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DAILY SPORTS BREAKS DOWN THE WEEKEND THAT WAS
2B - December 3, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
SAID AND HEARD
"I'm not going (to Michigan).
And it saddens me at times. You
can't be in two places. I got a
great place. I'm at home."
- Louisiana State coach Les Miles after his Tigers
won the Southeastern Conference Title. Miles was
widely considered to be the top choice for the job.
ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
MATT
PATTON
In the 1,650-yard freestyle, the
junior posted an NCAA-qualify-
ing time of 14:49:09, beating
the rest of the field by more
than 40 seconds and shaving
30 seconds off his own per-
sonal best time in the race.
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'M'in ideal pool position
The clock is ticking on
Martin's coaching search
By RYAN A. PODGES
Daily Sports Writer
If the Michigan men's swimming
and diving team's commanding per-
formance at the Husky Invitational
is a preview of this year's NCAA
Championship meet, which will be
held at the same pool, then the Wol-
verines are on the right track.
The three-day meet was held
outside Seattle at the Weyerhaeuser
King County Aquatic Center, which
will host the NCAA swimming
and diving championship meet in
March.
Michigan led the meet from
beginning to end and finished first
in a 10-team field, tallying 479 more
points than the second-place fin-
isher, No. 11 California.
Michigan (3-0 Big Ten, 5-1
overall) earned seven runaway
victories in the 20 swim events.
The fourth-ranked Wolverines
had six of the top eight finishers
in the 500-yard freestyle and the
200-yard freestyle. The team con-
tinued to dominate the 400-yard
individual medley, an event it has
not lost all season. Senior co-cap-
tain Alex Vanderkaay, who was the
2007 NCAA Champion in the event,
touched first (3:47.05), followed .82
seconds later by sophomore Andre
Schultz, and freshman Tyler Clary
plated third.
Michigan coach Bob Bowman
has been pleased with the improve-
ments the two underclassmen have
made this season, especially in the
400-yard IM.
"I'm really happy with it because
I know how hard they've been
training," Bowman said. "I defi-
nitely think they'll be finalists (at
the NCAA Championships)."
The meet concluded with the
1,650-yard freestyle, which was
won by Michigan junior Matt Pat-
ton (14:49.09). Patton won the event
by more than 44 seconds and still
managed to drop more than 30 sec-
onds from his last swim two weeks
ago despite havingto finish the race
without any competition pushing
him to improve.
"I just try and keep my stroke
together and focus on my tech-
nique," Patton explained. "That's
the whole point of the race. I just
kept my head down and pushed
through the pain and eventually
finish the race."
Patton's time in the 1,650-yard
freestyle marked Michigan's 25th
NCAA qualifying time of the meet.
The meet gave the Wolverines
valuable practice in the venue they
will later compete in for the NCAA
title.
"It's definitely great practice to
be in that pool. That's the reason
we went to this meet," Patton said.
"Now we're going to be swimming
against teams who haven't raced in
this pool, so we're definitely going
into NCAAs with an edge from the
experience of this meet."
Michigan was the clear favor-
ite to win in a field that included
no other top-10 teams and seven
unranked squads. The lack of suffi-
cient competition actually present-
ed a challenge the Wolverines had
to overcome by themselves.
"The atmosphere was a little
relaxed at first because we were
definitely the best team there and
there was really no pressure to per-
form," Patton said. "Everyone on
the team had to put the pressure
on each other and get everyone to
swim faster."
The team will not compete again
until Jan. 12 when it hosts a dual
meet with Indiana at Canham Nata-
torium. Over the semester break the
team will take their annual training
trip. This year, the Wolverines will
work at the U.S. Olympic Training
Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Out of place, Blue dominates meet
've really liked Bill Martin
since he
took over
as the athletic
director at
Michigan.
Martin
turned a strug-
gling Athletic
Department SCOTT
into a self-suf- BELL
ficient one, B _EL
transforming
it from a debt-
ridden mess into a Canham-esque
model of prosperity.
He's made great coaching
hires, too. Rich Maloney is one of
the nation's top baseball coaches.
Not only did Martin bring him to
Ann Arbor, he kept Maloney this
summer when some big programs
came calling for his services. And
even though John Beilein's imme-
diate results certainly haven't
shown it (losing to Harvard? Seri-
ously, John?), I'm confident he
was the right hire, too.
Martin has also made amazing
strides in facilities. The enclosed
seating that's about to drastically
change the aesthetics of the Big
House certainly isn't everyone's
favorite decision, but I love that
Martin is getting Michigan's
facilities up to date with some of
the nation's other elite universi-
ties.
But Bill, let's be honest: You've
got yourself in deep with this
one.
No, it's not entirely your fault
- the finger could be pointed at a
wide variety of scapegoats - but
you said it yourself that this deci-
sion would likely define your time
at Michigan.
"Yeah, it's a very, very impor-
tant task," Martin said just min-
utes after Lloyd Carr announced
his retirement last month. "Every
time you replace a coach of this
stature, you have to drop every-
thing and focus on it, and that's
what I'll be doing. It's very impor-
tant, and I realize that."
And for every great hire you've
made, for every new facility you'll
erect, for every dollar you bring
to the University, all of that will
be overshadowed by this failure
if a salvageable hire doesn't come
from this mess.
Is it possible? Sure. But will it
be easy? Absolutely not.
Les Miles was the guy. Plain
and simple. Ignore the spin that
will likely follow in the next few
weeks - Miles was Michigan's
4
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PETER0SCHOTTENFELS/Da
Michigan Athletic Director Bill Martin is drawing the ire of many Michigan fans
for apparently mishandling the search for the next head football coach.
I
By JASON KOHLER
Daily Sports Writer
YPSILANTI - It wasn't a normal
weekend for the Michigan women's
swimming and diving team.
Not because it dominated the
field at the Eastern Michigan Invi-
tational, winning 18 of 20 events.
Usual faces weren't in their usual
places.
The 13th-ranked Wolverines
switched up their lineup and raced
to first place, earning 1,147.5 points.
Michigan lacked crowd sup-
port, unlike Kalamazoo College or
Wayne State, whose fans flocked
to Michael H. Jones Natatorium.
Regardless, it was by far the most
prominent in the 10-team field,
with schools ranging from Divi-
sions I to III.
"This meet was really a chal-
lenge for us to come in here with
teams that were not necessarily as
fast as we are, but teams that were
shaved, tapered and ready to race,"
Michigan assistant coach Stefanie
Kerska said.
Kerska was filling in for head
coach Jim Richardson, who was
in Atlanta recruiting at the Short
Course Nationals.
The decreased competition gave
the Wolverines the opportunity to
switch up the normal lineup.
"We let them swim events that
they normally don't have a chance
to swim or events that might help
them focus on a particular part of
the races they normally do swim
in," Kerska said.
Senior Justine Mueller, who nor-
mally swims the individual medley,
swam and won the mile (17:03.84),
an event she hasn't swam in eight
years. Mueller added a second win
in the 100-yard backstroke (57.89).
"This will give me practice for
the freestyle and backstroke in the
IM," Mueller said. "It helps me
mentally because I don't like to
swim the same thing every meet. I
like to switch it up."
The meet was spread out over
three sessions, which tested the
Wolverines' endurance since they
recently started a new phase in
their dry-land training program.
"The girls needed to make sure
that their preparation was good,
and that they were just plain tough
in getting through three sessions,"
Kerska said.
Michigan will step up its training
over Winter Break when it heads
down to Puerto Rico.
"The training trip is a good time
because day in and day out you're
just going head-to-head with your
teammates," junior Hannah Smith
said. "Everyone istrying to improve
different parts of their races, and
not having all of these meets will
help us do that."
Over the break, the team will
swim the same number of hours in
practice but will increase its yard-
age, which can be up to 10 miles a
day for distance swimmers.
Even with the extra training, the
Wolverines shouldn't always expect
to blow out its competition like this
past weekend when they didn't face
a ranked opponent.
When it returns from break,
Michigan will begin Big Ten com-
petition and preparation for the
NCAA Championships. For now,
though, the Wolverines aren't get-
ting ahead of themselves.
"It's time ,to really focus on
training and the next surge up
before we start thinking about the
Big Ten Championships," Kerska
said.
next head coach. And it took an
astronomical screw-up to break
up destiny.
You made a last-ditch effort to
contact Miles' agent yesterday
morning. Good for you - probably
a little late, though, considering
Miles already announced he was
returningto LSU the day before.
With Miles out of the picture,
who should be the next target?
To be completely honest,
none of the potential candidates
inspire too much excitement. Tom
O'Brien? Jim Grobe? Greg Schi-
ano? Even Jeff Tedford doesn't
sound like a sexy hire after Cali-
fornia's embarrassing second-half
collapse.
Brian Kelly is likely the coach
that garners the most excitement
among the Michigan fanbase. But
most insiders are saying he's a
long-shot candidate.
Should this come as a surprise?
Hardly. Kelly doesn't fit the mold
most of the old-school higher-ups
in the Athletic Department want.
But maybe it's time to think of
that as a positive, not a negative.
Bo Ball isn't exactly practical
in the current landscape of col-
lege football. Maybe whiffing on
Bo's Boy could be a blessing in
disguise. Maybe it's time to blow
everything up - old-school ties
and all - and start with a new,
fresh, innovative perspective.
It would be going out on alimb,
but didn't Michigan take a chance
on an unproven coach from Miami
(Ohio) 40 years back?
One thing is for sure, Martin
needs to spend some cash if he
wants the right replacement.
Someone willing to pay hun-
dreds of millions of dollars for
facilities needs to be just as eager
to at least pay market value for
big-time coaches. At a University
where Mary Sue Coleman was
the highest-paid public university
chief two years ago, why can't the
school's coaches receive similarly
competitive contracts?
Martin low-balling Miles prob-
ably wasn't the only reason this
deal fell apart, but that certainly
couldn't have helped, especially
when LSU was willing to pay
Miles top dollar.
If you were Miles, where would
you feel the most welcome?
Whether we're talking about
Martin using his money or his
skill to bring in a suitable replace-
ment for Lloyd Carr, one thing's
for sure - it needs to be done
quickly.
Yes, an unenviable task just got
harder after this weekend. But
don't feel sorry for Martin and the
rest of the. coaching search com-
mittee - it's nobody's fault but
their own.
- Bell can be reached at
scotteb@umich.edu.
RESEARCH VOLUNTEERS NEEDED'\
http://blood.umich.edu
Participation includes a short online survey and DNA sample.
Volunteers will be compensated up to $50 per person.
For more information:
http://blood.umich.edu
Heea For Stdy
Genes and Blood Clotting
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