DAILY SPORTS BREAKS DOWN THE WEEKEND THAT WAS
2B - Monday, March 12, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.c
SAID AND HEARD
"Your dream is to make (the NCAA Tourna-
ment), and to not make it all four years you
are here, that's a huge disappointment."
- Michigan senior COURTNEY SIMS on the Wolverines
missing out on the NCAA Tournament for his entire career.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
JEFF PORTER
MEN'S TRACK AND FIELD
The senior took home the 60-meter national
title at last weekend's NCAA Indoor Champi-
onships. Porter broke the previous Michigan
record with a time of 7.64 seconds, breaking
the mark he set just one week earlier.
S
0
Know nothing? No problem
Bracket pools are the great
uniting force between the
sports
nut and the rest -
of civilization.
It doesn't
matter how
much you know
about NCAA
basketball: If
you can com-
petently write H. JOSE
down the name
of a college, you BOSCH
can participate
in one of sports'
greatest spectacle.
But if you still can't decide
whether Old Dominion will beat
Butler or if you've never heard of
Old Dominion and Butler, I'm here
to give you some pre-March Mad-
ness advice based on your under-
graduate school. (Sorry if I left you
out).
School of Music and School of
Art and Design
So a couple of the oboe players
are talking brackets, and you want
to get in on the action. The problem
is that you didn't know about NCAA
brackets until about two minutes
ago when you started reading this
column.
What do you do?
Thanks to the power of the Inter-
net, and your superior knowledge
of musical scores, you can look up
schools' fight songs and make your
decision based on the song you like
the best. (If a school doesn't have its
song somewhere on the Internet, it
doesn't deserve to be picked.)
And if you're an art student,
you know what looks aesthetically
pleasing. Use that knowledge wisely
and base your picks on which
team's uniform you like the most.
Florida's blue and orange ensem-
ble could earn you some big cash.
Ross School of Business
All right. You're in the Business
school. Congratulations. But what
kind of businessman, or business-
woman, can you be if you don't have
a bankroll that can help you live it
up?
An NCAA Tournamentbracket
pool may be the quickest way to get
the money you need to become a
millionaire.
Going over teams' big wins and
losses is a boring way to determine
which one is better. You like money.
You live by the creed "Greed is
good." You go to one of the nation's
premiere business schools.
Why not pick the school whose
athletic department has the largest
profit? You're going into the busi-
ness world pretty soon anyway. You
might as well start noticing which
institutions can turn a profit now.
LSA
You know more about William
Shakespeare than Roy Williams;
you're a history buff and the only
George Mason you've heard of is
the founding father; you can't get
enough of chemistry, and your
favorite numbers and letters are
H2O.
There's nothing wrong with any
of that, but while you were enjoying
all those academic pursuits, the rest
of your friends have already filled
out three different brackets.
Now is the time to show those
sports-watching friends of yours
that all the years spent in the
library rather than on the hard-
wood was worth it.
Big psychology fan? Indiana
has the Kinsey Institute. Grew up
admiring Thomas Jefferson? Make
Virginia your pick to go all the
way. Political science majors from
the Detroit area may have a good
reason to watch the play-in game.
Florida A&M is the alma mater of
Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
College of Architecture and
Urban Planning and College of Engi-
neering
Yes, I understand that architects
and engineers aren't the same. Still,
both groups have a love for design-
ing almost everything we use in life.
And both groups love to ridicule
LSA students for their easy course
loads (hey, reading 450 pages a
night is tough work).
Now you have the opportunity
to show off, not only your academic
superiority, but also your bracket
superiority. You could ask a friend
of yours to help you fill out your
bracket, but that's really cheating.
It's something LSA students would
do.
So make your decision based on
which school has the best archi-
tecture on campus. Or, if you're
an engineer, choose schools with
famous engineering alums like Pur-
due (Neil Armstong's alma mater)
or Southern Cal (where Armstrong
got his masters).
The Division of Kinesiology Water Polo vs. Wagner,11:10 a.m.
Let's be honest. Most of us are Baseball at East Carolina,lIp.m.
expecting you to know what you're Wleisos.Alabama,6p
talking about. Even though taping
someone's ankles doesn't make you M Gymnastics at Ohio State, 7 p.m.
an expert, we believe itgives you Softballvs. North Carolina, 6 p,.m.
the inside edge over the rest of the ke Hockeyvs.Ohio State, 8:05 p.m.
population in bracketology. Water Polo vs. Loyola Marymount, 7:20
But it doesn't, and you're facing p.m.
the embarrassment of people know- SUNDAY -318
ing you're surrounded by sports but
don't follow them. Water Polo vs. CaLutheran, 9:10 a.m.
Here's the best solution: pick MTennisevs. Pennsylvania,12 p.m.
the team with the fewest inju- Water Polo vs. Brown,1:50 p.m.
ries. Browse through those injury Softball at Judi Garman Invitational,
reports and go with the healthiest Championship Rounds, TBA
team on the floor. This is what you M Golf at Pinehurst Intercollegiate
know. Take advantage of it.
.(Pinehurst, N.C.)
Now you're all set to make your home games in all caps
Tournament picks. So go ahead, all times EST
talk with your friends about that
No. 5- No. 12 matchup in the South
region (Tennessee vs. Long Beach)
because now you've made your Daily Sports.
picks. .
Of course, you could always just More NIT trips
blindly guess. But what's the fun in
that? than any other
- Bosch can be reached college paper.
at hectobos@umich.edu.
Blue pleased
with progress in
exhibition play.
0
'M' finishes ninth at NCAAs
By CHRIS MESZAROS
DailySports Writer
After quickly falling to 12th
place in the distance medley relay,
it appeared as if the doldrums fac-
ing the Michigan women's track
and field team at the Big Ten Cham-
pionshiptwoweeks agowouldrear
their ugly heads again.
But seniors Katie Erdman and
Chanelle Campbell and junior
Nicole Edwards revived the fad-
ing Wolverines, passing nine
teams en route to a respectable
third-place finish. The relay team,
which includes sophomore Geena
Gall, earned Michigan its fourth
straight All-America performance
at the NCAA Indoor Champion-
ships at Randall Tyson Track
Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
Campbell began the turn-
around for Michigan with a solid
800-meter leg, but it was Erdman
who put the team on her shoul-
ders. She scorched the competi-
tion with a split time of 2:03.00
to put Michigan back into conten-
tion. Edwards solidified the effort
for the Wolverines, with a strong
anchor leg to secure third place
and six points.
The event was the beginning
of a solid overall performance by
the Wolverines, who finished the
weekend with a program record
nine All-America honors.
"They are very happy with their
performance," Michigan coach
James Henry said. "They did a
great job to battle back and finish
third."
Overall, Michigan finished in
ninth place with 21 total points, its
best result since 1998. The Wolver-
ines scored points in four events,
finishing 17 points behind first-
place Arizona State.
"We competed hard," Henry
said. "Everything didn't go as
planned, but we're still happy with
the result."
Edwards also took home All-
America honors after finishing
third in the mile with a time of
4:44.89. Her efforts were tanta-
mount to the Wolverines' suc-
cess as she was involved in 12 of
Michigan's points.
Erdman was equally impres-
sive for Michigan, continuing
her success at distance events.
She finished fourth in the 800-
meter run (2:05.53), and brought
home two All-America honors,
raising her career total to an
astonishing seven.
Sophomore co-captain Bet-
tie Wade claimed All-America
honors of her own with her fifth-
place performance in the pen-
tathlon. Wade nearly matched
her career best in the event, but fell
just SOpoints short.
"Bettie had five events in a five-
hour period." Henry said. "We
were concerned about how fresh
her legs would be. They weren't
fresh but she showed a lot of
heart."
Wade used that heart to carry
her through the entire weekend,
postinga personal-best time of 8.56
seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
She later captured fourth place in
the long jump, leapingS5.91 meters.
Senior Eri Webster rounded
out the All-Americans for Michi-
gan with a ninth-place finish in
the 3,000-meter run (9:20.50).
She fell just 0.3 seconds of a sec-
ond short of scoring for Michigan.
Her event rounded out the day for
Michigan.
"We're very pleased with our
results," Henry said. "To make it
into these events and finish in the
top 20, you have to be a very elite
program."
The NCAAs mark the con-
clusion of the indoor season for
Michigan, which now heads out-
doors for the second track sea-
son. It has two weeks to prepare
for the outdoor season opener,
the Arizona State Invitational in
Tempe, Ariz.
By MATT JOHNSON
DailySports Writer
Despite losing its exhibition
match to Michigan State Satur-
day, the Michigan men's golf team
came back from Arizona feeling
confident because of a little extra
practice.
The Spartans beat the Wolver-
ines by 12 strokes, led by fresh-
man Jack Newman, who posted
a 3-under par 69. Michigan's ath-
letic department had not released
the Wolverines' scores as of press
time.
Before the match, Michigan
coach Andrew Sapp and Michigan
State coach Mark Hankins agreed
to change the format from match
play to stroke play to better simu-
late tournament conditions.
Sapp saw both positives and
negatives during the match.
"Our ball striking was good,"
Sapp said. "We missed a lot of putts
we shouldn't have. The greens we
played on were fairly quick. In
Puerto Rico, the greens were much
slower than they were here."
The Wolverines used their trip
to Scottsdale to work on facets
of their game they can't in Ann
Arbor. The informal exhibition
format allowed them ample time
to do so.
Michigan arrived Thursday
night and practiced all day Friday,
Sapp thinks the extra work will
help the team at the Pinehurst
Intercollegiate next weekend.
"(Sunday) we spent three hours'
working on our short game, which
we really lack the ability to do back
home," Sapp said. "In preparation.
for Pinehurst, it's really good to"
get out here and get some work-in
around the greens."
Sapp also felt the course provid-
ed a good opportunity for the Wol-
verines to work on their tee shots.
"Ifyoudidn'thitthe ballstraighi,
you ended up in the desert, so it
was very difficult," Sapp said. "If
you can pinpoint your tee shots on
a course like this at Pinehurst, you
won't be penalized as much."
The extra preparation will help
Michigan as it gets ready for next
week's Pinehurst Intercollegiate.
The tournament features No. 32
Wisconsin and No. 33 Southern
Methodist University as the high-
est-ranked participants.
The tournament will take place
place March 18-20.
0
I
6
I
I
is your life
STRUCTURED?
If so, you can help us.
Sample Roundtrip Airfares From Detroit to:
Chicago $123 Amsterdam $298
New York $131 London $310
I II
0
E-mail Brittany at brimaroc@umich.edu I
studentUniverse.com
N