Men's Basketball vs. Oklahoma State Tonight, 10:30 p.m. (CBS) Lexington, Ky. SPORTS Hockey vs. Northern Michigan/Clarkson winner Sunday, 4:30 p.m. Detroit .^, -. , - The Michigan Daily Friday, March 27, 1992 Page 10: 'M' icers anxiously awaits'-- quarteri by Rod Loewenthal Daily Hockey Writer Don't worry about the Michigan hockey players looking too far ahead. They don't even know who to look at for their first game of the NCAA tournament. But regardless of tonight's game between Northern Michigan and Clarkson, the Mich- igan hockey team (31-8-3 overall), without having played a single game, has gone as far in this year's NCAA tournament as it did last year. Eliminated by Boston University last year in the second round and recipients of a first-round bye in the tournament this season, a rested Wolverine team will pair off Sunday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at Joe Louis Arena against either the Wildcats (24-13-3) or the Golden Knights (22-9-1) in a single-elimination game. The stakes are high. Unlike last year's best-out-of-three format, this year's first two rounds are one- shot affairs. The winner advances to inal opponent Albany, New York and the Final run of the season. It's w Four. The loser packs its gear and son pays off." hits the golf course. With the single-eli "Us knowing it could be our last mat, though, the prob game will make us play that much downhill disaster is mu harder," senior defenseman Doug "I don't like it," M Evans said. "This year we have ward Denny Felsner sai something to prove." really prove who has th Michigan's team psychologist "I like the singlee Dr. Hugh Bray has worked with the frosh Rick Willis co squad throughout the season, helping doesn't drag out the pro to focus the players mentally. His Zen master Cam St concern heading into this weekend is philosophically: "It de that the players exaggerate the im- portance of the game. "If anything, (the players) might Aside from last have a tendency to overprepare," CCHA 3-1 playoff l Bray said. "Hopefully the players Superior State, the Wo can maintain a focused level that excelled in single- they've felt confident with all year. games. Each player has their own optimal "In the tournament level to hit." know a lot about the t Michigan captain David Harlock going up against," H is still looking for the team to hit its "And we've done well a optimal level. "I don't think we've we've never seen befor played our best game yet," the de- looking to take it one fenseman said. "This is the downhill this year." "}" here the sea- m ination for-bi t o a ~ability of a :h greater. dichigan for- d. "It doesn' t e best team." elimination,'. auntered."t cess." tewart waxed ~ epends if we"" weekend's oss to Lake~> iverines have elimination t, you don't ;. eam's you're arlock said,, against teams e. We're just; step further Michigan's Rick Willis maneuvers around the outstretched body of Lake Superior State defenseman Mark Astley. This Sunday, Michigan faces the winner of the Clarkson-Northern Michigan first-round NCAA Tournament game. >2 t Men swii 12th at N by Chad Safran Daily Sports Writer The water in the pool at the 1992 NCAA Swimming Championships in Indianapolis has turned red. Car- dinal red. Stanford, the favorite going into the meet, has taken a commanding lead over defending-champion Texas after the first day of competition. The Cardinal managed to capture 200 points for the top spot after the first day. Texas is second with 117 points. Michigan captured 39 points, good enough for 12th place. Michigan rookie Gustavo Borges placed fourth for the Wolverines, touching the wall in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 19.8 sec- onds. Stanford junior Erik Maurer earned the individual title in the event, finishing in a time of :19.58. SWEET 16 Continued from page 1 State coach Eddie Sutton said earlier this week, rattling off a grocery list of reasons for the success. "We've gotten a lot of opportunities from short range. We've displayed a lot of patience in our offense. Our shot selection has improved. Our perimeter shooting is getting better...." The list goes on, but it begins and ends with one item - Byron Houston. There really is no way around him. "No one in America has been able to stop him," Michigan coach Steve Fisher says. It doesn't take long to figure out why. At 6-foot-7, and weighing in at 250 pounds, Houston stands out in a crowd. And crowds are nothing new to him. "We're hoping we can shuttle up to three bodies on him all day," Fisher said, "and hope we don't foul three people out trying to stop him." Houston averaged 28 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks in the Cowboys' first two games, frustrating opponents with his strength inside, as well as his shooting touch from the perime- ter. More than likely, what all that means is that you simply don't stop Houston. Stop his teammates, and then you can beat Oklahoma State. So Michigan will concentrate on putting more pressure on Oklahoma State's three senior guards - Darwyn Alexander, Corey Williams and Sean Sutton. "The goal is to put pressure on the ball like we have been doing," senior captain Freddie Hunter said. "They have a three-guard offense and that's going to be tough to de- fend." All three guards are under 6-2, while Michigan sends 6-8 Jalen Rose and 6-5 Jimmy King out on the court. That will present matchup problems for both teams. "We're small, but we feel confi- dent," Eddie Sutton said. "The thing is, a guy like Alexander has to guard a 6-5 guy and that will give us problems on the offensive boards." Boston Massacre flu- The Michigan State hockey team defeated Boston University in first-round NCAA action yesterday in Providence, R.I., 4-2. The Wolverines have dominated teams on the boards this season, capitalizing mostly on the quick- ness and agility of the five starters.: "The big problem that I see in Michigan is their size and great ath- letes," Eddie Sutton added. "They are big, strong and talented. Some people say its the best recruiting class ever - I'd second that after watching them on film." But Sutton still thinks Oklahoma State's experience might be a deciding factor tonight. "We're handling our success much better this year than we did last year," Sutton said. "There's no substitute for experience in basket- ball. Having been to the Sweet 16 before I think is a big plus for our ball club." However, he would find some disagreement with that in the Michigan camp. The Michigan first-year players have been saying all year that they don't play like newcomers, and now the coaches agree. "The youth of our team is a not a negative and a handicap," Fisher said. umers 9, CAAs His teammate Brian Retterer came in second, .04 seconds later. Del:, Cerney of Minnesota was in third- with a time of :19.79. The Wolverine quartet of Stever-t Bigelow, Steve West, Tom Hay and-,:: Gustavo Borges finished seventh in the 400-yard medley relay in a timef< of 3:15.42. Once again, Stanford was'; victorious as it swam to a newv "at American record with a time ofts 3:08.39. UCLA and Tennessee. rounded out the top three positions. r The tough start was not a surprise for Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek., , "We had a slow first day pointwise," Urbanchek said. "We' won't get on the board, probably, Y until the last day (Saturday). We , always have a poor first day. We* don't have the personnel to hold us a up." a~at ii s It 1 Y it t V t i# re44 a' 5? 'r' ti". { 4 *+1a L :Fd9F S'.) :~ ~ - $4AUTOCAD* FOR WINDOWS PUT THE POWER TO WORK FOR YOU! - I - ~- '' 11tH #IIIINlIi! I li#iill!##ili f!#M#i! I. / i t!! p t a t t i; t t t# t f1# l ltf##iift;ti iili t#iI 14t! Mpf il4 II!#ttiiiltlNtfi iitl got II li i1i 11111 q 11 {\11111) Ilq;iiW\IMistill, mail Ii11it ,&III \1111 Hllt&\1it%1ill as;gOIL%, itit Yaiai tiaaYYYai {H\{;{;\f tt\; ;; l\Y I i 4 t q t; a AutoCA of 3-D de SPECIAL AUTOCAD EDUCATIONAL PRICES! Oklahoma State's Sean Sutton looks for help during the Cowboys'second round NCAA victory against Tulane, last Sunday. 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