9701080094
DETROIT FREE PRESS
970314
Friday, March 14, 1997
METRO FINAL CHASER
1D
Photo KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press
Michigan center Robert Traylor races Miami's Lucas Barnes for a
loose ball Thursday night. The Wolverines advanced to the
NIT's second round and will play Oklahoma State at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday in Crisler Arena. On Page 11D: How U-M beat Miami. On
Page 1A: U-M to renew its basketball investigation after a
Free Press report.
MITCH ALBOM Free Press Sports Writer
Copyright (c) 1997, Detroit Free Press
FOR A FEW HOURS, WOLVERINES ENJOY THEMSELVES
NIT: MICHIGAN 76, MIAMI (FLA.) 63
Someplace else, somewhere up the road, the big tournament was in full
gear, sold out, bands blasting, CBS cameras zooming in. Here, inside Crisler
Arena, the air was full of unfulfilled wishes, and the building was less an
arena than a gym, tickets sold on a walk-up basis, nearly open seating, the
place, at best, half-full.
There was noise -- but not the noise you hear on wild Big Ten nights, not
the noise you hear in the Big Dance. This was a looser rumble, a raucous,
devil-may-care applause, like open mike night at a comedy club after a few
drinks.
In this unusual atmosphere, the Michigan basketball team sought to lose
itself for a few hours Thursday night, to put on shorts and lace up sneakers
and get back to sweating and away from the other swirling problems, the
charges of a booster passing money to players, the photos of players'
expensive cars in the newspaper, the specter of an NCAA investigation.
In the shadow of all that, the hardwood floor became a sanctuary, and it
really didn't matter whom Michigan was playing, or for that matter, whether it
was the NIT or the ABC.
"It was just fun to run," center Robert Traylor would later say.
And run they did. Oh, for a while, they seemed to run in place, a truck
spinning its wheels in a ditch. Their opponents, the Miami Hurricanes, were
outrebounding them and out-hustling them. As Steve Fisher, their coach, would
put it, "We looked like we were playing because we had to."
But as the sweat began to drip, the enthusiasm began to return. And soon
Louis Bullock was drilling long jumpers and Maurice Taylor was hitting his
first three-pointer of the season and Maceo Baston took a pass from Taylor
with just over four minutes left and slammed the ball through the rim so hard,
one-handed, that his body seemed to break into two sharp angles, like a
hanger that just snapped.
"Have you ever practiced a dunk like that?" he was asked after the 76-63
first-round victory over Miami (Fla.).
"No," Baston said, "I just did what came naturally."
A win is a win
Wasn't that the theme of the night? Do what comes naturally? Play
basketball? It was strange enough to see Michigan in the also-ran tournament
at this time of year. It was even stranger to see it labor under the shadow of
some very serious allegations. Although Michigan has since distanced itself
from the supposed candy man -- the mysterious Ed Martin -- the program is
still on the line because Martin once was considered under the umbrella, a
booster, and, under the rules, he could drag down everything.
"Were you distracted by all that?" someone asked Fisher.
I needn't print his answer. Of course, he was. Who wouldn't be? Fisher,
and the whole Michigan athletic department, now have to wonder whether his
players told him and NCAA investigators the whole truth. They have to wonder
whether Martin, who, according to recent charges, regularly passed money and
improper favors to players, will ever come forth and talk to the authorities.
As long as he doesn't, it is possible that this whole thing will remain a
smoldering crater, a big smoking hole with no closure.
Meanwhile, had Fisher been listening to the radio Thursday afternoon, he
might have been sickened to hear his former assistant, Perry Watson, now the
head coach at Detroit Mercy, telling the world that he barely had an
association with Martin, trying to wash himself clean of any suggestion of
guilt. Barely knew him. Told him to stay away. Ha! What Watson said included
some minor exaggerations and some flat-out lies. He pretended Martin was no
more than a casual acquaintance when Perry was coaching at Southwestern High.
He said, "I saw a red light when Eddie started coming around my players."
What garbage. Without going into details here -- some other time, I
promise -- let's just say Watson claiming he had no relationship with Ed
Martin is like Sonny saying he didn't know Cher.
But old friends swimming away is the least of Fisher's worries. He has to
juggle investigations, media and, oh yes, a basketball team that is playing
in a tournament it never intended to grace. So never mind that Thursday night
was not a thing of beauty -- more of a run and gun and strip and dunk -- it
was still a victory.
"Someone once told me the fun is in winning," Fisher said, after the
victory that ensures at least one more game in U-M's quixotic season. "And he
was right. I liked our spirit tonight. But you usually have more fun when you
win."
A brief shining moment
So now Michigan goes back to practicing, trying to stay normal in a very
un-normal environment. In the locker room, players were asked how the
spotlight of the latest news was affecting them. Answers ranged from "We're
just trying to play basketball" to Traylor's "I ain't got no comment on that."
Someone asked Travis Conlan whether he could bring himself to watch the
NCAA tournament games earlier in the day.
"I did watch," he said. "I watched Purdue win. That's good for them. I was
happy. Like I've said, we're rooting for the Big Ten teams to do well.
"We're not angry with anyone but ourselves."
For a few moments Thursday, they managed to lose even that anger. After
Baston's rim-rattling slam, Taylor grabbed him and hugged him and they both
smiled. Then Taylor lifted Baston into the air, squeezing him, as the crowd,
which barely filled the lower-half of the arena, stood and applauded.
It was not where they wanted be, but, briefly, it was how they wanted to
be. Winning a basketball game in March. A hug. A smile. A hoist against the
troubles behind them and the ones that may still be ahead.
Never mind the rainbow. For a moment, it was nice to be out of the clouds.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
BASKETBALL; COLLEGE; GAME; U-M; MIAMI; COLUMN