What was the last year in which the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team finished with an unblemished record in the preliminary round? (For the answer, turn to page 2) 'M' Sports Calendar AP Top 25 Athlete of the Week Q&A Sheran My Thoughts Men's Basketball Ice Hockey Women's Basketball Women's Track Wrestling Women's Gymnastics 2 2 2 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 , :; : The Michigan Daily-Sports Monday February 17, 1992 Spartans experience wins at the end SF U LL COURT o PRESS Michigan falls hard; coidda- been contender by Matthew Dodge Daily Basketball Writer The Spartan basketball team looks like an aging heavyweight boxing champion. Well, at least Mike Peplowski and coach Jud Heathcote do. The greatest fear of any athlete is to see his career come to an abrupt end. As Michigan State entered the ring Saturday against the young, spry chal- lengers in Ann Arbor, it saw a bleak future. The entire Wolverine starting lineup is young enough to date Heathcote's granddaughters - the five rookies will be playing in this rivalry for years to come. The current junior- and senior-dominated Spartans will not. "If we had lost this game and the one at home," Heathcote said, "I'd have wondered if we'd ever beat Michigan while these kids are here." Matt Steigenga and Mark Montgomery will graduate in June. Peplowski will be gone after next season. Would Webber, Rose, King, Jackson, and Howard ever lose to the Spartans? "I would have felt bad for the guys, and for Michigan State next year," Steigenga said. "I wouldn't want to put added pressure on the young guys. Mark (Montgomery) and I talked about it all week. We've thought about it since last time when we lost." That 89-79 loss in January hurt the Spartans. Michigan walked into the Breslin Center and dropped the cocky hosts on the canvas with an overtime knockout punch. The loss instilled fear and a sense of urgency within the Michigan State camp. It wanted desperately to return the favor upon their second meeting last night. Michigan's Chris Webber remarked last week that Michigan State wanted too badly to win the rematch. "They've been talking about playing us ever since the last time," Webber said. "Even when they played other teams, they talked about Michigan. You can't put all your eggs in one basket, where beating one team makes your whole season. Then your priorities are messed up. "I hate to get into those mind games. I know Mike (Peplowski) has been putting on war paint and isn't shaving. They take this game very seriously. I know they think they have to win this game. They are focused." More like scared. See SPARTANS, Page 4 PoisedMSU prevails, 70-59 by Jeni Durst Daily Basketball Writer In its first game against Michigan State this year, Michigan trailed the Spartans in the second half but was able to steal an overtime victory. Saturday night, the experienced Spartans used all their moxy to secure the victory. The contest - a 70-59 Michigan State victory - turned into a big time confrontation in the waning sec- onds when Wolverine Juwan Howard committed an in- tentional foul against Spartan guard Mark Montgomery. With 12 seconds remaining, the first-year center gave Montgomery a hard push at center court which set off a chain reaction. The foul angered state guard Shawn Respert, who came after Howard. "Juwan hit (Montgomery) hard - harder than you're supposed to in that situation," Michigan State coach Jud Heathcote said. "In the heat of battle, a cou- ple of our guys got out of hand and a couple of their guys got out of hand. I think both teams are lucky no one got suspended." During the skirmish, several Michigan fans threw their complimentary rattle pompons at the players on the court. Both Respert and Howard received technical fouls, while Howard was also charged with the inten- tional foul, his fifth. "We wanted to double to try to get the ball on the inbounds and if that didn't work, to foul the first guy with the ball," Michigan coach Steve Fisher said. "Frustration just started to set in with Juwan." That frustration seemed to plague all the Wolverines in the second half. After controlling a great part of the first stanza with an up tempo game which gave the Wolverines a 13-point lead, the Wolverines lost the upper hand in the second. State started to deny Michigan the fast break by implement- ing a quicker transition defense. "Our intensity didn't really die down, we just did- n't get in sync during the second half," Michigan senior captain Freddie Hunter said. "We couldn't get the movement we had in the first. A lot of it was that we See CAGERS, Page 4 MSU's center Mike Peplowski fights through the double-team effort of Freddie Hunter and Juwan Howard on his way to the basket. Peplowski scored 18 in the Spartans' 70-59 victory. F| |mlm-11 Icers sweep Miami, 8-4, 10-5 by Josh Dubow Daily Hockey Writer The good news for Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson was he found the balanced scoring he was looking for this weekend against Miami. The bad news was the Wolverines still have not reached the level they had hoped to be at by this time. "I thought we played a lot better (Saturday)," Berenson said. "We had to come back after a poor performance. I felt guilty about last night. Not guilty about winning, but the way we won." Ten of the 18 Wolverine skaters notched goals and 15 of the 18 scored points in Michigan's 8-4, 10- 5 sweep of Miami (9-13-4 CCHA, 12-14-4 overall). The bulk of the scoring for Michigan (16-6-3, 21-6- 3) came from the reunited top line of Brian Wiseman, Denny Felsner and David Oliver which tallied nine goals and 11 assists. "We seemed to work well this weekend," Wiseman said. "It's hard not to, playing with the best player in college hockey in Denny. Me and Ollie have been together for a year and a half so we know each other." With the Wolverines seemingly in control Saturday, leading 6-2 after two periods, Berenson replaced goaltender Steve Shields with Chris Gordon. After Cam Stewart redirected a David Roberts pass to put the Wolverines up five, the Redskins came back with a vengeance. Enrico Blasi fed Chris Bergeron who beat Gordon through the five hole at the 2:06 mark. One minute later, Brian Savage brought the puck from be- hind the net, stopped and beat Gordon high to the glove side. Savage completed the run three minutes later with a power play goal. Berenson responded with a timeout and sent Shields back be- tween the pipes. "It was a tough situation for Gordon, but we wanted to give him an edge," Berenson said. "Sometimes when you change See ICERS, Page 5 Michigan right wing Ted Kramer fires the first of his two goals past Miami netminder Mark Michaud. The two tallies gave Kramer a total of 14 for the season. Demolition Derby for Blue swimmers in Indianapolis Kin by John Niyo Daily Basketball Writer of the by Rich Mitvalsky Daily Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS - There are simply no words to properly describe the absolute thrashing which the Michigan women's swimming team delivered to the entire conference at the Big Ten Championships this weekend. Led by a host of conference champions and record setters, the Wolverines outdistanced runner-up Northwestern 887-463. Michigan swam to an unprecedented sixth consecutive conference title in the, most lopsided victory in conference history. Friday, Michigan picked up ex- actly where it had left off the day be- fore, leading 245-167 over Minnesota. In the evening's opening event, Michigan's second-seeded 200-yard medley relay team of Alecia Humphrey, Lara Hooiveld, Mindy Gehrs, and senior co-captain seven seconds from her preliminary time. She finished first in 4:15.79, and claimed her second conference title and meet record of the evening. Wolverine senior Lisa Anderson fin- ished tied for fourth in 4:23.43. "I didn't expect to drop seven seconds tonight," said Gehrs. "My backstroke is much faster than last year, and I brought it back well." Although Penn State's Fran McDermid set a new conference and meet record in the 200-yard freestyle (1:48.19), five Wolverines scored in the top nine. Kirsten Silvester grabbed third place (1.49.27), Nicole Williamson finished sixth (1:51.04), Swix grabbed seventh (1:51.16), Katherine Creighton claimed eighth (1:51.29), and Karen Barnes finished ninth (1:50.90). Hooiveld recorded the fastest 100 breaststroke time in conference-meet history with a 1:02.18, eclipsing the record by five-tenths of a second. Rookie adjusts to college with poise There is something about that smile that we don't understand. There must be, because it appears at the strangest of times. Under pressure, in the heat of a Big Ten battle, or in the lockerroom fending off the media swarm. There is always that one constant with Jimmy King. A big wide grin that says none of it bothers him, that says he is enjoying himself. "He's always had that attitude that nothing will phase him," says Steve Adair, King's high school coach. "He is so positive. There are certain kids that you just like to be around. Jimmy is one of those kids." But that smile belies so much. So much talent packaged into a sleek 6-foot-3 frame that can glide, jump and hang suspended in the air all so effortlessly, all so smoothly. He's a pure dribbler and a smooth shooter with great range. But in a flash of versatility, he can leap skyward and throw it down over taller players. King has shown that versatility all season Court. Jimmy King arrived on campus at the University of Michigan this fall knowing two things. First, that something amazing was going to happen, and second, that he was going to be a part of it. And with the help of four others harboring similar feelings, King has quickly seen those hopes realized. As a team, Michigan is 6-5 in the conference, 15-6 overall, following Saturday night's loss to Michigan State, and on track for a tournament bid. A nice turnaround for a squad that finished 14-15 and sank to eighth place in the Big Ten last season. As a group, the "best recruiting class ever" is doing very well in its inaugural college basketball campaign. Its members are responsible for that turnaround. All five now comprise the Wolverine starting lineup, which is truly unprecedented in college basketball. But true to form, King isn't distracted by all of that. ccrs,. - aty- h ov%. - . A nto .2 _ ~ .' ~ I