10A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 5, 2004 40 Cagers still believe they are in race for conference title By Chris Burke Daily Sports Editor So which do you want to hear first: The good news or the bad news? For the Michigan basketball team, the bad news is that it sits in seventh place in the conference and has already suffered four defeats in a conference where the champion rarely exceeds five. But the good news for the Wolverines is that the most difficult portion of their conference schedule appears to be behind them. Michi- gan (3-4 Big Ten, 12-6 overall) has already had to endure road trips tor Wisconsin, Michigan State and 1 Illinois - the first, second and third-place teams in the confer- ence, respectively. Counter that with the last nine games of Michi- gan's conference slate. Beginning with Purdue on Saturday, the Wolverines will host five of those nine contests in Crisler Arena. And, out of their four road opponents, only Indiana currently sits above sixth place in the Big Ten standings. That potentially advantageous schedule, com- bined with the fact that no Big Ten team aside from Wisconsin has been consistently ranked, has the Wolverines convinced that a move up the standings may not be far away. "(The way the conference standings are), it's easy to come from seventh place and be in third or second, so we're still in the race," Michigan fresh- man Courtney Sims said. "I think we have a good chance to get back in the race - we have to handle our business at home and win a couple games on the road." Before Michigan can make a run at the confer- ence lead, though, the Wolverines know that they must get past the Boilermakers. "I think the significance of this game is everyone is one or two games out of being in the hunt," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "Everything is going to change again, and it's going to look a lot different if we can somehow get to .500 in the league." BAD NEws BOILERS: While Michigan is pointing toward Saturday as a potential turning point in its conference season, Purdue is just trying to keep its team together. On Tuesday, the Boilermakers learned that they would be without senior forward Chris Booker for the remainder of the season after he was declared academically ineligible. "It's unfortunate for Chris and his teammates, but we've got to move on as a team," Purdue coach Gene Keady said in a statement. "Chris will always be a part of this basketball family, and we will con- tinue to do whatever we can to help him in his future endeavors." In addition to that, Purdue may be without start- ing guard and leading scorer (14.1 points per game) Kenneth Lowe. Purdue's most consistent defender, sprained his elbow on Jan. 27 in the Boil- ermakers' 63-58 loss at Indiana. Since then, Lowe has sat out the Boilermakers' games against Ohio State and Penn State on Saturday and Wednesday, respectively. Keady said on Monday that Lowe is day-to-day. UNLEASH THE RAGE: If Michigan basketball recruit Malik Hairston, a senior at Renaissance High School in Detroit, decides to play his college ball somewhere other than Ann Arbor, don't blame 0 RYAN WEINER/Daily Michigan head coach Matt Anderson hopes to be all smiles this weekend as his Wolverines travel to Palo Alto to take on Southern Cal. and Stanford. Amenca s top powel's await M in Palo Alto TONY DING/Daily Freshman center Courtney Sims thinks that Michigan can contend for the Big Ten title with its remaining schedule. it on the Maize Rage. A group of around a dozen Maize Ragers trav- eled to Hairston's final high school home game, an 88-59 win over Detroit Communication and Media Arts. One of Hairston's teammates is Joe Crawford, who originally announced his intentions to play for Michigan. But he withdrew that commitment in July, and eventually signed with Kentucky. Hairston was his usual brilliant self in the Renais- sance victory, finishing with 29 points and 10 rebounds. Crawford had 24 points and seven boards. By Katie Niemeyer For the Daily The Michigan women's water Polo will head out to sunny and warm Palo Alto, Calif., this week- end to play in the Stanford Invite. -Don't get too jealous, though, because this trip will be all busi- ness. The Wolverines will be facing ,Stanford and Southern California, which, according to Michigan coach Matt Anderson are "the two best teams in the country, even though they are rated two and three." The No. 1 ranked team is UCLA. Michigan has yet to beat either of these teams in its short history, but the Wolverines remain confident. "This is probably the first time Michigan can say that they belong in the same pool against these teams," Anderson said. "Now we've just got to go out and prove it." In Stanford and Southern Cal., Michigan will be facing its toughest competition yet this season. "We're hoping to step up our game," Anderson said. "Our plan is to try and not give them extra pos- essions and to try and control the ball a little bit more than we would against most teams. We have an opportunity to compete against the two best teams in the nation, and I think we can be competitive." In order to control the ball and capitalize on other team's mistakes, Anderson believes that the team needs to be able to go to the key players they rely on for most games. Those players include veteran Julie Nisbet, freshman Shana Welch and All-American Sheetal Narsai. Though the talent of those three is important to the team, Anderson knows he needs more this weekend. "I need number one to number twelve to step up," he said. Anderson knows his team is going to have to work hard this weekend. He's looking at this tournament as a good chance to judge his team's standing compared to these top teams. These teams' status as the best teams in the nation motivates the girls, but Anderson believes the fact that Michigan has never beaten these teams does not increase its desire to win. "We want to win every game, whether it's against a team we've beaten before or a team we haven't beaten before," Anderson said. These teams are tough, but Michi- gan has one secret weapon against Southern Cal. - assistant coach1 Jennifer Durley, who played and coached for the Trojans.1 "She's helpful in telling us about individually what various players might do," Anderson said. This won't have a big effect on the upcoming game because "she doesn't necessarily know what the coach's game plan might be," according to Anderson. But the Wolverines will be happy to have her on their side when they get in1 the pool this Saturday. Parents crucial element in Wolverines' success By Anne Uible Daily Sports Writer When senior breaststroker Kelli Stein transferred to Michigan after two years at Kentucky, her father, Ron Stein, was taken aback by the extreme enthusiasm of the swim team's parent-support group. Orga- nized cheers and coordinated dances were far from the quiet encourage- ment he had experienced at Wildcats swim meets. At his first Michigan meet Stein admitted to being "swallowed up" by the parents' excitement and feel- ing like a "weirdo" if he didn't par- ticipate in the cheers. After being self-conscious at first, Stein has now become a fixture in the top row of Canham Natatorium, making the most noise out of the entire crowd. And since his daughter's transfer, Stein has not missed a single meet. "If they swim in Hawaii, I'm in Hawaii. If they're in Texas, then I'm in Texas," Stein said. "I go everywhere they go, and I don't miss a cheer." It's not often that you find an organ- ized cheering section at a swim meet. It's even more rare to find 20 parents participating in a cheer that was obvi- ously practiced beforehand. But for the Michigan women's swimming and diving team, the parent .cheering sec- tion is a staple of the program. Since the early 1990s the Wolver- ines have had a strong parent fol- lowing. They have organized musical skits, made surprise goodie bags and played surrogate parents for the girls whose families could not attend a meet. Diane Johnson, mother of senior captain Sara and freshman Amanda, has organized the parents' support group. Throughout the season, she is in contact with all of the families via e-mail. The parents send cheer ideas, jokes and traveling information. "We all try to put anything we can aside to take care of our girls," Diane said. "We'll travel all over the country for them." It is obvious from the swimmers' faces when they step out of the pool that they are appreciative of theirpar- ents' support. "It's great having the parents up in the stands, because the girls always know that people are out there for them," Michigan coach Jim Richard- son said. "It definitely gets them more comfortable in their surroundings. Some will cringe, and you can kind of tell they don't want to associate with their parents up in the stands. But you know they really like it." While the majority of the crowd is comprised of parents of current swim- mers, there are a few people who are parents of swimmers who swam between five and ten years ago. "I don't even know if they're at the meets to watch the girls swim," Richardson said. "I think they come just to be around the parents." While entertaining, the cheering group has led to new friendships between the parents. For example, Larry Johnson (Diane's husband) and Ron Stein would probably not be able to talk with one another without their mutual pride in the swim team. John- son is an avid Michigan football fan, having played for the legendary Bo Schembechler from 1970-74. On the other hand, Stein hails from Columbus and admits to being a huge Buckeye supporter. "I don't think Don and I could have become friends without the swim team," Larry Johnson said. "But with our girls on the team, we have some- thing in common, something to pro- mote together." Johnson and Stein may not agree on football, but they both believe that they are the craziest parent cheering section ever found at a swim meet Richardson agrees. "They are absolutely the most amazing group of parents in competi- tive swimming," Richardson said. "Whether we are in Florida or Califor- nia or Texas, we never go to a single meet without seeing probably five sets of parents in the stands." With the Big Ten Championships taking place in two weeks, Tom Weil- bacher, father of senior captain Anne Weilbacher, estimates that 70 percent of all the parents will attend the meet in Minneapolis. And you can bet they will be the loudest parent cheering section in the conference. 0 0 It's Student Savings Days at Borders and Waldenbooks. Get 20%off books, music, and movies at Borders. Get 20%off books at Waldenbooks. Offer good February 6th-8th. A