- ----- - --- SO-0 .6 , t t 6ini CAPS MEN'S COLLEGE (16) W. KENTUCKY 89 BASKETBALL New Orleans 60 (22) Xavier 91, PRO LaSalle 59 BASKETBALL (7) CONNECTICUT 90 WASHINGTON 113, Villanova 65 Detroit 101 WOMEN'S CLEVELAND 109, BASKETBALL Minnesota 99 (15) DUKE 79 MIAMI 90. Wake Forest 55 Atlanta 83 Pboen x 106. PHILADELPHIA 97 PRO HOCKEY NY Islanders 4. PITTSBURGH 2 New Jersey 1 OTTAWA 0 Buffalo 7, Toronto 3 S11e idkjx sl Tracking 'M' teams All Michigan varsity teams get a rest today. The Michigan wrestling team takes on Michigan State tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday February 3, 1998 .. D F eshman Freshman flirts with personal record B Rick Freeman DAily Sports Writer Chris Thompson hauled himself out of the water, dripping with dis- appointment. Well, not completely - he just won the 1,000-yard freestyle for Michigan in Saturday's dual meet with Indiana, but he missed his per- sonal best by the slimmest of mar- gins - three-tenths of a second. In mid-season, laid-back dual meets, especially against weak Big Ten foes, swimmers sometimes have to find other things to compete against besides the other swim- mers. Thompson was very pleased with his swimming in practice the week before the meet, and he wanted that to carry over into his race - which it did. Just not enough. Unseen by anyone else, Thompson made a few small errors that, all tolled, probably amounted to around .3 seconds. A few turns too far from the wall to allow a good push. A sporadic breathing pattern. And the hope for a personal best eas dashed, dissipated like a kick that only finds water. M As he walked to the warm-down jool he passed Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek. "Hey, don't worry about it, people don't know your personal best," Urbanchek said. "At least show some sign of outward happiness, though." "l'm'ri wxorking on it." Thompson said. Tl he little mistakes he niade See THOMPSON Page 12 Filling the seats - , :.. , __ J f ' 'M' hopes new marketing tactics will draw more to women's hoops 0 By Tracy Sandler Daily Sports Writer Michigan has a plan. Whether or not it is going to work remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the plan is in place and the preparations have begun. What is this plan, you ask? It's a plan to make women's basketball a premiere sport at the University of Michigan. You may be thinking to yourself - not a chance. Mi c hi g a n , under the direc- The Plan tion of Athletic Director 'Tom Michigan's plant Goss, has basketball a pre installed a multi- year plan to U This year, Mic increase interest ed members of t in women's bas- through mail ma ketball. Michigan et giveaways an Director of advertising. Marketing Jody V Next year, Mi Humphries said. the free ticket d The plan was put offer discount tic into effect at the beginning of this season. Other schools have done it - it is possible. Tennessee's average home atten- dance is 13,936. On Jan. 3. in a game against Connecticut, the Lady Volunteers drew a crowd of 24,597 fans. A little closer to home and in the Big Ten. Wisconsin has also made similar strides in the sport. For the Badgers, the change began during the 1994-95 season, when current coach Jane Albright-Dieterle hit the scene in Madison. First of all ,Wisconsin Sportt Information Director Tamara Flarup a, i f li said that Albright-Dieterle requires her players to do six hours a month of community service during the season and three hours a month during the offseason. Aside from community service, Flarup also said the marketing, which is targeted toward families, has kicked in. The school's average atten- dance for women's games has jumped from 1.770 in 1993-94 to 9,485 through the first eight home games this season. to make women's "Michigan has miere sport: an energetic new coach in Sue higan has target- Guevara, as We he community do," Flarup said, rketing, free tick- "Our closest pro- d newspaper. tessional team is 75 miles away chigan will stop whereas yours is istribution and 45 miles away. So, icket'packages.there are similari- ties between the two programs." In this first year. Michigan's main targets have been families and mem- bers of the community. The University has a mailing list of one million people who have beef exposed to the school's marketing so far. Humphries also said that Michigan has a huge number of direct ticket, mailings and that the university has sent information and a large number of complimentary tickets to Junior high schools, high schools, girl scouts and boy scouts, church groups! and summer basketball leagues. "We have promotional items, such See SEATS, Page *12 JOHN KRAFT ~ad Michigan women's basketball coach Sue Guevara would like the fans to have just as much enthusiasm for her team as she does. The program hopes to attract more attention and bigger crowds with a new marketing strategy. Catrabone, Richardson go down Little Caesas P ilzflSTflhIOM® \' ~, ~,< ~ K Every Wednesday By Evan Braunstein Daily Sports Wnitcr There was some rIumbling in Buffalo last night. The titans of college \\wrestling facedr one another in the 1998 National Wrestling Coaches Association All- Star Classic at the University of Buffalo last night. The tournament selects the top two wrestlers in each weight class to face off against each other in a dual meet of mammoth proportions. Michigan sent its two top grapplers - No. 2 Airron Richardson at heavy- weight and No. 3 Jeff Catrabone at 167 pounds. Catrabone, who was not scheduled to compete, was able to wrestle in the meet when top-ranked Joe Williams of Iowa pulled out with an injury. Catrabone faced fourth-ranked Brandon Slay of Pennsylvania, who wrestled in place of No. 2 Mark Smith of Oklahoma State. These two All-Stars had met only once before - in last year's NCAA national championship tournament, when Slav defeated Catrabone. Favored in the match, Catrabone hoped to avoid a similar result this time around. But he did not succeed, losing a close 3-1 decision in the final seconds of the bout. Dead-even throughout most of the match, Slay managed an escape in the second period to take the lead, 1-0. Catrabone evened the score at one point apiece in the third period, but Slay scored a takedown with two see- onds remaining in regulation to take the victory. It was one of only three upsets in the meet, and Catrabones second loss of the season. Richardson suffered the same fate - as his teammate, losing 3-1 to top-* ranked Stephen Neal of Cal-State. Bakersfield. Neal scored early in the match with a takedown in the first period, and an escape in the second period put him up 3-0. Richardson'\ third-period escape 'was the only point he could muster. The loss also was only Richardson's second on the season, w ith both defeats coming at the hands of Neal. Catrabone, Richardson and the rest@ of the Wolverines will take on Michigan State tomorrow night in Last Lansing. Michigan's Airron Richardson (22- 2) fell to Cal- Bakersfield's Stephen Neal (24-0) in a 3-1 decision yester- day night at the NWCA All-Star Classic hosted by. the University of Buffalo . &4 0 FILE PHOTO I -1 1 T 'he Daily's books are in A limited-edition first printing of The Michigan Daily's book, "We're No. 1: The 1997 National Championship Season," is now available at the Daily's offices at 420 Maynard St. and at select local retail outlets. Get the most complete coverage available of Michigan's football season along with breathtaking photography. I! S Limited first edition flC" i I :I