Thursday
March 20, 2003
michigandaily.com
sportsdesk@umich.edu
SPORTS
7A
Bulldogs gunning
for CCHA title
The show mi
.*
go on
for NCAA Tourney
By Kyle O'Neill
Daily Sports Editor
DETROIT - Two weeks ago, after
his team had defeated Bowling Green,
Ferris State coach Bob Daniels stood
outside the visitor's lockerroom and was
visibly worried. His first-place Bulldogs
would have to face - gasp! - last-
place Lake Superior State in the best-of-
three round of the CCHA Playoffs at
home. Don't laugh. He was actually
worried.
After thoroughly sweeping the Lak-
ers by scores of 6-1 and 6-1, though,
Daniels has more confidence now -
going into the Super Six - than he did
last weekend.
"I think the pressure's off," Daniels
said. "I know this is crazy, but early on
(in the season), we didn't have the
bullseye, but we were wire to wire. By
the time we hit our series at Notre
Dame, the very first weekend after the
holiday break, it was pretty clear-cut
that we were a team in the hunt.
"Of all the times our team felt the
pressure, I think it was last week against
Lake State. Because to have the season
we did and lose last week would have
been devastating. We felt pressure to
hold onto our spot the entire second half
of the year, then we felt an enormous
amount of pressure last weekend. But
now, it's almost as if we're playing with
someone else's money."
For Daniels, this season has been a
dream ride after last year's disappoint-
ing ninth-place finish, despite having
the league's leading scorer in Chris
Kunitz.
"I still think it was a surprise,"
A Daniels said of the jump from ninth to
first. "I didn't think it was a surprise we
did well. I don't think it was a surprise
that we got home ice (in the first round)
and we're at the Joe. I do think it was a
surprise we won the league. I really
think this validates our membership in
the league."
Now as a "valid" member, the Bull-
dogs will play Michigan State, Northern
Michigan or Notre Dame tomorrow.
Ferris State, as the No. 1 seed, will play
the lowest remaining seed from today's
games at Joe Louis Arena. Third-seeded
Ohio State is the only team Ferris State
cannot face (if Ohio State beats the
sixth-seeded Irish, it will play Michigan
in the semifinals tomorrow).
Though the No. 1 seed guarantees
safety from seeing the Wolverines or
Buckeyes until the final, the Bulldogs
- making their first trip to the Super
Six since 1993, when they pulled a
stunning 3-2 overtime upset on Michi-
gan State - are now worried about the
hot streak of this year's Spartans.
"One of the big stories of the year is
Michigan State starting off a bit slow,
and I think people were thinking, 'This
is going to be an off year,' " Daniels
said. "Now they're one of the top
teams in the conference and the coun-
try. I think (Michigan State head
coach) Rick Comley has done an out-
standing job with that - I don't know
too many coaches that could have
withstood that pressure.
But even with the red-hot Spartans
possibly standing in the way of Ferris
State, the Bulldogs are still focused on
the task at hand.
"As crazy as it sounds, it means as
much to us to win the playoff series
maybe as much as it would to win a
Michigan forward Milan Gajic (right) had to be separated by a referee when the
Wolverines faced off against the CCHA regular season champion Bulldogs at Yost.
national title," Daniels said.
If Daniels and the rest of the Bull-
dogs add to their first regular season
title ever with a first-ever playoff title,
Joe Louis is expected to be filled with
many wearing maroon and gold.
"We always had a pretty good core
group of support, but obviously this
year we've brought in some other ele-
ments that have excited alumns that
may have lost touch with the program a
little bit," Daniels said. "There's a cer-
tain buzz around the city that's really
exciting. Certainly the players are
enjoying the opportunity to be big
celebrities."
Besides the extra support from fans,
Daniels did have a separate thanks to
the media who wrote them off as being
the No. 9 team in preseason polls earlier
this season.
"It was one last kick in the butt, but it
was a deserved kick in the butt,"
Daniels said.
JOE SMITH
The Daily Grind
You can't postpone terrorism
by shutting down daily life.
Nor can you solve the
world's problems by postponing the
NCAA Tournament.
NCAA President Miles Brand's
decision to "let the games go on"
despite an impending war in Iraq is
the right one. And it's not because
of the money - CBS has a $6 bil-
lion contract with the NCAA for
televising it. It's not because I have
already filled out four tourney
brackets - which are all destined
to lose.
It's about living our life without
looking over our shoulder. It's about
not letting a tyrant control our lives.
It's about sending a message that
"We will not waver. We will not go
quietly into the night."
The only reason to postpone the
tournament is if the participants,
the fans, the administrators - the
American people - are in danger.
Brand's checked his sources in the
government, and they said not to
worry.
"We are also concerned that life
go on as normal," Brand said. "We
see no reason, after consulting with
(Homeland Security Secretary Tom)
Ridge, to make any alterations to
our plan."
Playing the tournament games
doesn't undermine the incredibly
courageous and important effort
that U.S. troops are about to embark
on. It's just excercising the liberty
and freedom that they are fighting
to provide.
It would do a disservice to them
- and their confidence - if we
live in fear and not attempt to keep
the "normalcy."
And it does hit close to home for
me as well. Currently, my 19-year
old stepbrother is stationed in
Kuwait. He enlisted just months
ago, went through boot camp, and
now he's been thrown into the mess.
Less than a year ago, we were
sharing laughs at his high school
graduation party. Now, I just hope
that I'll get to laugh with him again.
War is a serious issue. It's scary:
And it's our ability to lose ourselves
in entertainment venues such as
"March Madness" that can help us
escape the everyday madness, the
constant CNN updates and the dis-
turbing daily headlines in newspa-
pers.
We're already going to have war
smothered in our face with minute-
to-minute coverage on nearly every
single network. We're already going
to get more than a mouthful of edu-
cation on the situation in the Mid-
dle East and the terror introduced
by Saddam Hussein.
What's wrong with having on a
station we can look to that makes us
smile, that makes us laugh, that
makes us remember how easy and
carefree life can be when its not
toiled in a bitter war thousands of
miles away?
We need a break. We need a
reprieve.
And those young men and women
participating in the tourney need
the chance to chase their dreams.
No, the battles that these players
are fighting are not even close to
the significance or magnitude of the
battles the proud men and women in
the Army, Air Force and Marines
will be in.
Sorry, Tyronne Lue.
You're out of your mind. Your
fighting for a playoff spot for the
NBA's Washington Wizards is NOT
"the same" as the soldiers fighting
for peace.
But as insanely idiotic as Lue's
comments were, he still should get
a chance to "fight" for his playoff
spot, just as the college athletes
deserve to dream about ending their
senior season bringing home a
national title to their school.
They shouldn't put their lives on
hold, as Michigan State coach Tom
Izzo said.
"There's the old saying that you
can't quit. living," Izzo told the
Detroit Free Press.
We can't quit living. We can't
quit going to work. We can't quit
going to school. Wehave to more
forward and keep our heads high.
And that doesn't mean we quit
praying, quit honoring our soldiers
or quit putting everything in the
right perspective.
We just can't stop playing. And
there's nothing wrong with that.
Rebuilding M' aims for solid NCAA showing
By Eric Chan
Daily Sports Writer
You're not supposed to be able to find the words
"Division I NCAA title" near the word
"rebuilding."
For Michigan, this season was all TO
about rebuilding. The Wolverines grad- Michi
uated three All-Americans last year in NCAA Ch
Otto Olson, Andy Hrovat and Matt Tie-11
Brink. The trio was replaced by three today thro
unproven redshirt freshmen - R.J. Kempe
Boudro, Willie Breyer and Greg Wagn- Ka,0
er. Another spot opened up at 149
pounds when All-American Mike Kul-
czycki decided that he was too big for the weight
class, and another redshirt freshman, Ryan Churella,
DA
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ham
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ugh
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City
stepped up to fill the gap.
Michigan wrestled a total of five freshmen this
season at the Big Ten Championships (the afore men-
tioned four plus Shaun Newton replacing an injured
Foley Dowd). To put that in perspective,
Michigan wrestled just one freshman last
kY season in 157-pounder Ryan Bertin, and
at the ' he later went on to become an All-Amer-
pionships ican. 'Ihis year, Bertin is older and more
lS csrexperienced, but he sits in one of the
SaLuray toughest weight classes in the country.
e to 9 "I like where he's at in the bracket,"
yM Michigan coach Joe McFarland said.
"He's going to face tough competition,
but I think he can meet the challenge."
Michigan's highest-seeded wrestler at this year's
three-day long NCAA Championship in Kansas
City, Mo. is 125-pounder A.J. Grant. Grant was the
only Wolverine to make it to the Big Ten finals
season. If the favored wrestlers win, Ci'nt ereat
a tough quarterfinals match against Big Ten rsh-
man of the Year Nick Simmons of Michigan State.
In their meeting in East;Lansinglearlier this year,
Grant needed a last-second score to beat the fresh-
man phenom.
Two Michigan wrestlers barely made it to the
NCAA Championships, finishing seventh at Big
Tens. This duo, 141-pounder Clark Forward and 174-
pounder Pat Owen, will have to battle stiff competi-
tion to gain All-America status.
"Getting both of those guys through and qualify-
ing for the NCAAs was great," McFarland said. "For
Clark, that was a monkey off his back, and he felt
See NCAA, Page 10A
Joe Smith can be reached at
. josephms@umich.edu.
EARTH AND SKY: ISLAMIC SCIENCE IN THE OTTOMAN ERA
Friday March 21, 2003 at 1:00
in the Pemberton Room, Michigan Union
Opening Remarks by Fawwaz T. Ulaby, Vice President for Research and the
R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science, University of Michigan
An Introduction to Islamic Astronomy by Rudi P. Lindner,
Department of History, University of Michigan
Astronomy in the Service of Religion in Medieval Christendom and Islam:
Shared Concepts as a Basis for Cross-cultural Communication
by Steve McCluskey, Professor of History at West Virginia University and
Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester
The Reception of Copernicanism in the Ottoman Empire by Robert Morrison,
Assistant Professor of Religion at Whitman College
An Introduction to Islamic Geography by Gottfried Hagen,
. Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan
Saturday March 22, 2003 at 10:00 in Anderson D,
Michigan Union
A Hands-on Workshop on the Astrolabe and Islamic Scientific Instruments
by Sara Schechner, David P. Wheatland Curator, Collection of Historical Scientific
Instruments, History of Science Department, Harvard University
This workshop is aimed at teachers and will provide hands-on experience constructing and
using two significant astronomical instruments that any student can use including a kit for
each teacher.
Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies
Phone: 734-764-0350
Email: cmenas@umich.edu
U. Silences Attorneys Of Color!
Let's Stop This
The University is denying any time to the intervenors to speak in
the Supreme Court affirmative action cases. And there are intervenors
besides "BAMN": see 3/11/03 Detroit News, Ted Shaw of NAACP Legal
Defense Fund: "The voice of African-American students and Latinos will
not be heard at oral argument", and attorney Godfrey Dillard: "U-M lied
to us."; 3/11/03 Detroit Free Press, Dillard: "They are supposed to be
representingus, and now the black man is up in the damn gallery again."
Intervenors shouldn't have to petition the Court for time that the U; itself
should give them.
Please speak out publicly in individuals and groups, and also e-mail
President Coleman at marysuec@umich.edu, to ensure the U. gives
at least 5 minutes to each set of intervenors, both law school and
undergrad, to speak in court. If the U. can't, U. counsel including general
counsel Marvin Krislov should resign. How. can a university which lies
(per Dillard) and perhaps defacto racially discriminates in its own
Court presentation, be taken seriously when arguing for diversity and
integration?
Thank you,
"Alumnus U.M. Law '02"
Wonders of All Creation: Geography in the Ottoman World by Kay Ebel,
Assistant Professor of Geography at Ohio Wesleyan University Visit our website for updates http://WWw.umich.edu/'iinet/cmenas
02/03 spring season
$10 Rush Tickets on sale 10 am,-
5 pm the day of the performance or
the Friday before a weekend event at
the UMS Ticket Office, located in the
Michigan League.
50% Rush Tickets on sale beginning
90 minutes before the event at the
performance hall box office.