Prankster or player, Bebe leads Blue

What do you get when you mix a guard on the Michigan women's basketball team with a patch of pumpkins?

Bebe - and Michigan coach Sue Guevara better watch out.

Ann Lemire - nicknamed Bebe after the cartoon featuring a bunch of whinny brats - loves to have a good time. And if the fun is at her coach's expense, all the better.

"Every year on Halloween, there are pumpkins all over my front lawn," Guevara said. "Ann's not the only one, but I know she's a culprit."

Lemire, the self-proclaimed ringleader of the pumpkin campaigns and other practical jokes - many of which involve the team's freshman class - considers her pranks important for building team unity.

WARREN ZINN/Daily Michigan's Ann Lemire goes up for a layup in Sunday's 69-65 victory over Iowa. The junior guard had 13 points and four rebounds in the overtime win for the Wolverines. Known as a prankster off the court, Lemire doesn't mind playing a few tricks on the court, as she frustrates opponents with 11.8 points per game and a 46 percent 3-point shooting record.

"I like to get involved with my teammates and freshmen initiation," said the Fairgrove, Mich. native. "We have to be a team not only on the court, but off the court, too."

But don't let Lemire's attitude off the court fool you. While she may be a prankster in her free time, she is all business when it comes to basketball - trademark headband and all.

The junior is a lethal offensive threat. One of the team's best 3-point shooters, Lemire is also a great penetrator, routinely taking on opponents one-on-one.

"She can penetrate - she's one of the best one-on-one players on the team," Guevara said. "She's a good rebounder and she has great hops."

The biggest hole in Lemire's game is her defense. She is extremely quick, and is second on the team in steals with 33, but Guevara sees even more potential.

"She has to be more aggressive defensively," Guevara said. "She has good quickness, and has to use it more on defense."

Lemire has set a concrete goal for herself this season - to be one of the team's leading scorers.

So far, she has accomplished that mission.

Her 11.8 points per game made her third on the team in scoring. Add to that 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game and a team-high 46 percent shooting from behind the 3-point line, and you have a versatile player that is very difficult to defend.

Four times this season, Lemire has led the team in scoring , including most recently a 23-point performance in a victory over Michigan State.

Lemire had a unique opportunity this past summer, as the lone Wolverine on the Big Ten All-Star Tour team. She played six games in Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

"It was a lot of fun," Lemire said. "It was great to not only see teams in Europe, but to get a chance to get to know players from other Big Ten schools."

Lemire played in all six games, starting one. She averaged 7.5 points and 3.3 assists.

"The opponents were great. I really enjoyed it," Lemire said. "I thought I did pretty well. I felt I was as good as anyone there."

Basketball came early for Lemire. Her father, Jerome, played in college for Central Michigan, and the sport was a natural choice for Ann. By the time she was seven or eight years old, she was playing competitively.

In high school, Lemire was the star on a Frankenmuth team that went 97-7 in her four-year tenure, including an undefeated state championship in 1993. Her senior year, she was named All-American Honorable Mention and was runner-up for Miss Michigan Basketball.

Despite offers from across the country, Michigan was an easy choice for Lemire. She wanted to stay close to home, and Michigan was the only in-state team she even considered.

She arrived in Ann Arbor with high expectations and lofty goals her freshman year - including a goal of Big Ten Freshman of the Year - only to tear an anterior cruciate ligament before the conference season even began.

"It was really tough," Lemire said. "I had personal goals I set for myself, and I lost all that."

Now Lemire is in a position to make up for what she lost. With six games remaining before the Big Ten tournament, the Wolverines are poised to make a serious run at the tournament championship, and gain their first-ever berth in the NCAA tournament.

With star center Pollyanna Johns playing below capacity with a knee injury, Lemire has the chance to step up.

"I need to contribute more offensively," Lemire said. "I am the emotional leader of this team. We don't know if Pollyanna is going to be back. I have a responsibility to step it up and make up for her loss."

The final six games look grueling - four on the road, two against teams that have already defeated the Wolverines. But Lemire sees no reason why Michigan can't win them all.

"They're all teams we can beat," Lemire said. "We have beaten four of them, and we should have beaten the other two."

01-28-98