MEN'S NCAA
BAS KETBALL
(1) UCONN 101
Notre Dame 70
Tennessee at
(6) KENTUCKY, inc.
(16) Iowa 71
(23) OHIO ST. 68
Providence 67,
(18) SYRACUSE 58
Oklahoma 54,
(21) OKLAHOMA ST. 43
FLORIDA ST. 70,
(25) Clemson 64
WOMEN'S NCAA
BASKETBALL
(3) PURDUE 76
Northwestern 46
(11) OLD DOMINION 86
American 64
NHL
Toronto 4,
TAMPA BAY 3
DETROIT 5,
Montreal 1
Chicago at
Colorado, inc.
Jfe laludJian &iig
Tracking 'M'hopefuls
Ann Arbor Pioneer star and Michigan men's basketball
recruit Lavell Blanchard was recently named the Old
Spice Athlete of the Month for January. According to
Old Spice, he doesn't talk trash or get tattoos. Wow.
Wednesday
January 13, 1999
'Kosick not worried about lack of goals
By Mark Francescutti
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan hockey team looks upon forward
Mark Kosick as an important piece of a winning team
puzzle.
While Michigan's defense ranks second in the
CCHA overall, the Wolverines lie a distant fifth in goals
er game with 2.95 - almost a full goal behind
orthern Michigan (3.77).
Although the holiday season is over, Kosick seems to
keep the seasonal spirit in his game, as he seems to
enjoy giving more than receiving.
The sophomore leads the team in assists with 13, but
is a distant sixth in goals with five.
"I know I haven't been scoring the goals, but I'm get-
ting the chances," Kosick said. "I'm just not putting
them in the hole. I am going to start bearing down a lit-
tle more around the net.
"Once they start going in, then they are just going to
l eep going in for me. That's the way it's been my whole
life."
The difficulty of turning on the red light plagued
Kosick last season when he notched 14 goals and 32
assists.
But the sophomore isn't worried about whether his
role requires a certain amount of scoring.
"I don't really know yet. Normally my role has been
an offensive one and that's what I feel it is, but whatev-
er role I am put into, I'll try to do the best I can."
But with the Wolverines in the middle of the CCHA
pack as far as goals are concerned, Michigan might
need Kosick to pick up some of the scoring slack.
"We're making some plays, the plays are there, we
just have to put them in," Kosick said.
Kosick hasn't received a lot of media attention, but
reaching the front page isn't one of his immediate goals.
"I could really care less about (getting) press,"
Kosick said. "Individually, I just want to be the best
player I can be when I'm done here, so I have a chance
to play hockey (afterwards). That's my dream.
"I have 2 1/2 years left to improve"
This season didn't begin pleasantly for the icer. He
spent the first week and a half recovering from a dislo-
cated shoulder. But Kosick battled back to achieve the
fifth-highest plus/minus rating - plus 9 in 21 games
- and reaching second on the team in points.
Berenson isn't worried about the number of goals
next to Kosick's name.
"I think he will score more," Berenson said. "But I'm
not concerned with his points. I'm concerned with his
overall play."
After trying new lines this past weekend, Berenson
looks to continue playing Kosick at center on a line with
Greg Crozier and Sean Ritchlin.
"We played together last year, and we had a lot of
success scoring a lot of goals;' Kosick said.
Berenson, who has shuffled his lines in the past cou-
ple of weeks, is still searching for the right combination,
but said he hopes Kosick can lead his line to better per-
formances.
"We'll see (about the line), they just played this (past)
weekend. I saw some things that I liked and some things
I didn't like," Berenson said. "If Kosick plays well it
should help the wingers play well."
M.I.A. ICERS: Several Wolverines missed practice
yesterday for various reasons. Defenseman Mike Van
Ryn is still suffering from the bronchitis that plagued
him after his return from world juniors. Senior captain
Bubba Berenzweig went to the dentist for a root canal,
Berenson said that freshman Craig Murray, suffering
from the injury bug almost all season, is doubtful to
play this weekend because of lace bite.
Michigan forward
Mark Kosick
doesn't lead the
team in goals.
Mike Comrie
does. But Kosick
does lead the
Wolverines in
assists, with t3.
WARREN ZINN/Daily
;
Blue tankers swim at
.Huron High School
-to
W Id
By Jon Zemke
Daily Sports Writer
There's no place like home, but no
matter how hard or often the
Michigan's men's swimming and div-
ing team's seniors click their heels,
they'll never make it back to their
ome pool in time.
Canham Natatorium, the site for its
home meets, is in the process of
major root renovation to the roof, and
has remained unused by the swim-
ming and diving teams for the previ-
ous 10 months.
So the men's and women's swim-
ming and diving teams have had to
relocate all of their home meets to the
pool at Ann Arbor's Huron High
School.
"We're going to be at an unknown
pool ... so we're going to be at a (neu-
tral) site,' Michigan men's swimming
coach Jon Urbanchek said. "Not being
home is not going to be an advantage
to us."
Not that Michigan has to worry that
much about losing its advantage. The
Wolverines still remain one of the pre-
mier swimming and diving programs
n the nation despite being deprived of
e home-pool advantage.
Urbanchek seemed to be taking the
displacement in stride.
"It's better than not swimming at
all," Urbanchek said. "We've bared
this for 10 months now. I hope we can
go one more week."
The renovation is nearly complete,
and if everything goes according to
schedule, the team should be practic-
ing at Canham before the season
comes to a close.
4 Urbanchek seemed positive about
the work being done on the
Natatorium.
"I see at least 20 people working
out there, running around painting,
touch-up, scaffolding," Urbanchek
said. "In my personal opinion, I'd say
we're two weeks away from actually
jumping in."
"We're at the edge of breaking in
the new pool," Urbanchek said.
"We're close."
Close doesn't quite cut it for senior
swimmers Jeff Flermoen, Tom
Malchow, Joe Palmer, Andy Potts,
John Reich, and David Stephens, and
senior diver Brett Wilmot, though.
"The graduating seniors won't have
a chance to plunge into our pool,
unfortunately," Urbanchek said.
That might be considered a letdown
for not only this year's seniors, but
also their fans, considering how well
some of them are doing this season.
Malchow has been the most impres-
sive thus far, earning NCAA consider-
ation times in the 200 and 500
freestyle and 200 butterfly.
Wilmot is also having a stellar sea-
son. He has earned I- and 3-meter
NCAA qualification scores during the
fall season alone, which is usually
reserved for training for the winter
season.
The lack of a home pool hasn't
affected the team's performance or
failed to stop the regular run-of-the-
mill activities, which includes seniors'
weekend and the Michigan Open.
But both activities will be held at
Huron's pool.
The Michigan Open will take place
Feb. 12-14, and senior weekend will
be on Friday and Saturday when the
Wolverines take on Penn State and
Purdue.
"It'll be a great seniors weekend,
but unfortunately we'll have to look at
(our) pool from outside the window,"
Urbanchek said.
Early BigTen
hopsleaders
are srprises
By Pranay Reddy
Daily Sports Litor
One of the few certainties in the otherwise unpredictable
world of college basketball is the significant advantage
home teams possess over visiting teams.
With the home crowd in a frenzy and emotions at fever-
pitchith its foughfor a road team to come away with a win, no
matter what conference you're in - or who you're playing.
And in the Big Ten, home-court advantage takes on an
even grieater importance. Parity in the league coupled with
the relative youth of most teams has already made the early
portion of the 1998-99 season one of the most interesting in
recent history.
With the season already bucking the predictions of
many, the main storyline thus far has been the inability of
conterence favorites to win on the road - with also-rans
slowly turning into also-contenders.
"It looks'like our league is making it very, very clear that
it's going to be tough to win on the road," Michigan coach
Brian Ellerbe said.
The conference's biggest surprise thus far, No. 12 Iowa,
has had no such problems. The Hawkeyes have successful-
ly used coach Tom Davis' swan song as motivation for a
breakout season, jumping out to an early lead in the Big Ten
with a 4-0 record.
Iowa's Big Ten campaign got a jump-start in the opener
when the Hawkeyes upset then-ranked-No. 8 Indiana 67-52
in Bloomington. The Hawkeyes also defeated No. 21 Ohio
State 71-68 last night.
Sharing Iowa's billing as early-season surprise has defi-
nitely been Northwestern, which has a 2-1 record after road
victories over No. 19 Minnesota and Illinois.
Despite its success in the conference (third in the Big
Ten) and a 9-3 overall record, however, the Wildcats still
haven't cracked the national rankings - which further cred-
its the depth of the league.
So what's with all the early surprises? Well, preseason
favorites to win the conference have all faltered, opening the
door for the Hawkeyes, Wildcats and the Buckeyes to creep
up from behind.
In fact, No. 13 Purdue, No. 14 Michigan State and
No. 23 Indiana have all been struck with the same prob-
See BIG TEN, Page 14
AP PHOTO
The Iowa basketball team was expected to be a middle-of-the-pack squad in the Big Ten this season.
But after a 71-68 victory over Ohio State last night, the 12th-ranked Hawkeyes find themselves alone
atop the conference standings.
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ORIENTATION & WELCOME TO MICHIGAN SUMMER POSITIONS:
REMINDER: There will be a mass meeting for Summer Orientation Leaders positions on
January 13', 6:30 p.m., Angell Hall Aud D. Applications available in Office of New Student
Programs.
We are also hiring two coordinators:
Summer Parent Orientation Coordinator and
Welcome to Michigan Student Coordinator
The Office of New Student Programs is looking for two energetic students to assist in the
coordination of the University of Michigan Parent Orientation Program and the Welcome to
Michigan Program. Both positions are outstanding leadership opportunities.
Parent Orientation Coordinator
The Parent Oriemation Coordinator is a member of the Summer Orientation senior staff and also
works close ly with the Newt Student Summer Orientation Program. This is a live-in position with
rotating on-call responsibiities 2 evenings per week. Job responsibilities include overseeing the
overall operation of the Parent Orientation program including supervising 4 Parent Orientation
Leaders; communicating/seheduling with campus offices; managing program logistics such as
scheduling rooms, AV equipment. and bus transportation; and serving as liaison to summer hotel.
FILE PHOTO
Tom Malchow and the Michigan swimming and diving team has gone back to
school this season - high school. The Wolverines have been practicing and will
*ompete at Huron High School while Canham Natatorium is being renovated.
'Zivn !-iee*ti her
%.k A *i. u -iLi-4'.fAfH3H
Employment Dates:
Remuneration:
8-10 hours a week, beginning in January
40 hours a week, May 3d - August 20th
(Employment can be extended until classes begin)
Room (with private bath) in East Quad
MNak in Last Oua uhen the nrogram is in session
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