The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 11, 2002 - 3B

Seniors
react to:
sanctions
By ritAeP r i
Daily orts Wie

STEVE
JACKSON

Delete this: Wolverines
can 't wish history away

Fdlowing Michigan's self-imposed
posteason ban, the minds of many
turred to Michigan's three captains.
There will be no NCAA Tournament
or NIT berth for LaVell Blanchard,
Galin Groninger or Rotolu Adebiyi.
'1 want1
to jersonal-THE
ly pologize
to our three E
balketball FALL OUT
plaers who
aregraduat-
in sen-
i c r s
A hletic
D rector
Bil Martin
sdd. "As a
result of these
pmnalties, they will,
lever have the chance to play in a tour-
rament. These students had nothing to
cb with what happened, and I am sorry
tbat they have to pay the price."
But the tri-captains do not view the
smctions as the end of the world, or
exen the end of the season. While the
captains won't disclose the team's
gals, they are prepared to accomplish
as much as they can. The first step is
to move on and put the sanctions
bdiind them.
"We knew it was definitely a possi-
biity," Groninger said. "Obviously
tltre was the initial shock, but that
lased for only a minute or two. Then it
gtt down to business. How we are
going to handle it, how we are going
tconduct ourselves as a team and as
aprogram - that is the most impor-
tatnt thing. We have to put all of this
behind us now. It is a chance for our

DAVID KATZ/Daily
LeVell Blanchard is currently Michigan's 20th all-time scoring leaders, but will not get a chance play in the NCAA Tournament.

program to move forward in a way that
we have not been able to do with all of
this hanging over us."
In light of the recent sanctions, some
have asked if the seniors regretted com-
ing to Michigan. Blanchard put those
rumors to rest before practice on Friday.
"I am a Michigan Man," Blanchard
said. "I have been here my whole life.
You cannot run away from your home
and this is the home that I have been
raised in, the home I have been nurtured
in and the home that has really
embraced me. All I can do is smile
because even though this may be a hard

time, I think back to the tradition and the
fun that I have had in this program, and I
would not trade it for anything else."
With last week's announcement, there
is finally some sense of closure to a
scandal that has spanned a decade. No
longer will players and coaches have to
wonder what the University will do in
response to the Ed Martin scandal.
"It was always looming, but no one
ever really knew what was going on,"
Adebiyi said. "Now we know what is
going on, and it was dealt with, so now
we can move on."
While these seniors are not the ones

responsible for the sanctions, they still
have nothing bad to say about those
who were.
The sanctions have taken away some
of the possibilities of the season, but that
is not to say some good may come out
of Michigan's decision.
"Things happen for a reason,"
Blanchard said. "I think this has
brought us together as a team. A lot of
our goals can still be met. One of our
biggest things right now is to go out
there and just try to meet the goals
that we can meet. We will see what
happens from there."

After forfeiting 113 victories
because of the Ed Martin
scandal, Michigan is consid-
ering wiping the record clean from
those five seasons.
If Michigan follows this approach
a myriad of reactionary and childish
actions could take place.
The athletic department would
have to acknowledge that Webber
was the first overall pick in the 1993
NBA Draft after scoring zero points,
grabbing zero rebounds and leading
his team to a 0-36 season, which
apparently never included an infa-
mous timeout call.
It could say that Louis Bullock
never played in a
game and that Michigan mad
Robert Traylor never
grabbed a rebound. 0-35 in 199
It could proclaim to still manage
the world that the its way int
baggy-shorts-with-
black-socks motif round of
was never cool.
It could convince Mitch Albom to
have his book "Fab Five" moved to
the historical fiction section of the
library, and they could reprint all of
their recruiting publications... err
media guides to reflect all of those
changes.
It could say that the whole history
of Michigan basketball in the 1990s
was just some sort of virtual-reality
Matrix world that we all dreamed
together.
But would any of those things
make a difference to the average
fan? No chance. Until Morpheus
gives me the red pill and I wake up
naked and surrounded by millions of
other human batteries, I will remem-
ber what I saw and read as the true
history of Michigan basketball.
"You can't erase my personal stats
out of the NCAA record books,
because what I did in the Final Four
... you can't take that away," Chris
Webber told The Associated Press.
Sorry Chris, but those Final Four
wins of yours have already been
taken away, and all your stats may
follow suit shortly.
This "book-burning approach" is a
reactionary and childish way to deal
with a difficult situation, and it
would needlessly punish innocent
players like Jimmy King and Robbie
Reid by vaporizing the college sta-
tistics that they earned.
Anytime you forfeit this many
games you are going to create prob-
lems. No matter what Michigan does
to its other statistics, there will be
plenty of nonsense in its future pub-
lications because of the changes in
the win column.
Michigan may claim to be 0-35 in
1996-97, but it still managed to for-
feit its way into the final round of
the NIT. And what about Michigan's
games against Minnesota from 1993
to 1999?
The Gophers already forfeited

to
,f t

their matches with the Wolverines
because of the academic fraud scan-
dal at Minnesota.
Do both teams lose?
Did the games ever happen?
"I don't know," Michigan's NCAA
faculty representative Percy Bates
said. "For right now, we are just say-
ing that we lost those games."
No matter what Michigan's final
answers to those questions will be,
the mess will continue. Bates, who
served on the Big Ten's compliance
committee, said the conference's
compliance staff will have to evalu-
ate standings, championships and
individual statistics from Big Ten
games that involved
claim to be Michigan.
Even if Michigan
-97, but it decided to say those
i to forfeit games were 1-0 for-
the final feits, there is no guar-
antee that that the Big
hje NIT- Ten, the NCAA or any
media outlets will rec-
ognize those events the same way.
"We no longer won those games,"
Michigan Athletic Director Bill Mar-
tin said. "By default, the other teams
won those games."
If only it were that simple.
In truth, officials in the athletic
department are still unsure as to
exactly how they will handle the
details of erasing history.
"We are studying what other
schools have done and will put forth
a proposal to Bill Martin as soon as
we can," said Bruce Madej, Michi-
gan's Assistant Athletic Director for
Media Relations.
There is no easy answer to this
problem, and that is why Martin did-
n't have a proposal on his desk when
he left the office for the weekend.
But the best way to attack this
issue is what I call the "asterisk
approach." The athletic department
can leave all the statistics for each
individual game alone, but by plac-
ing an asterisk next to the final score
it can show that those games were
lost because the University forfeited
them. That is consistent with what
actually took place in this case.
As for the guilty players - Web-
ber, Traylor, Bullock and Maurice
Taylor - leave the statistics in each
individual.game of theirs alone
because it wouldn't make sense to
erase 15 percent of a game. Instead,
disqualify them from any individual
team records, disqualify their teams
from any team records and get their
ineligible faces off everything in
Crisler Arena.
From a practical standpoint,
Michigan can't change the facts of
its history, so its best option is to
acknowledge the truth - with a
whole bunch of asterisks.
Steve Jackson can be reached at
sjjackso@umich.edu.

Krislov key piece in
forming of report

By Chris Burke
Daly Sports Writer

For years, questions and rumors
bonbarded the Michigan men's bas-
ketball team concerning the alleged
invdvement of former booster Ed
Marin.
Oa Thursday the University finally
issued its report about the matter to the
NCAA, and proceeded to answer many
of tlr questions surrounding the issue.
Oe of the keys in the formation of
Michigan's report was Vice President
and ieneral Counsel Marvin Krislov.
Krisov was one of the attorneys pres-
ent )n July 26 in Detroit, when the
Unixersity's team of lawyers convened
witi Ed Martin's, turning many
rumrs into fact.
"Ve met with Ed Martin's attorneys
after an arrangement with the U.S.
Attorney's office and the NCAA as
well," Krislov said. "That was a way
that we were able to obtain informa-
tion at that time. Martin's attorneys
had pretty complete knowledge of
what had happened - Martin was
available close by and there were a few
occasions that they had to step out and
talk to him."
What was revealed at that meeting
allowed the University to begin to .
close the book on its internal investi-
gation into wrongdoing in the basket-
ball program beginning in 1992 and
ending in the spring of 1999.
According to Michigan's report and
Krislov's explanation, while Martin
may have been feeding money to for-
mer Wolverine Chris Webber prior to
his arrival at Michigan, the arrange-
ment did not violate NCAA rules until
the Wolverines' appearance in the
1992 Fiial Four, when Martin official-
ly became a "representative of the
University."
"According to the NCAA definition
of representative - not a booster -
Martin became a representative in the

Final Four of 1992, when the coaching
staff knew or should have known that
he was providing benefits to students,"
Krislov said. "His credit card was on a
list of rooms at the Final Four in Min-
neapolis, including the rooms for Mr.
Webber, Chris Webber's father.
"At that point, Mr. Martin became a
representative of the institution
according to NCAA criteria."
That instance followed the portion
of the University's report stating that
while $616,000 passed from Martin to
Webber, Robert Traylor, Maurice Tay-
lor and Louis Bullock, not all of the
money went directly to the players.
Martin provided the families with ben-
efits, like the hotel rooms, as well.
Krislov also pointed out that the
four former members of the Michigan
team were not the only student-ath-
letes cited as receiving improper bene-
fits.
"We did learn that Mr. Martin pro-
vided some benefits to other Detroit
area high schoolers that later attended
other collegiate institutions," Krislov
said. "There may have been one other
player who attended a university in the
state - most of the information we
focused on concerned the four players
in the indictment."
The sanctions that the University
imposed fell short of limiting recruit-
ing visits or scholarships, because
Martin's claims led to the belief that
he never encouraged a player to attend
any particular university.
"The latest letter of inquiry (from
the NCAA) talks about the receipt of
improper loans from Martin and there
are no allegations about recruitment,"
Krislov said. "Martin's attorneys told
us that he never tried to steer any play-
er towards any institution and we have
no reason to believe that he did -
there's no evidence that (former
Michigan coach Steve) Fisher asked
Mr. Martin to do anything with him or
the institution."

AP PHOTO
Thursday Michigan announced that it would impose sanctions upon itself for
payments that booster Ed Martin made to members of the basketball team.
Minding your Q and A's
When will Michigan know the final NCAA decision?
The Committee on Infractions, which decides Michigan's ultimate fate,
anticipates hearing the case during its February 2003 meeting, but could
hear it as early as Dec. 13. The final decision will probably come six to
eight weeks after the meeting.
What are the realistic penalties the NCAA could deliver?
The NCAA could raise monetary penalties to a punitive level, reduce the
number of scholarships that Michigan can award, increase the number of
years of probation, take away television privileges, and/or increase the
length of Michigan's postseason ban.
Why didn't Michigan have to forfeit all of the games from 1991-92?
Martin did not become a "representative of Michigan's athletics inter-
ests" until the spring of 1992 when he purchased a hotel room for the
Webber family in Minneapolis for the Final Four.
Why didn't Michigan take away any scholarships?
Michigan does not view the infractions as recruiting violations because it
does not believe that Martin acted to direct players towards Michigan. It
views the infractions as an "extra benefit situation."
What will happen to the Championship banners?
The banners will be placed in the Bentley Historical Library, though Ath-
letic Director Bill Martin said he had contemplated the idea of selling
them on EBay.com..
Is anything being done for this year's season ticket holders?
There are no new promotions for season ticket holders as of right now,
but Martin said that he would love to hear any special ideas that fans
had.
What is Michigan's record from the fall of 1995 to the spring of 1999?
0-132

0 O IM

Blood clot impedes sophomore walk-on


.

By Chris Burke
Daily Sorts Writer
As if the Michigan men's basketball team
needed any more bad news, it learned late last
weel. that sophomore walk-on Chris Aguwa will
be cut for approximately three months to treat
blood clots in his leg.
"I had some pain in my leg, and it lasted like a
week or a week and a half,"
Agrwa said. "The team doctor BASKETBALL
looted at it Wednesday, and he
had me go to the hospital for Notebook

the weekend.
Ager started for sophomore Kelvin Torbert - who
is out of the Spartans' lineup for three weeks follow-
ing ankle surgery - when Michigan State dropped
an exhibition matchup with the Magic Johnson's All-
Stars onNov. 1.
"It's disappointing for us, but even more disap-
pointing for Maurice because he was really starting to
play better and better," Michigan State coach Tom
Izzo said. "It's another bit of adversity that we'll have
to deal with - this is 'Ankle U.' I guess."
The Spartans are targeting the Dec. 4 game against
Virginia as a return date for Ager.

"We are all saddened by Daren's sudden departure,
but we wish him nothing but the very best," Penn
State coach Jerry Dunn said. "He is a great kid and
was a fine member of the Penn State basketball fami-
ly, and we all wish him well."
Dunn said that Tielsch missed the Nittany
Lions' exhibition game with the EA Sports All-
Stars on Wednesday because of personal prob-
lems, but did not give a reason why Tielsch had
left the team permanently.
HOOSIER A.D.?: Indiana Athletic Director Michael
McNeely resigned from his position on Friday, with
the department reportedly suffering major financial

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