Women's Basketball vs. Nebraska Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Crisler Arena S S Women's Gymnastics Meet the Wolverines Friday, 7 p.m. Cliff Keen Arena Buckeyes struggle to fimd iche in hockey By DARREN EVERSON Daily Hockey Writer Thanks to junior forward Jerry *Welsh's team-leading 28 goals, Ohio State notched 24 victories and when all was said and done, the Buckeyes found themselves atop the CCHA - in 1972. Ohio State has not reached that point since, coming up short in each of the 20 seasons it has been in the league (the Buckeyes didn't play in the CCHA from 1973-75). This year . no exception thus far. When the uckeyes entertain Michigan Friday, they will enter the game in last place without a league win to their credit. Such futility begs the question: What's gone wrong? "What's happened (to the pro- gram) - you can't put your finger on," said Welsh, who is in his 20th year as Ohio State's head coach. "There just isn't any one thing." Welsh has seen his share of suc- cess while at Co- lumbus. Between 1978 and 1984, Ohio State aver- aged more than 24 kx, wins per season, finishing second in the CCHA five out of the six years. Back then, the Welsh Michigan hockey program was certainly not a winning one. Its resurrection, however, came to pass about the same time Ohio State fell apart. In the process of winning league titles and making NCAA appearances, the Wolverines have run up a 21-game unbeaten streak against the Buckeyes. 0 This dominance is no accident. Michigan's teams have been made up of junior hockey and high school stars both from in- and out-of-state, while Ohio State almost exclusively features non-Ohio athletes. The glar- ing lack of native Buckeyes might not be much of a surprise, either. "High school and junior hockey 'is real big in Bowling Green but it st doesn't exist anywhere else in he state," said Ohio State captain Adam Smith, who hails from Bowl- ing Green and is one of just two Buckeyes from Ohio. "The thing was that it was tough before to play both junior and high school hockey because there were rules against it, but that's changed now." Ohio certainly isn't a hockey hot- *ed like Michigan and Canada are, and the lesser amount of interest is perhaps most evident in the fans, or lack thereof. "As far as knowledge (of the game), the fans are a bit behind," Bowling Green State defenseman Quinn Fair said. "It's not like in Canada where everyone and their dog knows the game, but they're defi- eitely picking it up. You get asked a few silly questions by some of the fans but I see the interest." Fair ought to know about Cana- dian-style hockey, having grown up and played in Ontario. He chose to continue his hockey career at Kent State (another CCHA school in Ohio), but when that school dropped its pro- gram at the end of last season, Fair 4 pted to head to yet another Ohio Rniversity -just not Ohio State. "One of the obvious reasons is the facility there and the tradition (at Bowling Green)," said Fair, who also See BUCKEYES, Page 10 'M' cagers ground Eagles Brzezinski's career high 28 points leads Wolverines By RAVI GOPAL Daily Basketball Writer YPSILANTI --Led by a dominat- ing performance from junior forward Jennifer Brzezinski, the Michigan women's basketball team crushed East- ern Michigan (2-3), 82-67, last night. Brzezinski's 28 points and 18 re- bounds were both season highs for the Wolverines (3-3). She also passed the 300 mark in both career scoring and rebounding last night. Brzezinski attributed her success this season to the removal of the brace that had been on her left knee all of last year. "I feel so free," Brzezinski said. "It was very annoying." Her frontcourt mate, freshman Pollyanna Johns, also had a big night. Johns tallied 15 points and cleared 12 boards. Michigan coach Trish Rob- erts had nothing but praise for the 6- foot-3 center. "That's the best she's played," Rob- erts said. "When she gets the rebound, she gets the outlet pass very quickly." With Brzezinski and Johns pouring in 20 points and 17 rebounds by half- time, the Wolverines took a43-32 half- time lead into the lockerroom. Yet, Michigan was not without its problems in the early going. Although the Eagles put on a woeful offensive display, going 3-for-16 from the field to begin the game, the Wolverines couldn't gain the lead. This was largely due to Michigan's turnovers. Fresh- man point guard Molly Murray was the main culprit, giving the ball away three times in the first few minutes of the game. Murray remained concerned about her play outside of her natural forward position. "My game's still coming along," Murray said. "I'm not too confident (playing the point)." The Wolverines bested Eastern in the shooting department, going 18- of-40 (.450) from the field in the first half, to offset their poor ballhandling. Keyed by runs of 7-0 and 9-2, Michi- gan took the lead at 23-22 and never looked back. Freshman guard Akisha Franklin played an important role in the two surges, with her defense flus- tering the Eastern backcourt. Her 10 points was her high for the season. Roberts attributed Franklin's outburst to an increase in confidence. "(Akisha) seemed like she was scared (in the early part of the sea- son)," Roberts said. It was the Wolverines who were frightened, though, as Eastern cut the Wolverines' lead down to five, 47- 42, minutes into the second half. But a Michigan barrage of 10-4 quickly erased any hopes of a Eagle victory. Johns, Franklin and sophomore guard Amy Johnson all joined in the scoring parade. Johnson posted 12 points for the game, the first time in three games that she hasn't led the team in scoring. The end of the game belonged to Brzezinski. Blowing by her defend ers, she carried Michigan to its sec- and victory in a row. MICHIGAN (82) FO FT JIM MIN MA MA OT A F Pt Shellman 24 2-8 0-1 0-5 2 3 4 DiGiacinto 21 2-4 0-0 1-5 1 0 4 Brzezinski 31 12-18 4-6 10-18 4 3 28 Murray 33 3-11 1-2 1-4 0 4 9 Johnson 33 6-18 0-1 1-3 2 4 12 Franklin 22 3-11 4-8 2-4 4 3 10 Sikorski 8 0-1 0-0 0-1 03 0 Johns 20 7-9 1-2 7-12 0 4 15 Willard 8 0-0 0-0 2-3 11 0 Totals 200 35-80 10.20 2456 1425 82 FG%:.438. FT%:.500. Three-point goals: 2-17, .118 (Murray 2-6, Johnson 0-5, Franklin,0-5, Shellman 0-1). Blocks: 5 (Brzezinski 3, Johns 2). Turnovers: 19 (Murray 7, Shellman 4, DiGiacinto 2, Johnson 2, Brzezinski, Franklin, Sikorski, Willard). Steals: 11 (Brzezinski 3, Murray 3, Franklin 2, Shellman, Sikorski, Johns). Tchnical Fouls: none. EASTERN MICHIGAN (67) PG FT REB MIN W.A M-A 0OT A F PIS Parsons 39 6-18 10-13 7-11 0 2 22 Strefling 39 5-12 4-4 3-8 0 3 14 Moorman 39 2-8 4.4 1-8 1 0 8 McCormack 37 4-11 6-7 04 1 3 14 Silvers 22 2-7 2-2 0-1 4 4 7 Waters 16 0-3 24 0-2 1 2 2 Brown 6 0-0 0-1 0-1 02 0 Randle 2 0-0 0.0 0-001 2 Totals 200 19.59 28-35 1540 717 67 FG%:.322. FT%: .800. Three-point goals: 1-7, .143 (Silvers 1-2, McCormack 0.2, Moorman 0-2, Parsons 0-1). Blocks: 2 (Strefling, Moorman). Turnovers: 21 (McCormack 5, Silvers 5, Moorman 4, Parsons 3, Brown 2, Waters, Strefling). Steals: 8 (Silvers 3, McCormack 3, Parsons 2). Technical Fouls: none. Michigan......4339 -- 82 Eastern Michigan 3235 -67 At: Bowen Field House; A: 325 DOUGLAS KANTER/Daily Michigan center Jennifer Brzezinski blocks Emily McCormack's shot in the Wolverines 82-67 victory over Eastern Michigan. CBS to keep Final Four through 2002 NEW YORK (AP)-CBS Sports, the big loser of 1993, topped off its comeback year Tuesday with a $1.725 billion NCAA deal that keeps the Fi- nal Four on CBS through 2002. Carrying the highest total price tag of any TV sports rights deal ever made, it replaces a seven-year, $1 billion deal that still had three sea- sons to run. "1994 has been a very busy and exciting year for CBS Sports," CBS Sports president David Kenin said. The NCAA deal comes nearly 12 months after CBS lost the NFC por- tion of the NFL contract to Fox, cap- ping a year of infamy in which CBS also lost the rights to major league baseball. "There was a terrific and genuine sense of loss at this time last year," Kenin said, "but it was tempered with a lot of professional activity.... I think we felt that anything was possible." This year alone, CBS has acquired rights to SEC football and basketball; Big East football; the Fiesta, Orange and Cotton bowls; the Army-Navy game; and the 1998 Nagano Olym- pics, for which it paid aWinter Games- record $375 million. In addition, the network extended its contratts with Big Ten basketball and the PGA Championship and PGA Tour, both for four more years through 1998. Here is the Associated Press top 25 men's basketballrankings, with first-place votes in parenthe- ses: Team 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. North Carolina (54) UCLA (5) Arkansas (3) Kansas (3) Massachusetts Florida (1) Kentucky Arizona Duke Connecticut Maryland Minnesota Cincinnati Wisconsin Michigan State Arizona State Georgia Tech Georgetown Syracuse Virginia Ohio U. New Mexico State Michigan Villanova Wake Forest ,. L ECIAL ADVANCE SCREENING - a ATENTION DISPLAY ADVERTISERS: The Michigan Daily has scheduled the following EARLY DEADLINES for Winter Break. N mmmsasmmmN -mamamamams PUBLICATION DATE DEADLINE Thursday, January 5 Tuesday, December 13 Friday, January 6 Tuesday, December 13 1 A F tf 9 1 f1 1 1 Monday, January 9 Tuesday, December 13 - -> IIIELi Iiguu&iix " eIidTsm~I4i .. _tin 'p ftIS RP IIRES? AWI1111N6' n' , N R [rhN( E stE r a ba I