SPORTSMonday Trivia
*When was the last time Michigan
failed to clinch a birth in the Rose
Bowl or a place in the basketball or
hockey semifinals?
(Answer, page 2)
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Inside SPORTSMonday
NCAA Hockey Bracket 2
Men's Tennis 2
The R.H. Factor 3
Men's Basketball 4, 7
Hockey 5
Swimming 6
Gymnastics 8
SPORTSMonday feature 9
NCAA Basketball Bracket 10
Final Four three -pests
thwarted
'Lake Superior hands
Top-seeded Arkansas
sends cagers packing
'M
overtime loss
By ANTOINE PITTS
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
EAST LANSING -- After four
defeats to the Wolverines this season
- including last Sunday's CCHA
championship game - Lake Supe-
rior State was looking for revenge.
The Lakers (29-10-4) got that re-
venge as they ended the season for
Michigan (33-7-1) with a 5-4 over-
time victory in the NCAA Regionals
at Munn Ice Arena. Rob Valicevic
scored 2:31 into overtime to send
Lake Superior to its third straight Fi-
nal Four.
"It was another great, classic
Michigan-Lake Superior battle,"
Lake Superior coach Jeff Jackson
said. "The last time I remember such
a game was a couple years ago in the
CCHA Championships at Joe Louis
Arena."
* Valicevic took a pass from Brad
Willner between the circles and one-
timed it past goaltender Steve Shields
for the winning goal.
"I didn't see him open," Willner
said. "He yelled pretty loud so I threw
it over there. I was going to shoot then
I heard him yell."
"I saw the puck go around,"
Valicevic said. "I was in the slot by
chance. The puck came to me and I
don't even remember hitting hit. I
looked up and it was in the net."
Yesterday's win marked the sec-
ond straight day that the Lakers had to
play an extra session to win. Against
Northeastern, Lake Superior came
from behind in a 6-5 overtime win.
"I knew Lake Superior would play
better than they did (Saturday),"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said.
"There were two good teams - it's a
shame both of us can't make it all the
way."
The Lakers used a complete team
effort to knock of the team that had
defeated them four times previously
this season.
"All 20 of our guys played the way
they were capable of today," Jackson
said. "We changed our game plan this.
week and it almost cost us against
Northeastern. Getting to the Final Four
is a great accomplishment for any
team.
Michigan stood poised to take a 4-
3 lead into the second intermission,
but the Lakers had other ideas. Kurt
Miller knocked a rebound past Shields
with three seconds on the clock to tie
the game at four.
"The last-minute goal in the sec-
ond period was a tough goal,"
Berenson said. "You don't like to
give up last-minute goals because
they're usually backbreakers and it
turned out to be an important goal."
Shields blocked the initial shot
but could not corral the rebound.
"The puck squirted free and their
guy got to it first," Shields said.
Miller's goal ended a string of
three unanswered goals by the Wol-
verines. Mike Stone scored 3:34 into
the second period to make it 3-2 in
favor of Lake Superior. Minutes later,
Jason Botterill redirected Brendan
Morrison's shot past goaltender
Blaine Lacher for a power-play goal
to tie the score.
David Oliver gave Michigan a 4-
3 lead on a power-play goal with 5:04
left in the period.
"There's no question the momen-
tum had changed," Jackson said.
"Michigan came out with three
straight goals and was taking it to us.
See HOCKEY, Page 5
By CHAD A. SAFRAN
DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER
DALLAS - Unlike most every-
one else in America, the Michigan
basketball team hasn't needed a ticket
to the Final Four the past two seasons.
This year, however, the Wolverines
will need to shell out some big-time
money if they want to enjoy the
courtside seats they've gotten so com-
fortable with.
Arkansas (29-3) will be sitting in
those sideline chairs in Charlotte,
N.C., next weekend as a result of its
76-68 victory over the Wolverines
(24-8) yesterday in front of 16,297 -
including the President and his fam-
ily - at Reunion Arena.
Led by Scotty Thurman's 20-point
performance, including 4 of 8 from
three-point range, the Razorbacks cap-
tured their first Final Four trip since
1990.
"Scotty's the type of player that
can put a team on his shoulders and
carry them all the way," Razorback
coach Nolan Richardsoh said. "He's
not afraid to take the big shot."
His biggest shot of the game may
have been his three-pointer from NBA
range with 7:47 to go in the game. The
basket put the Razorbacks up six, 61-
55, short-cutting an 11-3 Michigan
run that had brought the Wolverines
to within three, the result of Dugan
Fife's slicing, lefty layin.
While Fife's field goal may have
brought Michigan closer to Arkan-
sas, Juwan Howard was the one who
gave the Wolverines any hope at all.
Despite picking up two personal fouls
in the game's first two minutes, the
junior center did not get his third until
just 9.7 seconds remained in the game.
During that time, Howard managed
to pump in 30 points, while grabbing
13 rebounds.
"Juwan Howard is awesome,"
Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson
said. "Every time he touches the ball,
something good happens. We tried to
defend him with man-to-man, double-
teams and triple-teams. He was still
able to have a good day."
Yet, his day still wasn't good
enough for the Wolverines, who were
in danger of getting blown out early.
Michigan outscored the Razorbacks
6-1 to open the game, but then Arkan-
sas unleashed one of its feared offen-
sive explosions.I
Down 8-3 at the 15:44 mark, the
Arkansas' Corliss Williamson defends against Wolverine Juwan Howard.
Razorbacks began a 20-1 run that
would vault them into the lead for
good. Over the six minute span, Ar-
kansas hit four three-pointers, includ-
ing back-to-back treys from Alex
Dillard that pushed the lead to 14, 23-
9.
Dillard was not the only one drop-
ping bombs like a B-52. The Razor-
backs connected on 7 of 12 in the first
stanza, helping them to a 40-31 half-
time lead.
And just when Arkansas appeared
to be ready to, book its hotel in Char-
JONATHAN LURIE/Daily
Dejected Wolverines Mark Sakala (2) and Warren Luhning react to the jubilant Laker congregation at game's end.
Women
gymnasts
clinch Big
*Ten title
By TOM BAUSANO
DAILY SPORTS WRITER*
UNIVERSITY PARK - The
Penn State Concert Band got plenty
of practice with "The Victors" at the
women's gymnastics Big Ten Cham-
pionships held Saturday night.
The Michigan fight song filled
Recreation Hall a total of seven times
during the awards presentation. The
Wolverines swept every individual
title as well as the overall team title. In
addition, coach Bev Plocki was named
Big Ten Coach of the Year, Beth
Wymer was the Big Ten Gymnast of
the Year and Andrea McDonald took
Two players,
two stories
Hockey players Aaron Ward and Cam Stewart have
traveled different roads since leaving Michigan
lotte, Michigan began its own come-
back.
The Wolverines shut down the
inside, especially Southeastern Con-
ference Player-of-the-Year, Corliss
Williamson. The sophomore forward
was held scoreless for almost 30 min-
utes after scoring his fifth and sixth
points at the 12:27 mark of the open-
ing half.
"We knew that by looking at the
films that Williamson was a strong
See BASKETBALL, Page 4
Borges
leads Blue
to third at
NCAAs
By BRETT JOHNSON
DAILY SPORTS WRITER
MINNEAPOLIS - As expected,
the Michigan men's swimming and
diving team finished third at this
weekend's NCAA Championships.
However, the Wolverines set eight
school records in the process.
Meanwhile, Stanford cruised to
its third straight national title. The
Cardinal led all teams with 566.5
points followed by Texas (445.0) and
Michigan (370.9). Auburn (301.5) and
California (242.5) rounded out the
top five.
"After the first day, I wasn't so
By MICHAEL ROSENBERG
DAILY HOCKEY WRITER
ny map of the United
States will tell you Glens
Falls, N.Y., is only a short
way from Boston. If you don't
make any stops and take liberties
with the speed limit, the journey is
just over two hours. If you are
Aaron Ward, it is not that simple.
If you are Aaron Ward, you have
to make stops.
Ward, who left the Michigan
hockey team after his junior season
for the promise of National
Hockey League riches, hopes
they can't get in their own towns'
general stores.
Nobody would confuse the two
cities. They are completely
different.
So are Stewart and Ward.
The summer before he started
taking classes at Michigan, Aaron
Ward lived in a house with then-
Wolverine hockey players Don
Stone, Denny Felsner and Jim
Ballantine.
Ward had no other friends in
Ann Arbor, so his social life
revolved around the other players.
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