Uljeft d~u a Another Texan commits to 'M' football Grady Brooks, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker from Dallas Lincoln High School, has verbally committed to Michigan, The Ann Arbor News reported Tuesday. He is the sixth Texas player and first linebacker to commit to Michigan this year. Brooks, who has a 2.7 GPA, is still awaiting his standardized test results. Thursday 9A February 1, 1996 Michigan wrestlers 0 pinned by Spartans By Will McCahll DailySports Writer To have it or not to have it, that's the question. The "it" is, in this case, experience, and lvhen it comes down to the crunch, heVichigan wrestling team doesn't have it. Est night, the No. 17 Wolverines y came out on the wrong side of close one, losing to No. 4 Michigan tate in front of a full house at Cliff Keen Arena. As has been the case in each of ichigan's previous two meets, the olverines managed only one win in he first few matches. The difference 'n this contest, however, was that one f these losses was a pin, making that articular victory worth six points in- 3 d of the usual three or four. fter a loss by freshman Joe War- ren at 118 pounds, sophomore Bran- don Howe gained a decision over Spartan Brian Bolton to pull Michi- gan within a point at 4-3. Wolverine freshman Corey Grant followed with a closd overtime loss to Michigan State senior captain Jed Kramer at 134, and then the roof fell in. ess than two minutes into the first period, eighth-ranked Spartan senior Phil Judge pinned 142 pound fresh- man-Jeff Reese, giving the visitors a huge 10-point lead. "The slimmest difference in the dual meet was the difference between throwing a freshman out there against a fifth-year senior at 142," Michigan coach Dale Bahr said. Sophomores Bill Lacure and Jeff abone, at 150 and 158 pounds, r pectively, both won four-point major decisions to bring the Wolver- ines within two at 13-11, once again leaving the fate of the meet hanging in the balance going into the last four matches. A loss by Michigan's Josh Young at 167 and a win by Wolverine senior captain Jesse Rawls Jr. rang the score to 17-14, Spartans, and the night's rIt was placed squarely on the shoulders of Michigan senior Lanre Olabisi in the penultimate match at 190 pounds. Olabisi kept the contest against eighth-ranked Spartan Brian Picklo close into the third stanza. But when Picklo followed up an escape with a takedown with less than a minute remaining, Michigan's fate -barring a pin in the final heavy- weight contest - was sealed. *Oichigan's No. 7 heavyweight Airron Richardson, who saved not only .the day but the entire past weekend for the Wolverines with key wins at No. 8 Illinois and No. 18 Northwestern, came close to get- ting the critical pin early in the first period. But his opponent, Jason Peterson, was able to stall Richardson long eugh to hold him to a 9-1 major ision. In a situation that is becoming all too familiar to Bahr and his troops, there isn't too much to tell the heavier wrestlers as they go into their matches needing to pull the Wolverines out of sizable holes. "We tell them we have to get a pin," Bahr said. "Once you lose a pin you've got-to offset it with a pin." Despite the loss, Bahr was upbeat *ut last night's event. "I think it's a great match for wres- tling, whenever you get two highly competitive schools and you get (a capacity crowd) on a cold winter night," he said. "I'd like to have won the (meet), but the matches were exciting, and that's good for wrestling." CAMP 9 for E PURDUE 80, MICHIGAN 59 Boilennakers squash Blue Purdue rolls to victory By Barry Sollenberger Daily Sports Editor As far as the Michigan men's basketball team's Big Ten chances are concerned, one thing is clear. The Wolverines have a tough, tough challenge ahead of them in the race for the conference title.{One that borders on mission impossible. Purdue's 80-59 waxing of No. 20 Michigan (4-4 Big Ten, 14-7 overall) in front of 13,562 at Crisler Arena made sure of that. Though they weren't expected to contend for the league title, the two-time defending Big Ten cham- pion Boilermakers (6-2, 16-4) aren't ready to hand over their crownjust yet. Michigan had absolutely no clue against No. 17 Purdue in the blowout loss. "This is not the way we had scripted it," Michigan coach Steve Fisher said. "From the get-go, we were manhandled on our home court and humiliated and embarrassed in every way possible." The loss also snapped the Wolverines' 15-game home winning streak. The Boilermakers came into the game without a starter averaging more than 10.9 points per game. Purdue hasn't won 16 games this season by being lucky, though. The Boilermakers have beaten teams playing good ol' team basketball and last night was no exception. They had the Wolverines dead and buried by halftime. "They came out and took it to us from the start," Michigan's Macco Baston said. "Before we knew it, we were down 20 points." Purdue led early, 15-13, and then things went rotten for Michigan. After six straight points gave the Boilermakers a 21-13 lead, Baston picked up his third foul on a charge under his own basket. The sophomore center sat on the bench for the final 10:17 of the first half. With Baston on the bench, Purdue erupted like Mt. St. Helens. A couple of possessions after Baston left, the Boilermakers' Brandon Brantley dunked and Robert Traylor hammered him from behind. The resulting free throw made it 24-13 Purdue with 9:28 left until ntermission. From there, it only got worse for the Wolverines. Much, much worse. Purdue's Justin Jennings sandwiched ajumper and a 3-pointer around a Traylor dunk, Chad Austin hit See PURDUE, Page 11A Willie Mitchell and the Wolverines were downed by Purdue last night. The 80-59 loss was Michigan's worst at home since 1984-85. Wolvennes troubled bi all areas ofgm it's easy to isolate what went wrong for the Michigan men's basketball team last night. The game. There may be a good reason why the Wolverines played so badly against Purdue - collective food poisoning comes to mind - but chances are, the only malady Michigan was suffering from was sprained determina- tion. "We were dominated in every phaseI of the game from start to finish," said Michigan coach Steve Fisher. When that happens, winning is kind of tough. Q. Which two Purdue players scored more than Michigan in the first half? M A) Chad Austin and Roy Hairston. MICHAEL B) Austin and Justin Jennings. ROSENBERG C) Austin and Brandon Brantley. Roses are The answer, of course, is D) All of Read the above. Well, Austin and Hairston actually tied the Wolverines, but hey, what's a point here or there when you're Purdue? The final score read "Purdue 80, Michigan 59." It wasn't that close. It wasn't even close to that close. This game was a blowout from the start, and when that happens, statistics become misleading, if not meaningless. Example: Bullock scored 17 points, but was never a factor. "I think we had some effort in areas, but the bottom line is we let them come out and push us around," Bullock said. You needed to be a historian to remember the last time Michigan had a lead. It was with 14 minutes left in the first half, when the Wolverines were up 11-10. Then Purdue went on a little 33-12 run to end the half with a 44-22 lead. Naturally, the Boilermakers were disappointed. "We were unhappy as a staff that we gave up as many points as we did," said Purdue coach Gene Keady. Yeah, well, that's something to work on. Coming into the game, the Boilermakers weren't supposed to be a great offensive team. Last night, they didn't have to be. Michigan's defense was like a fresh batch of donuts - soft and with plenty of holes. At times in the first half, Michigan looked like it was blaming its nightmare on the referees. That's like Noah blaming the flood on the weatherman. "We have to learn not to whine when it gets physical but just get physical right back," guard Louis Bullock said. In truth, Michigan's problems could be broken down into four areas of disappointment - guards, forwards, centers and coaches. When you lose by 21 at home, it's a total team effort. Purdue is a good team. With 100 percent effort, the Wolverines still might not have won. But it would have been nice to find out. The Wolverines did start to crawl out of the hole in the second half, much as a caterpillar could crawl out of the Grand Canyon. But the caterpillar would probably need more than 20 minutes to do it. So would Michigan. See ROSENBERG, Page 11A MARK Maurice Taylor puts home one of Michigan's few highlights. Michigan-Ohio State hockey preview - in tomorrow's Daily. TAKAJ0 Boys -Ibmulffd"734MIL. I '~L~MJ T~L-v v " - v~ 1IZ VI LU II i. 5 WK UEEX-M