Men's Basketball
vs. Duke
Tomorrow,1 p.m.(CBS)
Crisler Arena
Football
Hall of Fame Bowl
vs. N.C. State
Jan. 1, 1994, 11:30 a.m.(ESPN)
Tampa
6 M9
-Duke should be one to remember
Wolverines attempt to stop skid against Devils
By TIM RARDIN
DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER
When Michigan coach Steve Fisher
and Dukecoach Mike Krzyzewski de-
cided to start the series between their
two teams beginning with the 1989-90
season, they knew they were in for
some memorable battles.
"This game is a great game for both
teams," Krzyzewski said. "That's why
Steve and I started the series. We
thought it would be good to get each of
us ready for our conference. There's a
lot oftalenton the floor with Michigan
and Duke."
Talent aside, though, the Blue Dev-
ils have found a way to all but once.
When the teams meet at 1 p.m. tomor-
row atCrislerArena, the No.3 Wolver-
ines (5-0) may have their best shot yet
at loosing that monkey from theirbacks.
Two years ago, Michigan, featur-
ing its freshmen Fab Five, pushed Duke
into overtime at Crisler before falling
in heartbreaking fashion, 88-85. Then,
in the national championship game, the
Wolverines hung with theBlueDevils,
until a late spurt gave Duke its second
consecutive NCAA title, 71-51.
Last year, Michigan dropped an-
other one. This time at Cameron Indoor
Stadium, 79-68.
"Each game was different. In the
first game, we were No. 1 at the time.
They were freshmen and they came out
and showed us that they were a very
good team," Duke forward Grant Hill
said. "That was alearning experience,
because we knew we had to bring it to
the table every game. In the champion-
ship game, we wanted to prove to our-
selves that we were better than we
showed them in the first game.
"One thing that's different about
them in this game than the last three
games is that they have a lot more
experience."
The same cannot be said of this
year's Blue Devil squad. Of course,
Duke (4-0) is still good - currently
rankedNo. 4in the country-butwith
thelossofAll-American Bobby Hurley
and three-year starter Thomas Hill, the
Blue Devils finds themselves in an
unusual state of inexperience.
"We're a team that really needs to
getout there and have our weaknesses
shown to us, and we have a number of
them," said Krzyzewski, who has fea-
tured four different starting lineups in
four games this season. "Right now,
we're good, but notreal good, and I'm
anxious to see how we'll respond to
playing against atop-notch opponent.
"We're adeeperteam than lastyear;
we'rejustyoung."
That youth prevails in the backcourt
in particular, where freshman Jeff Capel
and sophomore Chris Collins, the
team's leading returning three-point
threat, have both started this season
along with inexperiencedjunior Kenny
Blakeney and senior Marty Clark.
Still, with guys like Hill, a player-
of-the-year candidate, returning, Fisher
knows his team will have its hands full
Saturday.
"It's a typical Duke team," Fisher
said. "The names change, but the re-
sults remain the same."
Hill is one of the names that has not
changed, though his role this year has.
With Hurley gone, he is the focal point
of this Duke team.
"He's the most versatile player that
I've coached," Krzyzewski said. "He
can play every position, and has, and
will. I'd like to see him play two at one
time for us at times."
Such versatility will force the Wol-
verines to mix up their defensive as-
signments on Hill.
"We're going to have a lot ofpeople
guarding Grant," Fisher said. "If he's at
the top, we may have Jimmy or Jalen
guarding him. If he goes inside, it may
be Ray."
Though defending Hill in particu-
lar may present problems for Michi-
gan, Krzyzewski considers the Wol-
verines' team defense is as good as any
in the country.
"Defensively, they're the best team
thatI'veseen inmy limitedtimes watch-
ing games this year," he said. "They
play team defense at a really high level.
I think they play right now the best
defense of any team I've seen at this
point in the season."
Of course, Duke's defense will face
matchup problems of its own against
the Wolverines, particularly with lead-
ing scorer Jalen Rose (23.3 ppg), who
has seen time at four different positions
this season.
"Ijust think that he's such a multi-
dimensional player and very confident
player," Krzyzewski said. "I think he
understands that this team needs him to
score more than last year's team. He's
a unique player, in that at 6-8, he can
handle the ball, he can go inside, he can
defend a number of people.
"My feeling is that he's the key
guy."
The key for Duke may be its size
along the frontline.
Returning as starters with Hill are
6-foot-IICherokee Parks (14.6 ppg,
10.3 rpg) and 6-8 Antonio Lang (14.3,
8.5), along with 6-foot-10 Eric Meek
and 6-foot-11 freshman Greg Newton
off the bench.
Parks returns much improved after
playing with the USA's World Cham-
pionships team last summer. Lang
brings to the floor an explosive re-
bounding game, particularly on the
offensive end, where he led the Blue
Devils with 2.4 rebounds per contest
last year.
With 6-foot-9 Juwan Howard the
only player with comparable size along
the starting frontline for the Wolver-
ines, the Blue Devils boast a consider-
able size advantage.
"On defense, weaverage 6-5 against
them," Howard said. "We'rejustgoing
to have to go out and play hard. Re-
bounding will be important. Every time
I've played againstthem, they've liked
to crash the offensive boards."
Michigan will be crashing more
than the boards the rest of December.
The Wolverines will be crashing a Fi-
esta - the Fiesta Bowl Classic Tour-
nament in Tucson, Ariz. They will play
Auburn in the opening round of the
tourney, Dec. 28, and face either
Fordham or Arizona Dec. 30.
Fisher is concerned about the tour-
nament because the Wolverines will
See BASKETBALL, Page 14
ELIZABETH LIPPMAN/Daily
Juwan Howard will be forced to pick up the big rebounds once again when
the Wolverines play Duke tomorrow.
'M' tries to look Golden vs.Flashes
By PAUL BARGER
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
As the fall semester comes to a close
tomorrow, the Michigan hockey season goes
into full swing. The grueling holiday sched-
ule kicks off at Kent State tonight with a
weekend series against the Golden Flashes.
Kent, in only its second year of CCHA
play, has compiled a record of 3-4-1 and sits
in eighth place in the conference. The Flashes
are on pace to eclipse last season's 10-19-1
record.
"Our objective for 1993-1994 is to im-
prove upon what we did last year," Kent
coach Bill Switaj said. "The goal is to have
home ice in the first round of the CCHA
playoffs."
Kent's strength is clearly its offense. The
Flashes average 4.62 goals per game and are
in third in the league in that category.
"They are an older team in terms of
experience," Michigan coach Red Berenson
said. "They are a good offensive team."
The Flashes are led by junior co-captain
Claude Morin who has 19 points. Overall,
Kent has six players with twelve or more
points.
Aftercompleting aseason sweep of West-
ern Michigan last weekend, it is easy to
anticipate a Wolverine letdown. It doesn't
help that this is Michigan's first conference
road game since defeating Illinois-Chicago
Nov. 13. Kent will be looking to knock the
Wolverines out of their lofty position as the
consensus No. 1 team in the nation.
Berenson feels that the key to victory will
be to stifle the opponent in its own arena.
With Kent's offensive success thus far, this
will be no easy task.
"(We need to) take away the other team's
strength -their offense," Berenson said. "If
a team can't score at home, they get a little
frustrated."
One of Michigan's season expectations
is to keep its goals against average under
three. To date, the Wolverines have given up
34 goals in 14 games for a2.43 GAA. Much
of this success can be attributed to the out-
standing goaltending of Steve Shields and
Chris Gordon. Shields and Gordon are ranked
first and second, respectively, in CCHA save
percentage, and-are two and three in goals
against. .
Tis the season to play hockey, and the
Wolverines must continue their quest for a
CCHA title without a break, as they host
Illinois-Chicago, Dec. 17-18. In the team's
first meeting of the year, Michigan domi-
nated, coming away with a 8-1 victory.
Eleven days later, the Wolverines will
attempt to win their sixth consecutive Great
Lakes Invitational.
Last season Michigan knockedoffMichi-
gan Tech, 4-2, in the semifinals and Norhtern
Michgian, 8-3 for the championship.
The tournament does not begin until Dec.
28, but that doesn't mean that the squad will
get any time off. The team votes on whether
or not to practice throughout the vacation.
This year's team, like those in the past,
decided overwhelmingly to practice through-
out the holiday season, including a practice
'The Canadian junior team
is an incredible
opportunity.'
Jason Botterill
Christmas night.
"The GLI is a real positive thing for us,"
Berenson said. "We've sacrificed a lot to
win.
The Wolverines will possibly be short
four men during the annual tournament as
Ryan Sittler, Blake Sloan, Kevin Hilton and
Jason Botterill head off to play with their.
respective nation'sjunior teams. Sittler will
be making areturn trip to Team USA'sjunior
team while Sloan and Hilton will be making
their inaugural appearances in the competi-
tion.
Botterill is planning on trying out for the
elite Canadian squad, Dec. 13-18 inKitchener,
Ont. The Winnipeg native will be attempting
to land a spot against some of the world's
stiffest competition.
"The Canadian junior team isan incred-
ible opportunity," Botterill said. "It will be
tough going, but you never know what will
happen."
The World Junior Championships will
take place in the Czech Republic, Dec. 26-
Jan. 4. All four players will be back for the
No. I vs. No. 2 showdown against Lake
Superior State Jan. 7-8.
JONATHAN LURIE/Daily
Jason Botterill will attempt to earn a spot for the Canadian Junior Team. Team Canada often
features some of the best 17-20 year olds in the world.
Wolverines prepare for New Year s Day game rpickst20,nrIAyno0"aThe
By ANDY DE KORTE
DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER
Itlooks like acatfight in the Hall of
Fame Bowl -the Wolverines and the
Wolfpack. Come Christmas time, the
Michigan football team will travel to
Tampa to battle North Carolina State in
the New Year's Day game.
Each team will be looking to prove
that they are better than their matching
7-4 records might indicate. Although
both teams waited until the second to
last game of the season to win a sixth
game againstDivision 1-A opponents
andqualify fora bowl appearance, they
took different roads to get to victory
nrmnhrsixy
20-14loss toClemson and a21-20loss
to Duke.
Despite the numerous parallels be-
tween the teams, they are peculiar to
this season. The Wolfpack celebrated
reaching the.500 mark for all time. At
the end of the season, it had managed a
434-433-55(.501) record. Michigan,
on the other hand, won its 500th home
game andhas been above a.700 career
winning percentage for many years.
The differences in all-time marks
can only lead to different expectations
forthe teams involved. Atop-five team,
big things were expected from Michi-
gan. The Wolverines have also been to
19 straight nostseason eames. second
t
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