9803160061
DETROIT FREE PRESS
980316
Monday, March 16, 1998
METRO FINAL
1A
Photo KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press
As the final seconds tick off the clock, Michigan players Erik
Szyndlar, left, Peter Vignier and Brandon Smith are forced to accept the
Wolverines' loss to UCLA in the second round in Atlanta. Complete NCAA
coverage in Sports, Section D.
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1998, Detroit Free Press
MARCH SADNESS
PARTY'S OVER FOR THREE STATE TEAMS; ONLY MSU REMAINS
CHICAGO -- The difference between Friday and Sunday is the difference between a party
night and a school night, between the fun starting and the fun ending, or, in
college basketball's thrilling, season-ending tournament, the difference
between a future and a past. Three Michigan schools, two of them strangers to
this kind of spotlight, woke up Sunday with a sweet taste of success and
dreams of more, more, more. By evening, reality had hit home: One taste was
all there would be.
Different day, different ending. For Michigan, it was a wild finish that came
up a few shots short against UCLA. For Detroit Mercy, it was a shot-clanking
collapse against a fast-breaking Purdue team. For Western Michigan, it was an
exhausting chase of a taller, stronger enemy named Stanford.
All different games, all different styles. But by sunset, the three schools
had this in common: a final trip to the airport.
Different day, different ending. There were no smiles this time. No wild
tumbling huddles, no fist-pumping dances. But while coaches insist there's no
such thing as a moral victory, maybe there is such a thing as a moral defeat.
Something good from something heartbreaking.
Let's begin with UDM. Here is a school that has always had to push up two
manhole covers to get noticed. Overshadowed by Michigan and Michigan State and
plagued by an unglamorous glow, it has lost recruits and stumbled inside a
city famous for producing wonderful basketball players. The problem is, those
players all go somewhere else.
Maybe that changes after this weekend. Oh sure, Sunday was hardly the kind of
game the Titans wanted as their exit cue. They couldn't buy a basket early,
and they were smoked by Purdue's transition game. Derrick Hayes -- who had 27
points in Friday night's upset over St. John's -- had only one basket Sunday.
One basket? Two points?
"They never let me get in my comfort zone," he said after Detroit's 80-65
loss. "They denied me the ball and played really physically."
And yet, Perry Watson's team did not accept defeat as dessert. It came out in
the second half and fired shots the way a trapped man fires bullets,
desperately and wildly. Many went in. The gap closed, opened, closed, opened.
No, the Titans' game plan didn't work, but their talent was obvious. And
afterward, Hayes, a senior, said it best:
"This whole thing has been awesome. A lot of people around the country didn't
think we'd be here. They didn't think we'd be 25-6 or beat a St. John's. Now
maybe they're thinking, 'OK, cool, U-of-D's on the rise.'
"I'm gonna take this memory to my grave. It's something you tell your
grandkids about. And even though I'm finished playing now, I'll come back next
year to check out how the team is doing."
Will you?
If the answer's yes, you have to call that a victory for this school.
Now, WMU's on the map
And how about Western Michigan? Players may have passed on UDM, but at least
they knew where it was!
Who knew about the Broncos? Who could find the school on a map? Western was
one of those "You-gotta-be-kidding-me" teams. You know, the kind that when
they're selected for the tournament, fans wail, "You gotta be kidding me!"
Such teams are supposed to politely accept the trip and leave before they soil
the carpet. But Western, like Detroit, wagged a finger at the naysayers, and
Friday the Broncos stunned highly touted Clemson by three points.
Yes, Sunday was a different kind of reality. The Broncos played a wonderfully
fast first half, racing to open spots and hoisting quick shots, swarming like
locusts whenever Stanford had the ball. But the Broncos are a small team and
Stanford starts a 7-foot-1 center and, eventually, the game of inches catches
up to you. Western tired. Stanford asserted its muscle. Early into the second
half, the Broncos seemed to be chasing a faster-moving bus.
And then a nightmare. Rashod Johnson, Friday's star, frustrated with only four
baskets in this game, missed a shot and thought he was fouled. He yelled at
the ref, "I can't get my shot off! I can't get it off!" A few seconds later,
Stanford banked in a basket, a foul was called, and even though the foul was
not on Johnson, he made a face and the ref took offense.
"Technical!" he called.
Johnson was stunned. It was his fifth foul. He was out of the game with 12
minutes still on the clock. Just like that, all the magic of Friday was gone.
Johnson is the emotional leader of this squad, and losing him was like taking
away Elvis' hips.
Twelve shakeless minutes later, the dream was gone, 83-65. Johnson, visibly
shaken, sat by himself in the cramped WMU locker room afterward.
"Did it take awhile for it to hit you, that your career was over when you
heard that whistle?" he was asked.
"No," he said, bravely, "I knew it when they blew it. But I had to control my
emotions. I mean, what can you do?" He stopped, wiped his eyes, sniffed hard,
and you realized that maybe it was hitting him right then and there.
And yet, despite that downbeat moment, there were plenty of good emotional
souvenirs. The Clemson victory had put the team on the map. And in the closing
seconds Sunday, Johnson and Jason Kimbrough still rose to greet fellow senior
Saddi Washington -- a kid who missed a year-and-a-half with two major knee
injuries -- as he came off the court.
"It's been real," they said, almost in unison, as they hugged. "I love you,
guys."
Different day, different ending. But you know Western now, and the Broncos
know how precious is a moment in the spotlight. How can that be bad?
Better to have danced and lost
The answer is, it can't. It was good for UDM and WMU (21-8) to make the
tournament, just as it was good for Eastern Michigan, which bowed out in Round
1 against Michigan State. Even one appearance in the dance does wonders for
your program.
And as for Michigan, playing almost 1,000 miles away? Well, a second-round
loss won't make traditional U-M fans proud. But considering this team rose
from an NIT berth last year, survived a tumultuous season with one coach fired
and a brand-new assistant given the reins, considering all that, these guys
still gave UCLA everything it could handle, fighting right down to the final
seconds before losing, 85-82 -- well, maybe some maize and bluers can find a
reason to take heart.
Remember. There are fans in Kansas this morning who are calling for blood.
There are fans in Cincinnati who want heads to roll. Clemson backers are
angry. South Carolina fans can't understand.
It is the nature of this big dance, which sometimes pairs you with the pretty
girl and sometimes pairs you with the devil. For what it's worth, for the most
part, basketball fans in our state got a pretty good run.
And by the way, don't throw away that remote. There's this team up in East
Lansing that has a little date with destiny Thursday night.
To leave a message for Mitch Albom, call 1-313-223-4581.
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