., Hockey vs. Ferris State Friday, 7:30 p.m. Yost Ice Arena The Michigan Daily. SPORTS Volleyball. vs. Northwestera Friday, 7:30 p.m Varsity Arena 4W- Wednesday, November 8, 1989 Page 9 First by Steven Cohen Daily Basketball Writer recruits commit to M' Last March, Michigan basketball coach Steve Fisher proved he can coach. Now the time has come when his other abilities will be scrutinized. Just as the college campaign ended, the new season- recruiting season-began, a season marked by innumerable phone calls, postcards, and visits to prospects' homes and all-star camps. The fall signing period of November 8-15 will be an early indication of Fisher's recruiting results and offers another forum with which to compare former coach Bill Frieder and Fisher. Frieder earned the reputation as a capable, tire- less, recruiter who attracted several top prospects to Ann Arbor. Michigan has six available scholarships, not including the one offered last year to Grand Rapids' Sam Mitchell, who is spending what would have been his first year with the Wol- verines at a prep school in New Hampshire. Fisher has stated that Michigan could sign any number of recruits. ALREADY, Michigan has received verbal commitments from two players-Jason Bossard of Charlotte, Michigan and Rich McIver of Free- port, Texas. According to most recruiting pub- lications, the two prospects rank among the top 200 in the country. Last season, Bossard, a 6'4" guard, averaged around 13 points per game at Grand Lake High School. Bossard, who will play his final season at Charlotte High School, chose Michigan over Loyola (California) Marymount. "He can really shoot the three- that's pri- marily why they recruited him," new Grand Lake coach Bob Harl said. "He has average speed and average quickness. He has a great work ethic and really knows the game. I see him being a terrific eirole player." McIver averaged 13.6 points,12 rebounds, and five blocks per game for Brazosport High School. Considered a sleeper, the 6'9, 200-pound forward impressed heavily this past summer. McIver, only 6'1" in ninth grade, played junior varsity in 10th grade. "He's grown so fast I'm not going to get the most out of him. Michigan will," Brazosport coach Ken Kasper said. "When I first got him he could barely shoot a layup but he has listened to me and practiced hard and made a good ballplayer out of himself." HIS VISIT the weekend of the Michigan- Notre Dame football game impressed McIver, who also visited Kentucky and USC. "I went around with Eric Riley and Rumeal. It left a good impression on me. Those are the kind of people I like to be around, I don't drink or nothing. Of the three schools I visited, I could communicate better with the players from Michigan. "(Fisher) really presented himself in a pro- fessional way. He didn't try and force anything. He was nice to (my) coach and didn't try and do anything behind his back." Fisher, undefeated as a coach, lost a few pros- pects to other schools. Two blue chippers- Chicago's Brandon Cole, and Bradenton, Flor- ida's Clifford Rozier- chose Illinois and North Carolina, respectively. Michigan is among the schools being con- sidered for at least four other top prospects. These include 6'7" Lorenzo Orr of Detroit Pershing, 6'7" Willie Fisher of Orlando (FL) Oakridge High, 6'10" Bill Curley of Duxbury (MA) High and 6'10" Joe Reed from University High School in Cleveland. Eric Montross of Indiana's Bedford North Lawrence High School is considering Michigan along with North Carolina and Indiana. Mon- tross, considered to be the best center in the country, has stated he will wait until the April signing date to decide. THE RECRUITMENT of Orr has been relentless and Michigan, Michigan State, and USC represent Orr's top three choices. He is expected to sign today, because, as his coach Johnny Goston says, "the (recruitment) has been very intense, extremely intense. We'll be glad when its over." Pershing guidance counselor Milton Gust explained Orr's situation. "I think a lot of his decision will have to do with his mother. He's very close to her," Gust added. Though Goston refused to reveal Orr's decis- ion, it seemed as if USC is his choice. "His mother thinks that maybe the change in pace will help him develop into a man in terms of re- sponsibility and being independent," Goston said. "(She feels) that he can't lean on her forever and that USC wants him for him. She feels that there is genuine concern for him as a person there. That they want him as a person one and as an athlete second." Willie Fisher has narrowed his choices to -Michigan, Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Con- necticut. According to his coach, Ron Smith, Fisher will decide "within the week." His best friend plays for Jacksonville and he has family near Connecticut. Michigan and Tennessee remain possibilities based on the reputation of the schools and the coaches. Reed, who is also being pursued by Ohio State and some West coast schools, is expected to make an early decision. "He's a tremendously skilled player," said Eddie Dyer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "His school is a private school so he doesn't get to go up against the best players week after week. But he's definitely the No. 1 big man in the area." Curley is a consensus All-American who averaged 27 points and 18 rebounds a game last season. He will decide today at 12:00 among Michigan, Boston College, Notre Dame, Con- necticut, and Villanova. Curley visited Boston College last weekend. "I thought (Coach Fisher) was a great guy," said Curley's father, Mike. "He was very respect- ful. I never realized what a great school Michigan was. We'd probably like to see him close. But the whole decision is up to him." Michigan coach Steve Fisher hopes to land more outstanding recruits' like Michigan guard Michael Talley, shown above in last year's Michigan State Division A Playoffs. Michigan Replay: Brunch with Bo Blue-White game, showcases rookies . AA :by Adam Benson Daily Football Writer (First of two parts) Every year, some twenty-five to thirty incoming college stu- dents/football hopefuls put their futures into the welcoming hands of Michigan coach Bo Schembechler. About nine years ago, Bob Lipson followed their lead and gambled his , livelihood on the success of the 0 Wolverines' coach. Lipson, a television producer, did not come to Schembechler to learn how to run a draw play, but instead to make a television show. It was Lipson, not the great Michigan coach, drawing up the plans. Lipson created Michigan Replay while at WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) in 1975. In 1980, Lipson began to make the show on his own, forming CTC Productions and taking Mich- igan Replay over to Channel 4. Lip- son's daring play call came only after he secured the star player in his lineup. "Bo for some very strange reason said yes," Lipson said about the coach's support for the change. "He stuck with me rather than staying with Channel 7. I had nothing to offer him." Since then, the show has bounced see how it's done and the format has been copied. Ours has always been done pretty well, and the ratings have been good." Lipson adds: "It is by far the most watched coach's show in the country. We air in every market in Ohio. Last year, we were on more markets than (Ohio State coach) John Cooper's show was. I'm very proud of that." When Channel 7 and Lipson lured Bo away from Channel 4, they promised Schembechler a show "big- ger and better" than any coach's show before. After leaving Channel 7 in 1980, Michigan Replay aired, on six sta- tions in Michigan and one in Ohio. Today, the independently-produced show reaches 28 markets throughout the country. In the Detroit area, Michigan Re- play has an average rating of five on the Nielsen ratings scale. While it is not the top-rated show in its time slot, Michigan Replay draws a po- tential viewer that is more attractive to advertisers than a show like American Gladiators (one of the show's competitors). "This is very good for a Sunday morning," said Channel 2 research See REPLAY, page 10 "L Z f.B ~P V V %'WU' ..FW P. by Taylor Lincoln Daily Basketball Writer 7'0" red-shirt center Eric Riley sent out a message during yester- day's Blue-White scrimmage at De- troit Country Day High School. Riley led a contingent of first- year players with 12 points and three blocked shots (unofficially) as the rookies challenged the veterans before falling 39-36 in a 20 minute half. Tony Tolbert and Michael Tal- ley added seven and six points, respectively, for the first-year team. Terry Mills led all scorers with 16 points. The veterans were without Ru- meal Robinson who reinjured the ligaments in his left thumb Mon- day in practice. According to trainer Dan Minert the injury to Robinson is a recur- rence of the one which nagged him throughout the 88-89 season. His status will be re-evaluated today. Fisher says that he expects Rob- inson to be available for the season opener November 25 versus Ariz- ona. Minert added that the only therapy for Robinson's injury is performing strengthening exercises and staying off the basketball court. Robinson's absence may have accounted, in part, for the game's close score. Coach Steve Fisher said, "(The first-year players) played thpm close, so either they played defeijsp or the other team didn't play very well." Riley wouldn't comment on .his performance other than to say, "We were able to beat them a couple.cf times. We can play...They really, missed Rumeal." "Everybody played hard," spill senior guard Mike' Griffin. "But we're not clicking as a unit yet. That will come." The latter 20 minutes were div- ided into two 10 minute quarters in which the teams were changed, cie- ating greater balance of experienced and inexperienced players. The game acted as an exhibition for Detroit Country Day's 6'9"' forward/center Chris Webber whom- the Wolverines are recruiting. Only a junior, the 16-year old Webber is one of the most highly recruited players in the country. He is considering, "all the Big Ten teams, all the Big East teams, and some of the ACC teams." Still he did not discount Mich- igan as one of his choices. "Mich- igan speaks for itself academically and coach Fisher is a nice man. He is a really nice person who doesn't just talk to you about basketball. He cares about other things. Michigan coach Bo Schembechlerris joined on the set of Michigan Replay by co-host Jim Brandstatter . back to Channel 7 and to its current position on Channel 2 beginning this year. No matter how many moves Lipson makes, he always has at least one fan backing his play calling. "He's a pro," said Schembechler about his floor general. "This show is kind of the No. 1 coach's show around. Coaches check this show to Smith brings new success to 'M' stickers by Matt Rennie Daily Sports Writer Field hockey coach Patti Smith began the 1989 season with "interim" in her title. But like her more famous counterpart at Mich- igan, she quickly proved that she, deserved a permanent job. The 1989 squad advanced to 9-9-2 overall, 3-7 in the Big Ten, a sizeable improvement upon the1988 team's record of 6-10-4 overall, 1-6- 1 in the conference. The new year brought many changes for the Wolverines. In ad- dition to a new coach, the team faced the challenge of playing in a differ- ent conference. The newly-formed Midwest Collegiate Field Hockey included the Wolverines among its six teams. The conference boasted two of the top five teams in the country, Northwestern and Iowa, and an additional top-20 team in Northern Illinois. Michigan faced all three teams, as well as Michigan State and the final minutes in their second game against Northern Illinois only to see the Huskies tie the game and go on to win it in overtime. In the season finale, the Maize and Blue fell to an enthusiastic Michigan State club by a 3-1 tally. This prevented the team's other goal from being achieved. They had previously defeated the Spartans once and swept Ohio State. "We'll make those both goals which we hope to accomplish next season," a visibly disappointed Smith said after the State game. IT IS A TRIBUTE to the improvement of the team, however, that the disappointments stand out more than the many achievements. This year, the team remembers what kept it from being great. There were some great moments. Michigan defeated a top-20 team in their win over St. Louis University. They followed that up by erasing an early 2-0 deficit against Boston Col- lege to win 4-2. disciplined and had a better mental focus. I think we did a better job of concentrating on the task at hand." Cantor felt that this improvement was a joint effort. "With Patti this year, we weren't just talking about things, we actually did it." One of those doing it was senior goalkeeper Joanne Green, who turned in a fine season defending the cage. The usually enthusiatic Green de- scibed her feelings as "inexplicable" after playing her last game. The greatest accomplishment of this team is the foundation it set for the future of Michigan field hockey. Rookies like Katie Vignevic and Mary Beth Bird will be able to build on the feats this year's group per- formed. Cantor summed it up for all the seniors: "(This year) was a good way to go out. It's too bad it ended the way it did." HOCKElY NOTEBOOK by Andrew Gottesman Daily Hockey Writer WELL, MAYBE SOMEONE WILL WIN ONE: Barring a pair of ties when Miami (OH) takes on UIC this weekend for two games, one or both of the CCHA cellar-dwellers will get their first conference win or wins of the year. Actually, for UIC, even a tie would be nice, as the Flames have gone 0-8 thus far. Miami is 0-3-3 in the CCHA. OFFENSIVE DROUGHT: No Wolverines are among the top 13 CCHA scoring leaders. Four players (Denny Felsner, Rob Brown, Mike Moes and Ted Kramer) are tied for the team lead with eight points. Felsner leads Michigan with six goals and Mike Moes is pacing Michigan with seven assists. Michigan State's Kip Miller leads the league in points and goals with 23 and 13, respectively. Don Stone's goal Friday night was his first since the second game of the: season, when he lofted the puck into an empty net against Miami. "We've had a lot of guys not score in a long time," coach Red Berenson said. "It's good to see the puck start going in the net." ALMOST A DOUBLE-CENTURY: Michigan senior center Rob Brown. has 99 career points on 41 goals and 58 assists. Brown also has 99 penalty minutes on 48 penalties. AND HALF A CENTURY FOR A DEFENSEMAN: Senior Todd, : '!"!1 % aa +.t t : :iire:::acrjt:r:":ri ::: :btse; :rtx : ;wti: :">:=: :: : :;+1+5 : 3:=: 'f?% :; >: :t :ti ya "y 3:_:: :