U be djicwun &tdlg Icers score first-round knockout By John Leroi Daily Sports Editor There wasn't much the Redskins could do to stop Michigan. Fate just wasn't on their side. And the Wolverines were on a roll. Miami (Ohio) put up a good fight, but in the end, the Redskins' effort fell far short of halting Michigan's march to the CCHA semifinals. The No. 4 Wolverines (29-7-2) held off Mi- ami (10-22-4), 3-0, Saturday, following a con- vincing 5-1 victory a day earlier fora first-round sweep in the CCHA Tournament. The Wolverines' sweep - their seventh straight in first-round action - earns them a semifinal berth against Michigan State at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit Friday. As it turned out, Michigan, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, may have had the best draw of any team in the league. Eighth-seeded Ohio State took top-seed Lake Superior to overtime, Friday, before bowing out. The Spartans needed three games to get by seventh-seeded Ferris State, and Bowling Green upset the No. 4 seed, Western Michigan. The sweep essentially guarantees the Wolver- ines a berth in the NCAA Tournament. "Our goal was to get to the Joe," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "Now we have a bigger job at hand." The Wolverines were never in grave danger of losing control. However, they didn't exactly impress anyone - including themselves in Saturday's shutout. Michigan was outshot for only the third time all season, 28-26, including a gaping 11-5 mar- gin in the first period, In fact, Miami controlled the play and kept the puck in the Wolverines' end for most of the first. Michigan goalie Marty Turco kept Michigan in the game when the Wolverine defense didn't. "You hope that it doesn't have to happen this way, but Marty Turco was the difference in this game," Berenson said. "He hasn't had to, in many games, but he can do it. "It was fortunate that we scored goals right after Marty had made a good save or two. They had good chances." It was the first time since Turco turned aside 34 shots against Maine Oct.26 that the Wolver- ines really relied on its All-CCHA netminder to win a game for them. The Wolverines had good offensive and defensive games in that outing - something that wasn't apparent Saturday. The Michigan defense surrendered more than a handful of giveaways and allowed a few odd- man rushes as well. "We didn't do exactly what we wanted to do defensively and we didn't really have a good game," Turco said. "That's not to say I didn't feel good in my game, but in the end, we're not really satisfied with the way we played. "(The Redskins) were thinking they were going to lose and they didn't want to embarrass themselves and go back to their university with their heads down." See ICERS, Page 6B Jason Botterill and Bill Muckalt celebrate as Michigan defeats Miami (Ohio) Saturday. Michigan 65, Wisconsin 5 'Th4 year M' may enyoy /w ance more o, Dick Bennett, how do you really feel? "I'm not even going to pretend I'm dealing with it particularly well." No, the Wisconsin men's basketball coach was not talking about being named Dick. In fact, Bennett was depressed because his team's performance against Michigan Saturday was, well... "Rattled, unskilled, unsound," Bennett said. And why? Did the Badgers just have a collective bad day'? "You have to give Michigan credit. Their defense took us out of everything. They played MICHAEL great, great defense." ROSENBERG That's right. Michigan ses are forced an opponent out of its Read game Saturday night. The Wolverines grabbed the Badgers by the neck (not literally) and wouldn't let go, not until they had Ohoked the game out of Wisconsin. :What? You didn't think these Wolverines could play like that? Of course they can. They just usually don't. But against Wisconsin, they did. "We hung our hat with some good defense today," Michigan coach Steve Fisher said. "I like how we're playing. Hopefully we can make it ntinue to happen." That's why you have to love Steve Fisher: He not only summed up my point, he brought me to my next one. The tournament. It doesn't have to be one and out this year. If you were taking a bathroom break and missed Michigan's last NCAA Tournament appearance, See ROSENBERG, Page 8B Mich rolls over Wisconsin By Brent McIntosh Daily Sports Editor Three shots make this much of a difference? The Michigan Wolverines made 16 field goals Jan. 3 and lost at Wisconsin; Saturday, they converted 19 shots from the floor - and won, 65-51. The three extra hits probably don't explain the turnaround, though a glance at the stat sheet might shed some light on the situation. Hitting 23 of 33 free throws - com- pared to 7-of-12 for Wisconsin and 10- of-17 during the January meeting - didn't hurt the Wolverines (10-8 Big Ten, 20-I 1 overall). Neither did cutting their turnovers from 22 in January to nine this weekend. And it certainly didn't harm the Wolverines that -Wis- consin (8-10, 16-14) hit exactly zero 3- pointers Saturday, six less than they did in Madison. The Badgers bombed away, missing all nine of their long-range attempts in firing 55 shots to Michigan's 42; but it was all for naught as the Wolverines harried them into tough shots. "It was a credit to their perimeter defense," Badger coach Dick Bennett said. "It was very disappointing." Disappointing - just like the Wol- verines planned it. They forced Wis- consin into 15 turnovers, blocked six shots, and had five steals, some of those while holding the Badgers to nine first- half rebounds. Why the defensive ef- fort in a game that had no Big Ten title implications? "We were playing with our backs against the wall," Bullock said. Indeed the Wolverines were. With Minnesota's Saturday win over Illinois, Michigan needed the win to remain in fifth place in the Big Ten. Had they lost. the NCAA tournament mightwell have been out of reach. "We won a very, very, very critical game," Fisher said. That critical game earned them a cov- eted tournament berth. The Wolverine: will face Texas Friday in Milwaukee. It certainly didn't look like the Wol- verines were headed onto the floor for the Big Dance when they first took or Wisconsin in January. They managec only three dismal second-halffield goals in that matchup. "I told them before the game, 'Learr from the first Wisconsin game: We dominated in the first half and then came out and were soft in the second," Fisher said. The Wolverines weren't exactly har( in the second half Saturday, but the outscored Wisconsin, 29-28, enought( keep the Badgers - and the tourna- ment pickers - at bay. Unlike the Wis- consin team that outscored the Wolver- ines, 32-17, in January's second half this week's Badgers were unable to cut the Michigan lead to single figures. "That was the Wisconsin team we've seen about half of the year," Bennet said. Inhabitants of Crisler Arena were also treated to the Albert White we'v. seen about half of the year. The fresh- man forward shot only 1-of-5 from the floor, but hit seven of nine free throws blocked two Wisconsin attempts. grabbed four rebounds and dunked over two Badgers off a 2-on-3 fast-break lob from Travis Conlan. "If you look at the stats from Indiani to now, put all those stats together. Albert's our best player," Fisher said. See BADGERS, Page 9E Michigan center Maceo Baston dunks home two of his 13 points against Wisconsin Saturday. Tears and tnumph mark df ordeal of1996 US Olympic tria mom NDIANAPOLIS - They are trials of tears and triumph. Athletes come to compete at the MSS. Olympic swimming trials, but they will do much more before they leave. They will shake, sweat, scream, pace, laugh and raise their fists in glory. :And, oh yes, they will cry. There are droplets of pure joy sometimes. UCLA's Annette Salmeen, an Ann Arbor native who trains with Michigan in the summer, uldn't help it. She cried and waved the fans after she surprised everyone and qualified for the Olympic team Thursday. Most of the time, however, there is pain. The moistness is hidden behind a pair of goggles, put away for some private moment in the corner of the Michigan's Anne Kampfe probably wanted to cry after she finished fourth in the 400-meter individual medley Wednesday S - n night. But she couldn't, at least in public. There were too many friends, team- mates and fans watching. Kampfe's COTSONIKA teammate, Talor CT GrekBendel, was The Greek disappointed as Speaks well. So was former Wolver- ine Eric Wunderlich. They both had chances to make the team, but anything after second place just isn't good enough at the trials. have one shot," said Michigan men's swimming coach Jon Urbanchek. "That's a small window. You have one day out of four years to perform your best. If you don't place first or second, you watch the Olympics on TV." Very few will get to-experience Atlanta firsthand. Trials of tears and triumph. The Olympic trials are a meet of paradoxes. The trials twist guts and souls. They reshape priorities, perverting the true meaning of the sport in order to sort out a few from the rest of the best. The best swimmers don't always make it. Personal best times aren't always satisfying. Where an athlete finishes is more important than how he or she swam. Hulk Michigan capi By Nicholas J. Cotsonika Daily Sports Editor teven Halko seems more like a teacher than a dominant defenseman. He has all of his teeth. He can complete a sentence. He wears glasses most of the time. Nobody mumbles dumb jock jokes when Halko walks into a classroom. Unlike most of his teammates, he doesn't wear his nice Nike sweats or Michigan athletic gear to stand out on campus. "Some people, even after I've known them for awhile, don't know I'm on the ; hockey team," Halko says.F SHockey 101 tain leads Wolverines by teaching his brand of hockey you in your history lecture. He wants to teach math some day. He's just another student who is quietly working his way through school. You mght even ask to borrow his notes, Rforgetting that he's an athlete, someone you'd probably expect to skip class. But Steven Halko doesn't skip. Not classes. Not hockey games. morning - and he never sits out of competition. Halko didn't skate in the first game of his college career. Since then, he hasn't missed a single contest. He played in his 157th straight game - his final one at home - Saturday : night. "He's been rock-solid for us," Michigan coach Red Berenson says. "Game in and game out, he's working hard to help our team." That's important to the Wolverines: because, though Halko is a student of the ice, he is a teacher on it. When Michigan freshman Bubba Berenzweig made his recruiting visit to- Ann Arhnrr ]act veer Rrensnn tnlu.