What was the last time one conference had two No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament? (For answer, see page 2) I 3 k..y "F K M Ia ,x.~ NCAA Tournament Pairings SPORTSMonday Calendar Athlete of the Week Q&A Blame it on Niyo Baseball Men's Basketball Hockey Women's Basketball Gymnastics 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 5 6 8 .Blue goes West by Northwestern Wolverines to battle Chanticleers by Ryan Herrington Daily Basketball Writer While the Michigan men's bas- ketball team will probably be watch- ing enough film in preparation for the NCAA tournament this week to make even Siskel and Ebert jealous, the Wolverines might be wise to rent one more title from the video store. For last year's NCAA runners-up to return to the Final Four, they might want to be familiar with the plot of "How the West Was Won." Surprising few, the Wolverines received a No. 1 seed yesterday when the NCAA announced this year's 64-team field. Michigan begins play in Tucson, Ariz., Friday when it takes on Big South champion Coastal Carolina (22-9) in West regional action. North Carolina, Kentucky and Big Ten champion Indiana also received No.1 seeds. Along with the Wolverines and Hoosiers, three other Big Ten schools were invited to the tourna- ment. Illinois will join Michigan in the West, while Iowa travels to the Southeast and Purdue goes to the East regional. With the No. 1 seed all but wrapped up last week, the true ques- tion for Michigan yesterday was who its first opponent would be. Even after the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina were announced, some Wolverines were still wonder- ing who they were. "I'm not really familiar with them," Michigan center Juwan Howard said. "I can tell you one thing though, I'm going to be doing my homework tomorrow." "I don't know anything about them," forward Ray Jackson said. "All I know is they did all right in their little tournament." Jackson was referring to the Big South Conference Championship, in which Coastal Carolina defeated Winthrop, 78-65. The Chanticleers are led by se- nior Tony Dunkin, a 6-foot-7 for- ward who is the school's all-time leading scorer. Dunkin was named Big South Player of the Year for the fourth consectutive year. Michigan For complete NCAA pairings, see Page 2 coach Steve Fisher showed cautious optimism when discussing his first round foe. well. I think our kids will be ex- tremely excited about playing." With Arizona, Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech slotted as the second, third and fourth seeds in the West, respectively, the region looks to be one of the easiest, with the possible exception of East. However, the Wolverines are not convinced by this sort of logic. "It doesn't matter where you go, you're going to have a region with good teams in it," Fisher said. "A year ago everybody felt well Michi- "Coastal Carolina is a 16th gan was going to get beat by Arizona seed," Fisher said. "Now how good in the second round and then are they, well they're good enough Arizona got beat in the first round." to win their league and be in the "We don't have a cakewalk being tournament. Hopefully, we'll play See NCAA, page 4 Regular season ends with 86-60 thrashing f'Ct by Andy De Korte Daily Basketball Writer Going into the game between the No. 3 Michigan men's basketball team and Northwestern, both coach- es had an idea of the disparity between the teams. Wildcat coach Bill Foster knew his team would have to play its best basketball for 40 minutes to capture a victory. Wolverine coach Steve Fisher knew his team would have to show up. Michigan (15-3 Big Ten, 26-4 overall) showed up, and then showed up Northwestern, 86-60, despite a strong first. half per- formance by the Wildcats. "The second half they turned their defense up about two notches and got everything off the boards," Foster said. "I thought they played very good help-side defense and shot well and really showed their athletic ability in the second half. We were able to negate (that) for a half. In the second half we had a tough time scoring." Indeed, after 20 minutes of play,. Foster's Wildcats (3-15, 8-19) were only down 35-31. However, Michigan's turnover parade - only one shy of the Wolverines' season- high of 21 - slowed down and its defense turned up and blew away the 'Cats, 86-60. Michigan had the motivation of a top seed in the tournament - it sealed the top seed in the West re- gion with the victory - but coming off two overtime games, fatigue and a letdown bothered the Wolverines. "We were a little tired," senior Eric Riley said. "We had to get into a rhythm. And then in the second half we got into our rhythm. "Yes, (the overtimes) did affect us. It's a little tough on us trying to pull out victories. We were behind in both those games." See WILDCATS, page 4 KRISTOFFER GILLETTE/Daily and his classmates Senior Michael Talley knifes through the lane for a layup in Saturday's 86-60 victory . Talley drew standing ovations from the Crisler crowd for their years of work for the Wolverines. Hockey sweeps its way to the Joe * Wolverines dismantle Fighting Irish 13-2, 8-1 in CCHA first round by Brett Forrest Daily Hockey Writer "Now the fun starts," Michigan coach Red Berenson said after Saturday's game at Yost Ice Arena. The easy games are over for the Wolver- ines (29-5-3 overall) as they swept Notre Dame (8-26-2) this weekend, 13-2 Friday and 8-1 Sat- urday in the first round of the CCHA playoffs. The Wolverines will next play the winner be- tween Lake Superior and Ferris State Saturday at Joe Louis Arena. As evidenced by the scores, Notre Dame proved little competition for Michigan - espe- cially early on. Center Brian Wiseman scored 2:02 into the first period Friday and the game was effectively finished at that point. The first period ended with Michigan comfortably ahead, 7-1. It could have been worse for the Irish as an apparent goal by right wing David Oliver at the 2:12 mark of the first was disallowed after the net was forced of its moorings. At the close of the period Michigan was once again thwarted as defenseman Aaron Ward appeared to score in the Notre Dame crease, but the goal was not awarded. "We came out as flat as Grandma's lafse (a Norweigan pancake)," Notre Dame coach Ric Schafer said. "The first period wasn't very good for us. Of course, neither was the second or third, for that matter. They're just too good, that's all there is to it. In the four other games, we were competitive. This game showed the real difference." Nine different Wolverines scored, with Dave Roberts notching his second hat trick in as many home games and Mike Stone adding two goals. Six different goalies played for both sides and Michigan netminder Al Loges recorded his first career point, assisting on Stone's shorthanded tally at 13:07 of the third period. See SWEEP, Page 5 The by Chad A. Safran Daily Hockey Writer Quiet Storm The offense comes screaming down the ice on a three-on-two. The trio has the defensemen on their heels and looking to hide. The entire rush happens incredibly quickly. The interaction boils down to a sense of awareness - a perspective on where the goalie is. The line is a recipe for goal scoring and game breaking. Add a pinch of speed in Mark Ouimet. Thrown in a dash of passing with Dave Roberts. And the bit of shot power comes from Dan Stiver. Mix it all together and you have Insta- goal. The shot is what has enabled Stiver to establish a personal high in r rnal nrpA in a aenn in hie Dan Stiver's shot is louder than words Stiver lines up pucks in the slot area and slams disks at each of the net's four corners. It is something Stiver has always done, even while growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "It was where he learned to shoot properly," John Stiver, Dan's father said. "We didn't have a finished basement. We protected the windows with plywood so he didn't break many. I bought net tissue for him to shoot at, but he destroyed the netting. The wall is still marked up with rubber marks from all the pucks." When he brought the drill with him to Michigan, he found a willing partner in Ouimet. "We've been doing it since our freshman year," Ouimet, who has DOUGLAS KANTER/Daily Seniors Dave Roberts and Mark Ouimet celebrate a first period goal in Friday's 13-2 rout of Notre Dame. Roberts, Ouimet, and their fellow seniors led the way offensively. Divers earn NCAA spots with good Z by Brett Johnson and Dave Kraft Daily Sports Writers The final pieces to the national swimming and diving championship puzzles were put together this week- end. And thanks to the 10-meter platform event, the Michigan women one showing nesota) and Laurie Gaudes (Ohio State) as the six qualifiers for this weekend's NCAA Championships in Minneapolis. Woods' first place finish in Sat- urday's tower event and second overall placing helped pace the ju- nior to her first berth at the NCAAs. ~- U W - I I ' I