Jerry Welsh has been fired as coach of the Ohio State hockey team, the school announced Tuesday. Welsh coached the Buckeyes since 1976 and led the team to a 328-381-56 overall record in his 19-plus seasons. Assistant coach John Markelli has been appointed interim coach. Page 8 Thursday, February 16, 1995 Fisher answers questions at League By Jennifer Ivanelli For The Daily There are a great many unanswered questions pertaining to the future of Michigan basketball. Yesterday, coach Steve Fisher tried to decrease that number when he made himself accessible to students and the community at the Michigan League as part of the "From the coach's mouth" senes. After a brief introduction, students drilled Fisher with questions about his continued recruiting success and what he felt this year's team was capable of achieving by the endoftheseason. Fisher attrib- uted much of1 Michigan's re- cruiting success to the reputationf of the school and "I. the athletic pro-; gram. "Right now Fisher we are at the apex of our white-hot reign. I couldn't walk 30 paces (in any major city) without seeing somebody with long shorts or a No. 4 Michigan jersey," Fishersaid. "Kids identify with our Michigan basketball team." With all of this popularity, attention must be given to what happens when the program gets players who have high expectations placed upon them. Jerod Ward is a perfect example. "(Ward) has had the most difficult adjustment. He got a label placed on him that he didn't ask for," Fisher said. "Jerod had more expected of him than anyone on our team because of what you've read about him before he got here." Maceo Baston, on the other hand, has been making progress game by game. "Baston has gone from getting two minutes early (in the seasoq), to a guy who now knows he's in that three-man rotation," Fisher said. "He's going to get 20 plus minutes every game." With all of the new talent on this year's team, people questioned Fisher on why the Wolverines weren't having the same success as the last big recruit- ing class - the one that contained seniors Ray Jackson and Jimmy King. "Part of the reason that we were successful (when Jackson and King were freshmen) was an extraordinary will to win and a personality spear- headed by Jalen Rose, who pulled the others along with him," Fisher re- sponded. Cagers to face tough road test 0: The Michigan women's basketball team will play its final four conference games over break, which will have a big impact on its placement in the Big Ten tournament next month. 'M' track reares or s By John Leroi Daily Basketball Writer While students flock to warm beaches, familiar homes or random local bars over spring break, the Michi- gan women's basketball team will be facing some tough competition. With three tough contests on the road sand- wiched around one home game, the Wolverines would have little time to concentrate on classes anyway. The four games over the break round out the Big Ten schedule for Michigan (3-9 Big Ten, 8-14 overall) and will determine how it is seeded for the Big Ten Tournament in March. "We're looking at these next four games as sort of a mini-season," for- ward Jennifer Brzezinski said. "If we play the way we can, we can win them all." Michigan plays both Northwestern and Michigan State away from the friendly confines of Crisler Arena to- morrow and Sunday, respectively. Next weekend, the Wolverines return home to face Iowa before heading to Madi- son to take on No. 21 Wisconsin. Sunday's contest against the Spar- tans will be televised by SportsChannel America as the Big Ten Game of the Week. The Wolverines are coming off an 82-65 home loss to No. 12 Penn State that coach Trish Roberts deemed a "moral victory." But Michigan would like to score a few real wins in order to move up in the conference standings. And even though the Wolverines are playing as well as they have all season, some victories may be hard to come by. Although the Spartans remain in sixth place in the Big Ten, they may be Michigan's toughest challenge. Michi- gan State is riding a four-game win- ning streak that includes an impressive pair of road victories at Iowa and Wis- consin. Leading the Spartan attack arese- nior guards Christine Powers and Tanya Place. But Michigan State's biggest threat is senior forward Kisha Kelley - the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week. An All-Big Ten selection a year ago, Kelley ranks third in the conference in scoring, averagng 17.2 points per game. She also leads the Spartans in rebounds, steals'ind blocked shots. Sunday, Kelley poured in a game-high 26 points on 10-for-l1 shooting to stun the Bad- gers. For the weekend, the co-(ap- tain tallied 38 points, 14 boa' s seven assists and made all six of he* attempts from the charity stripe. "Michigan State has really been on aroll lately," Brzezinski said. "They'it come out fired up, especially because we beat them last time." Kelley needs only 49 points to pass- Kris Emerson as the Spartans' all-time leading scorer. A major key to controlling Michi- gan State is stopping Kelley and the restof the Spartan's hot shooters.Miclii- gan State is 8-0 when shooting 50 per- cent or better. Another challenge forMichigan will be playing Wisconsin in the UW Fieldhouse. The Badgers drew 11,500 fans against Michigan State Sunday-=- the first sellout of a women's eventein Wisconsin history. A threat almost as imposing as the rowdy crowd is fer ward Barb Franke. The junior was a second-team All-Big Ten selectionlast year and is averaging 16.5 points and just under eight boards per game this season. A week ago, the Badgers were in a first-place tie in the Big Ten. After the loss to Michigan State, Wisconsinp slipped all the way to third place. See BASKETBALL, Page -9 By Dan Stillman For the Daily With eight days remaining until the Big Ten Championships, feelings of hope and doubt are circulating through- out the Michigan women's track and field team's lockerroom. The Wolver- ines travel to Ypsilanti for Saturday's Eastern Michigan Classic. According to sprinter Lamika Harper, the team has struggled with its confidence this season. . I "Everyone has been putting them- selves down," the sophomore said. "It's time to stop focusing on what we haven't been able to do in the past and start believing in ourselves." Saturday's meet marks Michigan's final tune-up before the conference championships. While 26 teams will participate this weekend, the Wolverines take on a passive role, entering athletes in only one or two events. "We're going to take it easy this week," Michigan coach James Henry said. "We're winding down before the Big Tens." The Wolverines won the Big Ten title a year ago, but their chances of repeating may be in jeopardy. Much of the doubt lies in the incon- sistent performances of the sprinters and short-distance runners. Although they showed signs of improvement Saturday in East Lansing, this group has struggled throughout the season. Harper is particularly disappointed with her performance. "The Big Tens will be a chance for me to make some corrections for what I failed to accomplish earlier in the season," she said. "I haven't been able to rise to another level." Henry believes that the Wolverines are of championship caliber, and he said that Wisconsin and Illinois pose the biggest threat to a Michigan cham- pionship repeat. "We need to match-up with Illinois in the sprints, quarter-mile and multi- event. Our middle distance and dis- tance runners need to match-up with Wisconsin," Henry said. "If we ac- complish both of those, we'll have a good chance, especially since Illinois has no distance runners." Rodriguez's emotional play powers Blue to success By Alan Goldenbach Daily Sports Writer' If the Michigan men's volleyball team was the Detroit Pistons of 1989, then Ernesto Rodriguez would play the part of Dennis Rodman. That may be an extreme compari- son, but two things that one can imme- diately pick up about Rodriguez are his unrestrained personality and his explo- sive talent-two characteristics of the ex-Pistons Bad Boy. Rodriguez, a sophomore outside hitter who hails from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, is among the leaders on the Michi- gan squad in both statistics and intan- gibles. He piles up both a high number of kills and a high level of emotional output on the court. "Ernesto plays with soul," Michi- gan coach Jennifer Slosar said. "He's a spirited individual. All of his actions on the court are not fake and he plays with incredible heart." On the court, Rodriguez is hardly passive. "Ernesto is a player who thrives on emotion," Michigan captain Stan Lee said. "He likes to talk a lot on the court and that gets him going all the time." And trash talking is a part of the emotional game that Rodriguez never shies away from. "I need to talk a little trash during the match because it's part of the men- tal game," Rodriguez said. "But I only do it to gain an edge because I'm not too big and (my opponent) has to notice who I am." Three weeks ago in a match against Illinois, Rodriguez showed how his talk propels his play. Down two games to none, an injured Rodriguez entered the match that he was not supposed to be healthy enough to suit up for. Almost immediately, an opponent began feeding Rodriguez a little bit of his own medicine. Rodriguez re- sponded with some of his own trash talk and backed it up by some of his usual top-notch play. His performance got the Wolverines rolling and soon they were on their way to a five-game, come-from-behind victory over their conference rivals. "That was, by far, the one match that I have enjoyed the most in my life," Rodriguez said. "I guess I was the spark because the other guys played theirhearts out forthe rest of the match." There have been times, though, when Rodriguez's mouth has gone too far and has gotten him into trouble. He labeled a referee "officer" while argu- ing acall during amatch two weeks ago at the Collegiate Classic Tournament and received ared card for the outburst. The penalty resulted in Michigan los- ing a point, but that attitude is a key part of the Rodriguez package. "(His emotions) get him in trouble sometimes, but at the same time, it elevates the level of play of the couft," Slosar said. "It can be a curse at timzes, but it has helped us more than not." Slosar is the first to testify that* Rodriguez's smart play on the court, along with his combination of power and finesse, is unparal led on the Micht- gan squad. "He's a very smart player who uses his intelligence in every aspect of the game," she said. "He's a money player. and a go-to man in pressure situations because of how he uses his head." Rodriguez had a profound impadt. on the Wolverines, and the conference in general, a year ago. After arriving in the United States from Puerto Rico in Sept. 1993, Rodriguez garnered Alt See RODRIGUEZ, Page 9 U I ________________________ EXAMS ARE HERE Be Prepared! .upper level ade Iaa4 a&e 6687172 EARLY DEADLINES due to Spring Break, 1995 PIBLICATIONDATE. Monday, February 27 Tuesday, Februray 28 Wednesday, March 1 DEADLINE Thursday, February 16 Thursday, February 16 Thursday, February 16 jOIN THE MOST PROMISING PROFESSION OF THE 21ST CENTURY! BECOME A TEACHER! Applications are available at the School of Education, office of Student Services, Room 1033. Call 764-7563 for more information. Deadline: March 1, 1995 KRafthe RiversWild The Michigan Daily will not be published the week of February 20 -24, 1995 For a free copy of the Summer Session '95 catalog, call 1-800-FINDS NU (in Illinois, call 708- 491-5250), fax your request to 708-491-3660, e-mail your request to summer95@nwu.edu, or mail this coupon to Summer Session '95, 2115 North Campus Drive, Suite 162, Evanston, Illinois 60208-2650. U I m .,.. '''