Men's Basketball vs. Ohio State Tomorrow, 7:00 p.m. (ESPN) Crisler Arena SPORTS Wrestling vs. Illinois Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Varsity Arena The Michigan Daily, Women gymnasts beam to first place Wednesday, January 17, 1990 Page 11 / .Michigan's fans can __r learn from Illini faithful by Sarah Osburn Daily Sports Writer "The balance beam a lot of the time will win a meet or lose a meet, and we scored a 45.6 on balance beam which is very good," Michigan coach Beverly Fry said after the women's gymnastics team's victory at Western Michigan on Sunday. The Wolverines recorded the top three beam scores of the meet with a 9.30, a 9.50, and Debbie Geiger's 9.55. Michigan's solid performance on the beam gave it an edge in the overall competition, where it placed first with 179.35 points. Northern Illinois placed second with 178.05, and Central Michigan and Western Michigan tied for third with 177.9 points. kiGeiger also scored the second highest individual all-around score with a 36.4 and Jennifer Hescott finished third with a 35.6. "Bars is still a little bit weak, but bars is always the last event to come around," Fry added. "I don't know if that is because of the strength involved or if it's just mental. But our bars score did go up a whole point from the intrasquad, but they are still a whole point from where they should be." Despite a few breaks - like falls from the beam and bars, and floor routines with less than full tumbling difficulty - Fry did find the fact that the team could score 179.35 encouraging. But she emphasized there is still much room for improvement. The Wolverines also won the meet without help from their top all- around gymnast, Christine Furlong, who will be out at least another two weeks due to injury. "I'm looking forward to having a really good season with Michigan and I think that we are going to surprise a lot of people," Fry commented. "I think that the kids are fired up now that they know what they are capable of doing. We have to go up against some tough teams and I'm not saying that our win/loss record is going to be all in the win column, but we have a very good chance of bettering our standing in the Big Ten. And I think that we have a decent shot at making it to regionals." I by Steven Cohen Daily Sports Writer CHAMPAIGN- Dear Orange Crush: Welcome back to school Fighting Illini fans. I hope everyone had a great break and is ready to start the new semester. Tonight is probably the most crucial game in the Big 10 we will face all year. The Michigan Wolverines are a tough ball club with several key players back from last year. However, the Illini will not be denied a victory tonight because they are back home amongst 242 of the rowdiest fans in the country. We, as Orange Crush, must be intimidating tonight, we have to rally the Illini if they ever -get in trouble and become a dominating factor in the game. So get your vocal chords ready!!...... In Lou We Trust Barry Beaupr -A memo distributed on Illinois' courtside seats Monday night. The aforementioned Orange Crush, an offshoot of the Illini Pride, an or- ganization active in Illini athletics, didn't intimidate the Wolverines into their eleventh straight loss at Assembly Hall or inspire the Fighting Illini into their 15th straight home Big Ten victory and 29th straight overall conquest. But they did have a great time trying. A visit to any of the other Big Ten arenas provides a sharp contrast to Crisler Arena. But though I was long aware that other schools' supporters are invariably more vocal and active, it didn't really affect me until I actually attended another Big Ten game. Michigan's more ardent fans have often been heard praising the fans at Duke, Indiana, and Illinois, among others. But rather than view their claims as merely their desire for people to have more fun at the games, I looked at it from another viewpoint. The cynical one. "Okay," I would think to myself, "so Michigan's fans aren't the-loudest in the world. I am not a big fan of blind conformity anyway. Look at Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and other schools with supporters who bleed their school colors. Their schools are now on probation." Monday night's game assured me, that if done right, avid fan support is indeed a very healthy thing. Though providing your team with an advantage is certainly an admirable goal, a major purpose of big-time college athletics is to entertain. A student who attends a sporting event should not be expected to be a cheering soldier for his school. He or she attends to enjoy the event as well. So to belittle Michigan's supporters because they don't inspire the Wolverines enough and aren't that loud, is somewhat improper and misdirects the attention. The fans at Illinois, Indiana, and Duke, are loud and active because the atmosphere makes it easy for them to do so. All of these schools receive the support of the school's athletic department and the arena. The athletic department at Michigan is making great strides to improve the atmosphere at basketball games. For the first time ever, a student section came complimented with the Michigan band which is situated next to the student section and has never sounded better. plethora of winter * TM activities slated by Eric Berkman illy Sports Writer Weekend athletes will have the opportunity to work off some holiday fat as the winter intramural sports season moves into full swing this month. Open division ice hockey began Monday night at Yost arena. Games are scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Michael Jordan wanna-be's can hit the courts as basketball competition begins Friday, January 19. Divisions represented include fraternities, sororities, independents, residence halls, 5'9"-and-under, women, and co-rec. The majority of the competition will occur at the IM building. A variety of water sports are available as well this term. Fraternity inner tube water polo begins Sunday, January 21 at the IM pool. Additionally, residence hall and all-campus swimming and diving tournaments will be held on Tuesday, January 30 in the Canham Natatorium at 6:45 p.m. The fraternity competition will take place in the Canham Natatorium at the same time on January 31. Michigan center Terry Mills helped the Wolverines snap a 10-game losing streak at Illinois' Assembly Hall with 18 points and 10 rebounds in the Wolverine, 74-70, defeat in Champaign Monday evening. The new $750,000 scoreboard with graphics, and monitors at concession stands has also helped improve the environment. But in many other areas, the surroundings differ from most Big Ten schools. For one, Michigan fields about half as many cheerleaders as other schools, and several other schools feature a dancing troupe regularly. On Monday a magician, Chief Illiniwek, and his dancers dressed as the Blues Brothers and performed at halftime. Michigan's athletic department should consider which direction it wishes to take in order to improve crowd support. It has proved itself willing to make changes thus far. Now it has to decide whether more changes are desirable, let alone feasible. At hoop-crazy Indiana, students must submit to a lottery for tickets and then may attend only four Big Ten games. At least at Michigan, every student who wishes to purchase season tickets can. Though the top-notch caliber of Michigan's basketball team is entertainment enough for many fans, the fans who desire more excitement should not be expected to bear the burden of entertaining themselves. New 0 you can even d 0s Macintosh®'computers have always been easy to use. But they've never been this easy to own. Presenting The Macintosh Sale. Through January 31, you can save hundreds of dollars on a variety of Apple'Macintosh computers and peripherals. So now there's no reason to settle for an ordinary PC. With The Macintosh Sale, you can wind up with much more of a computer. Without spending a lot more money MN* N0 Open... Close "ss..srssrssass.s.ssrrrs.s"""i.sr... Y.sasrssrsrssrrrrrsssssssam Save As... ' mamma ma. u sr mm. a mm aamummmm ma a aaummmmm ma mamamamamam m Print... P I EU *U*U**3 s***r* ma aaaamm~mmmmaaamamammam mmaaaaammmmmamama Quit Q -U '._- ,