ie BiCigtnt iauilg i Nii 11 !! E mill ju K egre le I rI Scott Dreisbach will be fighting for playing time this year. M football shorthanded " " this spnng Lack of lineman worries Carr; QBs to compete B Alan Goldenbach y Sports Editor Colorado. Notre Dame. Iowa. Penn State. Ohio State. Five good reasons to believe that the Michigan football team could be in for a long season. Add to that the losses of three starting offensive line- men, the school's most prolific placekicker, and an all-Big Ten linebacker, and then, the likes of conference patsies Minnesota and Indiana can't even be chalked up as wins on paper, as they have been in recent years. Still, Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was eager to get ring practice underway Saturday morning with a long of issues to address in the coming months. "I'm excited that we're ready to start playing football again," Carr said Friday at his first press conference of the spring. Fifteen practices, 10 of which will be conducted in pads, will be spread out throughout the next four weeks culminating in the annual spring game on April 12 at Michigan Stadium. And of course, what would be a Michigan spring prac- tice without questions reagrding the quarterback situa- tion? Last season ended with Scott Driesbach falling out 0favor with Carr and Brian Griese starting the last game o the season. But now, it's an open battle once again. A battle that probably won't be decided this spring, according to Carr. "We will probably not get a feel for who our starting quarterback will be after the end of spring practices," Carr said. "I think that our quaterback situation is very strong, and I think that competition is going to go over the sum- mertime and into fall ball." But what seemed to be Carr's chief concern is replacing 60 percent of his offensive line from last season - All- . erica center Rod Payne, guard Damon Denson and tackle Thomas Guynes. In addition, two of their likely replacements on the line - tackles Paul Tannous and Jeff Backus - are both recovering from off-season surgery and won't be available See PRACTICE, Page 78 Wake, Duke. bpset victims CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Derrick Brown gave the Providence Friars a huge assist Sunday - with his most points ever. The senior forward helped the Friars overcome foul trouble by Austin Croshere with a 33-point performance that sent Providence to a 98-87 vic- tory over Duke in Yesterday's sec- ond round of the NCAA tourna- ment's Southeast Regional. Tenth-seeded Providence (23-11) advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since the 1987 Friars NCAA made it to the Final Four. This year's bmai-w e-w- Cf lT t4-. Roina; fnea r~a - in aain Blue gets " surpnse draw in NCAAs By Dan Stillman Daily Sports Writer U-o. Michigan received expected news yesterday. The Wolverines were not sur- prised when it was announced they had received the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye in the West Regional of the NCAA hockey tournament. The unexpected news came when they learned their first opponent would be Minnesota or Michigan State. The fourth-seeded Golden Gophers and the fifth-seeded Spartans will play Saturday at 3 p.m. for the right to meet the Wolverines at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both games will be played at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. In the only meeting between Michigan and Minnesota this season, it took an overtime goal from Michigan captain Brendan Morrison to give the Wolverines a 4-3 victory over the Gophers. See SEEDING, Page 5B evenge is sweet inu finale, By Jim Rose Daily Sports Writer DETROIT - Go ahead and cross Michigan State off the teams-Michigan- owes list. The Wolverines are indebted to the Spartans no longer. The Michigan hockey team used revenge as a motive and won its second consecutive CCHA playoff champi- onship by defeating Michigan State, 3- 1, before 19,032 at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday night, Michigan had advanced to the final by dispatching Bowling Green, 7-2, the night before. The Spartans had gotten the best of the regular-season series, giving Michigan (34-3-3) two of its three loss- es. The Wolverines tied the single-sea- son school victory record with the win. "We were obviously disappointed with losing the season series to Michigan State," playoff MVP Brendan Morrison said, "It's a big rivalry. There was a rumor that a couple of guys on their team said they had our number, so that definitely fired us up." The Wolverines certainly came out firing, so to speak - two of the first three shots of the game put Michigan ahead, 2-0, just 3:20 into See CHAMPIONS, Page 5B WARREN ZINN/Daily Senior Chris Frescoln takes his turn - carefully - with the 55-pound trophy Michigan won by beating Michigan State, 3-1, for the CCHA play- off championship at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday. The Wolverines will play in the NCAA West Regional final at 5:30 on Sunday night. 'M' beats up on Utah State Simes scores perfect 10 on vault in season's final meet By Jacob Wheeler Daily Sports 'Writer You went and saved the best for last. Those may be merely the lyrics to a cheesy love song, but fans of Michigan women's gym- nast Lisa Simes were probably singing them all night long after Saturday evening's 196.8- 195.45 thrashing of Utah State. The sophomore waited until the season's final home meet to record her first career perfect score, on the vault. Simes then put an exclama- tion mark on the evening two apparatuses later with another 10 - this time on the balance beam. "It feels really good right now to finally get a 10," Simes said. "It's very motivating to do it again next week at Big Tens." to Georgia's 49.85, which happened a week before in Athens, ironically against the Wolverines. But under the circumstances, -Michigan's record-breaking performance sho(ldn't have surprised anyone. The Wolverines were finally back in the comfort of their own home, after a three-meet road losing streak. And Saturday night was seniors Beth Amelkovich and Autumn Donati's final home meet in Cliff Keen Arena, drawing a huge crowd of 2,024, a Michigan record. The Wolverines will move to Crisler Arena in three weeks to host the regional champi- onship. "The crowd was awesome tonight," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "Our girls love to com- i r.. ..A. . _ i n . z 3i._..t R i.: k 3't . . '_ d . tYa, _:..'E. d . r I