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Tracking 'M' teams
CheCk out the Michigan wrestling team this Friday at
7:30 p.m. at Crisler Arena when it opens its Big Ten
dual meet schedule with Michigan State.
Thursday
December 10, 1998
9A
.1Nutts' crew is'
oerjoyed toface
M' machine
hose Arkansas residents must be very busy now,
what with packing up the family truck for the
Citrus Bowl or finishing up the harvest or avoid-
ing impeachment for having affairs with interns and
lying to Congress.
You know, the usual.
So there it is. Michigan plays Arkansas on Jan. 1.
Hmmmm ... Arkansas. Can things get any more unusu-
al?
Well, not really. There are a lot of very bizarre little
nuances involved in this game. Nobody really knows
hat to expect, it seems.
For both teams, the trip to Orlando will be the first
Citrus Bowl appearance. The
Razorbacks, in 105 years of foot-
ball, have only played three Big Ten
teams, the last one being 17 years
ago. Not one of those teams was
Michigan.
New Years Day, 1999, will be the
Razorbacks' first bowl game since
1989. First bowl game. Hmmmm ... SHARAT
The athletic program's Website is RAJU
ogwired.com. No kidding. I could- Sharat In
4't make up something like that. the Dark
Arkansas' coach is named
Houston Nutt.
Seriously. No word on whether or not he is actually
crazy about Houston, Texas.
I'm telling you, everything is eerie about this Citrus
Bowl.
Although his-name is a little bizarre, Nutt is one
good coach, apparently.
Picked somewhere in the '80s in some preseason
*ublications, the first-year coach drove the Razorbacks
to a 9-2 record and a No. 11 ranking. Nutt was named
pational coach of the year by Football News Magazine.
So much for preseason polls.
Everything about Arkansas seems strange this year.
Take earlier this season, against SEC rival and top-
ranked Tennessee.
Arkansas, in a position to beat the undefeated
Volunteers, merely had to down the ball and run out the
remainder of the clock.
What happens? Well, Arkansas quarterback Clint
Otoerner fumbles trying to run out the clock, giving
ennessee the ball and an eventual last-second victory.
-Things like that don't "just happen," in college foot-
ball, unless something unusual is on the horizon. Just
like Nebraska's kicked ball last year - it led to an
eventual split national championship.
So Arkansas' season has been a little different from
the norm. I mean, Arkansas itself is different from the
norm. Look at the state's name.
How come it isn't pronounced Ar-Kansas, like 'are
kansas?'
What does all this have to do with the actual football
game? Well, nothing, perhaps.
But you never know.
Last year, the stars were aligned just right for the
Wolverines.
Everything went their way, except for the aforemen-
tioned blemish caused by the Cornhuskers.
But the Wolverines seemed destined to win.
This season, the Razorbacks have had similar good
fortune besides one blemish.
Nutt even said after receiving the Citrus Bowl bid'
that they've been "pointing to Florida since day one."
I guess that is a reasonable goal. You know, set your
sights, uh, medium.
Still, you have to admire a team that was picked to
finish just above toaster shakings and head lice to come
out and shock everybody.
Except Mississippi State. And Tennessee.
But they are poised to romp over Michigan.
Well, with all the oddities surrounding this Citrus
Bowl, anything is possible.
- Sharat Raju can be reached via email
at sraju@umich.edu.
Smacking
the MAC
Bullock's 34 lead
way agai for Blue
By Josh Kleinbaum
Daily Sports Editor
YPSILANTI - The Michigan
men's basketball team gave Eastern
Michigan the best housewarming
gift it could think of last night - a
good, old-fashioned shellacking.
At the dedication of Eastern's
brand-new Convocation Center,
Michigan outhustled, outscrapped,
outre -
bounded, Michigan 86
outplayed SZE. Michigan 63
and, most
importantly, outscored the Eagles,
winning the game, 86-63.
Louis Bullock had one of the best
games of his career, pacing the
Wolverines in both points, with a
career-high 34, and rebounds, with a
career-high 11.
"He's pretty good," Michigan
coach Brian Ellerbe said of his
senior shooting guard. "Hopefully
people will start talking about him,
not as a shooter, but as a basketball
player. We fed off of him tonight."
The 34 points move Bullock into
sixth on Michigan's all-time scorers
list, just two points behind Rudy
Tomjonovich.
Thanks to a physical game in
which Michigan used its size and
strength to draw fouls, Bullock was
able to do much of his damage from
the free throw line, hitting 1 of 12
shots. The Wolverines bullied the
Eagles in the paint, forcing them to
commit 30 fouls, bringing Michigan
to the charity stripe 43 times. The
Wolverines converted 34 freebies,
enabling them to score their season-
high 84 points.
The Eagles had their chances at
the line, too, but converted on just 16
of 34 shots.
"If you don't make free throws,
you don't win," Eastern Michigan
coach Milton Barnes said.
Michigan controlled the game
from the get-go. After the Eagles
took an 8-6 lead in a slow six-minute
stretch to start the game, Bullock hit
a three, Brandon Smith took a
Robbie Reid alley-oop pass and
slammed it home and Reid and
Smith each hit two free throws, giv-
ing Michigan a seven point lead. And
the Wolverines never looked back.
Midway through the second half,
the Eagles made a run. Behind tight
defense and a fierce press, they
caused several Michigan turnovers.
Leon Jones dribbled off his foot,
Reid did the same and Smith made
an ill-advised pass trying to break
the pressure. Suddenly, Michigan's
See EAGLES, Page 12A
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Michigan guard Louis Bullock continued his offensive tear of late, scoring a career-high 34 points
last night in the Wolverines' 86-63 thrashing of Eastern Michigan.
women continue
tear, hold off BGSU
By Geoff Gagnon
Daily Sports Writer
BOWLING GREEN - The
Michigan women's basketball team's
Midwest tour played its second game
in a row in Ohio last night. And again,
the road-weary Wolverines came out
on top, beating Bowling Green, 82-71.
In the midst of a four-game road
swing through Ohio, Illinois, and
Indiana, Michigan didn't exactly have
its most
grueling Michigan 82
trip, trav- / Bowling Green 71
elling just
an hour south to upend the Falcons at
Anderson Arena. Nevertheless, the
game would prove more troublesome
for Michigan than the trip.
Michigan (7-1), behind Alison
Miller's 10 first-half points, managed
to jump out to a slight edge early.
But Bowling Green was able to
keep things close, trailing by only a
point halfway through the first peri-
od.
"This was our third game in some-
thing like eight days," Guevara said. "I
thought we came out very sluggish,
we missed a lot of open puppies."
Despite Michigan's slow start and
the Falcons' tenacity, Guevara saw her
squad use a 14-2 scoring run to close
the first half with a 10-point lead.
The Wolverine lead would prove
vulnerable, however, as Bowling
Green opened the game's second half
by scoring a pair of unanswered bas-
kets, prompting a Michigan timeout.
"I give Bowling Green a lot of cred-
it," Guevara said. "They kept playing
and kept coming after us. It was like
we couldn't put them away."
Michigan was able to find some
breathing room following the timeout.
The Wolverines exploded on a 9-0
run, building a lead from which they
would never look back.
The contest marked the team's sev-
enth straight win, a feat that ties a
school record set last by the 1989-90
squad. Guevara says the competitive
nature of last night's game came as no
surprise.
"We knew we were going to be in a
fight playing Bowling Green,"
Guevara said. "The scouting report
on them says they're very fundamen-
tally sound, will go to the boards, are
scrappy, and are going to outwork
you."
But in the end, Guevara was thank-
ful to see that it was her squad that
came out on top, saying the game
proved educational for her team.
"We did some key things, we
learned some things, and it was anoth-
er step in our growing process," said
Guevara.
Guevara admits that the ordinarily
speedy and assertive Michigan attack
was certainly slowed by the fast pace
of their recent schedule.
"We were kind of sluggish as I said,
and as much as I wasn't exactly
pleased with our defense, we were
able to get our seventh win, and it
came on the road"
DARBY FRIEDLIS/Daily
Heather Oesterte and her Michigan teammates are on a roll like none of them can remember, after
reeling off their seventh straight victory last night over Bowling Green.
Strong out of the gate
The Michigan women's basketball team Is off to one of its best starts ever after a vIctory
last night over Bowling Green. Other memorable seasons for the Wolverines
1989-90:The team made its first trip to the NCAA tournament on the heels of its only 20-win season.
1997-98: Last year's team returned to the "Big Dance," led by current WNBA player Pollyanna Johns.
Previous Best Starts:
Season: Record
1989-90 6-0
1986-87 6-1
1987-88 7-2
Citrus Bowl Information
No. 15 Michigan (9-3) vs.
No. 11 Arkansas (9-2)
Site: Orlando, Fla.
Time: 1 p.m. EST
Television: ABC
Just in Time for Finals!
MR. PIZZA
1200 Packard at Dewey
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Mo.
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OPEN LATE
Til 2AM Sunday-Thursday
Til 3AM Friday and Saturday
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