Page 10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 13, 1987
Blue
-S'.
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Bernadette...
...you're the tops
Lines
By DARREN JASEY
The following is a letter to a UIC Pavillion
usherette I met during the Wolverine hockey team's
stay in Chicago earlier in the season:
Dear Bernadette the usherette,
Hi. Remember me? We met last Halloween night
at an Illinois-Chicago hockey game. Surely you
remember the weekend that your team kicked
Michigan's butt in hockey. The scores were 5-2 and
13-3.
YOUR TEAM was flying so high at the time.
It had just won three in a row before clobbering
Michigan. It even went on to beat first-place
Michigan State the following week.
Those lopsided scores have haunted me to this
very day.
At the time I was very distraught. In defense of
my school, I told you that this was an
uncharacteristic effort you were seeing from the
Wolverines. They lose a lot, but they're never
blown out of a game. "It can be a good hockey
team," I said.
I also told you of the evil that occurred on
Halloween night that left half of the team sick. But
you and your friends still laughed and taunted me.
"You came all this way to write about this team?"
you said.
TO THINK, me of Mighty Michigan being
taunted by the student-ushers of this small school
near downtown Chicago.
The Michigan team also had to bear the brunt of
the UIC taunts. As the Flames rolled up the score
they waved their towels, and the small home crowd
screamed, "We want more!" After the series, Joel the
Zamboni driver brought out the brooms and the
players hoisted them high.
I kept my cool. "Laugh," I thought. "Go ahead.
Have your fun. Your team still has two games in
Ann Arbor. The Wolverines will get you back." In
all my years as a Michigan fan there is one
trademark I'll never forget: Michigan teams always
bounce back from humiliation.
Well, last weekend our time came. I was all set
for a Michigan sweep. Everything was pointing in
the Wolverines' direction. They had won four of
their last six games, while UIC had lost four in a
row and was only 4-9-1 since the Michigan
massacre. Two of those Wolverine victories were
sweet revenge against Miami. There was no doubt
that the same treatment was in store for your
Flames.
LAST WEEK optimism ran rampant in the
Wolverine camp. The youngsters had gained
confidence and started to contribute more. To play
.500 hockey during the season's second half was not
out of the question for the improving team.
By Friday night I expected the young Wolverines
to be breathing fire. Just think: a weekend sweep
and they'd actually be ahead of the Flames in the
standings.
Well Bernadette, my Michigan Wolverines died
last weekend. The early Flames goals were like gun
shots aimed at the Wolverine's hearts. By the second
period of Saturday's game, the Wolverines had no
pulse.
By the end of that second game, the Flames'
towel waving and their chants of "SWEEP!" became
almost unbearable. This time the scores were 7-4
and 7-2.
IT WASN'T the Wolverines who were hungry
for the win, it was the Flames. "They just seemed
like they didn't have any emotion at all," UIC's
leading scorer, Jeff Nelson, said. "We thought they
would come out like gangbusters. Instead, they'd
score a goal and hardly anybody would congratulate
each other. They didn't look like they wanted to
win."
Said Michigan senior wing John Bjorkman of the
lifeless Wolverines, "We weren't desperate enough.
We didn't want it bad enough."
Emotion is very important for teams like
Michigan and Illinois-Chicago. It allows them to
compete with the elite teams like Michigan State
and Bowling Green. I'm sure that you, being a
competitive gymnast, would agree with what UIC
head.coach Val Belmonte said about emotion: "It
can make an average player greater than a great
player."
That's what's sad about Michigan's performance
last weekend. The Wolverines were talented enough
to beat Illinois-Chicago but as Michigan head coach
Red Berenson put it, they just didn't show up.
So Bernadette, go ahead and gloat. You've got
every right to. Your team has bested mine by an
unreal 32-11 margin. You win. You have the better
hockey team. And don't worry I won't even mention
that our basketball team whipped yours 123-86.
So long. Darren.
Daily Photo by JOHN MUNSON
Illinois-Chicago's Todd Beyer puts the crunch on Michigan's Mike Moes last Friday night at Yost Ice Arena.
The Flames crunched the Wolverines' hopes for revenge as they swept the weekend series, 7-4, 7-2.
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1
Tumblers blowi
Office of Career Planning & Placement
Presents
Lawrence L. Gladchun
Sr. V.P. & Regional Chairman
Michigan National Corporation
By JIM DOWNEY
A Big Ten Championship
Preview? Wolverine men's
gymnastics coach Bob Darden
hopes the Windy City Invitational
was nothing of the sort. Michigan
finished a disappointing ninth in a
field of eleven teams at the meet
hosted by the University of Illinois-
Chicago.
"It was sort of embarassing with
all of the Big Ten teams there," said
Darden. "We left the floor with our
tails between our legs."
All seven Big Ten schools with
men's programs were represented
(Indiana, Purdue, and Northwestern
have no teams). Although the Big
Ten is the premier conference in the
country, the team had set goals
higher than the 252.30 finish they
gained.
"WE HAD hoped to score in
the 260s, which would have been a
good score for us at this time of the
year," said Darden. Iowa (268.10),
Ohio State (267.75), and Minnesota
(265.95) captured the top three
spots.
"We gave away ten points on
mental mistakes," said Darden. "But
if there is a silver lining, and there
is, it is that we have room for
considerable improvement."
Juniors Craig Ehle and Nick
Lamphier led the team with
Sawa
consistent performances in a six
events. Ehle was the team's
individual point leader, collecting a
score of 51.4 out of a possible
sixty.
Senior captain Mitch Rose, still
hampered by a bad ankle that has
limited him to four events, qualified
for the finals in two.
Senior Brock Orwig, an all-
around performer, was troubled by
an ankle problem which contributed
to an uncharacteristically
inconsistent performance. He
managed fourth-place finishes in
both the floor exercise (9.45) and
the still rings (9.10).
Darden admitted to being
surprised at the outcome of the
team's first meet of the 1987
NCAA season, but remained
optimistic. "The guys are back in
the gym working hard today," he
said. "And with the exception of
Southern Illinois, we'll have a
chance to prove ourselves again to
everybody who was there this past
weekend."
The Wolverines' first
opportunity comes this Saturday
when the Ohio State Buckeyes
come to town for a dual meet. The
events of this weekend could go a
long way in showing what to
expect at Crisler Arena in early
April, the setting for this year's Big
Ten Championships.
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