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. a-a- p"rC C ,9 1 sprin g Breal; COUp ALL TRI Home to the "Sunbreaker Cancun's only party package with over 75 hou of open bar and 2 T-shirts PS INCLUDE: TAKE $25 OFF Round trip Air YOUR VACATION RT Transfers WITH THIS AD I Staff Assistance L------.I Free Side Excursion Hotel AccomodationsO From Party Packe\ 21 Hours of Free Drinks i 14 Free Meals rs 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 I