SPORTS www.michigandaily.com sportsdesk@umich.edu 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 CUFF q A One Hour Soak for Two Sunday-Thursday (734) 663-9001 Not valid on holidays or with any other offer. Coupon required. Expires 9-15-03. Must be 18 with ID n o uso o = I 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.