Tuesday March 15, 2005 sports. michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily.com PORTS a 10 Icers toss razors aside for playoffs Amaker & co. have a ways to go, too 0 By Gabe Edelson Daily Sports Writer In a sport as rife with superstition as hockey - see Milan Gajic's many idio- syncrasies - it was inevitable that one of the game's most famous playoff tradi- tions would make its way to the Michi- gan Wolverines. Until their season comes to a close in the NCAA Tournament, most Michi- gan players will refrain from shaving in order to grow playoff beards, goatees, or - in the case of follicly challenged freshman Chad Kolarik - long side- burns. "I'm kind of missing two spots right here," Kolarik said, pointing to his jaw. "It doesn't connect, but it's all right. (My teammates) give it to me, for sure. They call me Elvis. I've got the chops going." Gajic, a senior with perhaps the full- est beard on the team, has no problem pointing out another example of furry futility. In this case, the culprit is a senior alternate captain. "(Brandon) Rogers is trying," Gajic said. "But he's got a lot of bald spots all over the place on his face. It's kind of funny." The ritual is generally believed to have started in the early 1980s, when the NHL's New York Islanders featured several players who refused to shave in the postseason. The team ran off four straight Stanley Cup titles. One promi- nent member of those Islanders teams was Bobby Nystrom, the father of Mich- igan senior captain Eric Nystrom. The younger Nystrom has become one of the Wolverines' most outspo- ken grooming critics. Nystrom com- pared Kolarik to the X-Men character Wolverine and explained that Rogers and freshman Kevin Porter can't grow more than mustaches. But after some prodding, Nystrom admits that he was a baby-faced freshman himself a few years ago. "I think my Under-18 year, all I could grow was a little chin piece," Nystrom said. "My freshman year, I couldn't quite get one (either)." But with age, Nystrom's ability to grow facial hair improved. And now, in his final year in Ann Arbor, the captain is looking forward to taking advantage of it. "I'll grow the beard," a well-whis- kered Nystrom said. "I'm just going to let it go. Hopefully, we last long enough that it comes in." Nystrom pointed out senior Reilly Olson's bright red beard as one of the more distinct results of the playoff rou- tine. But Michigan coach Red Berenson refuses to put any stock in what he sees as an ineffective strategy. "I don't think it means anything," Berenson said. "I've seen them do all kinds of goofy things in the playoffs, and none of it has worked, in my mind. RYAN WEINER/Daily Eric Nystrom is carrying on the playoff beard started by his father's Islander teams. Of late, I haven't seen anything that made a difference on the ice." Still, the coach recognizes the intangi- ble effect of the beard-growing tradition. "It can be a mental thing," Berenson said. "It can be a. team-building thing. You like your team to have their best chemistry and enthusiasm this time of year. I can live with it. I know they mean well. It's not like they're trying to look as bad as they might look; they're trying to feel better." And even though Berenson doesn't exactly like his players' appearance when they ignore their razors, he's seen them make more questionable decisions. "One year they dyed their hair," Berenson said. "That was the worst." M WRESTLING Bie looks to bonus points to solve woes By Mark Giannotto Daily Sports Writer In the past few years, the Michigan wrestling team has received a less-than-desirable reputation within the college wrestling world. In three of the past four seasons, the Wolverines have finished first or second in the Big Ten dual meet season but then have faltered come tournament time. Judging from this year's results, it looks to be the same old tune for Michigan. After capturing a share of the Big Ten dual-meet title with Illinois, the Wolverines finished a disappointing third place at the Big Ten Championships last week.. During the regular season, Michigan defeated Minne- sota and tied Illinois, but it finished behind both teams in the postseason tournament. Throughout this season, the team felt it had taken the necessary steps to avoid the same problems at the season- ending tournament. The coaching staff decided to change the practice routine at the start of the season so that the wrestlers would be peaking at the right time. After this year's Big Ten Championships, it appears that the new practice routine was not the solution. Instead, Michigan's inability to get bonus points in its matches is the root of the problem. A team gets bonus points when a wrestler wins by pin, technical fall or major decision. For a pin, the team receives two bonus points, while a technical fall or major decision gets one bonus point. In the tournament format, teams also receive points for having wrestlers place in the top-eight of their respective weight classes. "As soon as Big Tens were over, we got a day off, and we came back and analyzed (Illinois and Minnesota)," sopho- more Joshua Weitzel said. "What separated us between those two was (bonus points). When we get guys on their back, we have to keep them there." The coaching staff has taken a new approach in address- ing the bonus point dilemma. They must walk a fine line because they do not want to cost one of their wrestlers a match for the sake of bonus points. "Coach McFarland talked to us about it this week," sophomore Mark Moos said. "He just wants us to pin a guy if we have them on his back or try to get that extra point in order to get a major decision," Despite the setback at the Big Ten Championships, the Michigan wrestling team's confidence seems to be unwav- ering. The Wolverines look to have put the Big Ten Cham- pionships behind them. "I think we are definitely going to have a better show- ing, because half of our team has a real good shot at earn- ing a lot of points," senior co-captain Ryan Bertin said. "The Big Tens has given us a little more motivation for the NCAA Championships." As a team, the Wolverines have set a goal of placing in the top-four in the team standings. This goal will be tough with undefeated Oklahoma State, in addition to Minnesota and Illinois standing in Michigan's way. "I think we have the best shot out of anyone to beat Oklahoma State," sophomore Nick Roy said. The NCAA Championships begin on Thursday in St. Louis and go through Saturday night. Eight of the 10 Michigan wrestlers qualified for the tournament. BOB HUNT Unleashed All across America, college bas- ketball fans are full of excitement as the NCAA Tournament gets underway this week. But in Ann Arbor, Michigan basketball fans are full of empti- ness, having almost no positives to take hold of after the Wolverines' abysmal 13- 18 season. When the chapter of Michigan basket- ball history about this season is written, a lot of it will chronicle the inordinate number of games Wolverines missed due to injuries and suspensions. And it's true that Michigan would be in a different posi- tion right now if it was at full strength all season. But it would be simple-minded to believe that the issues facing the Michigan basketball program rest solely with sanc- tions and suspensions. There's another problem that's not simply just going to go away with time - the program's leader- ship. When Tommy Amaker was first hired in 2001, he was the perfect man to re-build the serious image problem facing Michi- gan basketball. During his four-year tenure in Ann Arbor, Amaker has built a rela- tively clean program and has represented himself well as the face of Michigan bas- ketball. That could not be said during the tenure of his predecessor, Brian Ellerbe. But the reality is that Amaker and his staff's on-court coaching abilities are sub- par at best, and any fan, recruit or admin- istrator who thinks otherwise is simply being naive. While it's easy to slam the program after such a dire season, Amaker has done little over his eight-year head-coaching career to prove that he is a solid Division I head basketball coach. At Seton Hall, Amaker took the Pirates to a Sweet Sixteen and assembled one of the best recruiting classes in the nation. But during the 2000-01 season,just before Amaker was hired at Michigan, Seton Hall was a preseason top-10 team and floundered to a 16-15 record, which led the Sporting News to say that "of the 319 coaches in college basketball last year, no performance was as suspect as Amaker's." At Michigan, it's safe to say that Amak- er's coaching tactics haven't put his teams in the best position to win. His teams run almost no semblance of a structured offense, something that even his players will admit. Amaker relies on his players to create for themselves. While that has worked at times, it has also led to a chronic number of droughts when Michigan can't score for four or five minutes at a time. It has limited the Wolverines from creating open shots. And it completely ravaged the Wol- verines this past season when both Lester Abram and Daniel Horton, Michigan's two best playmakers, were unavailable. During their final 13 games, a period when they won just once, the Wolverines were in a situation similar to being an option football team without a fast quar- terback. But even when the Wolverines had both of these players last year, the team still suffered when the guards could not create. Without a detailed offensive game plan, the ball movement that you see by the elite Big Ten teams such as Illinois and Wisconsin is nonexistent in Michigan teams. There have also been numerous instances when Michigan has been in a game only to falter in the wan- ing moments. It happened during the season's final two games against Iowa and Northwestern. It happened against Arizona and UCLA during the noncon- ference schedule. Last season, Michigan had leads against Michigan State and at Minnesota, to name a couple, that slipped away as well. While every team is expected to blow a game here and there, the Wolverines have, during Amaker's tenure, lost many more games in the final minutes than they have won. Those aforementioned games also fail to include losses in consecutive years to Boston University at home and the failure to ever win a game against Indi- ana and coach Mike Davis, whose recent teams have been mostly mediocre. It's hard to place all that blame on the players, who have actually, for the most part, con- sistently played hard and have supported Amaker during his tenure. Putting it statistically, Amaker has been just 64-60 since he has been in Ann Arbor. Comparatively, Ellerbe was 62- 60. Although it's unfair to compare these numbers alone, they are something to think about. Despite the program's leadership flaws, I'm not suggesting that Tommy Amaker should be fired immediately, especially considering that the chances of that hap- pening are infinitesimal. With all that has happened to Michigan basketball over the past four years off the court, Amaker deserves to come back next year and coach with a healthy, sanction-free nucleus of players that he recruited. Barring any transfers and injuries, Michigan should be one of the most, if not the most, talented team in the Big Ten next year. With Illinois, Michigan State and Wisconsin losing much of their cores, Michigan, in theory, has the potential to contend for the conference title. But under the current coaching philosophies, the Wolverines will likely fight for a double-digit seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. With the program's leadership structure, I'm far from convinced that Michigan bas- ketball will ever achieve its full potential. The only way that I see Tommy Amaker succeeding at Michigan is if he hires assis- tant coaches that are excellent minds of the game and are able to handle the majority of the in-game coaching. This would leave Amaker to do what he does best, recruit and be the face of the program. But this is an unlikely scenario at best. I feel bad putting such a negative out- look on the future of the program. Tommy Amakeris a nice guy, and Iwant him to succeed at Michigan. I just don't think it's going to happen. Bob Hunt covered the Michigan men's basketball team for the Daily during the 2003-04 season. He can be reached at bobhunt@umich.edu. UIi What Do These Leaders Have in Common? If you thought pharmacy was only filling prescriptions, think again. The University of Michigan College of Pharmacy has been Gwendolyn Chivers, Chief Pharmacist, University of Michigan Health Service Gayle Crick, Senior Marketing Advisor, Eli Lilly & Co. Cynthia Kirman, Manager, National Managed Pharmacy Program, General Motors Corp. developing leaders for positions in business, biotechnology, health care, the pharmaceutical industry, education, engineering, law, and other careers for 128 years. It's one reason our College is consistently ranked among the world's best. You owe it to yourself to find out about the outstanding, high-paying career opportunities available to U-M College of Pharmacy graduates. To learn more about The No. 25 Michigan women's golf team teed off today in the first day of a three-day tournament at the UNLV Spring Invitational held in Las Vegas. The Wolverines are competing against some of the nation's best. Among the field's 17 teams are seven of the top-30 teams in the country. Michigan took six of their 13 golfers out west for the tour- nament, and the Wolverines finished in fourth place. 0 M'No-ri--.-N F.RI AFTIER FIRSTF DAY Junior Amy Schmucker played well, finishing tied for fourth overall. Schmuck- er shot a 4-over 76. With birdies on 16 and 18, Schmucker ended the day within three strokes of first place. Sophomore Ali Stinson also placed in the top-20, with her 7-over 79. The tournament will continue tomorrow, as the team looks to catch first- place Southern Cal, which has a 10 stroke lead on the Wolverines. - Randy Ip Peter Labadie, President, Williams-Labadie, LLC, a subsidiary of Leo Burnett Communications Albert Leung, President, Phyto-Technologies, Inc. Robert Lipper, Vice President, Biopharmaceutics R&D, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Pharmaceutical Research Institute F;.: I 7777