, who
also has a son on the coaching staff,
overrode the recommendations of the
school's compliance officers and
ordered Terrell's admission.
This scandal is as gross and blatant a
case of lack of administrative control as
the NCAA has ever seen.
Wickenheiser is supposed to be the
president of a Franciscan university
with nearly 150 years of integrity.
Instead, he is fool that embarrasses his
institution with wildly profane rants at
officials from his courtside seat.
Instead, he is cheater that has shown
complete disregard for the NCAA's aca-
demic standards.
Yesterday, Wickenheiser resigned
after the St. Bonaventure Board of
Trustees met and unanimously asked for
his resignation. The board also placed
van Brenda Kloff and Athletic Director
Gothard Lane on administrative leave.
Much has been made about what
should be done with the St. Bonaventure
quitters. Tony Kornheiser called for their
scholarships to be rescinded on his
ESPN show "Pardon the Interruption"
The Atlantic 10 is also considering kick-
ing the program out of the conference.
But while the players need to bare
the consequences for their mistake; no
one should lose track of the presiden-
tial snake that is really responsible for
this mess.
Freshman Mie Burlin made her share of starts earlier this season, such as the Creighton game. The freshmen will have to
grow up soon if the Wolverines hope to avoid a repeat performance of this year's dismal season.
BOILERS
Continued from Page 1B
with a game-high 19 points. Purdue
nailed seven threes, including three by
Valek. But what caught Guevara's eye
was center Mary Jo Noon, who record-
ed 12 points and eight rebounds.
"She did a nice job getting us in the
low post," Guevara said. "We were
successful the last time we defended
her. This time she did a nice job of
using her body in scoring."
Noon stands at an opposing 6-foot-
5, and used her brute size to dominate
Michigan on the interior.
"It was very physical (in the post),"
Guevara said. "If you looked at Jen-
nifer Smith, she got the tar kicked our
of her, and she got tired because it was
so physical"
The loss marks the fourth straight
year that Purdue has eliminated Michi-
gan from the Big Ten Tournament.
Although it is Guevara's first losing
season at Michigan, she remains opti-
mistic and looks forward to next year.
"The good thing about (finishing
with a losing record) is that with the
players that are coming back, they cer-
tainly understand the toughness that
we have to have, how much better we
have to be as far as being consistent
and scoring and how much they have
to work on their games in the offsea-
son," Guevara said.
Player G
Smith 24
Pool 29
B ies 29
Gandy 29
Reams 27
Goodlow 29
Andrews 28
Hauser-Price 26
Burlin 27
Carney 27
McPhilamy 14
Cortis 12
Min
27.7
27.5
23.4
30.3
25.9
14.8
16.3
11.2
14.1
16.6
2.9
3.0
A
0.7
1.6'
1.1
1.9
2.1
1.2
1.5
0.7
1.2
2.0
0.0
0.2
Reb
6.5
6.9
5.0
4.7
3.4
2.6
1.5
0.5
1.6
1.1
0.6
0.3
Pts.
14.6
11.0
10.4
9.2
7.9
5.2
3.7
3.1
2.1
1.1
1.1
0.7
Steve Jackson can be reached at
sjjackso@umich.edu.
Difference between two tourney games is night and day
Rachael Carney feeling more comfortable on the court after Big Ten season grind, looking forward to next season
By Daniel Bremmer
Daily Sports Writer
Yesterday's results:
No. 4 Ohio State 72, No. 1 PENN STATE 61
No. 3 PURDUE 84, No. 7 Iowa 57
INDIANAPOLIS - After looking like a dif-
ferent team Thursday, the Michigan women's
basketball team fell back to resembling its old
self and was bounced from the Big Ten Tourna-
Friday's results:
No.3 PURDUE 72, No. 11 Michigan 50
No. 1 PENN STATE 67, No. 8 Indiana 64
No. 7 Iowa 80, No. 2 MINNESOTA 77
No. 4 OHIo STATE 71, No. 5 MSU 55
UPCOMING
2003-2004
The Wolverines enter the offseason
after concluding a 13-16 season -
the worst of Sue Guevara's coaching
career. Michigan's streak of five con-
secutive postseason appearances will
come to an end following its early Big
Ten Tournament exit.
ment by Purdue on Friday.
In Michigan's 83-59 win over
No. 6 seed Illinois on Thursday,
the No. 11 seed Wolverines shot
the lights out by Michigan stan-
dards, hitting on 57 percent of
their shots from the floor, an
,
1 UY
o
Illinois, giving Michigan different looks defen-
sively. Playing a zone following made baskets
and man-to-man following misses offensively
frustrated the Wolverines. The different looks
defensively appeared to rattle Michigan all night
long.
"If we were going to do a good job defending
the high-low, then we had to keep them off bal-
ance as far as what we were doing defensively,"
Purdue coach Kristy Curry said. "We had to
make sure we kept (Michigan) out of tempo and
out of rhythm. The girls executed the game plan
really well."
Purdue also utilized a variety of double teams
out of its different defenses to slow Michigan's
post players.
The Boilermakers allowed Smith to score just 15
points. Bies became a virtual non-factor, scoring
only four points. Her only field goal came with
2:56 remaining on the clock, when Purdue
appeared to pull up on the reigns.
Purdue was playing so well defensively that it
was able to adjust at halftime to turn Michigan's
best weapon - guard Stephanie Gandy - into
another non-factor in the second half. Gandy
came out quickly, scoring 10 points on 5-for-7
shooting in the first half. But she was limited to
just one point in the second half, missing all four
of her field goal attempts from the field.
"(We wanted to) just limit her touches and do
a better job in transition," Curry said. "She was
getting it more in the open court, and that was a
concern coming in."
Mary Jo Noon, Purdue's 6-foot-7 center, also
did a good job defensively on Gandy.
"In the second half, (Gandy) looked to pene-
trate to the basket," Guevara said. "And she was
penetrating into Mary Jo Noon, or into three
people, and it's pretty tough to score one-on-
three."
DISHING IT ouT: Michigan guard Rachael Car-
ney finished Thursday's win over Illinois with
seven assists, a season high for any Michigan
player.
"; didn't really shoot at all," Carney said.
"Basically, I was just looking to get it inside,
because Jen (Smith) and (LeeAnn) Bies were
playing an unbelievable game"'
At one point in the middle of a 23-0 second
half run by the Wolverines, the team turned the
ball over twice in arow on ill-advised passes
down the court when Guevara wanted her team
to slow the tempo down. On the next play, after a
Michigan steal, Carney received the ball, and she
gathered herself in the backcourt before heading
towards the other end. This move exemplified
Carney's tremendous poise for a freshman.
"We wanted to keep pushing it because we
were getting so excited about scoring," she said.
"Basically, we had to realize that we had the lead,
and we needed to slow it down, so that's just
what I did."
Carney has been solid at the point since she
took over the starting role in the middle of Janu-
ary, and she feels like she's gotten even more
comfortable running things as the season has
progressed.
"I think it's just kind of continued the whole
season," Carney said. "Each game we've had,
I've gotten more confident, so basically, the
more you play, the more practice you get, the
better you become."
improvement over the team's abysmal 43-percent
mark on the season.
For the first time all season, Michigan's two
strongest post players, Jennifer Smith and
LeeAnn Bies, both scored over 20 points each
and played the high-low game to perfection.
Freshman Niki Reams also added 17 points and
missed only one of her eight field goal attempts.
Friday was a different story. Purdue defended
the high-low game much more effectively than
I.
The Most Important Exam You'll Ever Take At U of M
I
All exce~1 j
~e m
_w'nv
Quicken Loans and Rock Financial are "All of the above." As the
leading online provider of home loans, we're revolutionizing the
mortgage industry with quick and easy home financing. We work
hard. We play hard. And, we're looking for energetic, creative people
to fill sales, operations, technology and marketing positions.With
our advanced technology, mind-blowing benefits and perks,
unlimited earning potential, empowering company philosophy,
intensive and ongoing training, fast-paced, professional and
exciting work environment, there's really no better place to work.
HEALTHY, MEDICATION-FREE VOLUNTEERS,
AGES 18-45,
D ET AO IT 'S
Take your career to a higher level. Apply today.
,ntow , uikelon_,nma ,nv