I State High School Basketball Championships Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22 Crisler Arena SPORTS Baseball vs. Grand Valley March 24, 1:09 p.m. Ray Fisher Stadium The Michigan Daily Tuesday, March 18, 1986 Page 8 pring practice is underway for Blue, By PHIL NUSSEL Spring football practice begins today for the 1986 Wolverines at the Michigan Fieldhouse. The team met yesterday afternoon to discuss the practice schedule, which concludes April 19 with the an- nual intrasquad scrimmage. "I'M LOOKING forward to it," said a relaxed head coach Bo Schem- becher after a recent trip to Florida. As usual, the first-week sessions will concentrate on conditioning. Lit- tle or no contact is expected. When the heavier practices begin, the coaching staff will be looking to fill three linebacking starting spots vacated by seniors Jeff Akers, Jim .Scarcelli and Mike Mallory. The lone returner is Andy Moeller. THE COACHES will not have far to look with Dieter Heren, Tim Schulte, Todd Schulte, Andree McIntrye and Carlitos Bostic who all offer experien- ce at the spot. Two other key positions will have to be filled on the defensive side after the loss of All-Americans Mike Hammer- stein (tackle) and Brad Cochran (cornerback). On offense, three starting spots are open on the line - center, quick tackle and tight end. Those spots were vacated by Bob Tabachino, Clay Miller and Eric Kattus. Quarterback Jim Harbaugh is expected to return for his final year of eligibility after setting several Michigan passing records in 1985. THE ONLY change in the coaching staff is at linebacking. Milan Vooletich left the assistant position to take a job at Rice as head assistant coach. Tom Reed, former head coach at North Carolina State, replaced Vooletich last week. He coached un- der Schembechler from 1974-77. Last year's spring practice was termed by Schembechler as "one of the best ever" because the team was fired up to prove that they would bounce back after one of the worst seasons in recent years (6-6). They did. This year the Wolverines will shoot to continue the intensity they carried throughout the 10-1-11985 season. Michigan's opening day opponent, Notre Dame, also begins spring prac- tice this week under new head coach Lou Holtz, who quit his post at Min- nsota last December. 4 SPORTS OF THE DAILY: I Wilcher blazes at NCAA 6 By EMILY BRIDGHAM It took only 7.22 seconds for Michigan senior Thomas Wilcher to earn his first NCAA title. His win in the 55-meter high hurdles marks the first time ever that a Wolverine has captured a title at the prestigious meet. Wilcher, normally a poor starter out of the blocks, found the board track to his liking and was able to overcome Arizona's Andrew Parker and LSU's Charles James, who ran 7.23 and 7.25 respectively. The meet enabled Wilcher to run his career best of 7.2, which he clocked in the semifinals. "He looked great," said head coach Jack Harvey. "To be honest, I'm kind of surprised because Thomas hasn't run real well on boards. They're so springy that they throw his timing off." It looks like his timing is back on, since Wilcher, a junior in eligibility, has finally re-emerged after a severe knee injury that has plagued his athletic career. Looking as hot as Wilcher, but run- ning the 3000-meter race, senior Chris Brewster ran a 7.54.87 in the trials before being sidelined in the finals with a pulled hamstring. His qualifying time, the second fastest of the meet, was also six seconds better than his previous career best of 8:01.01. In one year, Brewster has lowered his time in the race by 12 seconds. Due to the elimination of the 400- meter race, Todd Steverson and Omar Davidson were forced to run in the 500-meter dash. Neither runner managed to run well enough to qualify among the final six. Their mile relay team, filled out with Bill Davis and Claude Tiller, were also eliminated from the finals. Netters take two Even in the individual sport of ten- nis, it takes a team effort to win. The Michigan women's tennis team proved that with a pair of 5-4 wins over the weekend, downing Eastern Michigan Friday and Notre Dame Saturday. The win at Eastern avenged a 6-3 loss to the Hurons in November and featured singles victories by Paula Reichert, Leslie Mackey, Monica Borcherts and Erin Ashare. Ashare notched victories in all four of her matches. THE THIRD doubles team rescued the win Friday as Ashare and Tina Basle knocked off Sumita Whitehead and Marta Varanda, 7.5, 6-4. Doubles play also keyed Saturday's triumph over the Fighting Irish. With the match tied 3-3 after singles com- petition, the Wolverines won two of the three doubles matches. "After Saturday, we should have much more confidence in our doubles play," Ritt said. "In the past, we haven't been too successful going into doubles needing two out of three to win the match." Team balance will be a key ingredient for the Wolverine netters in the coming weeks -PAUL DODD F Michigan Ension Photo by JIM DOSTIE Tailback Jamie Morris darts through a hole during last fall's 34-3 victory over South Carolina. The Wolverines are already gearing up for next season by beginning spring practice today. K THE SPORTING VIEWS NCAA tournament. . . .. .memories galore - - 0 By GREG MOLZON IT'S CALLED March Madness. The excitement. The glitz. The color. For three weeks every March, a sporting event takes place which cannot be matched by any other for its unpredictability and suspense. During this time, I put all other things aside and tune in to my television set to catch every highlight, every score, and every game. Barring the death of a close (and I mean real close) relative, nothing can pull me away from catching all the action. What is thisspectacle I'm talking about? It's not the Super Bowl or the New Year's Day bowl games. It's not the World Series. It's surely not the Stanley Cup Playoffs, NBA Championships, or the USFL Playoffs (I'll have to wait until next year, if ever, to see those again). No, there's only one event that can capture my attention for this long a time. That's the NCAA basketball tournament. Not even Michigan's second annual early exit can keep me from watching the rest of the tournament. Many Wolverine fans may stop watching now, but they'll be missing out on all the fun that's still to come. It's guaranteed that some amazing games and feats will take place which can never be forgotten. These happen every year and I have memories from my past tour- naments which I still remember as if they were yester- day. John Wooden winning an incredible tenth championship in twelve years. Bob Knight's great Indiana team of 1976 knocking off Big Ten rival Michigan to cap an undefeated season. Jack Givens scoring 42 points to lead Kentucky past a surprising Duke team. Magic Johnson smiling away as his Michigan State team topples previously un- defeated Indiana State led by Larry Bird. Then there's the great coaching matchup between Knight and Dean Smith of North Carolina being decided by the brilliant play of a nineteen-year-old child, Isiah Thomas. Georgetown's Fred "I choked" Brown passing to North Carolina's James Worthy in the final seconds when his team still had a chance to take the winning shot. And North Carolina State's Lorenzo Charles slam dunking at the buzzer to send Jim Valvano dancing and prancing around the court. These examples are just from championship games and the list could probably go on and on forever because that's the NCAA basketball tournament. Another trademark of this tournament is its number of surprises. We've already had our fill this year and more are bound to be on the horizon. Cinderella's shoe store bet- ter have a lot of different sizes because many teams are4 trying to fit into her slipper and become the memories of tomorrow. There's a long list of applicants. DePaul, Cleveland State, Navy, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Michigan State, and Iowa State (boo, hiss) are all lining up and looking to knock off the favorites to win an all-expense paid trip to Dallas. Who will finally be this year's Cinderella team? I surely don't know. Trying to pick the upsets in this.tournament is about as easy as getting Knight to play a zone defense, but that's the NCAA tournament. While the excitement of cheering for Michigan in the tournament is now gone, there is still plenty of action left. College basketball will be played at its best and will culminate in the most exciting weekend in sports: the Final Four in Dallas. Until then, I'll have my television locked on CBS, listening to every word uttered by Brent Musberger and Billy Packer, witnessing the upsets, forming new memories, and just getting caught up in the excitement of it all. That's the NCAA basketball tournament. Tumbler By GREG MOLZON While most students don't have to take finals for another month and a half, the Michigan men's gymnastic team had its final exam in Big Ten Gymnastics 101 this past weekend in Champaign. The Wolverines finished sixth out of the seven competing schools in the Big Ten Championship with a score of 270.4. Iowa placed first withaan im- pressive score of 280.9 and was followed by Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio Associated Pressl Z lh PASS IT AROUND! Mr. Basketball S pass Big' State and Wiconsin. Michigan State was the only team to score lower than Michigan. IF GRADED on a curve, the team probably would barely recieve a passing grade, but if looked at for im- provement and effort, give the Wolverines an A. They notched another season high team score of 270.4, which bettered last week's 270.2. That score was the best Michigan team score in the last Think You're Pregnant? Free Pregnancy Test Completely Confidential Pregnancy Counseling Center 529 N. Hewitt, Ypsilanti Call: 434-3088 (any time) Michigan-bound Terry Mills of Romulus High School smiles after being named Michigan's Mr. Basketball for 1986 by the Basketball Coaches, Association of Michigan. ----======-============--====-----====--=====- U *** I Print or Type legibly in ---U MME R3U BL Ethe space provided, _ thecopyasyou would .1 UPLEMEN E ?like it to appear. ' (ACTUAL SIZE OF AD) 1 NAME 1 I 1 ADDRESS _ 1 1 PHONE 1 1 Mail or Bring in Person with payment to: 420 MAYNARD STREET MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: THE MICHIGAN DAILY U Ten final three years. "The guys had their best day of the year," said Wolverine coach Bob Darden. "It was an outstanding effort on the part of the team." THE PUPILS weren't very pleased with the scoring on this exam, though. "I felt scoring was super-critical," Darden.said. "I would have though4 our score should have increased over the 270 we had last week by quite a bit. The best indication of how we did is a stat we keep on hitting and missing." This is a statistic the team keeps on the percentage of the gymnasts who hit their mark on each event without mistakes. Previous to this weekend, the Wolverines season best was 75 percent, but this meet's performance merited an excellent 88 percent. Michigan was led by Scott Moor who became the Big Ten champ on the vault with a score of 9.5. Moore was also in first in the floor exercise with an almost perfect 9.85 after the preliminaries, but changed his routine for the finals and didn't place. Brock Orwig had scores of 9.7 and 9.25 on the floor exercise and ended up in seventh place. Mitch Rose, the defending Big Ten still rings champ, had some problems in the event, bug was still able to come away with a fif- th-place finish. Although a sixth-place finish in the Big Ten can't be considered too suc- cessful at Michigan where champion- ships are the norm,, this season was a success for the men's gymnastics team., The squad improved from last' year's record of 2-7 to a respectable 9- 4 this season. VOTE! !! VOTE! ""86 VOTEI I I GOVERNING BOARD ELECTIONS MARCH 17-21, 9 AM"-5 PM or mail in your ballot by March 21* AT thjI 1429 HILL ST. Any student on the ll mailing list before FEB. 14, 1986, is eligible to vote!! MAILED BALLOTS MUST BE IN THE HILLEL OFFICE NO LATER THAN MARCH 21