The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - December 5, 2005 - 3B
*Bears burned by Burnett's lineup
By Daniel Bromwich
Daily Sports Writer
time all s
more assis
"It spea
As the Michigan starters trotted elected he
out onto the floor of Crisler Arena Burnett sa
before their game on Saturday against a great c
Maine, two things were immediately stands wha
apparent. Coach Cheryl Burnett had she brings
altered her lineup yet again - the superb co
fifth different group to start a game ship skills
this year. And second, this lineup well."
looked strangely familiar. Michiga
After suffering deflating losses a backseat
to Toledo and Central Michigan, the nonstarter
Wolverines needed to do something. half, and D
They were lacking in communica- player to
tion, leadership and execution. Bur- on the flo
nett decided that a veteran presence throw with
would help cure these woes. only point
So on a team with five freshmen, "(The s
five sophomores and just one junior, together fo
Burnett did what she could to insert longer tha
that presence. She gave sophomore "It's nice
captain Krista Clement her first start you've pla
of the season in place of freshman fidence th
Jessica Minnfield and surrounded or 'Shia is
her with fellow sophomores Janelle nice to hav
Cooper and Ta'Shia Walker, in addi- but surely,
tion to the elder statesman of the the rest of
team, junior Kelly Helvey. The vet
Forward Carly Benson was the to be reun
only freshman starter, and the only extended p
one to play significant minutes. verines co
Clement played 39 out of a possible ters for ea
40 minutes and stayed in- the game put togethe
until just 1:54 remained. Walker and run, Cleme
Helvey each played 38 minutes, and energize t
the frontcourt combination of Ben- huddled du
son and sophomore Katie Dierdorf reminding
played 39, alternating due to foul play hard a
trouble. "It felt
"I made the decision to go with Helvey sai
our veterans because sometimes you try out the
have to make a change that brings ing and sta
the group together," Burnett said. the end."
"We've been having trouble execut- Burnett
ing, and those veterans do a great with her
job of eliminating mistakes while in the pas
executing what we need to execute." alternate h(
The veterans truly did rise to indication
the occasion. Walker had a career- "I don't
high 24 points and seven offensive forward,"
boards, while Helvey posted a sea- you're so y
son-high 13 points and a career-high a lot of in
13 rebounds, 10 of which came in the what's goi
first ialf. Clement contributed a sea- that, today
son-high five assists, and for the first great job f
MAINE
Continued from page 1B
with penetration along with long-range jump
shots.
For the first time this season, Michigan's assist-
to-turnover ratio was above 1.0 as the team went
on to have a season-low 13 turnovers. Walker's
game-high 24 points were the result of a balance
of inside and outside scoring. Several of her mid-
range jump shots came off Clement passes that
were made possible by drawing Maine away from
the post.
"We have a lot of kids taking some really good
shots that I call rhythm jump shots," Burnett said.
eason the Wolverines had
ts than turnovers.
ks volumes that the team
r captain as a nonstarter,"
id of Clement. "She's such
ommunicator, she under-
at we want to execute, and
s the group together. Her
mmunication and leader-
that really served us very
n's youth movement took
t for the Maine game. No
scored a point in the first
)ierdorf was the only bench
get more than 10 minutes
or. Stephany Skrba's free
h 17.5 seconds left was the
scored by a freshman.
tarters) have been playing
or a long time, or at least
an most," Clement said.
to play with people that
yed with before. It's a con-
ing. I know where Janelle
going to be, and it's really
ve that confidence. Slowly
, we are getting that with
the team."
erans were visibly excited
nited on the court for an
period of time. As the Wol-
nsistently found open cut-
asy baskets and the team
er scoring run after scoring
ent and Helvey continued to
heir teammates. Michigan
wring every play stoppage,
each other to continue to
and communicate.
really good out there,"
d. "We had great chemis-
ere, and we just kept talk-
ayed positive and fought to
made no promises to stick
veteran lineup. Her style
t has been to consistently
er lineups, and there is no
so far that it will change.
really have a plan going
Burnett said. "When
young, you're going to have
consistency. I don't know
ng to happen. I just know
, this (veteran) group did a
or us."
Evil corporations:
" "
Stop ruining the
world of sports
W atching Reggie Bush and the Southern Cal Trojans dis-
mantle UCLA on Saturday, I was captivated by the run-
ning back's speed and quickness. I loved that every time
he touched the ball, he had the chance to take it all the way. Then at
halftime - with Bush already over 200 yards rushing - the drama
switched to something else: the jaw-dropping Dr. Pepper Halftime
Report as part of the Dr. Pepper Championship Saturday on ABC.
Tostitos Fiesta Bowl; Nokia Sugar Bowl;
FedEx Orange Bowl; The Rose Bowl sponsored
by Citi.
It doesn't even arouse suspicion anymore. We
just recognize that bowl games are going to be
sponsored by big-time corporations.
It's been happening for years, and it seems
natural that the bowl games - NCAA foot-
ball's biggest moneymakers - have these
names attached to them. Some of these games
are nothing but sponsorships. The Rose Bowl
and Orange Bowl have history to fall back on,. IAN
but what about the Capital One Bowl or the HERBERT
Champs Sports Bowl?
For whatever reason, I've never complained. The SpotsMonday
I've accepted the fact that bowl games will Column
always be sponsored - the Michigan athletic
department budgets $12 million every year from bowl game revenue
generated by the Big Ten, and that money has to come from some-
where - so I've moved on.
But when did championship Saturday become Dr. Pepper Champi-
onship Saturday? When did we create a television show for the bowl
game selection and make it Tostitos Selection Sunday? Why can't we
watch a championship football game that's simply called the ACC
Championship Game? Was the hour's worth of commercials during
the game and the millions of dollars of advertising money that comes
along with that just not enough?
We've gotten to the point where there has to be a name on every-
thing. Saturday's game between Southern Cal and UCLA was one of
the biggest of the year for the Trojans because a win sent them back
to the National Championship for the third straight year. And it was
huge for Joe Paterno and the Penn State Nittany Lions, who might
have taken Southern Cal's spot in the Rose Bowl if the Bruins had
been able to put up just 48 more points. But it was also probably an
important game for the world of corporate athletics - like Michigan,
Southern Cal is sponsored by Nike while UCLA collects its money
from Adidas.
Congratulations to Nike for its big win this weekend.
When I start ranting about corporations taking over collegiate ath-
letics, my slightly more moderate friends tend to question my motives.
It seems to them to be perfectly harmless for Tostitos, Nokia and Dr.
Pepper to get involved in the biggest games on college campuses.
Why should I care if the logo on ABC's halftime set has the Dr.
Pepper insignia on it? Other than themselves, who does it harm when
the talking heads have to mention "the world's oldest soft drink"
before telling us what happened in the game?
The truth is that it harms everyone. Maybe not that much, but as we
become desensitized to advertising (like I have with the bowl games),
society suffers. Instead of buying the best product available; consum-
ers are more inclined to buy the biggest product - the one by the
company that spends the most on advertising. FedEx, for example, is a
$30 billion company.
And the bigger the corporation becomes, the more it feels it's above
the law - see McDonald's with tomato farmers or Coke with union
workers in Colombia.
That's the "No Logo" argument. But there's something a bit more
tangible for collegiate athletics. Even those who don't buy the argu-
ment against big corporations might understand the purity of college
sports and the desire to keep it that way.
That's why we don't pay the athletes, right? It's supposed to be
about 22 guys on the football field - or 14 swimmers in the pool
during a water polo game - battling it out for pride and love of the
game.
There's this commercial for the NCAA Championships that comes
on ESPN every once in a while. It's just video clips of athletes cel-
ebrating - and agonizing - over college sports. Every time it comes
on, I get fired up. Because that's what college sports are about. I love
the emotion that's thrown into them.
When the Michigan-Ohio State game ended a few weeks ago,
and I walked around on the turf of the Big House for possibly the
final time, I stopped in front of the Michigan bench and took in the
expressions of Michigan linebackers David Harris, Shawn Crable and
Prescott Burgess, who had just lost the last game of a 7-4 regular sea-
son. It was heartbreaking.
And even though it probably wouldn't have been noticeably differ-
ent if it had been the SBC/Yahoo Michigan-Ohio State game, some-
thing would have been lost. The purity of it all would have been gone.
So Dr. Pepper has Championship Saturday and Tostitos has Selec-
tion Sunday. The Wolverines will wear their Nike uniforms in the
Alamo Bowl, sponsored by MasterCard.
Please 'corporate America, just don't take any more of our collegiate
sports.
- Starting the season in the top-five: zero dollars. A 7-4 season
with a trip to the Alamo Bowl: priceless. Ian Herbert loves those
MasterCard commercials and can be reached at iherbert@umich.edu.
PETER SCHOTTENFELS/ Daily
Sophomore point guard Krista Clement made her first start of the season on Saturday.
"Whenever our team is taking rhythm jump shots
we are executing well and we are going to have a
better field goal percentage besides the fact that
we got the ball inside a lot. I am one of these
coaches where you have to go inside to out and
that also helped because it gave everyone a lot of
confidence."
On the other end of the court, the Wolverines
were finally able to bring all aspects of their
scramble defense together, holding the Black
Bears for seven minutes without a field goal,
giving up with barely a minute left in the game.
Helvey was the backbone of Michigan's defense
as usual, pulling down 13 boards to complete her
double-double with 13 points on the night. But,
it was her 10 defensive rebounds that eliminated
many put-back chances for Maine, who, after
shooting just 38.5 percent was only able to con-
vert 11 points from offensive rebounds the entire
game.
The team's improved communication allowed
them to successfully run the scramble, something
they have struggled with so far this season. With
the Wolverines in a disguised zone defense they
were able to force Maine into three shot-clock
violations while causing the Mack Bears to have
18 turnovers, of which Michigan was able to con-
vert into 11 points.
"We really worked on our communication (this
past week)," Helvey said. "That really pushed us
through to the end. We kept talking and staying
positive and continued to fight to the end."
" TRACK AND FIELD
Records fall in intrasquad track battle.
By Kimberly Chou
For the Daily
For a nonscoring event, the Michi-
gan track and field intrasquad meet
certainly got a little heated.
The meet boiled down to a fierce,
co-ed 8x400-meter relay in which
Blue runners took first and fourth
place, but ultimately did not get
enough points for the overall win.
The Maize team defeated the Blue
team 457 to 419 points Saturday
afternoon to repeat last year's intra-
squad victory. Splitting the men's
and women's teams evenly and pit-
ting them against each other, coaches
and team members were finally able
to see where each runner, thrower
and jumper stood. The last time
these participants competed was at
the Big Ten or NCAA Champion-
ships last spring.
"We get to see what our freshmen
are like," men's coach Ron Warhurst
said. "And for the rest of (the runners,
throwers and jumpers), this is their
'Let's see where we're at' after two
and a half months of training."
The Warhurst-coached distance
runners have been running since
August and finished their season just
before Thanksgiving.
Women's coach James Henry said
he was pleased with Bettie Wade's
1.73-meter jump as well as fresh-
man Tiffany Ofili and Casey Taylor's
respective first- and second-place
finishes in the long jump. Despite
winning the long jump, 60-meter
dash and 60-meter hurdles (setting
a meet record of 8.67 seconds), Ofili
was unable to propel her Blue team
to a win.
The freshmen "are excited (and)
a lot more nervous - it's their first
time wearing the Maize and Blue,"
Henry said.
Some freshmen seemed less ner-
vous than others - men's first-year
thrower Sean Pruitt kept his compo-
sure and won both the shot put and
the weight throw.
Not surprisingly, key veterans
dominated the men's track events.
High-hurdles junior Jeff Porter and
distance sophomore Mike Woods
broke meet records in their special-
ties - Porter had an 8.15-second
finish in the 60-meter hurdles and
Woods ran the 2,400-meter run in
6:35.64 to further help the Maize
Team.
Back in women's field, Blue team-
ers Kelly Catino andKristen Pearson
tied 'for first in the pole vault with
jumps measuring 11 1/4 feet, break-
ing the meet record.
Ultimately, the health of the ath-
letes was the main concern going into
the indoor season, which officially
starts with the Jack Harvey Invita-
tional at home Jan. 7.
"Our main goal of the intrasquad
meet is that nobody gets hurt,"
men's sprint and hurdles coach Fred
LaPlante said. "If they run fast, that's
(a plus)."
Said Henry: "It's just a prelude of
great things to come."
Tankers have fun in weekend rout
By Nate Sandals
Daily Sports Writer
YPSILANTI - During a tough stretch, it's important
for any team to remember to have some fun.
The Michigan women's swimming and diving team did
just that at the Eastern Michigan Invitational on Friday
and Saturday. In the midst of its hardest weeks of train-
ing of the season, Michigan won the meet with 1,075 total
points, posted some superb results and managed to have a
good time in the process.
It was clear that the Wolverines were having a ball
throughout the course of the meet, and many of the swim-
mers spent the majority of their time joking with team-
mates, posing for funny pictures and singing and dancing
to the music playing on their iPods.
But, the comedic highlight of the meet came during the
final event, when the Michigan "B" 400-yard medley relay
team - consisting of senior Elsa Larson, junior Kaitlyn
Brady, sophomore Valeria Silva and freshman Christine
Brady took the opportunity and ran with it.
"I knew it was important that we have some fun this
weekend," Brady said. "So when coach opened the door
I started to think of the best way to do it. It was really
fun for us to dress up and swim our worst strokes. Even
though we will never get a chance to do this again, I'm
glad we went all out with it."
Even while having fun, Michigan (2-1 Big Ten, 2-3
overall) was clearly the superior team at the invitational.
The Wolverines dominated against the competition of
Eastern Michigan and a plethora of small schools.
Michigan kicked off the meet by sweeping the swim-
ming events on Friday night.
Starting with the meet's first race, the 1,650-yard free-
style, the Wolverines showed their power in the pool.
Freshman Emily Brunemann won the competition in a
meet-record time of 16:52.21.
The Wolverines continued to perform well on day two,
once again finishing as the leader in every swimming
event.
.. . '
}: .. f .: r ... . ยง