Ube Bidbiiuan aig
AN
hh A~
Battle oft/e
Bi es: Give
the rst round
S azvkeyes
OWA CITY - During the Big
Ten preseason press conference in
early November, a couple of
media guys found time for a little
chit-chat.
Their conversation - I'll call them
Harry and Sam - went something
e this:
Harry: "What do you think about
Iowa and Michigan?"
Sam: "The two best teams in the
conference, no
question."
<, r Harry: "And
the Hawkeyes'
Jess Settles and
the Wolverines'
* 'p"Maurice
Taylor?"
Sam: "With
RRY apologies to
SOLLENBERGE Indiana's Brian
Sollenberger Evans, the two
in Paradise best players in
the conference.
Boy will that Iowa-Michigan
matchup Jan. 28 in Iowa City will be
something."
It sure was. If you are a Hawkeye
an, that is.
Settles and his buddies rolled over
Taylor and his pals, 70-61, yesterday
at Carver Hawkeye Arena. The
Wolverines didn't help their cause by
committing 23 turnovers and shooting
23 of 60 (38 percent) from the field
for the game.
While neither team is currently
among the top two in the league
standings, the game had that No. I vs.
4 o. 2 feel to it. Iowa was the media's
eseason pick to win the league with
ichigan.second. While both teams
have struggled early in conference
play, the Big Ten season is a long war
and these two teams figure to be
standing at the end of it.
Give round one between these two
heavyweights to Iowa.
"It was obviously a great effort by
our ballclub," Iowa coach Tom Davis
said. "From top to bottom, I don't
*ink this team could have played
much harder."
Settles and Taylor didn't disap-
point. The Iowa junior had a solid 12
points and nine assists. Not to
mention that he seemed like he was in
100 places at once.
"Jess was exhausted coming down
the stretch," Davis said. "He just gave
everything he had."
Taylor contributed a team-high 17
ints and registered a career-high 14
rds.
"He's very strong and has great
hands," Davis said. "The ball just
seems to feather into those hands.
He's a great player."
But neither Settles nor Taylor was
the best player on the floor yesterday.
That honor belonged to Iowa's
Andre Woolridge.
The junior consistently bombed
m the outside and jetted by
ichigan's baffled trio of guards. He
finished with 28 points.
"The perception is sometimes
different than the reality," Michigan
coach Steve Fisher said. "The reality
is that Andre Woolridge is the best
guard in the Big Ten."
The Hawkeyes easily beat Michi-
gan without the shooting touch of
their top two scorers - Russ Millard
nd Chris Kingsbury.
beImagine what the final would have
been if Millard (1 of 7 from the field)
and Kingsbury (1 of 13) hadn't
played like they were at a bricklaying
convention.
But their shooting woes didn't
matter. Woolridge and the Carver-
Hawkeye crowd were too much for
Michigan.
Woolridge would bomb from the
.utside. And the crowd noise would
deafening. Woolridge would drive
the lane for an easy lay-in. And the
crowd noise would be deafening.
Over and over again.
Indeed, it was not a good day to
leave the ear plugs at home.
"Indiana and then here are two of the
e rol is over
Once-hot Wolverines barely tie
Buckeyes, lose to
By John Leroi
Daily Sports Editor
BOWLING GREEN- If Michigan's bus broke
down on the way back from Ohio, the whole
weekend may have been lost. As it was, the
Wolverines' two-day excursion to Ohio State and
Bowling Green ranked somewhere between total
disaster and nuclear holocaust.
Michigan managed to salvage just one point on
the weekend, dropping a 6-5 decision to the Fal-
cons the day after they escaped Columbus with a
4-4 tie.
The Wolverines (15-4-1 CCHA, 20-5-1 over-
all) played as poor a defensive series as they have
all season and had trouble solving two constrict-
ing defenses as well.
"This is a feeling that I know I'm going to
remember when I strap on the skates Monday,"
Michigan center Mike Legg said of the disap-
pointing weekend. "We'll be skating hard then.
We'll all be working harder at least I know I
will."
Michigan is coming off a two-game series with-
out win for the first time since the 1993-94 season
when they dropped a pair to Miami (Ohio). Even
worse for the Wolverines, with just one point this
weekend, they fall into a third-place tie with Lake
Superior State, five points behind league-leader
Michigan State. The loss to the Falcons (10-8-1,
}
Bowling Green
16-10-1) was Michigan's first since a Dec. 9
setback at Western Michigan.
The Wolverines' biggest problem was their
defense, or lack thereof. The 10 goals Michigan
surrendered equals the amount of scores it gave up
in the previous eight games.
It wasn't exactly a career weekend for Michigan
goaltender Marty Turco. The sophomore allowed
all 10 goals on just 38 shots. Bowling Green did a
decentjob setting up its scores, but Turco was less-
than-average against the Buckeyes, who sport the
league's worst offense.
"After the kind of goals (Ohio State) got on me,
I admit, I got I got a little down on myself," Turco
said. "It hurt me a little bit the kind of goals they
were getting.
"As a goalie, you love an opportunity to have an
impact on the game. Both nights I got that and I
didn't perform."
Michigan had trouble getting its offense going
both nights. Ohio State (3-13-4, 5-13-4) extin-
guished Michigan's red-hot offense with a tight
neutral zone trap and kept the Wolverines from
getting any offensive momentum at all. In fact, the
Ohio State outplayed, outthought and outhustled
Michigan all night.
If it weren't for two Michigan goals in the
games' final two minutes, the cellar-dwelling
See LOSSES, Page 4B
On his way to 28 points, Iowa's Andre Woolridge howls during the Hawkeyes' 70-61 victory yesterday.
Too easyl
Iowa drops foul-plagued Blue
Michigan beat the
Falcons, &1,
earlier this
seasonin Bowling
Green. Saturday,
however, the
Wolverines
weren't as
successful,
dropping an
exciting 6-5
game. Mike Legg
scored three
points in both of
Michigan's games
this weekend.
WALKER VANDYKE/Daily
..- }
y{
By Michael Rosenberg
Daily Sports Writer
IOWA CITY - Before the pregame show,
before the Super Bowl, even before the special
episode of "Friends," Michigan and Iowa played
a men's basketball game.
If you're a Wolverine fan and you
missed it, don't worry.
"Friends" was much prettier.o
The 16th-ranked Wolverines
turned the ball over 23 times in their Michi
70-61 loss, which dropped their Big
Ten record to 4-3 and their chins to
their chests.
"At the end of the first half, I saw
Iowa sprinting up the floor and I saw fe l
us with our heads down," said Michi-
gan coach Steve Fisher, whose team
is now 14-6 on the year. "We had a feel and a look
of a team that didn't think it could win."
The No. 22 Hawkeyes' sprint off the floor
followed their sprint to a nine-point halftime lead.
Andre Woolridge scored 14 first-half points and
Jess Settles added 20 for Iowa (4-3, Big Ten, 15-
4, overall). But the most important play of the
game didn't involve anyscoring at all.
Fisher sent Louis Bullock into the game with
0:42.8 left in the first half to make an impact.
Unfortunately for Fisher, the only impact Bullock
Hangover kfrs success-drnk i 'er
made 'was
va70,
Igan 61
on Kenyon Murray's chest. Bullock
charged into Murray three seconds
before halftime.
It was Bullock's fourth foul.
It ruined his day.
"It was poor judgment on his part,
for sure," Fisher said, "and maybe
on my part as well for assuming he
would have better judgment."
After the foul, Iowa chose to have
Ryan Bowen throw a full-court pass
offthe hands ofiess Settles to Murray
for a layup at the buzzer. The
OWLING GREEN - Getting drunk can be
loads of fun, but you give up a lot at the
same time. Your sense of reality goes. You
start to lose control. And you
can't concentrate as well.
The effects are even more
intense when you're drunk
and playing hockey. Win asr
many games as Michigan has
recently, and you start to
believe you can score fromY
the bench, beat people to the
puck while coasting, and win NICHOLAS J.
by just showing up. COTSONIKA
You get drunk on success. The Greek
The Wolverines have been Speaks
having quite a party recently.
They've downed second-tier
CCHA teams like many college students do beer.
Before this weekend, they hadn't lost since early
December, had outscored their opponents
58-8 in their last six games, and felt dizzy as
their heads expanded.
Michigan coach Red Berenson shortened
practiced from two hours to one last week,
giving his players a break, and allowed them
to be loose and confident. The Wolverines
worked hard, but there was more joking
around and goofing off than there had been
all season.
Things were fun. The team was winning.
Heads were spinning.
No one foresaw the hangover to come.
"I don't think over-confidence will be a
problem," Michigan winger Warren Luhning
said after practice Tuesday. "We're used to
winning. We've done it before."
The third-ranked Wolverines are certainly
used to winning, but what makes this
See GREEK, Page 4B
II
Hawkeyes had a 39-30 lead. Just 4:27 earlier, the
game was tied at 30.
Michigan would get no closer than seven after
the break. Iowa went on a 13-6 run to start the
second half, stretching its lead to 52-36. The
See IOWA, Page 5B
Cowboys lasso Steelers to win 5th Super Bowl title
The Associated Press
TEMPE, Ariz. - Those limo-ridin' glam-
our bays from Dallas backed up their bluster,
but barely.
And they can thank one of their least glam-
orous players, defensive back Larry Brown,
for their third Super Bowl victory in four
years.
The Cowboys beat Pittsburgh 27-17 yester-
day to extend the NFC's streak of victories in
the NFL's showcase game to an even dozen.
"There were high expectations but it was a
reliefj ust the same," quarterback Troy Aikman
said. "1t wasn't the prettiest game we played,
the defense really stepped it up, but a win is a
win. We knew it would be a tough game."
For coach Barry Switzer, who had to win a
Super Bowl to be considered anything but a
failure, it was more than enough.
"We did it our way, baby! We did it! We did
it! We did it! We did it!" Switzer shouted.
AP PHoo They did it without a big game from Troy,
Emmitt, Michael and Deion during a second
the 30 minutes. Instead, the Super Bowl's most
valuable player was Brown, a former 12th
round draft pick.
Brown's 44-yard interception return in the
third quarter of Neil O'Donnell's pass set up a
1-yard touchdown run by Emmitt Smith that
put Dallas up 20-7. This came after Pittsburgh,
which fell behind 13-0, seemed ready to take
the lead.
Then, after Pittsburgh had closed to 20-17
and had the ball with four minutes left, Brown,
just as he did to seal the NFC title game with
Green Bay, made another interception, return-
ing it 33 yards to set up another Smith TD run,
this one of four yards.
Only then did the Cowboys celebrate a strug-
gling Super Bowl victory that capped a strug-
gling season. And the hugs in the end zone
reflected relief more than the "in-your-face"
braggadocio with which the Cowboys faced
Super Bowl week.
"This ball game represents the kind of sea-
son we've had," said owner Jerry Jones in
commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who had bit-
terly attacked Jones on national television ear-
lier in the day.
"This was a struggle,"'said Jones, who turned
away quickly from Tagliabue as he accepted
the trophy. "But this for me was the sweetest."
Smith gave Switzer all the credit.
"This is one for coach Switzer, who took all
that abuse - the dumb and dumber thing," he
said.
But it was not the way the Cowboys had
hoped.
Aikman, who at one point in the first half
completed 10 straight passes, tying Phil Simms
for second place in Super Bowl history behind
Joe Montana's 13, was good early but finished
15 of 23 for 209 yards.
And Smith, whose fourth and fifth rushing
touchdowns passed Franco Harris and Thurman
Thomas for the most in Super Bowl history,
was held tojust 49 yards in 18 carries, far short
of the 115 he needed to become the leading
rusher in Super Bowl history. Twenty-three of
i
The Dallas defense gang-tackles Bam Morris during the