Michigan

ATLANTIC CITY — The stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists outside a casino hotel left tourism officials stunned and dismayed Monday, casting a shadow over the formal opening on Memorial Day weekend of the newest gambling palace and tripping up a $30 million-a-year campaign to rebrand and revive the sagging resort town. The two victims, women ages 80 and 47, were stabbed and killed during a robbery Monday morning outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel, just steps from where a police officer was sitting in a patrol car. Police declined to provide the names of the victims, or precisely where they were from, pending notification of family.

In the latest Associated Press college football poll, released yesterday, Michigan, routed on Saturday by top-ranked Florida State, has fallen from third to seventh. Nebraska, ranked 15th, now has made 161 straight appearances in the AP poll, breaking Michigan's record of 160. The Cornhuskers, who had been 16th, stayed in the rankings by beating Arizona State, 18-9, on Saturday night.

Marcus Witherspoon, a standout senior defensive end/linebacker at Holy Spirit, returned from a recruiting trip to Rutgers yesterday and decided he would attend Michigan on a football scholarship. Before the season, Witherspoon made an oral commitment to Michigan, but he started to have second thoughts after Wolverines coach Lloyd Carr resigned in November. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Witherspoon subsequently visited Tennessee and Rutgers and was impressed by both schools. "But he understands the power of a Michigan degree and what it means," Holy Spirit coach Bill Walsh said yesterday.

MICHIGAN WON the varsity eight heavyweight race to capture the men's team point trophy championship at the 74th Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River on Saturday. Michigan finished in 5:58.604. Florida Institute of Technology was second in 5:58.946. Drexel (6:02.401) finished third and Temple (6:06.266) took fifth. Duke won the women's heavyweight eight championship in 06:43.796. Bucknell finished second in 6:44.037 and won the overall women's team point trophy.

This is what Michigan invokes. Only the Wolverines and their relentless posturing could have whipped a disinterested crowd on a neutral court into a raging frenzy against anything wearing maize and blue. Maybe it was as Michigan center Juwan Howard said. Perhaps the Kansas Coliseum crowd really was just rooting for underdog Pepperdine. Still it's hard to imagine the boos streamed down at Michigan solely because the Wolverines had narrowly held on for a 78-74, overtime victory last night in a Midwest Region first-round game.

Steve Fisher received his first college head-coaching job Wednesday, and yesterday Steve Fisher got his first college basketball victory. And that can't begin to describe the pressure, the agony, the thrills that Fisher endured in his first 48 hours on the job. Fisher guided No. 3 seed Michigan (25-7) to a super-charged 92-87 win over No. 14 Xavier (21-12) yesterday in a first-round NCAA Southeast Regional game that rocked the rafters with theater. Prowling the aisles of the Omni like an expectant father was the coach of Michigan's past, Bill Frieder, who resigned as coach Wednesday after accepting a job with Arizona State for next year.

In 20 years at Illinois, coach Lou Henson had never started 0-3 in the Big Ten. That all changed last night. Maurice Taylor scored all but two of his 17 points in the second half as No. 23 Michigan rallied for an 83-68 victory over the 21st-ranked Fighting Illini at Ann Arbor, Mich. Illinois (11-4, 0-3) last lost its first three conference games in 1975, when Gene Bartow was the coach. Michigan (12-4, 2-1) has not lost to Illinois in more than four years and the Wolverines have won the last nine from Illinois and 12 of 14. "I'm sure they're going to react like any other group," Henson said.

Michigan's bread and butter - Glen Rice and Terry Mills - outshined South Alabama's "peanut butter and jelly" guard combination - Junie Lewis and Jeff Hodge. It was one heck of a show yesterday, won by Michigan, 91-82. Michigan (26-7) will meet North Carolina Thursday in the Southeast Regional semifinals in Lexington, Ky. North Carolina has eliminated the Wolverines from the tourney each of the last two seasons. This year's Wolverines seem determined to change that the third time around.

Michigan has received permission from Seton Hall to talk to coach Tommy Amaker about the Wolverines' coaching job, Seton Hall athletic director Sue Regan said yesterday. "However, we are confident that the commitments made by Seton Hall and by Tommy Amaker are for the long term," she said. A message was left at the office of Michigan athletic director Tom Goss last night. Goss has said he has five people in mind for the job, including Brian Ellerbe. Ellerbe was a Michigan assistant who took over as interim coach after Steve Fisher was fired just before practices were scheduled to begin in the fall.

The Michigan Wolverines pushed aside the clouds of impending scandal and took care of business on the court. Maceo Baston scored 16 of his 19 points when Michigan pulled away in the second half en route to a 76-63 first-round National Invitation Tournament win last night over visiting Miami. Michigan (20-11) also got 18 points from guard Louis Bullock, 14 from center Robert Traylor and 13 from forward Maurice Taylor to advance to a second-round home game Tuesday against Oklahoma State.

MICHIGAN WON the varsity eight heavyweight race to capture the men's team point trophy championship at the 74th Dad Vail Regatta on the Schuylkill River on Saturday. Michigan finished in 5:58.604. Florida Institute of Technology was second in 5:58.946. Drexel (6:02.401) finished third and Temple (6:06.266) took fifth. Duke won the women's heavyweight eight championship in 06:43.796. Bucknell finished second in 6:44.037 and won the overall women's team point trophy.

During two days of competing in the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, Purdue had to endure "a lot of hiccups," in the words of its coach. The Boilermakers sat their No. 3 seat on the men's varsity eight boat because of illness. They brought up a substitute from the junior varsity, which affected the JV. And in the varsity eight race, their boat struck a log in the river, knocking off the rudder and forcing the coxswain to stick his arm into the Schuylkill to make the turn at the Strawberry Mansion Bridge.

"I just love being on the water," says Peter Gibbons-Neff, a lifelong sailor and past commodore of The Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia. His love developed as a boy, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and he has sailed all over the world. He has raced in the biannual Newport-to-Bermuda Race 14 times, earlier with his father and recently with three of his children. He raced across the Atlantic, from Bermuda all the way to Copenhagen, in 17 days when in college. He now keeps his boat on the Chesapeake, near Annapolis, and sails the bay as often as he can. At 66, he's still working hard as a wealth manager, and suffers from the conscientious man's curse - "I still have not gotten out of the guilt of leaving the office.

Chane Behanan scored 15 points and Gorgui Dieng anchored Louisville's stifling defense with seven blocked shots, helping the Cardinals knock off top-seeded Michigan State, 57-44, Thursday night in the West Regional semifinals in Phoenix. Louisville (29-9) smothered the NCAA tournament's best-shooting team with its matchup zone, getting good pressure from its guards up top and some big swats by Dieng, one of the nation's top shot-blockers. The Cardinals relied on three-point shooting in the first half and went inside during the second to befuddle the Spartans and earn a trip to the West final against either Marquette or Florida on Saturday.

PHOENIX - Louisville figured its game against Michigan State to be low-scoring, a natural expectation with two of the nation's best defenses butting heads. The Cardinals had one big advantage: Gorgui Dieng. Dominating inside, Dieng blocked seven shots and altered several others to anchor a stifling defense that helped Louisville knock off top-seeded Michigan State, 57-44, Thursday night in the West Regional semifinals. "He was very disruptive," Michigan State's Draymond Green said.

With Michigan State's season in peril, Draymond Green turned to teammate Keith Appling during a timeout and told him to be ready. His moment was near. And when it arrived, Appling delivered. His shot, the one Green urged him to take, helped save the Spartans. Appling's critical three-pointer with 1 minute, 34 seconds left, a 20-foot jumper set up by Green's drive and marvelous pass, gave Michigan State a 65-61 win Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, over Saint Louis and thrust the top-seeded Spartans into the round of 16 after they survived a 90-foot tug-of-war and wills with the scrappy Billikens.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - There's a thread running through Michigan State's program that connects the decades and NCAA titles - three players intertwined by talent, charisma and leadership skills. From Magic Johnson to Mateen Cleaves to Draymond Green. Three-of-a-kind Spartans. Johnson and Cleaves, floor generals of different sizes whose smiles were as radiant as their spellbinding games, carried their teams to championships. Green is trying to be next. After recording his second career triple-double in an NCAA tournament game, Green will try to push the top-seeded Spartans one step closer to a third national title on Sunday when they play No. 9 seed Saint Louis.

NASHVILLE - Ohio University pulled off its second NCAA tournament upset in three seasons. This time, as a No. 13 seed, Ohio defeated fourth-seed Michigan, 65-60, in a second-round Midwest Regional game on Friday at the Bridgestone Arena. Ohio (27-7) advanced to Sunday's third-round game where it will play the winner of Friday night's Temple-South Florida game, which ended too late for this edition. Back in 2010, the Bobcats were a 14th seed and knocked off third-seeded Georgetown.

Instead of wallowing after getting thumped by rival Ohio State, Michigan went back to work. Now the Wolverines (24-9) hope the reward after a 22-point loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament semifinals is a run in the NCAA tournament. Fourth-seeded Michigan faces No. 13 seed Ohio on Friday in the second round in Nashville. Ohio (27-7) is back in the NCAA tournament two years after upsetting third-seeded Georgetown, 97-83, as a No. 14 seed. The winner will face Temple or South Florida.

The West bracket appears to be the most wide-open in the field with four conference tournament champions - top seed Michigan State, No. 2 Missouri, No. 4 Louisville, No. 5 New Mexico - right up there at the top. It doesn't stop there. The third seed, Marquette, boasted the Big East's best 1-2 punch in forward Jae Crowder and guard Darius Johnson-Odom and is ready to forget a sloppy performance that knocked them out of the conference tournament in one night. Then you have the No. 6 seed, Murray State, which went through the season with a 30-1 record amid cries that it played soft competition.