ilocks iarts, 5A Nf TElEN YE iU. FRLEEI)NM Monday, March 19, 2007 Ann Arbor, Michigan www.michigandaily.com Amaker axed In four years of eligibility, he never made tourney Martin: He 'cleaned up' Michigan basketball Recruits ponder future at Michigan. See lB By DANIEL BROMWICH Daily Sports Editor Michigan men's basketball coach Tommy Amaker was fired Satur- day, ending a six-year tenure at the University. "Obviously it's not a joyous day for us, for me on a personal level, for my wife and I," Amaker said at a press conference Saturday after- noon. "I just want to make it very clear, very plain, that I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this great school. To lead it, to represent it at a time that we all knew was a tenuous time and a - tough time. I was very honored to have a chance to be a part of that." Amaker's dismissal came after his team failed to make the NCAA Tournament and bowed out in the second round of the National Invi- tational Tournament with an 87-66 loss to Florida State. The Wolverines didn't compete in the NCAA Tournament under Amaker and made the NIT three times, winning the championship in 2004 and falling to South Caro- lina in the title game last season. Athletic Director Bill Martin said the decision was the hardest of his career at the University. "I recruited Tommy from Former Michigan men's basketball coach Tommy Amaker during a press conference on Saturday, shortly after being fired. The Wolverines failed to make the earnent during all six years of Amaker's tenure, though they were ineligible for postseason play during two of those seasons. MSA presidential candidates, Seton Hall, brought him to Michi- gan to work with our team at a very low point in the history of Michi- gan basketball. He did everything I askedhimto,"Martinsaid."Hewas great in working our way through the major infractions case, the case with the NCAA. He cleaned up the basketball program and I'm forever grateful for that. He's a class act, a man of integrity." Martin said he decided firing Amaker was the best decision for the University's basketball pro- gram in the long run. Though there had been rum- blings about Amaker's future at Michigan for most of the season, both current and former players were surprised to hear the news. "You hear things," sophomore Kendric Price said when asked if he saw the firing coming. "We didn't know it would happen like this. This really shocked us - it just came all of a sudden." Amaker was hired to help the program through a difficult period during which Michigan basketball faced NCAA sanctions. The team was ineligible for postseason play during his first two seasons. The NCAA banned Michigan fromparticipatingin the postseason See AMAKER, Page 3A MSA ELECTIONS Candidate involved in website attack MAP candidate was implicated in denial of service attempt By DANIEL TRUMP Daily StaffReporter A former LSA Student Govern- ment representative who resigned his post after being implicated in an attack that shut down the web- site of a rival party in last year's Michigan Student Assembly elec- tion is running for a seat in the assembly in this week's election. Larry Fogel, who was the MSA election director in last year's elec- tion, said LSA sophomore Tony Vuljaj was one of two students implicated in the initial investiga- tion, which traced a denial-of-ser- vice attack against rival Michigan Progressive Party's website to Vul- jaj's computer. The attack was intended to overload MPP's websitejustbefore polls opened. Students are often routed through party websites before proceeding to the site on which they can vote. At the time, Vuljaj was serving as an LSA-SG representative in the now-defunct Students 4 Michigan party. Then-S4M Chair Robbie O'Brien resigned in the wake ofthe scandal, claiming in a March 27, 2006 letter printed in The Michi- gan Daily that the party member who committed the attack did so without the sanction of S4M. Vuljaj, who is running this year ontheMichiganActionPartyticket, could not be reached for comment. MAP's website lists Vuljaj as a candidate from the Ross School of Business. He is running against Defend Affirmative Action Party candidate Sarina Shah. The Department of Public Safety See CANDIDATE, Page 7A DAAP: Maricruz Lopez MAP: Zack Yost BAMN co-chair wants a more activist MSA By JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN Daily StaffReporter Over the last year, LSA sophomore Maricruz Lopez has ridden a bus to Washington D.C. to protest two Supreme Court lawsuits challenging voluntary school integration. She has helped orga- nize some of the loudest on-campus demonstrations in favor of affirmative action. And now she hopes to win the presi- dency of the Michigan Student Assembly. Lopez faces Zach Yost, Michigan Action Party candidate and the current MSA student general counsel. The Michigan Action Party is the lat- est incarnation of a string of dominant MSA parties that includes Students First and Students 4 Michigan. See LOPEZ, Page 3A Student general counsel says MSA should keep eye on 'priorities' By AMANDA MARKOWITZ Daily StaffReporter Engineering junior Zack Yost, the Michigan Action Party's candidate for president of the Michigan Student Assembly, has a list of 43 goals he hopes to accomplish if elected. He said he reads through it two to three times a day. Yost, a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, has served as the student general counsel of the MSA executive board for the lastyear. He speaks about his peers in MAP and his goals for MSA with an intense enthusiasm. He grew teary-eyed when talking about MSA campaign season Wednesday. See YOST, Page 7A On St. Patty's Day, a sobering protest a Alt Day, s their debau Ear hundr the Di versar Iraq. LSA Marchers rally founder of the campus group Anti-War Action, said the turnout gainst Iraq War at the protest was high, but might have been lower than last year's rally because it happened to fall By PAUL BLUMER on St. Patrick's Day. Daily StaffReporter At about1 p.m., protesters slow- -___ly began to fill the area in front of hough it was St. Patrick's the Hatcher Graduate Library tome people had more on carrying signs with slogans like minds than green beer and "1/20/09: End of an Error," "No chery on Saturday. Blood for Oil" and "Got WMDs?" 'ly in the afternoon, several Another sign,modeled after the ed protesters assembled on NBA's logo and slogan, showed an ag to mark the fourth anni- outline of a soldier with the cap- y of the start of the war in tion "I hate this game." A woman carrying a mega- senior Alex Smith, the See PROTEST, Page 3A Emily Marie Rodgers carries a giant white dove at the head ofan anti-war protest held Saturday. The protest marked the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War. TODAY'S WEATHER HI: 43 GOT A NEWS TIP? LU: 24 Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michgandaily.com and let us know. ON THE DAILY BLOGS Do battle with '300' on MAX MICHIGANDAILY.COM/THEFILTER INDEX NEW S .................... Vol. COOII. So. 116 U O ........ ©2007 The Michigan Daily SU DOKU. michigandaily.com OPINION............... ...2A ARTS.....SA .............3A C LA SSIFIED ..................... 6..6A .............4A SPORTSM O NDAY.................1B