Baseball Hockey vs. Eastern Michigan vs. Maine Today, 3 p.m. Tomorrow, 2:35 p.m. (PASS) Fisher Stadium Milwaukee MichiganT i 1Wednesday, r ,Page MASHBURN AND KENTUCKY AWAIT MICHIGAN IN NEW ORLEANS Blue not afraid of red-hot Wildcats by Ken Davidoff Kansas coach Roy Williams: the game away early each time. Marymount team did, where they and Adam Miller "No comment." The Wildcats led, 27-17, on Flor- make you shoot the ball and you Daily Basketball Writers North Carolina coach Dean ida State, 34-8 over Wake Forest, just go down and toss up all To think that not a soul would Smith "No comment." 27-8 on Utah and a smothering 29- threes, but at the same time, one comment on it. Now it is time to comment. For 9 on first-round foe Rider. out of every three shots they take Oh, it was in the promotional now it is reality. Junior forward Jamal Mash- are three-point shots, but you've material: "Final Four Preview." In a way. burn - who averages 20.8 points gotta look at the other two-thirds But three months ago, at the Dec. Sunday's NCAA tournament per game and is as comfortable and you can dribble-drive or go 28-30 Rainbow Classic in action sealed the field for New shooting triples as he is playing in inside." Honolulu, Hawaii, no coach, no Orleans, and three of the four the post, headlines the ensemble "That's one thing I've never, player - no trainer, for heaven's Rainbow Classic semifinal teams - but he is by no means the ever heard - that Michigan was sake - would discuss the are in it. Kansas plays North Car- whole story. playing in a mismatch," Kentucky possibility that the tournament olina in the first semifinal; Satur- Kentucky also gets significant coach Rick Pitino said. could be an advance showing for day at 5:45 p.m., while Michigan contributions from junior point Mashburn, who announced his the Final Four matchups. guard Travis Ford. The transfer eligibility for the NBA draft this The question was asked inces- from Missouri has dished out 160 past Feb. 26, has received the santly by the media, "So is this a assists this season, and he is majority of the attention. Due to Final Four preview? How do you second to Mashburn in scoring the fans' and media's interest in think this bears for the rest of the with 13.7 ppg. the All-American, the Wolverines season? Can we expect a repeat As a team, the Wildcats are spent a good amount of time performance in April?" red-hot shooters. They drained fielding Mashburn questiosn after Mihgan prarctice. h mk ichgan fans particularly buckets at am482 clip this season yera ' pacsice. Ji wanted the answer to the last ques-k (rinlud NCAA ournangt " H a bige imy it e games), and were a sizzling 396 Jackson," Michigan coach Steve gl rdAinsnda soedsny annce cm t tetheroe halMggapinze utteyandt o enesBlWbbrsed won the Classic going away. After from three-point range. Fisher said. "He's good. He makes a heartstopping, buzzerbeating, But it's the numbers that make big-time plays." high-flying 79-78 victory oer the sat impressive: the SEC tour- "Mashburn, he plays more then-No. 5 North Carolina Dec.29 nament champions poured in 333 facing the basket than I do," sealed by Jalen Rose's putback triples, more than doubling their Juwan Howard said. "I'm just SaturdLy in the lane as the buzzer sounded plays Kentucky in the second opponents' 139. looking forward to the challenge. -the then-No. 6 Wolverines game, 30 minutes after the conclu- Further, Kentucky takes the The Chris Webber-Mashburn came back to pound Kansas, 86- sion of the first. concept of a deep bench to new matchup by all accounts is one of yk74, in the tidle game. But Wolverine fans shouldn't heights. Eleven of the 14 on the the most awaited duels of the The Jayhawks were the No. 2 get too excited at the popc of a Wildcat roster see over nine mi- sao.Wbea las x team in the nation at the time, but Michigan-Kansas or Michigan- nutes of action each game. pressed confidence over his chan- they were stifled by the larger North Carolina rematch just yet. The Michigan players ack- ces against the Monster Mash. ,rMichigan lineup. Knaoint The Wildcats block the way- nowledge the Wildcats will be a "esagetpaebtte guard Adonis Jordan scored only and they come to the Superdome challenging opponent, but they in lost to Tennessee," Webber said. four points in the contest. on a roll, no way fear them or their light- "He's a great player, and they lost SHowever, the coaches' answers The Southeast regional champ- ningquick perimeter game. to Vanderbilt. ... I'm always KRSTOFFER GILLETTE/Daiy became monotonous. ions (30-3) have won their four "We like to play transition, betting on myself. I don't care if Chris Webber and his Wolverine teammates head to New Orleans this Michigan coach Steve Fisher: games in the tournament by an too," Rose said. "It's not like they we're playing the Pistons, I'd bet Saturday to take on Kentucky in the NCAA tournament semifinals. "No comment." average of 31 points, and have put (use) transition like the old Loyola on myself." " Baseball comes home Laxers victorious at Purdue tournament sweet home by Paul Barger Daily Baseball Writer The Michigan baseball team (5- 17 overall, 0-4 Big Ten) begins its longest home stand to date as they prepare to take on Eastern Michigan today at 3:00 p.m. at Ray Fisher Stadium. In addition to being the longest home stand of the season, it is the first. After 22 games in enemy terri- tory, the Wolverines will finally get their chance to play in front of the home fans. The season will be half over on Sunday and the squad will have played a scant five home games. The weather forecast is good for tomorrow so unlike the canceled March 23rd game against Saginaw Valley, baseball will be played in Ann Arbor this afternoon. "We're just fortunate that we are going to get a chance to play," Michigan coach Bill Frechan said. "The field is in pretty good shape and we're looking forward to play- ing at home." The Eagles (7-5) are a formidable opponent that boasted a team batting average of .299 before yesterday's doubleheader at Wayne State. Senior outfielder Mike Wisely leads the team with a .476 batting average and 10 RBI's. Third base- man Jason McDonald is hitting at a .432 clip while driving in 12 runs. Second Baseman James Bostock tops the RBI list with 14. Eastern also will pose the Wolverines prob- lems on the base paths. "They always run the bases s A 5TH AVE. AT LIBERTY 761-9700 DAILY SHOWS BEFORE 6 PM 3.25 ALL DAY TUESDAY' exceptions STUDENT WITH I.D. 5150 THE CRYING GAME R) HOWARD'S END(P ) GROUNDHOG DAY (PG) Present This Coupon When Purchasing A Lowe Popcorn & Ree . On. EXPIRES 4120193 Newsletters, Nwletters for Eagles well," Freehan said. "They put a lot of people in motion. My concern is what our guys do and what our pitchers do primarily." Sophomore Matt Humbles will start on the mound for the first time in his Michigan career. In his first season, the lefthander compiled a 3- 6 record with 31 strikeouts in 44.1 innings. However, his action will be limited as the coaching staff plans to get six pitchers into the game for at least one inning of work. The regular starters will be rested for this week- end's Big Ten battle with Purdue. After the Wolverine's disappoint- ing weekend at Minnesota, Matt Copp still leads the team in hitting with a .333 average. Copp, a senior third baseman, was not slated as a starter before the season but was given an opportunity and has not let Freehan down. Today's game is the first of two between the Wolverines and Eagles. The second game will be played in Ypsilanti on April 7. The contests will provide an opportunity for the Michigan coaches to look at some players they don't often see in game situations. Freehan's hope is to build up a certain confidence in his younger players which will enable them to by J.L. Rostam-Abadi Daily Sports Writer They went. They saw. They con- quemd. The Michigan men's lacrosse team increased its record to 10-1 this past weekend at the Big Ten Club Lacrosse League Eastern Division Tournament at Purdue, where it played three games. The Wolverines defeated Purdue, Indiana and Illinois, 16-10, 19-0 and 19-4, respectively. The top five Michigan scorers of the three-game rendez-vous were at- tackman Doug Henke (15 goals and 3 assists), attackman Stevan Simich (9-7), midfielder Ivan Frank (6-2), at- tackman Sten Carlson (5-3) and mid- fielder Dave Reichel (4-3). Of the three games, the players said that Purdue was the most chal- lenging. "We were expecting Purdue to be a pretty tough game," senior mid- fielder and co-captain Ranjiv Advani said. "We've always had close games with them." And their expectations were ful- filled - Purdue led, 7-6, at halftime. Michigan acted quickly, changing from its ball-denial strategy to regu- lar team defense. This proved suc- cessful for the Wolverines, who out- scored the Boilermakers, 9-4, in the second half. The Hoosiers and Illini contests were not nearly as intense as the Purdue game. Michigan won virtu- ally every faceoff against Illinois.'. "Not one of these games was a real defensive battle," Michigan coach Bob DiGiovanni said. "They (Michigan) played real well overall. "Since the Oberlin game we've been shorthanded; we've been miss- ing a couple of our starters to injury but we've still played very, very well and we've gone undefeated. So I think that helps show that we've got a lot of depth; a lot of people have stepped up. If somebody is hurt, somebody else steps up and does the scoring or plays the defense. We've got some good depth on the team, and that's how you have a successful season." The Wolverines are now 4-0 in the Eastern Division. Last weekend's tournament basically secured Michi- gan a top seed for the Big Ten Club championships in mid-April. See LAXERS, Page 10 Matt Copp and Chad Chapman celebrate a run at Ray Fisher stadium last season. The first home game of this season will be played today at 3 p.m. come up with some victories in the frequent down to the wire ball games. "You know when people talk about the basketball team they say they don't do this and they don't do that," Freehan said. "You can call them arrogant, you can call them cocky, you can call them self-confi- dent, but they figure out a way to win. We haven't done that. If we can figure it out, we can win the close ones." a 10. SHE CAN SPELL "POTATO" 9. INGRID'S THEME IS "LET'S WORK TOGETHER FOR A BETTER ANN ARBOR" 8. INGRID HAS A MASTER'S DEGREE FROM U-M 7. CAMPS AT U-M ALUMNI CAMP MICHIGANIA 6. SHE WAS BORN AT U-M HOSPITAL 5. SERVED FOUR YEARS ON CITY COUNCIL 4. SOME OF HER BEST FRIENDS ARE STUDENTS 3. INGRID IS A BOARD MEMBER OF U-M THEATRE ASSOCIATION 2. WANTS TO FOSTER A BETTER U-M/CITY OF A XTXT A nns RPi A'TITnmQTJI