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Scoreboard NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
MEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL TORONTO 110, Utah 96
Mich. State 58, WISCONSIN 50 Minnesota 110, NEW JERSEY 107
No. 1 KANSAS 134, Niagara 73 Atlanta 97, ORLANDO 92
No. 3 KENTUCKY 68, Canisius 45 Golden State 102. VANCOUVER 86
No. 18 N. MEXICO 79. TCU 64 NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
No. 21 STANFORD 109, UCLA 61 Detroit 5, PHOENIX 4
No. 17 Oregon at WASH. ST, inc. Home team in CAPS
Thursday
January 10, 1997
cers hope
to bake
Alaska,
Ferris State
Mark Snydsr
Y Sports Writer
ULnder normal circumstances, a
91est against the CCHA's ninth-
team would suit the Michigan
key team just fine.
Y, 'BIit following a tie to Cornell and
ossessing a lengthy memory that
ecalls an early-season visit to
Alaska, Michigan is far from excited
to see Alaska-Fairbanks.
Michigan (18-1-2) will host the
a n o o k s
tonight and
Ferris State
(9-15-I)
t o m o r r o w, Who:Michigan
both 7 p.m. vs. Alaska-
games at Yost Fairbanks and
Ice Arena. Ferns State
The two whe: Fairbanks
opponents are tonighterris
contrasting, a tOmorOwiH be at
t in how 7
have Where: Yost ce
d the Arena
o verines. La$t time: The
was near- Wolverines went
three Up North to beat
ths ago Alaska, 6-4, on
thi Michigan Oct. 25. New
eled to Year's Eve, they
Alaska for a ruined the party
two-game set. for Ferris, 11.
hile it
eseaped with two victories against
the- CCHA cellar-dwellers, both
games were hotly contested at
Alaska.
Led by forward Cody Botwell, the
* Nanooks used their home ice to their
Vantage. Alaska (4-15-0) plays its
bome contests on an Olympic-sized
ziik (200 x 100 feet), which is 15
feet wider than most other college
ks, icluding Yost.
A"dd bounces created problems for
MAihigan goaltender Marty Turco, a
s ituation that shouldn't arise at home.
TFhe meeting was early in the sea-
son, and both teams were still work-
ing out kinks in their games. Now,
Michigan is in third place in the
CCHA, three points behind league-
leaders Miami and Michigan State,
whlile Alaska shares the basement
1641h Ohio State.
But the Nanooks had more than
hockey on their minds then.
"That was a tough time for their
team, with the accident," Berenson
said.
Erik Drygas, a sophomore
defenseman, fractured a cervical
vertebrae during practice Oct. 7 and
was initially thought to be paralyzed.
But now there is good news for a
team that can use some.
,% in recent weeks Drygas has shown
improvement, gaining feeling in his
arms and left wrist.
Prior to tonight's game, Michigan
captain Brendan Morrison will pre-
sent Alaska coach Dave Laurion
with a photo of Drygas skating
against Michigan.
Alaska is led by sophomore center
Jeff Trembecky, who has scored in
x traight contests. His streak has
n highlighted by nine points as
well as four power-play goals.
(Alaska has) been practicing (at
Yot) all week ... so they won't be
intimidated by this building,"
Berenson said. "They'll give us a
real good game."
While Michigan's most recent
contest with Alaska was not one it
would like to repeat, Ferris State
will be a welcome sight for the
#olverines.
On New Year's Eve, Michigan
trounced the Bulldogs, l1-1, in its
most impressive victory of the sea-
son.
Thirteen Wolverines scored in the
contest, and Michigan left a lasting
impression on Ferris State.
"Ferris will come in with revenge
on their mind," Berenson said. "They
ere embarrassed here, and they'll
'me back and play much better."
Wolverines rip through
By Alan Goldenbach
Daily Sports Editor
Apparently, finding the on/off
switch is a little more difficult than
you would think.
Nonetheless, the Wolverines found
their switch, albeit three games into
the Big Ten season. No. 16
Michigan's 88-74 victory over No. 25
Illinois (1-2 Big Ten, 11-4 overall)
last night was its most complete
effort thus far.
"Tonight might have been our best
game of the season when you talk
about 40 minutes of basketball
against a good team," Michigan
coach Steve Fisher said.
Led by a red-hot first-half shooting
performance and a magnificent
defensive effort on Illini stud Kiwane
Garris, the Wolverines staked them-
selves to a 12-point halftime lead and
never really looked back.
"They pretty much outplayed us in
every phase of the game," Illinois
coach Lon Kruger said. "They were
comfortable from the start and we
couldn't change them."
The Wolverines (2-2, 11-3) shot a
sizzling 21-for-32 from the floor in
the first 20 minutes en route to scor-
ing 45 points, a season-high for the
first half. They shot 60 percent for
the game, also their best mark of the
season.
Louis Bullock continued his fine
shooting of late, leading Michigan's
marksmen with 19 points, connecting
on eight of 12 field goals. Over the
past five games, Bullock has hit more
than 50 percent of his shots, averag-
ing almost 20 points.
"He's gotten himself into a little bit
of a groove where he thinks it's going
in," Fisher said. "At times, when
you're shooting well, it does."
But it seemed as if Bullock's team-
mates were joining him in his groove.
best gan
Robert Traylor overpowered a weak
Illini frontline with 16 points, miss-
ing just one of his nine shots. And
Brandun Hughes had his best shoot-
ing performance of the season (5-of-
8) and scored 13 points.
As a result of the-strong shooting,
Fisher felt his team's confidence
returned to where it was before the
Wolverines left for Hawaii.
"They feel good about themselves
for the first time in a long while," he
said.
The Wolverines' defense, which
stifled the likes of Duke and Arizona,
also rose from the ashes. Hughes and
Travis Conlan held Garris to one bas-
ket in the first half.
Garris didn't fare much better in
the second half. He had only five
points with three minutes remaining
in the game.
"We were able to keep a man in
front of him and not let him get to
the free-throw line," Fisher said.
"Travis and Brandun contested his
outside shot and did a good job on
him."
Michigan blew tlhe game open
early in the second half, building on
the 11-4 run they had at the end of
the first. Jumpers from Conlan,
Hughes and Jerod Ward built the lead
to 17 less than five minutes into the
second.
Illinois then scored the next 10
points in an attempt to make it inter-
esting.
But a pair of dunks from Maurice
Taylor brought the Crisler Arena
crowd of 13,265 to its feet, in what
was their loudest performance of the
season.
Those dunks helped Taylor break
out of his recent slump..
He finished with 14 points. Along
with Traylor and Maceo Baston,
Taylor helped give the Wolverines a
yet
commanding 43-31 advantage on the
boards.
"We're getting back to our old
work habits," Bullock said. "Practice
(Wednesday) was the most energetic
all season."
Michigan did play without guard
Ron Oliver, who sat out the game for
academic reasons. Two of Oliver's
grades from last term are in limbo at
the moment.
"We have to wait for thdse grades
to be changed," Fisher said. "He may
or may not make the trip with us to
Minnesota (on Saturday)."
ILLINOIS (74)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A O-T A F PTS
Garris 35 515 00 17 5-0 12
Turner 33 7-15 00 1-1 0 1 17
Gandy 32 4-11 7-9 1-5 1 2 15
Heldman 28 2-10 2-3 1-1 4 2 7
Johnson 24 2-5 0-0 3-5 1 3 4
Gee 23 6-8 2-3 3-6 0 4 14
Notree 19 2-6 1-1 1-1 0 1 5
Abdullah 5 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Chukwudebel 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1.0
Totals 200 28-7212-1615.3111:4 74
FG%: .389. FT%: .750. 3-point FG: 6-25,
.240 (Turner 3-11, Garris 2-7, Heldman 1-6,
Abdullah 0-1). Blocks: 1 (Johnson). Steals:
8 (Johnson 2, Gandy 2, Turner, Garris, Gee,
Abdullah). Technical Fouls: none.
MICHIGAN (88)
FG FT REB
MIN M-A M-A -T A F PTS
Conlan 35 2-5 22 15 3 '1 8
Bullock 31 8-12 2-2 0-3 5 1 19
Taylor 31 7-11 0-0 0-6 3 2 14
Hughes 29 5-8 2-2 2-3 3 3 13
Traylor 28 8-9 0-2 1-5 3 '3 16
Ward 25 4-11 0-0 2-4 2 3 9
Baston 21 3-5 3-8 3-11 2 2 9
Totals 200 37-61 9-1610-432115 88
FG%: .607. FT%: .563. 3-point FG: 5-12,
.417 (Conlan 2-4, Hughes 1-2, Bullock 1-3,
Ward 1-3). Blocks: 3 (Baston, Taylor,
Ward). Steals: 5 (Baston 2, Bullock,
Hughes, Taylor). Technical Fouls: none.
Illinois .................33 41-74
Michigan.......4543-88
At: Crisler Arena
A: 13,265
*
I .
WARREN ZINN/Oaily
Brandun Hughes grew up in Peoria, Iii., but he helped bring down one of his home
state's schools last night at Crisier Arena, scoring 13 points.
Upnext
Date Opponent City Site
Saturday Minnesota Minneapolis Williams Arena
Thursday Purdue Ann Arbor Crisler Arena
JYich group o Wolverines will show uptat Mbinsota?2
rior to this season, the Michigan basketball
team was picked by the media to win the
Big Ten conference. And why wouldn't the
Wolverines win the conference? Good players
returned, many of whom were heading into their
third season of conference
competition. And they had
the lethal combination of tal-
ent and experience that wins
conference titles and keeps.
teams playing a long way
into March..
Eight games into the sea-
son, it looked like the pun- WILL
dits were right about the McCAHILL
Wolverines, who were Whatcha talkin'
ranked fourth in the country, 'bout Willis?
with some huge wins. A vic-_
tory at Duke was among sev-
eral on the road, and Michigan had beaten
Arizona, something the team hadn't done since
coach Steve Fisher was 12 years old.
But then something happened. A loss to
Memphis in the first round of the Rainbow
Classic, followed shortly thereafter by a loss to
Pittsburgh in the same tournament. A momentary
lapse, perhaps. Except that those defeats were fol-
lowed by one that really, really wasn't supposed
to happen - a loss at home to an allegedly
mediocre-at-best Ohio State team.
Which brings us to Minnesota. Right now, the
Gophers are the team that Michigan is supposed
to be. They have a bunch of seasoned upperclass-
men, just like the Wolverines. The only real dif-
ference is that Minnesota got nowhere near the
amount of preseason hype Michigan did, so peo-
ple are shocked that the Gophers are 14-1 and
ranked 11th in the nation.
And Wednesday night, they again sent some
shock waves through the college basketball estab-
lishment when they beat No. 15 Indiana in
Bloomington, 96-91 in overtime.
To win the Big Ten, you have to take care of
business at home, and win a decent number of
conference road games. Right now, Minnesota is
7-0 at home, and is 3-0 in the Big Ten, with two
of those victories coming on the road.
Hey, look who's up next for Michigan - the
Golden Gophers. At Williams Arena, no less,
which is a tough place to play in a league full of
such establishments.
So here's the scoop: if the Wolverines lose to
Minnesota tomorrow night, they will be lucky to
finish as high as second in the conference.
Things don't get any easier after that. A visit to
Columbus is the easiest road game left, and the
Buckeyes have already beaten Michigan at
Crisler Arena. If you can't beat a team at your
place, how can you expect to beat them at
theirs?
Last night's 88-74 victory over Illinois went a
long way to bringing the Wolverines back to their
pre-Hawaii form. The inside game was working,
the team was scoring in transition and from the
outside, and the defense held Illinois to a measly
39 percent from the field.
And most importantly, the competitive fire, the
hustle, the vibrant chemistry the team displayed
early in the season was back again.
"We just got into it tonight,"junior guard
Travis Conlan said. "If we keep our intensity
level as high as it can be, and if everyone goes
out and leaves everything they have on the floor,
we're a tough team to beat."
Indeed, the Wolverines look like the real thing
heading going into tomorrow's must-win contest
at Minnesota. And not only must the Wolverines
win then, but they have to win at least four other
places away from home - and of course avoid
slipping up at home - if they want to win the
Big Ten.
Can they do it? Sure they can - Michigan has
proven it can win tough road games, such as at
Duke.
Will the Wolverines do it? If the team that
waxed Illinois last night shows up, the Wolverines
have a shot. If the team that blahed its way to a
meager 18-point win in Evanston last weekend
takes the Williams Arena floor tomorrow night,
forget it. And a Big Ten championship with it.
- Will McCahill can be reached over e-mail at
wmcc@umich.edu.
Cardinal to be early test for Blue
By TJ. Berka
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women's swimming
and diving team will end its
California holiday travels this week-
end with meets against No. I
Stanford tomorrow and No. 16
California on Sunday.
The Wolverines' travels included a
two-week training session in
Coronado, Calif., and a practice
meet against UCLA and California-
San Diego.
"Our goal with training in
Coronado was to get two weeks of
training with no compromises to
develop the workload we'll need to
succeed in the Big Ten and NCAA
meets," Michigan coach Jim
Richardson said.
With a meet against the top team
in the nation, one would think that
the Wolverines would devote a lot of
time to competing against the
Cardinal.
But, this meet will be used as a
warmup for the heavier competition
that lies ahead in February and
March.
"We did not set time aside to pre-
pare for the meets, because we were
at the point where we needed to put
in two solid weeks of work,"
Richardson said. "The meet will be
important, because it will show how
well we race when we are tired and
fatigued.
"Nobody will
give a hoot in
February about who won at Stanford,
and even less people will care at the
NCAAs in March."
Despite the lack of emphasis that
is being put into winning the meet,
the Wolverines are looking at it as a
challenge and an indication of where
they stand among the nation's elite.
"Stanford is Stanford, and they are
the No. 1 team in the nation,"
Richardson said. "It will be a lot of
fun for us and give us a feel for
where we stand."
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