SPORTS
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MONDAY
JULY 21, 2003 L1
Amaker, players trying not
to dwell on postseason ban
t By Gennaro A. Miice IV
£ ~Daily Spart Editor
Although the NCAA has yet to reply
Y to Michigan'a appeal of next season's
postseason probation, it seems likely
that the Wolverines will play 2004
knowing March Madness is not an
option. This devastating news could
burymany teams. Taking the postsea-
son away from a college basketball
player is like taking Romeo from Juli-
N . f et. But according to senior ri-captain
o JC. Mathis, the Wolverines won't be
affected by a lack of tourney time.
"I don't think it'll be hard because
} everyone on the team, outside of the
three freshmen coming in, dealt with it
last year, Mathis said. "Motivation
wasn't a problem last year. We may
have lost some games, but it wasn't
because of a lack of motivation."
~ Coach Tommy Amaker agrees with
Mathis, and feels that in a second
TONY DNG/Dail straight year of postseason probation,
Michigan basketball coach Tommy Amaker is confident his squad won't feel the the Wolverines can excel.
effects of another season without the opportunity of postseason play I am hoping that the past experi-
Webber won't face any jail1 ti-me
ence of last year will allow us to be a
little stronger and a little better,"
Amaker said. "When we got the news
about the lack of postseason opportu-
nity for our team this season, we got
that this past spring. Unlike last year
when we got the news in November
when we had already started practice.
That was a very difficult pill to swal-
low and we had to shift gears and re-
group. That will not be part of the
equation this time," Amaker said
He added, "I really think that this
past year we took significant steps to
right the ship here and put ourselves
in a position to be a contending pro-
gram in our conference."
The Wolverines expect to hear a
reply from the NCAA relatively soon,
but Amaker antempts to keep the topic
away from Michigan's inner circle.
"We know that running the race on
behalf of our players is the right
thing to do," Amaker said. "We have
not given the appeal a lot of attention
in terms of our specific program
here. Our administrators have done a
phenomenal job of trying to guide
that in and orchestrate that. We will
see how that turns out in late summer
or early fall."
Michigan may not be able to partake
in the NCAA tournament or the NtT,
but the Wolverines still hold lofty goals-
for the 2004campsign
"The expectations are very high,"
Mathis said. "The highest that we can
achieve. We can't go to the post-sea-
son, so our main goal is to approach
every game with the mindset to win.
We're trying to be the best in the Big
Ten. Our goal is to try to win the Big
Ten regular season championship and
the conference championship."
Achieving Big Ten supremacy will
be far from easy; some college basket-
ball analyst have already crowned, the
conference as the nation's finest.
"The strength and power of this
league is second to none," Amaker
said. "Going into my .third year, it
seems that every team has improved.I
think the level of play is going to be a r
notch above what it was before."
WEBBER
Continued from Page 1
ball program as a result of this
entire matter."
Judge Edmunds will make a final
decision on Chris Webber's punish-
ment - including whether the crime
will be a misdemeanor or felony - on
September 16. The government
dropped all charges against Mayce
Webber on Tuesday.
This trial spawned from a grand
jury investigation of former Michigan
booster Ed Martin. The grand jury
was inspecting an illegal gambling
ring run in Detroit auto plants by
Martin. Allegations said Chris Web-
ber received some of Martin's illegal
proceeds while attending Detroit
Country Day High School and the
University (1988-93). Both Webbers
and Chris Webber's aunt, Charlene
Johnson, denied receiving any loans
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from Martin when called to the stand.
But in May 2002, Martin pleaded
guilty to giving $616,000 to Webber
and three other former Michigan bas-
ketball players (Robert Traylor, Mau-
rice Taylor and Louis Bullock).
According to Martin, Webber
received $280,000 - by far the
largest sum of the four.
Following this testimony, the trio
was indicted last September on charges
of obstruction of justice and perjury.
After Martin died of natural causes
at the age of 69 on February 14, a
chain of events occurred in the
defense's favor.
First, all charges against Johnson
were dropped in May.
"According to the government,
(charges against Johnson) were
dropped because Mr. Martin is no
longer here to give his version of
events," Fishman said.
In June, the prosecution dropped the
obstruction of justice charges against
both Webbers, again citing Martin's
absence as the cause.
Then on July 8, the defense pre-
vailed once more when Edmunds dis-
allowed key evidence, including
Martin's hand-written notes that chron-
icled his money laundering to Webber.
In last Monday's hearing, Webber
admitted to reimbursing Martin
$38,000 cash.
Under NCAA regulation
addressing Martin's generosity,
Michigan basketball will undergo a
second year of post-season proba-
tion in 2004 (In 2003, a postseason
ban was self- imposed). The
NCAA also forced the program to
forfeit 112 games from the 1990s,
during which the quartet attended
Michigan and imposed a loss of
one scholarship each year for four
years that will start in the 2004-05
academic year.