16 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 3, 1993

'M' icers look for physical home-
and-home series with Broncos

*I

By JAESON ROSENFELD
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
The Central Collegiate Hockey
Association's big guns will be on
display this weekend, when Michi-
gan takes on Western Michigan in a
home-and-home series. And it's go-
ing to take more than the Brady Bill to
stop these firearms.
The fifth-place Broncos (5-4-1
CCHA, 7-4-2 overall) bring CCHA
leading scorer Chris Brooks (8 goals-
17 assists-25 points) and linemate
Colin Ward (12-8-20) to Yost Ice
Arena tonight.
Not to be outgunned, the Wolverines
(7-0-1,10-1-1)toteweaponsDavidOliver
(9-15-24) and Jason Botterill (12-8-20),
who rank second and fourth in the confer-
ence points race.
In the teams' last meeting, Brooks
and Ward won the scoring battle, but
Western lost the war in a 5-3 defeat at
Lawson Ice Arena. Ward tallied three
second-period goals - all on assists
from Brooks - knotting the score at
3-3 after two sessions.
"I thought we gave the Wolver-
ines a run for their money when they
came to Kalamazoo a few weeks ago,"
Bronco coach Bill Wilkinson said. "I
think we played them shift for shift
through two-and-a-half periods."
Ward's heroics owed much to
lackadaisical play by the Wolverines

in their own zone. This is a trend
Michigan coach Red Berenson hopes
will not continue.
"We need to make sure he doesn't
get the puck in front of the net,"
Berenson said. "He got shots last game
that we shouldn't have given him."
In the end, it was a gamble on
Berenson's part that probably saved
the game for the Wolverines.
Berenson benched the struggling
defensive pair of Mark Sakala and
Alan Sinclair for the third period. The
remaining two pairs - Steve Halko-
Blake Sloan and Tim Hogan-Harold
Schock - effectively disarmed the
Broncos' offense.
Berenson will not hesitate to sit play-
ers in key situations again if necessary.
"If we have to shorten our bench
we will," Berenson said. "We're still
getting some experience."
Experience, however, will be
somewhat less of a problem than it
was in the teams' last clash. Michigan
played the Nov. 12 meeting without
the services of goaltender Steve
Shields and forward Ryan Sittler. The
duo, as well as captain Brian Wiseman,
has since recovered from injuries and
given Michigan a full platoon.
"We're in much better shape (with
injuries) than we were two weeks
ago," Berenson said.
And that's good news for Michigan,

'I thought we gave the
Wolverines a run for
their money when they
came to Kalamazoo a
few weeks ago.'
-Bill Wilkinson
WMU hockey coach
because Western is one of the CCHAs
hottest teams. The Broncos are unbeatew.
since they lost to the Wolverines and have'
closed to within four points of first place.
The streak includes victories over Bowl-
ing Green, Ferris State, Miami and Ohio
State.
"We expect it to bSe a tough week-
end," Berenson said.
RED KNows Hoops: Berenson
helped out fellow Michigan coach
Trish Roberts by giving the women's
basketball team a pep-talk Wednes-
day. Roberts' team is in much the
same rebuilding phase that the hockey
program was when Berenson took
over in 1984.
"She asked me to talk to them, in
terms of what we went through when
we started to rebuild the hockey pro-
gram," Berenson said. "I talked about
some of the lessons that we learned
that might help them accelerate the
improvement of their program."

EVAN PETRIE/Daily
Michigan's John Madden brings the puck up the ice during last Saturday's game against Wisconsin. The Wolverines
stffered their first loss of the season when the Badgers defeated them, 5-3, at The Palace of Auburn Hills.


Despite the Alabama-Flordia rematch, SEC
championship not the same as last year

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) --
The Southeastern Conference had a
dream matchup for its inaugural cham-
pionship game last year - an unde-
feated Alabama beating Florida on a
dramatic play to advance to a national
championship showdown.'
The same two teams are back for
tie second title game. But all the
glitter is gone, and maybe one of the
key players is, too.
Instead of playing for a second
sfraight national crown, No. 16 Ala-
bama (8-2-1 overall, 5-2-1 in the SEC)
will be trying to avoid its third loss in
four games on Saturday.
? Defensive back Antonio Langham
-4 who had a game-winning intercep-
tion return for a touchdown last year
was declared ineligible last week
following revelations he had signed
with a sports agent. Alabama is await-
ing word on an appeal with the NCAA.
Ninth-ranked Florida (9-2, 7-1),
meanwhile, is coming off a 33-21 loss
to Florida State. One of the Gators'
tandem of starting quarterbacks, Danny

Wuerffel, is out with a knee injury.
All this adds up to a championship
game that has yet to sell out, despite
being played at Alabama's second
home, Legion Field.
More than 6,000 tickets remain in
the 83,091-seat stadium, and promot-
ers have resorted to going on the radio
to remind fans that, hey, the SEC title
is still at stake.
A Sugar Bowl berth also is up for
grabs, but there's none of the high-
charged atmosphere that surrounded
last year's game.
After all, the league's only un-
beaten team, No. 4 Auburn, is at home
because of NCAA probation.
Alabama coach Gene Stallings,
who spent much of this week answer-
ing questions about Langham and
deflecting rumors that he plans to
retire soon, acknowledged his play-
ers were "hurt emotionally" after los-
ing to archrival Auburn in their final
regular season game.
"But we are in the championship
game," he said. "Remember we were

in it last year and we were 11-0. So it
was a lot more fun last year than it was
this year. But I'm not too sure in that
certain areas we haven't performed a
little bit better under tough conditions
this year."
Revenge would be sweet for the
Gators, who saw their 1992 dreams
dashed when Langham stepped in
front of a Shane Matthews pass and
raced 27 yards to the end zone to seal
a 28-21 Crimson Tide victory with
just 3:16 remaining.
Maybe that's why Florida players
didn't try to conceal their feelings
when news broke about Langham's
predicament.
Coach Steve Spurrier will rely on
Terry Dean to direct Florida's air-domi-
nated attack in Wuerffel's absence.
Errict Rhett, the Gators' all-time
leading rusher with 4,075 yards, likes
to think he will get to run the ball
more than usual against Alabama. But
he probably won't, especially with
the hole left by Langham's possible
absence.

HOOPS
Continued from page 14
CENTURY MARK: Coach Fisher, in
only his fifth season as the head man
of the Michigan basketball team,
reached his 100th victory - the fast-
est Wolverine coach to do so - with
Michigan's 80-70 win over Georgia
Tech.
Fisher is now 102-37 in his career,
good for a .734 winning percentage.
He needs just five victories to eclipse
E.J. Mather, who compiled a 106-53
mark from 1919-28, for fourth place
on the all-time Michigan coaching
record.
INJURY UPDATE: Jackson and Fife
each suffered minor injuries in
Wednesday's game against Tulane.
Jackson sprained his right ankle
after making a lay-up early in the
second half, but came back into the
game a few minutes later. Fife took a
hit across the bridge of his nose late in
the game, and was taken to the locker
room. X-rays yesterday indicated a
deep bruise.
Both Fife and Jackson will play
Saturday against Tennessee-Chatta-
nooua.

0

I ~ uw~ 'U UI U w on%

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2. Bill Frieder 191-87 .687 Olivier Saint-Jean (left), Jimmy King (center) and Bobby Crawford attempt to
3. Dave Strack 113-89 .559 steal the ball from Tulane's Rayshard Allen during Wednesday's game
4. E.J. Mather 106-53 .667 against the Green Wave. Michigan is in the midst of a five-game homestand
5. Stev4 Fisher 101-37 .728 which will conclude Dec. 11 against Duke.

WRESTLING

Continued from page 14
could well be repeated at the NCAA
tournament, only then it would likely
be for the national championship.
Bormet enters the weekend on the
verge of accomplishing a milestone
victory.
He has a career record of 92-19
and, combined with the four wins he
collected in his only tournament this
year, the St. Louis Open, he has a total
of 96 wins.
That puts him just four victories
away from becoming only the I11th
player in Michigan history to win 100

matches.
"I didn't even realize it until I
looked in the media guide," Bormet
said. "It's not that big of a deal right
now. I'm sure that it will be in a few
years, but right now I'm just worrying
about getting through this year and
staying healthy."
Should Bormet reach the 100-win
plateau, he will be the first Michigan
wrestler to do so since current Wol-
verine assistant coach John Fisher in
1988. Fisher also holds the record for
most victories with 183.
Aside from Bormet, Bahr is ex-
pecting a big weekend from heavy-
weight Steve King, as well as the
other upperclassmen.

"Steve and Sean are our top title
prospects," Bahr said. "It's not a fresh-
men, sophomore type of tournament.
Bormet, King, (Brian) Harper (150),
(Jesse) Rawls (177) and (Mike)
Ellsworth (142) will probably be our
top performers."

TM


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