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5A

. . . ....5 A

Eagles soar
away from
for win
By Matt Singer
Daily Sports Writer
Eastern Michigan University isn't typically known
as the premier athletic powerhouse of Washtenaw
County But last night, the Eagles taught the Wolver-
ines a tBing or two on the basketball court,
Ridiig an 18-2 second-half run, Eastern Michigan
zoomed past its cross-county rival, erasing a two-point
half tinm deficit and earning a
hard-foght 69-60 victory over
the Michigan women's basket- MlCIA c
ball team. It was the Eagles' first
win owr the Wolverines since 1979 and their first ever
at Crister Arena.
"Eatern's a quality team," Michigan coach Cheryl
Burnett said. "Their kids played really hard. And ours
stayed with it to the end."
After both teams' offenses sputtered early on, the
Eagles (7-0) began heating up with just under 15
minutes to go in the game. Eastern Michigan senioir
guard Ryan Coleman, who led all scorers with 19
points, started the rally by drilling a 3-pointer. Soon
enoug , the Eagles were rolling, taking a 39-33 lead
with seven unanswered points.
Freshman Ta'Shia Walker tried to get the Wolver-
ines (3-4, back on track with a post-up bucket in the
paint, bit Eastern Michigan quickly responded by
rattling d'f an 11-0 run and putting Michigan square-
ly in its rarview mirror.
"I was running out of timeouts," Burnett said. "I
thought heir preparation was excellent against some
of the thngs we do defensively. And that's just some
great coaching and great preparation. We tried to
change tp what we were doing defensively, but they
just scored some easy buckets."
All game long, Michigan looked befuddled by
Eastern vlichigan's 2-3 zone defense. But the Wol-
verines' offensive woes were most glaring during
a four-aid-a-half-minute scoring drought midway

Long way to go for
NCAA athletics

SHARAD MATTU

_
PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daily
Freshman Katie Dierdorf (42) scored a career-high 11 points in last night's Michigan loss.

through the second half.
"We were running down the shot clock," fresh-
man Katie Dierdorf said. "We started to play in their
rhythm instead of ours."
With 7:37 to go in the game, freshman Krista
Clement finally ended the Eagles' run with one of
her four 3-pointers. But Coleman responded by drill-
ing triples on consecutive trips down the floor and
burying the Wolverines with a 56-39 lead.
Michigan finally got going offensively in the game's
final minutes. Senior Tabitha Pool, who had been rela-
tively quiet offensively all night, exploded for eight
points in less than two minutes. Meanwhile, Dierdorf
had her most impressive offensive performance of her
young career, scoring seven points in the last 2:20,
contributing to a career-high total of 11.
"I wanted to bring intensity to the game," Dierdorf
said. "And on both ends, the game started to slow
down a bit for me. We decided to go into a press,
so defensively, it kind of got my adrenaline going. I
really wanted to make things happen, and I wanted
to win."

While Michigan's offense found its rhythm late
in the game, the Eagles didn't let a comeback mate-
rialize. Every time the Wolverines made a late run,
Eastern Michigan struck back with a momentum-
stifling basket. Eastern Michigan shot the Crisler
Arena lights out in the second half, making 13 of its
22 shots.
While both teams lit it up offensively at the
end of the game, the first half was, at times, an
offensive nightmare. Michigan looked especially
uncomfortable with the basketball early on, mak-
ing just two of its first 14 shots and committing 13
first-half turnovers.
But the Wolverines stayed within striking dis-
tance, and with less than two minutes to go in
the first half, they made their move. Pool banked
in a 15-footer and Clement downed two 3-point-
ers, sending Michigan into half time with a 25-
23 lead. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, that's
as large as their lead would get. The Eagles took
the lead for good with 15:25 to play and never
trailed again.

Mattu fast, Mattu furious
There's something about 20-year-
olds bringing in millions of
dollars in exchange for a mere
scholarship that I've always thought
was a little wrong.
Don't get me wrong, I love going to
the Big House, Crisler and Yost, and
I will always follow Michigan sports
closely. But I try not to get caught up in
the wins and losses, as hard as it can be
not to sometimes.
But then, when I look around, I get
the feeling that I'm one of the few who
feel this way.
When a loss to Ohio State is the best
thing that's happened in the last few
weeks - as seems to be the case with
Michigan's football program - you
know there are problems. Between the
arrests of Adam Stenavich and Larry
Harrison and the "Lloyd Carr is retir-
ing" rumors that got so out of control
that Carr had to hold an impromptu
press conference, the Rose Bowl is
practically an afterthought.
Carr said he had to set the record
straight because recruits had begun to
ask him if he was retiring, and other
schools had started telling recruits not
to come to Michigan because Carr was
on his way out.
I thought this was especially funny
because just a couple weeks ago,
Michigan was fighting Penn State over
top cornerback prospect Justin King.
Maybe Carr himself didn't stoop to
that level, but don't you think someone
mentioned to King - who ultimately
chose the Nittany Lions - that he'd be
playing for Joe Paterno, a 77-year-old
coach who could be forced out?
Here's my recommendation to all

those who get caught up in recruiting
wars and are disappointed in a 9-2
record and a trip to the Rose Bowl:
Start an NCAA Football 2005 dynasty
with a crappy team. It's something I did
last year with Rutgers (the team I grew
up ignoring) and this year with Van-
derbilt (the only SEC school with true
student-athletes), and you'll appreciate
what's here at Michigan a lot more.
My roommate has been destroying
teams with Michigan for three seasons,
and shows no signs of getting bored
with it. But I needed more of a chal-
lenge, and let me tell you, the Com-
modores have provided it. In my first
season, I went 3-8, which may seem
pretty bad, but it includes a 24-14 win
at LSU. But I couldn't bring in any top
recruits, despite completely neglecting
training and discipline and focusing
solely on recruiting. Now, in year two,
I'm 0-5 with three losses by a single
point, and three of my best players are
suspended. And now, I follow Van-
derbilt's actual football team; I'm still
reeling from the Commodores' losses
to Kentucky and Tennessee, followed
by Jovan Haye's decision to enter the
NFL draft.
Trust me: After you play with a team
like Vanderbilt for just five games,
you'll be ecstatic with a 9-2 record.
With Lester Abram, Graham Brown
and Daniel Horton out for the season,
a month and indefinitely, respectively,
the Michigan basketball team's lack of
depth - particularly in the backcourt
- is suddenly pretty glaring. And if
all you care about is Michigan's record,
then you've got to be pretty worried
right now.
Tuesday afternoon, my aforemen-
tioned roommate and I tried to figure
out how much everyone would have
to play with so many guys out. We
concluded that John Andrews, Sherrod
Harrell and J.C. Mathis would need to
play 50 combined minutes, minimum.
So, Tuesday night, we check the box
score, and the three combined to play
45 minutes. Surprised, we looked
See MATTU, page 8A

Unprepared offense can't break down zone

By Jac[ Herman
Daily Sprts Writer
After two games in which it aver-
aged 4( points, one would think that
a 60-pint showing by the Michigan
womens basketball team would be an
outstaning offensive performance.
But, fa anyone watching last night's
69-60 bss to Eastern Michigan, it was
clear tlis was not the case.

"We made the zone very difficult,"
Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett said.
"We're dribbling when we should have
been passing, passing when we should
have been dribbling."
Michigan struggled all night against
the Eagles defense, which executed a
2-3 zone and press defense with great
success.
The Wolverines' biggest problem
was their inability to get the ball down
low. They were able to get little done in
the paint, scoring only six of 25 first-
half points from the inside the key.
Michigan's glimmer of hope came in
the second half when freshman Katie
Dierdorf managed to gain a presence
on the inside. She scored 11 points in
her 13 minutes - all coming in the
second half - but her effort was too
little, too late.
Another problem that plagued Michi-
gan was that nobody could excel on both
ends of the court, at the same time.
"We had a group that I thought was
doing a good job offensively against
the zone, but then we were struggling a
little bit defensively," Burnett said.
The Wolverines' struggles against
zone and failure to get inside forced
them to throw up more outside shots.
After attempting just four 3-point-

ers against UNLV Monday night, the
Wolverines fired up 20 shots from
behind the arc. They succeeded in
making half of these shots, which

accounted for exactly half of their
offensive production, but it would not
be enough to stifle the well-prepared
See OFFENSE, page 8A


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Ta'Shi Walker puts up a shot for the
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