ol 4le WIC4i ttn tti1

13

Unheralded FI e's contnbutions
put game in ' 'win column

is stat line was unspectacular: three
rebounds to go along with nine
points and five assists. He didn't have
any monster dunks; he didn't block anybody's
shot into the mezzanine.
But make no mistake about it: Dugan Fife
was the catalyst in Michigan's 67-66 win over
Penn State yesterday.
Fife didn't score the winning basket with
nine seconds left - that was left for Maurice

aylor. Fife just set the
k that gave Taylor a
wide-open jam.
Fife didn't have
eight assists, including
the feed for Taylor's
dunk - that was
Travis Conlan's duty.
Fife only suggested
that particular play
during Michigan's
eout.
Nife didn't hit three
treys or score 13 points
-he left that to Louis

If

BRENT
McINTOSH
McIntosh
Classics

to let any upstart Penn State team take that
from him.
"I had an open look," Fife said. "Trav set it
up with a nice pass, and I had to take it."
The Wolverines were struggling when Fife
nailed his shot. Louis Bullock was obviously
shaken after missing a key breakaway dunk,
which he followed with another fast-break
miss. The Wolverines were fortunate to have
Maceo Baston trailing him for the tip-in that
tied it at 62.
But Penn State's Glenn Sekunda knocked
down two free throws on the next possession
to put the Nittany Lions back in the lead.
With Bullock preoccupied and Michigan's
other offensive standby, Maurice Taylor,
tallying four quiet buckets as his only scores
to that point, the Wolverines were woefully in
need of someone to step up and provide a
score.
Conventional wisdom would not tab Fife as
the obvious choice.
The guard from Clarkston is averaging only
3.8 points per game.and has been relegated to
a substitute role this season after starting
every game for two seasons. Even then, his
role was not to score, but to be the quintessen-
tial point guard: dribble and pass, shoot only
when needed.
Moreover, Fife has earned the scorn of a
significant portion of the Michigan student
section. Cries of "Shoot!" resound every time
Fife passes up an open shot; fans seem
disappointed that his first priority is almost
always to dump the ball into the post or give
it up to the other guard. Although Michigan
coach Steve Fisher has repeatedly said that
Fife is not expected to let fly every time he
See McINTOSH, Page 2B

Michigan
hands Penn
Staite fir-st
loss, 6-
By Barry Sollenberger
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan's Dugan Fife isn't likely to play in
the NBA next season.
But the senior guard has a career in coaching
ahead of him if yesterday's 67-66 Wolverine
victory over Penn State in front of 13,562 at
Crisler Arena is any indication.
With the Nittany Lions (4-1 Big Ten, 13-1
overall) up one and only 16 seconds remaining,
Fife convinced Michigan coach Steve Fisher to
call a play named "Denver" during the second of
two timeouts.
After the break, Fife set the crucial pick on
Penn State's Calvin Booth, Travis Conlan hit
Maurice Taylor down low and Taylor, who was
more open than a 24-hour convenience store,
slammed home the game winner with nine sec-
onds left.
"During the timeout, I was looking to run
something else," Fisher said. "And Dugan said,
'Coach, we've got great shots every time we've
run Denver.' Travis did a nicejob getting Maurice
open and I could have made that one."
Credit the coach with allowing another coach
to emerge.
After Taylor's dunk, Penn State had one more
chance, but the Wolverines' Maceo Baston
blocked guard Dan Earl's leaner in the lane. The
clock then proceeded to run out and the Nittany
Lions' perfect season went right with it.
"Maceo read the play and stuck that big ol'
See MICHIGAN, Page 28

Bullock. Instead, he stroked his lone 3-pointer
with under a minute remaining and the
Wolverin'es down two.
It was that shot, a 21-footer fired with
newfound confidence, that grabbed the rest of
the Wolverines by the nape and hauled them
back from the precipice known as third place
in the Big Ten.
*The senior captain's jumper pointedly
informed the other Wolverines that whatever
course of action they might choose, Fife was
not going home without a fight. Fife had
come to Crisler yesterday to win his 15th
consecutive home game, and he wasn't about

KRISTEN SCHAEFER/Daily
Michigan's Maurice Taylor puts up a jump hook over Penn State's Calvin Booth. Taylor's dunk with
nine seconds left provided the winning margin in the Wolverines' 67-66 victory yesterday.

i

995-96 MICHIGAN
WIMMING AND DIVING OUTLOOK
The clock
never stops
Beth Jackson lives through every
second of her All-American career

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,
:
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---- -

JO WSRAEOal


Michigan's John Madden scored two goals in less than a minute during the third period last night against Notre Dame.J
Notre Dame latest'M' blowout victim
Third-ranked Wolverines cruise to easy victory, 11-1, over Fighting Irish

By Marc Ughtdale
Daily Sports Writer
Beep! Beep! Beep!
It is 5:37 a.m. Beth Jackson bounces out of
bed and begins the eight-minute quest to
ready herself for early swimming practice.
She dresses, grabs some coffee and dashes out
the door.
At 5:45 a.m., she slides into a teal Toyota
Corolla and leaves-the Kappa Kappa Gamma
sorority house on Hill Street to embark on a
long, meticulously organized day that
includes two practices, classes, homework
and an occasional meal.
In Jackson's organized
obstacle course, every
second is precious.r
Jackson is more than just a
traditional student-athlete;
she is a renaissance
woman.
As a student at Ursiline
Academy in Cincinnati,
Ohio, she received the
highly acclaimed Presiden-
tial Scholar award. In
college, she attended the
Olympic Trials and the
World University Games
in Japan.hsae
Jackson has a keen Jc

3.4 GPA.
Unlike the stereotypical athlete who tackles
elementary classes, Jackson finds herself
constantly enmeshed in arduous problem sets
that she simply refers to, as "intense." When
homework prevented her from sleeping, she
reduced the number of chemical engineering
courses in her schedule. Even Beth Jackson is
not an iron woman.
She is taking a lighter load this year and
plans on graduating in May 1997. Recently,
she has found her economics and accounting
courses enjoyable, and
will look to parlay the
combination of an MBA
and chemical engineering
degree into a management
position.:
Michigan women's
swimming and diving
coach Jim Richardson has
found that Jackson is an
unusual student-athlete.
She is not the typical,
stereotyped athlete,"
.........~.Richardson said. "She is
one of many athletes who
are gifted intellectually
and athletically.
son With all of the emphfasi,

r Nicholas J. Cotsonika
Daily Sports Writer
Yost Ice Arena isn't the place to go for
suspense. If it weren't for pizzas and sieves,
the crowd would have nothing left to wonder
about. '
But even those things are becoming as pre-
dictable asMichigan hockev games.

ranked Wolverines demolished Notre Dame,
I 1-1, cruising to their sixth straight blowout.
Michigan chased its opponent's goaltender
from the net for the eighth time in its last I1
home games.
And the Wolverines scored the five goals
necessary to give the fans half off Cottage Inn
pizza - before the first period was over.

Red Berenson said with a smirk.
The Wolverines (15-3-0 CCHA, 20-4-0 over-
all) have reduced their games to a sort of Greek
drama. The audience knows the outcome be-
forehand but comes to watch its favorite actors
play familiar roles.
Michigan's leading men did not dissappoint
against the Fighting Irish (5-11-3, 6-14-3).

ki

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