10- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 2, 1995
BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK:
Ward returns; provides motivation
BARGER
continued from page 8
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By Ryan White
Daily Basketball Writer
Five weeks after injuring cartilage
in his knee against Michigan State,
freshman Jerod Ward returned to
the Michigan lineup last night against
Northwestern.
Ward entered
thegame with2:14
remaining in the
first half and made
his first attempt, a
six-foot hook shot
from the lane, af-
ter receiving a
standing ovation
Wd from the crowd.
"That felt real
nice," Ward said of the crowd's re-
sponse. "I was excited to be out there,
I felt real good."
Michigan coach Steve Fisher told
Ward before the game that he might
not play since Ward had just been
cleared for full team practice the day
before.
Ward also didn't want to make a
mistake, coming back too quickly.
"It felt good getting back out there,
but I wasn't trying to rush it or any-
thing," he said.
'According to co-captain Ray
Jackson, Ward definitely made a dif-
ference.
"We gotJerod back and he brought
a lot of motivation to the team," he
said.
Ward finished the game with two
points in six minutes played.
BASTON INJURED: While Ward
made his return in the first half, fel-
low freshman Maceo Baston exited
the game with 3:01 to go in the second
half after blocking a shot and~then
twisting his ankle.
The preliminary report is a
sprained right ankle that doesn't ap-
pear to be very serious and Baston
may be fine for Michigan's game
against Iowa Sunday.
'Mo'-TIVATED: Maurice Taylor
and the rest of the Wolverines re-
ceived a little extra inspiration before
last night's game against the Wild-
cats. They watched the highlights of
Michigan's last three tournament ap-
pearances with the Fab Five as well as
the highlights from the Wolverines'
1989 championship run.
"That's all I've been talking
about all day (since seeing the
video)," Taylor said. "I've been say-
ing 'Coach, I want to go to the tour-
nament."'
Taylor said that he'd never real-
ized how much hype and media cov-
erage there was surrounding the tour-
nament.
So does he think that by winning
their last two games the Wolverines
have assured themselves a spot in the
post-season?
"We feel like we're in, but to make
it in for sure we've got to go in and
beat Iowa on Sunday," he said.
FUTURE WOLVERINE: It's a good
bet that the maintenance men at
Dearborn Divine Child will be happy
to see Inkster High School's Albert
White at Michigan next season.
Monday in a scrimmage at the
Falcons' home court White tore down
one of the rims on a dunk. As a result
the two teams were forced to play
half-court for the rest of the scrim-
mage.
"It was probably broken al-
ready," White said of the destroyed
cylinder.
White has attended most of the
Wolverines' home games since com-
mitting to Michigan in November.
While he has enjoyed watching, he's
anxious to play.
"I can't wait," White said. "We're
going to be stacked."
and fan is hoping that March will
be the time the Wolverines play
up to the level that they are
capable of. Everything points
towards the possibility of a
successful finish to an up and
down season.
The younger players seem to
improve every time they hit the
court. Fife and Travis Conlan
have both developed into capable
floor leaders. Jerod Ward is
coming back from a knee injury.
And, King and Jackson will be
making the final runs of their
heralded careers.
The Fab Five deserves a heroic
send-off; making the tournament
alone is not enough. The
Wolverines have to make some
noise in the tournament and they
have the talent to do so.
To be completely fair, beating
Northwestern last night was no
big deal. If Michigan wants to
prove that it is for real, it will
have to win at IowaSunday. The
game is even more important
considering that with a win, the
Wolverines could move into
second place in the Big Ten.
No one should doubt that
Michigan can finish the regular
season strong and head to the
NCAA's with a legitimate shot to
go a long way.
Keep in mind, nobody
expected the Fab Five to make it
all the way to the final game when
they were freshmen. With
seasoned veterans like King and
Jackson anything can happen.
It's March, let the madness
begin.
0
Maceo Baston finished last night's game with 10 points and two blocks.
Urbanchek consistently fills the Wolverine tank with talent
By Michelle Lee Thompson
Daily Sports Writer
Every year, the No. 1 Michigan
men's swimming and diving team
gets the best high school recruits in
thenation.Theallureof No. 2 Stanford
and No. 3 Texas, both sun-belt schools
with high academic reputations, is not
always enough to get the blue chips.
But Michigan, considered by the
Gorman Report to be the bestall-around
school in the country for academics and
athletics, consistently manages to at-
tract the best swimmers and divers in
the country and the world.
"We usually follow these kids from
the time they enter high school," said
coach Jon Urbanchek, who
singlehandedly recruits every year.
Urbanchek makes several recruit-
ing trips near the beginning of each
season, and tries to sign future stu-
dent-athletes before the swimming
season even begins.
This year, Urbanchek got three
top-25 athletes to sign with Michigan
in November, finishing the recruiting
before the first major dual meet for
the second year in a row.
"We did a super job," Urbanchek
said of his three recruits:
Tom Malchow (St. Paul, Minn.)
-200 butterfly, 200 and 500 freestyle
- member of the 1993 U.S. World
Championship team and the 1995 Pan
Am Team.
Andy Potts (Princeton, N.J.)-
400 IM, 1650 freestyle -member of
the 1993-94 U.S. Junior National
Team.
John Reich.(Brandon, Fla.) -
200 and 500 freestyle.
"We got everyone we wanted,"
Urbanchek said, eyeing the statistics
on next year's fresh crop - making
this year the third year in a row for
Michigan to have gleaned the best
recruits in the nation.
one who is less regimented, more free-
spirited type of swimmer."
In addition to the nation's best
recruits, Urbanchek has in the past
successfully recruited international
students, including senior co-captains
Brazilian Gustavo Borges and Marcel
Wouda from the Netherlands.
"Either we get them in America or
they contact us," Urbanchek said. The
nationally acclaimed coach said he
went after Wouda, a distance
freestyler, solely on a recommenda-
tion from a European coach, and never
saw Wouda swim before signing him.
Borges' older sister, a foreign ex-
change student at Michigan, spoke of
her brother during her stay in Ann
Arbor, inspiring Urbanchek to recruit
the sprint freestyler.
"She came here and bragged about
her little brother who was 6-8,"
Urbanchek said.
More recently, Turkish freshman
Derya Buyukuncu signed with Michi-
gan last season, after attending high
school in Irvine, Calif. Although
Buyukuncu considered Stanford, he
ultimately chose Michigan and quali-
fied this year for the NCAAs in the
100 and 200 backstroke and the 400
free relay.
"Our program suits their needs.
Many of these athletes have Olym-
pics on their mind and Michigan has
done well," Urbanchek said.
Urbanchek has long been credited
for his recruiting tactics.-
"For those athletes who we offer a
scholarship to, we usually give a home
visit when we talk to the student, the
athletes and sometimes the coach,"
Urbanchek said.
The coach said that mothers often
need reassurance that Michigan is the
best program for their sons. "We have.
to assure them that we're here to be
kind of surrogate parents to them."
"But Michigan is not for everyone,"
Urbanchek said. "The training here is
very regimented and demanding. For
those who buy into it, it is very reward-
ing. Perhaps Stanford may be for some-
r I
Spre
ng ComAencement
aker Call For Entries:,
Student
Join The Arthritis
Foundation In Starting An
Ann Arbor Area
St. Patrick's Day Tradition
Sunday, March 19th
Hudson-Mills Metropark
Dexter, Michigan
10:30 a.m.
A 5K Run/Walk to benefit the Arthritis
Foundation, Ann Arbor Branch
$12.00 pre-registration/$15.00 day-of
$18.00 to receive a Shamrock Shuffle t-shirt
Registration/check-in will take place in
the Activity Center between 9:00 - 10:15
To recelve an Entry Form, call
572-3224
TENNIS
continued from page 8
participating in the National Team
Indoor Championships because the,
team's ranking didn't place it high4
enough to qualify.
"It was really disappointing to lose
because we were very, very close,"
senior co-captain Fielding said. "I
think we can take from that match that,
we can beat these (top-ranked) teams,
and we probably should have."
But the Wolverines received not
only a chance to erase the memory of,
the victory quickly, but were also able
to enjoy the warm weather of Puerto
Rico, where their next match took
place Feb. 24.
Michigan trounced the University
of Puerto Rico 9-0, en route to upping
its mark to 5-1. Half of the six singles
matches went 6-0,6-0 in the Wolver-
ines' favor, and the team took two of
the three doubles contests by the same
score as well. Michigan didn't allow
Puerto Rico to win more than two
games in any set.
Many of the Michigan players
agreed that it was as best a way pos-
sible to rebound from their first loss
of the season.
"We got a chance to do a lot of
hitting outside which we don't get to
do too often," Fielding said. "And
when we played Puerto Rico, wepretty
much killed them. Overall, it was a
great break."
The Wolverines begin their post-
break slate this weekend in South
Bend,Ind. Tomorrow, Michigan goes
up against Notre Dame, and Saturday
it faces Wake Forrest. Both teams are
ranked in the nation's top 20 teams.
"We're expecting really strong
competition, but we think we have a
really good shot at winning," Field-
ing said. "They should be really good'
matches."
Proceeds to benefit the programs and services of the Ann Arbor American
Juvenile Arthritis Organization, a council of the Arthritis Foundation devoted
to serving the needs of children, teens and young adults with arthritis.
The{office of University Relations is making a Call for
trflies for a Student Speaker for Spring Commencement
Saturday, April 29, 1995
10:00 a.m.
Michigan Stadium
Cnua
-Must be receiving a Bachelor's degree during Winter Term
1995 or Summer Term 1995
Be apart ofthe excitement
in one ofthesegreatpositions!
0
S
SUBMIT
-Cover letter/resume highlighting U-M scholarship, campus
leadership, and/or public speaking experience
-Typed draft of speech (no more than 5 minutes in length)
-Audio cassette tape of yourself reading speech
These exciting positions offer yOu:
aw - BRANALYMNIM f
U
I