8- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 3, 1994 Men's gymnastics faces tough competition at weekend meets in Ohio Baseball owners prepare. for additional expansion By JOSH KARP DAILY SPORTS WRITER Michigan men's gymnastics coach Bob Darden must be a huge fan of Chicago Cub Hall-of-Fame shortstop Ernie Banks. When he planned his squad's schedule for this weekend, he prob- ably said to himself, "Let's play two." The No. 5 Wolverines travel to Kent, Ohio, on Friday to participate in a meet with No. 19 Kent State and No.18 Army. Both Michigan and Army head to Columbus on Saturday to take on No. I Ohio State. "We're looking at the Kent meet as just being a real good competition to start to focus on our last third of the season toward Big Tens," Darden said. "We're gonna try to work on the real fine points of our routines. The main focus will be sticking all our dis- mounts without any deduction. "(Kent) is a consistent team," Darden added. "They're a high 260 (team score) team and will give us competition through the top two or three performers on every event. Where we win the meet is in the strength in our (last three) positions." Realizing the difficulty of facing Ohio State a day later, Darden may fiddle with the lineup and give some of his top performers a rest at Kent. Darden admits that beating the Buck- eyes will be tough. "Ohio State is the absolute best team through the top four positions," Darden said. "They are weighted very heavily at the top several positions with very good performers." These performers include Blaine Wilson and Drew Durbin. Wilson is the No. 1 all-arounder in the nation, sporting a 57.20 average. Luckily for Michigan, Durbin - ranked No. 2 with a 56.975 - will not be compet- ing. He will be in Florida battling top gymnasts from around the world in the American Cup. The Buckeyes also have Kip 'Ohio State will be a well-contested meet. It will come down to the final event,' - Bob Darden Men's Gymnastics Coach Simon, ranked No. 12 in the all-around with a 56.25. Michigan is counting on sopho- more Bob Young to come up with big results. Young, the No. 14 all-arounder at 56.125, said it will take more than his skills to prevail in Columbus. "Brian Winkler, Rich Dopp and Raul Molina will have to come up with some big sets to keep the pace going," Young said. "(Ohio State) is an amazing team. If they don't have the greatest meet of the year, and we have a great meet, then I think we can surprise them." Although Michigan is rated No. 3 in the nation on floor exercise, Ohio State stands at No. 2. Darden feels for his team to succeed, sophomore Kris Klinger must get the team off to a strong start in the event. "We've got to have a full effort out of our floor squad," Darden said. "The first position is very critical. We'll try to put a person in that posi- tion that we have absolute confidence in. (Kris) is a real strong performer and he'll be up first to set the frame of mind for the event." The Wolverines have been wait- ing to face Ohio State all season long. Now that it's here, how does every- one feel? "It's gonna be a lot of fun," senior Ben Verrall said. "Everyone on our team is psyched up. We're gonna hit our sets." "Ohio State will be a well-con- tested meet," Darden said. "It will come down to the final event. We will make it very competitive for them." SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Baseball owners took a first step to- ward additional expansion yesterday by establishing a committee but made it clear that adding teams probably was years away. John Harrington of the Boston Red Sox was picked to head the panel. Most owners say they won't consider expansion until a new labor agree- ment is reached with the players, making it unlikely new teams would start play until 1998 at the earliest. "Their charge is to report back to us, hopefully by the June meeting," executive council chairman Bud Selig said. "But that's not cast in stone. It depends on the task and how complex WISCONSIN Continued from page 5 "It was our defense, and really the defensive rebounding that was key for us," said Kilbride, who 11 points, including nine from behind the arc. "We eliminated their second shots." Indeed, the Badgers out-rebounded Michigan, 18-13, in the second half, and held the Wolverines to just four offensive boards. That was something Wisconsin could not do in the first half. Michigan totaled 10 offensive rebounds in the first to help overiome a dismal 31.4 percent shooting effort. The Badgers came out on fire. After Juwan Howard gave Michigan its only lead, 2-0, with a short jumper to open the game, Wisconsin began an 18-6 spurt over the next six minutes of play to push its lead to 10. Continued from page 5 2. Reduce the number of bath- rooms. There's nothing like good old-fash- ioned deprivation to foster bonding, and besides, fewer bathrooms means that many fewer distractions from the game. And for those of you who just have to go (wimps), just think of all the people you'll meet in line. It'll be just like going to the bathroom at a frat party, but with toilet paper. 3. Add a goofy spectacle. This doesn't necessarily have to be a mascot. Any wacky diversion like say, Ricky Birdsong, will do. Crisler has become entirely too serious and uptight. Why, just last week, a woman told me she couldn't it gets." Phoenix and St. Petersburg, Fla., are considered the leading candidates. St. Petersburg has the empty Florida Suncoast Dome, and Phoenix Suns president Jerry Colangelo has as- sembled an ownership group and ob- tained financing to build a convert- ible stadium with a roof. Expansion by one team in each league would create 15-team leagues and force interleague play. Harrington said an option is to have one league expand by two teams and have the other remain at 14. The leagues had differentsizes from 1977 until lastyear, when the National League added Colo- rado and Florida. 'It was our defense, and really the defensive rebounding that was key for us.' - Andy Kilbride Wisconsin guard Badger swing man Michael Finley scored seven ofhis game-high 20 points during that span, and his free throw at the 9:45 mark gave his team a comfort- able 19-10 lead. But thanks in large part to its effort on the offensive glass, Michigan closed the gap, en route to a 31-26 halftime deficit. "As miserably as we shot, I felt OK at halftime," Fisher said. "We did some things tonight that are uncharacteristic for us. But in the second half, we just didn't get it done." get into cheering for the team be- cause, "Who do they think they're fooling? Those guys don't look a thing like the Wolverines I see at the zoo...." 4. Jazz the cheerleaders. No offense intended to our men and women in polyester, but they're paid about as much attention as Tonya Harding at a beauty contest. To make matters worse, the cheers lack a certain flavor, and are grossly outdated. Why not dress up rappers Cypress Hill in Maize and Blue? It would be a '90s change of pace, and besides, they have always been able to get a crowd to clap in unison. With the implementation of these suggestions, Crisler is bound to be- come the booming box of bedlam it is capable of being. SARAH WHITING/Daily Sophomore Kris Klinger, shown here on the high bar, wi lead off the floor exercise for the Wolverines this weekend against No. 1 Ohio State. - O)S is a registrerd trademark of !Microsoftt (rporaaon. Star \X nd~ R Bubbkle e are trademarks of Cation Inc. (. 094 CIlloll L .S. .. Ilic. w U The Fifth Annual Pre-Med Students' Synposiuma Being a Part of the Changing Medical Profession" Featuring Keynote Speaker Dr. Susan Hershberg Adleman Satuday, March 12,1994 10:00 a.m. - 3:15 p.m. Michigan Union Information and registration forms available at: " Career Planning & Placement 3200 Student Activities Building " Pre-Medical Club Office 4319 Michigan Union or by contacting: " Becky Dragiewicz Conference Chairperson Preregistration by March 5 is strongly encouraged Symposium Topics Medical School Preparation Medical Specialties Issues in Medicine 01 Sponsored 8y The Pre-Ned Club Career Plannintg & Placement Michigan Student Assembly Right now, our personal word processors come with extra characters. or a limited time, when you buy a Canon StarWriterTM personal F word processor, you get three free disks filled with more than 200 clip art illustrations, holiday art and borders which you can use for all your very serious projects (yeah, right). 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