Hockey
vs. Kent
Tomorrow, 7 p.m.
Yost Ice Arena
S
'TS
Men's Swimming and Diving
vs. Michigan St.
Tomorrow, 7 pm.
Canham Natatorium
Michigan stays at home for recruits
eWolverines' class called third best in nation by recruiting expert
By RYAN HERRINGTON
DAILY FOOTBALL WRITER
For Gary Moeller and the rest of
the Michigan football team, the theme
of the 1994 national signing day was
"Home Sweet Home."
With nine of the 22 players sign-
ing with the Wolverines yesterday
coming from the state of Michigan,
Moeller picked up more homegrown
products than any of his previous re-
cruiting classes at Michigan.
"It was good that there were more
people from Michigan," said Moeller,
who only had three in-state players on
last year's freshman squad. "As far as
the recruiting in general, I think it
went OK."
Moeller might be modest in his
*ssessment of his new class. Accord-
ing to recruiting analyst Allen
Wallace, editor of SuperPrep maga-
zine, the Wolverines have the third
best recruiting class in the country,
behind only Tennessee and Florida
State. But Moeller doesn't believe in
these type of rankings.
"I feel recruiting gets too much
publicity anyway," Moeller said.
"You never know (how good a class
will be) until next Augustsometimes
two years after that. On paper it looks
to be a good class. We've got some
good kids in there."
The area that the Wolverines were
able to help themselves the most was
at linebacker, where five players
signed with Michigan. Among them
include Parade All-American Rasheed
Simmons, a 6-foot-6, 240 pound out-
side linebacker from Edison, N.J. who
Moeller says reminds him of current
Wolverine Trevor Pryce.
"Sizewise, they are on the same
scale," Moeller said. "He could be a
guy that could play outside linebacker,
but can also be the wide rush guy in
the nickel package."
In addition to Simmons, the Wol-
verines also signed Jeff Holtry at out-
side linebacker. The 6-foot-3, 225
pounder from Salt Lake City only
verbally committed two days ago.
Holtry will attend Michigan next fall
and then leave for two years on a
Mormon mission.
The other defensive standout
Moeller grabbed was lineman Juaquin
Feazell from Fort Valley, Ga. At 6-
foot-4, 245 pounds, Feazell had 84
tackles last year as a senior at Peach
County High School.
Despite his signings on defense,
Moeller still has a few regrets with
this year's class.
"I'd like to have one big, big guy
up front," Moeller said. "The two
kids we got (Feazell and Nate Miller)
I think are active kids, but we had a
chance at a couple kids that would
have been a big huge guy in there."
Moeller was referring to 6-foot-8,
295 pounder Orlando Pace from
Sandusky, Ohio. Pace signed with
Ohio State yesterday.
Another prominent recruit that got
away from Michigan was quarter-
back Peyton Manning, who commit-
ted to Tennessee a week ago. Yet,
Moeller was quite pleased with the
quarterback he did sign, Indiana na-
tive Scott Dreisbach.
"Quite honestly, this kid was at
our camp and we were very impressed
with him," Moeller said. "He prob-
ably doesn't have the stats some of
the other people had because he isn't
on that type of football team. He's on
a football team that's a Michigan type
of team. It's run the football, play
great defense and throw the ball. He's
got some great bloodlines. He's a
very, very good kid."
Moeller feels that recruiting in
general will suffer due to a recent
NCAA decision that eliminates a sepa-
rate recruiting coordinator as an as-
sistant.
"What we do is everybody shares
more work," Moeller said. "I don't
think it's right. You do less things
with less people to manufacture those
things, you're going to have a poor
See RECRUITS, Page 10
Gary Moeller recruited a class of 22 players for next fall, including five
linebackers. All-American Rasheed Simmons tops the list of linebackers.
I
HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
By PAUL BARGER
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
The Michigan hockey team is moving closer and
closer to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association regu-
lar season title. The Wolverines hold a 12 point lead over
second-place Michigan State and have already clinched I
home-ice advantage.4
The magic number dropped to seven after Michigan
defeated Notre Dame, 3-1, Saturday. With every Wolver-l
ine victory or Spartan loss the number drops by two.
Theoretically, Michigan can clinch the title this weekend
with victories over Kent State and Ferris State and Michi-
gan State losses to Ohio State and Illinois-Chicago.
"We want to play our best hockey in the second half,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "There is room for
improvement. Games are getting closer and tougher,
which should help us in the playoffs."
SENIOR WEEK: Seniors David Oliver and Brian
Wiseman reached major milestones in the win against thei
Irish. Oliver became the sixth Wolverine to score 1001
goals in a career, and Wiseman broke David Robert's all-Y
time Michigan assist record of 157.
"It's a nice goal to have," Wiseman said, "but it's nothing
to write home about or to get into an uproar about."
Wiseman is fourth on Michigan's career scoring listt
and Oliver is ninth.1
Senior goaltender Steve Shields added another honorr
to his resume receiving the distinction of CCHA Defen-l
sive Player of the Week. Shields stopped 88 of 91 shots for
a .967 save percentage.1
For the season, Shields has a.911 save percentage and l
a 2.28 goals against average in league play, good for firstr
in both categories.1
'M' closing in
on CCHA title
FUTURE WOLVERINES: The Wolverines have already
inked three recruits. Michigan went right after its defen-
sive deficiency in signing Chris Fox of Grosse Pointe
North high school. Fox is 6 feet 1, 180-pound.
"He has Paul Coffey type skillls," Tom Wall, general
manager of the NAJHL's Compuware Ambassadors, said.
"He's an offensive defenseman."
The other two signees are center Matt Herr of the
Hotchkiss school and right wing Bill Muckalt of Colona,
British Columbia.
POWER OUTAGE: The usually potent Michigan power
play has not lived up to its billing in the last couple of
games. The team still leads the league in the power play
scoring at a 34 percent clip.
The team's goal production has dropped off as well
The last five games have all been under the team's average
output and the goals per game average has fallen to 5.36'
The Wolverines are still dominating CCHA scor-
ing, with 150 goals in all games. The second most
potent offense is Lake Superior with 117 goals. These
rankings discount afilliate member Alaska-Fairbanks
who has tallied 162 goals on the year.
POSSIBLE OPPONENTS: With the CCHA playoffs
approachig, Michigan fans are probably wondering who
the Wolverines will get at Yost in the first round. Michi-
gan will more than likely decline the option of playing
Alaska-Fairbanks. Therefore Michigan will probably play-
last place Ohio State, who is five points behind UIC. -
The first round format is a best two out of three series;
played at the home arenas of the top six teams in the league.
If the top two seeded teams advance they will receive second
round byes. The semifinals and championship game will be
played at Joe Louis Arena, March 19-20.
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
Michigan forward David Oliver became the sitxth Wolverine to score 100 career goals Saturday against Notre Dame.
"Lone Wolverine star Brakus heads
.to Dallas for Rolex Champi1onships
By JOSH KAPLAN
FOR THE DAILY
If Michigan's Dan Brakus plans
to reach the finals of the Rolex Na-
tional Indoors Intercollegiate Tennis
Championships in Dallas, he better
not look too far down the road.
Should Brakus defeat his first-
ound opponent, Ian Williams of
Texas, his second-round opponent will
most likely be Mississippi State's
Laurent Orsini.
Orsini, a native of Nice, France,
currently reigns as the No. I player on
the men's college tennis circuit. Last
October, Orsini captured the SkyTel
National Clay Court Championships
in Jackson, Miss.
The tournament, which begins to-
i1ay, is the third leg of four in the
Intercollegiate Tennis Association
(ITA) Grand Slam. Southern Meth-
odist will host the event, which runs
through Sunday. Former Wolverine
All-American and 1994 Australian
Open quarterfinalist Malivai Wash-
ington won the prestigious tourna-
ment in 1989.
The ITA Grand Slam, in addition
to this tournament, consists of the
clay court championships, the ITA
Men's All-American Championships,
held last fall in Austin, Texas, and the
NCAA championship to be hosted by
Notre Dame in late May.
Orsini is not the only obstacle for
the Michigan senior, as the field fea-
tures most of the top men's and
women's players in the nation. None
'if (Brakus) gets off to
a fast start he can do
as well as anyone in
the tournament.'
- Brian Eisner
Men's Tennis Coach
of Michigan women's players will be
traveling to Dallas for the tourney.
Players were selected this fall in a
series of regional tournaments, as well
as by national rankings. Brakus was
one of two finalists in the District
Four Regional.
This will be Brakus' first appear-
ance in the competition. He failed to
qualify for last year's field when he
lost in the second round of the District
Four Regionals. Seeded third, Brakus
fell to unseeded Eric Shulman of Iowa.
At the All-American Champion-
ships, Brakus was defeated in the first
round, 6-4, 6-1, by Gil Kovelski of
Miami (Fla.).
Michigan coach Brian Eisner be-
lieves Brakus can perform well against
the lofty field, but must play up to his
capabilities.
"With this kind of tournament,
you can't afford to put a bad match
together," Eisner said.
Brakus, the No. 1 player on the
Wolverines' squad, could fare well
in the competition. He is ranked
18th in the nation and turned in a
winning performance against North-
ern Illinois last Saturday. Brakus
topped Marty Engel, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3,
6-3. In addition, the indoor courts
will be an advantage to the Ontario,
Canada native.
"If he gets off to a fast start," said
Eisner of his star player, "he can do as
well as anyone in the tournament."
Read Safransisco Treat.
Only in the Daily.
Department of Recreationa
Sports
INTRAMURAL
SPORTS PROGRAM
Q .'DP1T'Tr CTTCnU2VrTTI'
a'
..........................................................................................................................................
Rle Valewelire.,,e Pav,
7
= ° 's Ca^ NV J 1' O
o 0 aV 10 v65
« ( : = " r ,w e ,, she
ivy
R etro KitSCh
t ~705°schic!
Marcia!
a Marcia!
See *ee
~4J~~ onkes star
W e
petdon
I