Women's Basketball vs. Ohio State Tonight, 7:30 p.m. Crisler Arena S TS Hockey vs. Michigan State Tonight, 7 p.m. (PASS) Yost Ice Arena Pox knocks out Quake, not illness, merits our concern By RACHEL BACHMAN DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER MINNEAPOLIS - First, there was the Great Quake of '94. Next came the coldest weather in Michigan's * history. Then, disaster struck. Jimmy King and Juwan Howard got the chicken pox. The crisis was so great for the Michigan basketball team that last night's 63-58 loss to Minnesota was merely an aftershock. Wolverines, 63-58 'M' stumbles out of gate without Howard, King L COURT PRESS "We knew it was going to be rough," said Olivier Saint-Jean on being faced with the prospect of playing sans King and Howard. At the season's tipoff, fans were grumbling about the team's gaunt bench. Could the Wolverines return to greatness with just nine scholarship players, none of them named Webber? Could they win vital contests on the road? King answered all of them - temporarily - with a last-second three-pointer that crumbled Carver-Hawkeye Arena and gave Michigan its third Big Ten victory. Still, the tremors about the Wolverines' lack of depth *and height persisted. Two days after the Iowa game, their prayers were answered when freshman Makhtar Ndiaye was dropped at Crisler Arena's doorstep. The Senegal Sensation was to solve Michigan's problems overnight. "Big Mak's" arrival made the Wolverine faithful feel as if someone was smiling upon them. Nine days later, that someone stopped smiling. "I was shocked," said Leon Derricks of his reaction when he heard his two teammates had fallen victim to the *chicken pox. "I said to myself, 'We're going to have to play the best we have all year (to win)."' To make matters worse, Michigan was heading into the earth-shattering clamor of Williams Arena to face the bench-heavy Golden Gophers. Things looked bleak for the bespotted Wolverines, who during Minnesota's first-half run must have wished the raised arena floor would split and swallow them whole. "At Michigan, we don't believe in moral victories," a somber Jalen Rose said. But while Michigan whimpered and licked its collective wounds after losing two of its stars and an ever-important Big Ten game, the death toll in California rose to 44. Maybe the weather in Michigan isn't so bad after all. After the game, there was no satisfaction at having survived. By the looks on their faces, you'd think the players themselves had witnessed a natural disaster. One, however, retained his perspective on what was simply a stroke of bad luck followed by a disappointing game. See PRESS, Page 13 By CHAD A. SAFRAN DAILY BASKETBALLAWRITER MINNEAPOLIS - The Michi- gan men's basketball team must have a group membership to the Grave Diggers Association of America, be- cause the Wolverines sure like to get behind early in a game. Against Minnesota the Wolver- ines threw a bit too much dirt on themselves as the Gophers used some hot early shooting to thwart Michigan's valiant rally, 63-58, last night, before 14,452 at an overflow- ing Williams Arena. Playing without center Juwan Howard and guard Jimmy King, who were absent due to the chicken pox, Michigan (3-2 Big Ten, 11-4 overall) found itself down 17-2 to Minnesota at the 11:34 mark of the first half. The Wolverines missed 10 of their first 11 field goal attempts while the Golden Gophers (3-1, 12-4) managed to nail eight of their first 11. "Minnesota jumped on us," said Michigan coach Steve Fisher, whose team lost consecutive games for the first time since 1992. "We were a little tight. We got out of the gate a little shaky." Michigan was so unstable that it could not tie the game with 9:05 left in the second half. Jackson made an 18-foot jumper from near the foul line for two of his 11 points. That was the last time Michigan managed to tie the Gophers, despite the fact that Minnesota's leading scorer on the season, Voshon Lenard, fouled out with a bit over six minutes remaining. "I tell my players that they have to find a way to win," Minnesota coach Clem Haskins said. "I tell them that this is the way championships are won." Two players that must have been listening well to Haskins were Ernest Nzigamasabo and Townsend Orr. Nzigamasabo came off the bench to score nine points but four of them really knifed into Michigan's efforts. The 6-foot-9 senior thew up a turn- around jumper from 15 feet. That field goal gave Minnesota the lead for good, 49-47, with 8:31 remaining in the game. He later clinched the game with two free throws. Orr canned a leaning baseline jumper off a drive to the basket with 24 ticks left in the game, pushing the Gopher lead back up to three, 59-56. "I reached and gambled a little on Townsend Orr. I wish we could have made it more difficult," Fisher said. Before Orr sank his backbreaker, Michigan had a chance to tie the game at 57, but Leon Derricks missed an opportunity for a three-point play when he misfired on his free throw. "Sometimes the stats look better than the game itself," Haskins said. "I don't think we did a very good job of concentrating." The Gophers' focus began disap- pearing as the Wolverines fought. back. Following a timeout at 11:34,' Michigan cut into the Minnesota lead with a 20-10 run, keyed by three three- pointers by Fife, who scored 16. The Gophers, however, slowed the Wolverine rally with five straight, points, building their lead back up to double digits, 32-22. However, Michigan scored the last six points of the first half. "We're not going to quit. We talked about fighting and that's what we did," said Jalen Rose, who had a game-high 19 points despite shooting just 6-for-20. Michigan dropped to sixth in the conference with the loss. The Wol- verines will have a chance to end their losing streak when they take on Illi- nois Sunday at 1 p.m. EVAN PETRIE/Daily Dugan Fife scored a career-high 16 points in last night's 63-58 Michigan loss to Minnesota. MICHIGAN (58) FO FT REB MIN M-A W-A 0-T A F PTS Jackson 34 5-13 1-3 0-2 0 1 11 Derricks 18 2-4 0-1 2-3 0 4 4 Ndiaye 28 0-2 2-2 1-5 0 5 2 Rose 37 6-20 5-7 1-9 5 1 19 Fife 36 5-9 2-2 0-6 4 3 16 Saint-Jean 23 3-4 0-0 1-3 0 4 6 Crawford 10 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 0 0 Bossard 14 0-3 0-0 1-2 1 0 0 Totals 200 21-56 10-1s 732 10 18 58 FG%: .440. FT%: .600. Three-point goals: 6-18, .333 (Fife 4-8, Rose 2-6, Jackson 0-2, Bossard 0-1, Crawford 0-1). Blocks: 2 (Ndiaye 2). Turnovers: 12 (Saint-Jean 3, Crawford 2, Jackson 2, Rose 2, Derricks, Fife, Ndiaye). Steals: 5 (Bossard, Derricks, Fife, Jackson, Rose). MINNESOTA (63) FG FT REB MIN M-A W-A O-T A FPTS Carter 30 4-6 1-2 1-8 3 1 9 Walton 24 3-6 0-1 0-6 1 0 6 Kolander 26 5-9 0-2 1-5 3 5 10 Lenard 22 3-11 0-0 0-3 1 5 6 McDonald 34 3-5 2-2 0-2 4 2 9 Nzigam'bo 20 3-8 3.4 3-5 1 2 9 Grim 18 1-3 0-0 1-4 2 1 2 Orr 24 4-7 2-3 2-3 2 1 12 Winter 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Wolf 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 200 26-55 8-14 1041 17 17 63 FG%: .473. FT%: .571. Three-point goals: 3-12, .250 (Orr 2-5, McDonald 1-1, Lenard 0-3, Grim 0-2, Carter 0-1)Turnovers: 11 (McDonald 3, Carter 2, Grim,,Kolander, Lenard, Nzigamasabo, Orr, Walton). Steals: 7 (Carter 2, Kolander 2, Orr 2, Lenard). Michigan............28 30 - 58 Minnesota..........32 31 - 63 At: Williams Arena; A: 14,452 Women's basketball to face best in Big Ten I Mitsui Life Distinguished Guest Lecturer Dr. Yung Chul Park, former Chief Economic Advisor to the President of Korea, and currently President cf the Korean Institute of Finance, will be the third Mitsui Life Distinguished Lecturer for the 1993-94 academic year. Dr. Park will speak on the topic "Korean Capital Market Liberalization: Issues and Prospects" on Wednesday, January 26 at 10:30 a.m. in the Assembly Hall Boardroom of the Business School. Dr. Park's presentation will include his perspective on the present condition of the Korean economy and capital markets. The lecture is open to the public. By SCOTT BURTON DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER If the Michigan women's basket- ball team wants to grow from challeng- ing experiences, Crisler Arena may have to raise its roofs an extra 10 feet this weekend. Tonight atCrisler, the Wolverines (0-4 Big Ten, 3-10 overall) face the bestplayer in the Big Ten, Ohio State's Katie Smith. Sunday, they play the best team in the Big Ten, Penn State, also at home. And for the first time this year, they'll play in front of thousands of 'fans -that is, all the people who will watch them Sunday on SportsChannel. Not that the seven-deep, freshman- laden Michigan team is intimidated at all. Sure, the Wolverines are probably a bit outmatched in both of this weekend's contests. But no one said Michigan would win right away in 1994, so this weekend it can concen- trate on simply improving. *. "Itis probably going to be our tough- est weekend," Wolverine coach Trish Roberts said. "I just hope that the kids go out and put in a good performance, capitalize on some of the things they learned over the past game. We're working on the things that we need to do and hopefully (this weekend) we can improve on them." The No. 18 Buckeyes (2-1, 9-4), despite the standoutplay of Smith (21.5 points per game), have seen their share of struggles this season. They lost three times in the non-conference season and then to Purdue by 24 points last week. Ohio State has been desperately search- ing fora scoring complement to Smith. "I don't think we have the kind of performances that we can count on night in and night out," Ohio State coach Nancy Darsch said. "I had hoped by this point that we would have three or four people in double figures and that we would have a good idea what to expect from each starter every night. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet." See WOMEN, Page 13 P PHI N6N Est brin ourself Invites-:. i- n .-A Rush - ' ......... Th ri ' p: T h ur, .. :. 7 , L ip 903 LINCOLN Lincoln i o b tos<,k wmt o Wa~be~ sa offcfIill Street How about something this weekend? Try our $6.95 All-You-Can-Eat pizza, pasta and salad buffet! 1' 3- -'4 I 9- ''~93$~9 '.. -~' .,.,,.,... ,. .'.9A.9-,z~.. 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