When was the last time the
Michigan State basketball team
swept Michigan during the regular
season?
(Answer, page 2)
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'Respert, Spartans bowl over Wolverines
Leadership lacking as 'M' misses
*opportunity for first-place tie
By PAUL BARGER
Daily Basketball Writer
The Michigan men's basketball team went into yesterday's game
against Michigan State with a golden opportunity.
The team that was embarrassed by Penn State two weeks ago was in
sole possession of first place in the Big Ten and had a chance to show the
entire nation that it was for real.
Those aspirations fell short when the Spartans walked out of Crisler
Arena with a 73-71 victory.
The heartbreaking loss to the Spartans is a major blow to the
Wolverines' season. It is difficult
to recover after a tough loss at
C o u r ~home, especially in a league as
2 |F UU strong as the Big Ten.
The Michigan coaching staff
r ie S S now faces its toughest test of the
.. season. And it's not the Indiana
Hoosiers, Michigan's next
opponent.
The Wolverines must prove that they can put the difficult defeat behind
Ohem and stay in contention for the conference title.
"Now we've got to fight back and get ready to go the next one,"
Michigan poach Steve Fisher said.
The loss in no way diminishes the progress that Michigan has made.
Unfortunately, the schedule-makers have placed Michigan in
Bloomington tomorrow night, making a two-game losing streak a
distinct possibility.
The team can either lay down and allow the Hoosiers to continue their
impressive 51-game home winning streak, or it can battle back and try to
pull off the upset.
The season is at a pivotal juncture. It is imperative that Michigan shake off
e loss and continue the strenuous processes of improvement and growth.
"We've got to show that we're still a good team," Fisher said. "To
become better than good we need to continue to work on a few things."
Fisher's squad has been blessed with an incredible array of talent. What
it needs is more maturity.
That maturity should come with time and it will only make Michigan a
See LEADERS, Page 4
Senior's hot second half paces
Michigan State over Blue, 73-71
By RYAN WHITE
Daily Basketball Writer
The Michigan Athletic Depart-
ment gave retiring Michigan State
coach Jud Heathcote a new television
before yesterday's game against the
Spartans. If Heathcote is lucky enough
to receive a VCR from another Big
Ten team he'll be able to watch Shawn
Respert's second-half performance
over and over again.
The Spartans' senior guard ex-
ploded for 30 points over the last 20
minutes to lead No. 12 Michigan State
(4-1 Big Ten, 12-2 overall) to a 73-71
victory over the Wolverines (4-2, 10-
7), 73-71, in front of 13,562 fans at
Crisler Arena. With the win, the Spar-
tans took over sole possession of first
place in the conference.
"I thought it was the Shawn
Respert show in the second half,"
Heathcote said.
It was a show that almost didn't
happen.
Respert injured his ankle at the
end of the first half, and no one in the
Spartan lockerroom thought that he
would be able to play for the last 20
minutes. However, when there was
no swelling, he got the okay to warm-
up and decided afterwards that he was
ready to play.
"(The injury) turned out to be a
blessing in disguise," Respert said.
"It made me focus on getting my shot
off."
And get his shot off he did. After
scoring just three points in the first
half on only three shots, Respert hit 9-
for-11 in the second, including 3 of 4
from behind the 3-point arc. One of
Respert's threes came from five feet
behind the line with Michigan senior
Jimmy King right in his face. His first
trey, at the end of the first half, was
launched from somewhere near the
Crisler Arena concourse.
He finished with 33 points for the
game.
"Shawn is one of those players
that lets the game come to him,"
Heathcote said. "Then he takes (the
game) over."
Michigan coach Steve Fisher
agreed.
"He gets on a roll and he's hard to
stop," he said. "That's what great
players do, and he proved that he
belongs in that category."
Despite Respert's offensive fire-
works, the Wolverines were still in
position to tie the Spartans at the end
of the game and send it into overtime.
With the Wolverines down by two,
Michigan fouled Spartan point guard
Eric Snow with 15 seconds left in the
game.
Snow, who has been plagued by
poor freethrow shooting for much of
his career, missed both of his foul
shots.
Michigan guard Dugan Fife
brought the ball up court and, after
See SPARTANS, Page 4
Michigan State senior Shawn Respert lit up Michigan for 33 points
yesterday - 30 coming in the second half. The victory was only the second
for the Spartans over the Wolverines in the teams' last seven meetings.
}n ' +,~n q y y P . . y"4L"Blu e p u lls i th in
t one
. j ~.point of CCHA lead
By DARREN EVERSON
Daily Hockey Writer
AUBURN HILLS - The Michi-
gan hockey team has another CCHA
title in its sights, and neither the league's
first- or last-place teams could stand in
the Wolverines' way last weekend.
After blowing a two-goal lead,
Michigan (18-4-Ooverall, 13-2CCHA)
needed overtime to defeat conference
leader Bowling Green, 4-3, last Friday.
The following night, the Wolverines
handled cellar-dweller Notre Dame, 4-
3, at the Palace.
While the first-place Falcons have
played three more league games than
Michigan, the pressure was clearly on
the Wolverines to come up with a win.
A loss would have left Bowling Green
ahead by five points; instead, Michi-
gan has pulled to within one.
"That certainly gives them an edge,"
Falcon coach Buddy Powers said. "But
we fought them tooth and nail in their
barn, and we proved we belong at the
top of the CCHA."
Michigan forward Mike Legg
helped the Wolverines dispute that
claim with his game-winning goal at
1:59 of the extra session. Defenseman
-Peter Bourke, who hasn't seen a great
deal of playing time this season, sent a
wrist shot from the blue line out in front
of the net, where Legg was waiting to
tip it in.
"We were lucky in the overtime,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I
thought they outskated us, particularly
in the second period.
"I can't walk out of here feeling we
deserved to win the game, and that we
were the better team."
Early in the game, it didn't look like
Michigan would need any extra time to
See ICERS, Page 5
Bowling Green goalie Will Clarke makes a diving save on Michigan forward Mike Legg. Legg scored the game-winning goal for the Wolverines in overtime.
*'M'women drop two at
home to illini, Buckeyes
Filling A
Tall Order
Undersized Blake Sloan measures up to the competition
By DAVID ROTHBART
Daily Basketball Writer
The Michigan women's basketball
team dug itself early holes too big to
Slimb out of in weekend losses to Illi-
ois and Ohio State.
In Friday night's 68-64 loss to Illi-
nois, the Wolverines (2-5 Big Ten, 7-
10 overall) came out firing blanks, hit-
ting on just 21 percent of their shots
from the floor in the first half. The
Fighting Illini took advantage of
Michigan's weak shooting to build a
19-4 lead with eight minutes remain-
ing before halftime.
* Sophomore Amy Johnson sparked
a Michigan run with a 16-foot jumper
at the 7:52 mark. Johnson's basket was
just the second field goal of the game
for the Wolverines. Buckets by Silver
Shellman and Molly Murray brought
ines clawed to within three, 52-49, with
6:40 to play, but a six- point Illinois
spurt put the game out of reach. Murray
drained a 3-pointer with one second
left for the game's final 68-64 margin.
"We couldn't get over the hump,"
Johnson said. "We kept fighting back,
but we have to go in for the kill.",
Roberts was disappointed with her
team's early play.
"We outplayed them in the second
half," she said. "You can't give teams
a fifteen point lead and expect to come
back."
Roberts also said that this year's
Michigan squad responded differently
to the early deficit than past teams
might have, chipping away at the lead,
never giving up.
"We can't continue to let games
like this slip away," she said.
By MELANIE SCHUMAN
Daily Hockey Writer
When he was about eight years old,
Blake Sloan used to hang around the
ice rink and watch his dad Rick
coach the Triple-A Chicago Minor Hawks.
Blake could only participate in certain drills
because it was too dangerous for someone his
size to play with the 14-16 year olds.
In preseason travel team tryouts that year,
Blake watched as his dad followed one
particular kid down the ice while constantly
batting him across the butt with his stick.
Finally as they reached the blue line the stick
broke in half. And Blake went home and cried
to his mother.
This is the same staunch Blake Sloan who is
the starting left defenseman for the Michigan
hockey team. With time, he came to see his dad
athleticism allowed him to pick it up a little
quicker."
There were only two things Rick really
impressed upon Blake..One was igniting
Blake's passion for hockey, for after all, Rick
was the one who had his son hobbling around
the basements in skates just about the time he
learned to walk. And the other was to play
defense rather than forward. Learning from his
two-year experience at North Dakota, Rick
knew it was easier to teach a defenseman to be
a forward than vice-versa.
So Blake took his dad's advice and after a
brief stint of playing goalie in their driveway,
he took his defensive abilities to Chicago's
competitive Bantam and Midget leagues. After
that, he found himself a sophomore in high
school with a big decision to make.
"There is nothing after (Triple A) in
I