Hockey - vs. Notre Dame Saturday, 7 p.m. Yost Ice Arena S Men's Basketball at Tennessee-Chattanooga Tomorrow,2p.m.(ESPN) UTC Arena Michigan travels to Chattanooga looking for answers * By SCOTT BURTON Daily Basketball Writer Michigan basketball coach Steve Fisher knew going into this season that his team might take awhile tojell. After all, he was handing the lead- ership role to two players accustomed -to playing out of the spotlight - Ray Jackson and Jimmy King. At the same time, there were five freshmen and a handful of inexperienced leftovers to *work into his system. However, the Wolverines' struggles in the opening month of the season are probably beyond expecta- tions. Michigan (2-2 overall) hasn't had two losses in its opening four games since the 1981-82 season. Fortunately, with Michigan try- ing to get on track, its schedule may provide the perfect opponent at the perfect time - it plays Tennessee- Chattanooga (1-1) tomorrow at 2p.m. The Wolverines defeated the Mocca- sins, 97-89, last year. "That's the beauty of the game, that you can come back after a loss and take out you're frustrations on your next opponent," Fisher said. "We have to learn how to deal with adversity and come back better pre- *ared for Saturday's game," guard immy King said. "This is a young team. I'm confident we'll get better as the season goes on." Although his squad was an NCAA tournament team last season, coach Mack McCarthy thinks his Mocca- sins are clearly a notch below the Wolverines. "Michigan has us totally out- manned," Tennessee-Chattanooga coach Mack McCarthy said. "We have to play a perfect game to stay in the contest." This season, the Moccasins beat Division II South Carolina-Aiken 94- 56 and dropped a road game to South- ern Mississippi, 68-63. For Michigan to rebound in this game, it must correct the shooting difficulties so readily apparent against Arizona. Although they showed some resiliency to score in the first half, the Wolverines' offense fell apart when the Wildcats started to put their own game together. In that game, Michigan shot 32 percent, and hasn't shot above 50 per- cent as a team in four games this sea- son. "You can't allow frustration to en- ter in because you're trying too hard," Fisher said. The Moccasins' lack of interior bulk should help Michigan's cause to- morrow. Both of Tennessee- Chattanooga's forwards, Brandon Born and Maurio Hanson, play mostly out on the perimeter, and center Roger - i Ur ;l--oft! 1 : -. BASKEIBALL NOTEBOOK Fisher exploring his options at the point By SCOTT BURTON Daily Basketball Writer Going into the season, Michigan coach Steve Fisher expected junior point uard Dugan Fife to be more aggressive in finding his shot and taking the ball to the hole. However, so far this season, Fife has struggled to make an impact on the floor. In four games, in which he has averaged 29 minutes, Fife has taken eight shots and scored five points. He is one-for-seven from 3-point range. In Wednesday night's game against Arizona, Fife only played 20 minutes and had as many fouls (three) as points. With Fife on the bench, Jimmy King and Bobby Crawford have been taking up the slack at the point. In several shifts this season, King has played the point guard with Jerod Ward or Willie Mitchell playing off-guard. 0 Since Crawford's return in Monday's exhibition with High Five America, the sophomore has also handled the point guard duties. He played 15 minutes Wednesday, shooting two-for-eight from the field with three fouls and one turnover. KING Vs. STOUDAMIRE: In many circles, both King and Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire havebeen mentioned as possible All-Americacandidates. Stoudamire was, in fact, a preseason first-team All-America selection. But in Arizona's 78-57 victory overMichigan, Stoudamire stole the spotlight. Although he struggled some in the first half, he led the Wildcats' charge in the second stanza. Stoudamire nailed five-of-nine three-pointers, including three On the first 10 minutes of second half. "He took some bad shots and made some bad decisions in the first half," Arizona coach Lute Olson said. "The great thing about Damon is that he'll recognize those things and take care of them." King had problems finding his stroke all night, making two of 12 shots for 11 points. He maintained his aggressiveness though, drawing four fouls and working his way to the charity stripe eight times. "Jimmy's been through a lot at Michigan," Fisher said. "You have to look inward and say 'I can play.' He's good and he'll show it." A SHIFT IN POWER: Although Michigan, Indiana, Michigan State and Wisconsin received the most preseason attention as the top Big Ten contend- rs, Minnesota could now be added to the list. The Golden Gophers jumped to No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25 after being unranked in the preseason. Minnesota dropped No.9 Arizona en route to winning the Great Alaska Shootout last week. In the meantime, the Hoosiers lost three of its first four games, the No. 18 Spartans opened their season with a victory over Southern California Wednesday and the No. 13 Badgers won their first two games. Blue gives 'Cocks a game, but fails,82-78 DOUGLAS Michigan's Willie Mitchell slams over Arizona's Ray Owes in the Wolverines' 78-57 loss Wednesday night. r By RAVI GOPAL Daily Basketball Writer Last night, the Michigan women's basketball team posted season highs in scoring, shooting percentage, 3-point- ers made and 3-point percentage. Yet it wasn't enough to overcome points by South Carolina guard Shannon Johnson, as the Gamecocks defeated the Wolverines, 82-78, in Columbia, S.C. Michigan (1-3) nursed a three- point lead at halftime, only to watch it dissolve within the first two minutes and three assists. These three helped contribute to Michigan's impressive offensive sta- tistics. Its 78 points, .449 shooting percentage (31-of-69) and eight 3- pointers made were all season highs. Due to Johnson and Brzezinski, the Wolverines were able to keep the deficit between four and six points the entire second half. But in the end, they couldn't make those points up. This was disappointing for Michigan, which had seemingly weatherd the storm in the first half. No kidding. More and more students are telling us how much they enjoy math after they start using Mathematica. T E Mat dica The Essential Tool for Math and Science Learning Whether you're in engineering, computer science, physics, economics, or any other technical major, you know how critical your knowledge of math is to your future. 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