The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 28, 1997 -9
Traylor, Baston
pick up hardware.
Boston
niversity's Chris
Qrury knocked
Brendan Morrison
and Michigan off
the college hock-
ey throne last
night in the
NCAA semifinals,
3-2. The teams
reversed roles -ik
from last season,;
* when Michigan
knocked then-
defending cham-
pion Boston U.
out of the touma-
ment, also In the
semifinal round.
WARREN ZINN/ Daily
*Secia teamils' power outage costs icers
By Alan Goldenbach
and Will McCahill
Daily Sports Editors
NEW YORK - Looks like Robert
Traylor and Maceo Baston have been to
the hardware store, because they're
returning to Ann Arbor today with some
additions to their trophy cases.
Traylor was named the NIT's Most
Valuable Player after Michigan defeated
Florida State, 82-73, last night to capture
the tournament title.
Baston was named to the All-
Tournament team, along with
Connecticut's Richard Hamilton, Florida
State's James Collins and Kerry
Thompson and Arkansas' Pat Bradley.
Traylor equaled his career-high last
night by scoring 26 points, a mark he
had set in the NIT quarterfinal at Notre
Dame, while adding 13 rebounds, two
blocks and two steals.
Baston followed a nine-point, 10-
rebound effort against Arkansas in the
semifinals with a 20-point, seven-board
effort against the Seminoles.
Baston was shocked to hear his name
called over the Madison Square Garden
public-address system.
"When theysaid my name I was like,
'What do they want?,"'he said."I ran up
there and asked, 'What's up,' and they
gave me this saucer, this offering-plate.'
For his part, Traylor got to hoist the
MVP trophy, having earned the right to
have his name engraved alongside the
likes of all-time greats like George
Mikan, Lenny Wilkens and Walt Frazier.
Former Wolverine Tim McCormick
also garnered the honor when the
Wolverines won the tournament in 1984.
Traylor was modest, as usual, in dis-
cussing the achievement.
"It's a great honor, looking at the list
of names (on the trophy)," Traylor said.
"It feels great (to win), but I'm just
happy we got the victory. That's the
biggest thing, that we won the game.'
Florida State coach Pat Kennedy was
full of praise for Traylor.
"If he dedicates his body and his skills
to becoming a pro, he'll be an excellent
pro," Kennedy said. "What I like about
him is that he's learned to stay within his
game.'
Michigan coach Steve Fisher praised
Traylor for his ability to deflect the spot-
light from himself to his teammates.
"Robert is a winner," Fisher said.
"Most people will say what he did -
'As long as Michigan wins, I don't care
(about) points, minutes.' (But) Robert
comes closer to feeling that way than
anybody. He wants to win, he finds ways
to win, and he helps everybody be a lit-
tle better as a result of his presence"
Fisher said Traylor's improvement has
been amazing to watch, and has grown
in leaps and bounds since the beginning
of the year.
"He is so much better now than he
was in January, and a year ago and when
he got out of high school" Fisher said.
Despite Kennedy's praise, Traylor said
he has no intentions of even considering
leaving Michigan for the pros.
"I'm still not thinking about the
NBA;' Traylor said. "My thing next year
will be coming back to the University of
Michigan, just playing basketball and
getting an education.'
And although it's been a long season,
Traylor said he's going to be hitting the
court and the weight room as soon as he
gets back to Ann Arbor.
"I've got a lot of work todo," hesaid.
"I can't wait 'til next week- I've got to
start tomorrow."
Florida State (73)
RA FT REB
MIN *A M- A F PTS
Greer 38 5-8 2-2 0-3 2 5 15
Jackson 32 510 1-2 2-2 1 2 11
Luchman 22 1-2 3-4 2-4 0 4 5
Collins 40 6-14 5-7 3-3 4 4 20
Thompson 39 4-12 4-5 2-7 6 2 14
Ritter 29 7-11 3-4 2-6 2 5 19
Louis. 26 2-4 4-6 1-3 1 3 8
Hale 3 0-2 0-0 1-1 0400
Totals 200 23-5219-2613-28142073
FG%: .442. FT%: .731. 3-point FG: 8-20,
.400 (Greer 3-5, Collins 3-7, Thompson 2-7,
Hale 0.1). Blocks: 1 (Jackson). Steals, 8
(Collins 2, Louis 2, Greer, Jackson,
Thompson). Technical Fouls: none.
'01CHIGAN (82)
FO FT REB
MIN M A M-A 0T A F PTT
Baston 25 6-10 8-13 5-7 1 3 20
Taylor 28 4-8 1-2 5-8 1 4f9
Traylor 38 11-22 4-610.131 3 6
Bullock 31 5-15 5-5 1-4 2 0 17
Conlan 33 1-2 0-0 0-5 6 4 3
Hughes 30 1-5 3.4 1-2 3 4 5
Ward 12 0-2 2-2 1-2 0 "2 2 .
Vignier 3 0-1 0-0 2-2 0 1 0
Totals 200 28-6523-3228-471421 82
FG%: .431. FT%: .719. 3-point FG: 3-14;
.214 (Bullock 2-9, Conlan 1-2, Hughn 02,
Ward 0-1). Blocks: 3 (Traylor 2, Bullock).
Steals: 3 (Traylor 2, Conlan). Technical-
Fouls: none.
Florida State. 31 42 - 73
Michigan ...........41 41-82
At: Madison Square Garden A: 15,849
By Mark Snyder
Daily Sports Writer
MILWAUKEE -- All season long,
the Michigan hockey team was spe-
cial.
Special because it set a school
record for victories in a season.
Special because it dominated the
CCHA regular season, winning the
ltle by six points.
And special because it was out-
standing when the sides weren't even.
Unfortunately for Michigan, last
night was not as special.
Throughout the season, the
Wolverines relied on their power play
and penalty kill - special teams - to
bail them out of games.
Michigan, which led the nation in
power-play success, converted on 31
ercent of its chances before last
ight, when it was shut out in yester-
day's game. It was the first time in
two months the Wolverines have not
scored a power-play goal.
When Miami (Ohio) came to Ann
Arbor on Jan. 25, Michigan was held
scoreless on the power play, but that
game ended in a 3-0 Wolverine victo-
ry.
Last night's 3-2 defeat was directly
ttributable to the power play, or lack
hereof, according to Michigan
defenseman Blake Sloan.
"Our power play has been a force
all season long;" he said. "We needed
to do a couple of things on our power
play (last night) to capitalize."
Credit should be given to Boston
University for attacking the Michigan
players and hold-
ing Michigan """"R-
down on the The t
power play,
according to (to the
Boston coach
Jack Parker. how we I
"The biggest
key (to the penauue1
game) is how we
killed penalties,"
Parker said. Boston U
Michigan
coach Red
Berenson attributed more of the prob-
lem to Michigan's mistakes, rather
than Boston's success.
"(They had) pretty good penalty
killing,' Berenson said. "But our
power play can (usually) find a way to
score."'
All season long, that has been the
standard and not the exception for
Michigan.
A prime example is Michigan for-
ward Jason Botterill, who leads the
'S
nation in power-play goals with 20
but was unable to convert against the
Terriers.
The best opportunity for the
Wolverines to take advantage of the
extra man came at 16:43 of the first
period when Michigan forward Dale
Rominski was
checked by
gesf key Boston captain
BillyPierce.
imeis Pierce
received a
Ie d five-minute
,1 " major penalty
. for checking
- Jack Parker from behind,
. . and was
iversity hockey escorted from
coach the ice as the
officials added
a game misconduct.
While Pierce's evening was over,
Michigan's troubles were just begin-
ning as it immediately squandered the
power play.
"If we scored it could have been a
big factor in the game" Berenson
said.
Entering the second period,
Michigan had a 1-0 lead. By 20 min-
utes later, that margin had vanished.
"We've been preaching all year to
separate ourselves in the second peri-
od," Sloan said. "And we didn't do
that.'
Besides having problems capitaliz-
ing on their power plays, the
Wolverines also had trouble with
penalty killing.
It was 14 minutes into the second
when Michigan drew its first penalty
and, by that point, Boston had taken
the lead on two even-strength goals.
Michigan's Bobby Hayes was sent
to the penalty box for hooking and
Michigan had its first chance to
return the Terriers' penalty-killing
favor.
Things didn't fall into line as they
had the rest of the season for
Michigan, however. Boston forward
Tommi Degerman, who had scored
only five times this season, beat
Marty Turco with 20 seconds to go in
the penalty on a wraparound pass
from Hobey Baker finalist Chris
Drury.
The Wolverines, who entered the
game with an 88-percent success rate
on the penalty kill, had allowed the
goal that put them down two with 23
minutes to play.
Boston, which had only two power
plays on the night, was successful on
one -the only one necessary.
M' swimmers 11th after day one of NCAAs
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By TJ. Beks
and John FrIdborg
'Daily Sports Writers
MINNEAPOLIS - One extra step.
In the past, that's all that separated
Michigan senior swimmer John
Piersma from the top of the NCAA vic-
tory stand in the 500 freestyle. After
two'third-place finishes in his first two
championships and second last year,
Piersma finally took the giant leap to a
championship by winning the 500-yard
freestyle in 4:15.79.
"It feels really good," Piersma said.
"I really had a goal set in my mind that
*ywanted to come back here and win. I
eally don't know what to say."
w Piersma's victory was the highlight
f an otherwise disappointing day for
Michigan. The Wolverines ended the
dayin 11th place with 45 points. All 45
-'bints were won in the 500 free.
"We sort of put all of our eggs in one
basket," Michigan coach Jon
Urbanchek said. "I was hoping to get
five people into the final (of the 500
" Yee). That was the goal. They didn't
..ite make it."
-,.-Piersma was followed by fellow
:nior Chris Rumley, who took third in
-the' event with a time of 4:18.56.
dwiched between the Wolverines
,s Arizona's Ryk Nethling at 4:16.46.
Rumley was seeded 38th in the event
going into the preliminaries. Rumley's
seed was deceiving because he had
placed in the top five in the 500 in each
of the past three seasons.
"That was the highest I had ever fin-
ished in an individual event (in the
NCAAs)," Rumley said.
Rounding out Michigan's scoring
was sophomore Tom Malchow, who
competed in his home town for the first
time in his college career. Despite a
second seed in the preliminaries,
Malchow qualified for the consolation
final, eventually winning the consola-
tion heat and placing ninth overall.
"There is an awful lot of publicity
and expectations for Tom at this meet;"
Urbanchek said. "He's a better long-
course racer anyway."
Auburn raced to an early lead by
winning the 200-freestyle relay. The
Tigers raced out to a 66-point lead over
second-place Texas, with 173 points to
the Longhorns' 107. Rounding out the
top five were Stanford (104 points),
Southern Cal (92) and Georgia (82).
Auburn also finished up the night
with a relay win in the 400 medley. In
between the relays, Auburn's Brett
Hawke won the 50-free, edging out
Texas' Neil Walker.
During his preliminary heat, Walker
set an NCAA record with a time of
19:08. He also broke the American and
NCAA record while competing in the
qualifying heat of the 400 medley relay.
Walker's 100 backstroke time of 44.92
was more than a half-second faster than
the previous standard,
Other highlights included Georgia's
Kris Babylon, who won the 200 indi-
vidual medley with a time of 1:45.19.
Babylon was tied with Auburn's Scott
Tucker for the top seed entering the
final, but he earned Georgia's only
individual title of the night, beating
Tucker by .25 seconds.
Miami's Rio Ramirez, who defected
from Cuba three years ago, made a
splash in his first NCAA championship
by winning the one-meter springboard
competition. Miami took four of the
top six places in the event. The points
were Miami's total output for the
evening, but they enabled the
Hurricanes to finish in a seventh-place
tie with Florida State at the end of the
day.
The Wolverines look to make a hard
push today as the Wolverines have
strong swimmers in five of the eight
events. They hope to capture the 800
free relay for the fifth-straight year.
"We're down, but we're definitely
not out," Urbanchek said.
'I,
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