Score board.
MEN'S NCAA WOMEN'S NCAA
BASKETBALL BASKETBALL
(23) ST JOHN'S 61. (6) IOWA STATE 64,
Rutgers 57 Kansas State 61
(11) TENNESSEE 105, (12) LOUISIANA ST. 87,
;7) Auburn 76 New Orleans 54
(17) TEXAS 82. (15) UC SANTA BAR-
Nebraska 55 BARA 61,
Vanderbilt 48
NBA
BASKETBALL
INDIANA 93,
Phoenix 87
SAN ANTONIO 105,
LA Clippers 82
CLEVELAND 116,
Detroit 107 (OT)
MIAMI 115,
Boston 89
SPORTSfi~u §a~
Tracking 'M' teams
Check out the Michigan women's tennis team this
Friday. The Wolverines face Western Michigan at 6
p.m. at Varsity Tennis Center. Michigan has a record
of 1-0 after its win over DePaul.
Wednesday
January 26, 2000
9
eM' content with current success
ByJeb Singer
For-the Daily
There is a "business as usual" feel-
ing at Canham Natatorium this week
as'the Michigan men's swimming
teafmrprepares to host Indiana.
The Wolverines (2-0 Big Ten. 5-2
overall) are coming off a convincing
138-103 victory over Purdue. Indiana
21, 4-1) has strong swimmers and
certain events may be close. But the
Hoosiers are not instilling fear into
the hearts of the Wolverines.
"We feel confident in our ability to
n," Michigan assistant coach Eric
Namesnik said. "But over the long
haul, this meet is just a stepping
stone. It is another opportunity to
race.
fhe feeling among the team is opti-
unistic at practice. Riding an emotion-
allhigh and swimming at home in a
50-meter facility -- and since
Michigan is the better team on paper
>-there is reason for optimism. A win
against Indiana would give the
Wolverines a chance at a perfect Big
Ten record going into the final meets
against Michigan State and Ohio
State. While going undefeated in Big
Ten regular-season meets has been an
annual tradition since 1990, it does
not concern the swimmers or coach-
ing staff. The Wolverines are most
concerned with their performance at
practice.
"We haven't looked at the resuits,"
Namesnik said. "We would like to see
progression and performance."
And right now Michigan has got to
be happy with where it is. The results
have certainly showed up in the wins
over ranked opponents. And success
should continue.
"We set our goals early and try to
stick to them;" Namesnik said. "We
can be there in the running for the Big
Ten Championships. Having the (Big
Ten) championships in Ann Arbor
may help."
Michigan and Minnesota have con-
stantly been in the running for the Big
Ten title.
"We use Indiana to see where the
guys are at,"Namesnik said. "It is
more an indicator of where we will be
at the end of the year."
Keeping with the intention of using
this meet as an indicator, the meet will
be carried out in a unique fashion.
There will be a morning and
evening session with added events in
order for the swimmers to try out
events that they do not normally com-
pete in. With key swimmers such as
sophomore Tim Siciliano and fresh-
man Garrett Manigieri coming off ill-
ness that kept them out of the Purdue
meet, the Wolverines are at full force
going into the final stretch of their
schedule.
But it is unclear just how much
damage the team can do.
"Our goal is to be in the top six at
the NCAA meet," Namesnik said.
"We continue to belive that this is a
realistic aini. It is too early to tell just
how good we are"
DANA LINNANE/Daily
The Michigan men's swimming team is spending the week preparing for Indiana, not expressing much concerned over their
upcomming opponents. A win against the Hoosiers would maintain Michigan's run at an undefeated Big Ten season.
Indiana 85, Michigan 50
Assembly Hell
... ,Michigan pitiful in 35-point defeat
By Jacob Wheeler
Dily Sports Writer
BLOOMINGTON -The press room
in Indiana's Assembly Hall resembles a
classroom, as nine rows of mini-desks
face the menacing podium. The only
things missing from the school atmos-
phere, perhaps, are a chalkboard and an
"All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten" poster.
This is Hoosier coach Bobby Knight's
classroom - a place where he's ham-
mered home the ABCs of college bas-
ketball. almost since students wrote their
lessons on wooden slates.
Though he's seen hundreds of players
pass under his tutelage in 29 years as
Indiana's head coach, they have all mem-
orized Knight's most important lesson:
defense.
The Hoosiers (5-2 Big Ten, 15-3 over-
all) schooled Michigan with a defense as
suffocating as a smoke-filled room last
night in an 85-50 drubbing that the
freshmen-laden Wolverines (3-3, 12-5)
won't forget anytime soon. The stunning
debacle was Indiana's largest margin of
victorv over Michigan ever - even
worse than a 112-79 defeat nine years
ago in Bloomington.
As the Big Ten race heats up and the
margin of error falls accordingly, rest
assured Michigan won't see many per-
meable defenses. The road ahead only
gets tougher, as Michigan faces
Michigan State and Ohio State at home
next week - two teams that made the
Final Four last season.
"This game couldn't have been any
worse," a dejected Michigan coach Brian
Ellerbe said in Knight's classroom. "I
don't think the game was about (our
poor) shooting. It was about competing
and executing, and we didn't do that."
With the victory, Indiana remains in
striking distance of first place in the con-
ference, as Michigan slipped into a tie
for fifth place with Penn State. The
Spartans, Buckeyes and Purdue all share
the top spot with 4-1 records.
Indiana wreaked havoc on Michigan's
offense immediately after tipoff, closing
off all open looks at the basket. The
Wolverines didn't score until 3:49 into
the first half, as their usual offensive
schemes - a baseline layup by Kevin
Gaines, a Jamal Crawford fadeaway, or a
LaVell Blanchard jumper from the foul
line - were rendered all but impossible.
Michigan shot just 18.9% from the
field in the first half, and failed to con-
vert a 3-point attempt. The Hoosiers,
feeding offtheir coach's patented airtight
defense, compiled a series of scoring
runs: 7-0, 14-0, 11-0, en route to a 45-18
halftime lead. During one 10-minute
stretch in the first half, Indiana outscored
Michigan 32-5.
"When (the Wolverines) made mis-
takes, their first instinct was to get a
quick basket," Ellerbe said, summing up
his freshmen's collective frustration.
"You can't do that against good teams."
Ellerbe, who has coerced his team into
better second-half play a handful of
times this season, could do nothing to
stop the onslaught last night.
Michigan's shooting improved only
slightly after the break, sinking one-third
of its shots in the second half. But the
growing frustration was starkly evident
at the free-throw line, where the
Wolverines converted only 52.4% of
their "gimmes."
The climax came during a one-minute
stretch early in the second half, when
Josh Asselin, Leon Jones, and Gaines
collectively missed six consecutive foul
shots.
Knight, who is known as much for his
sporadic emotional outbursts as well as
his team's stifling defense, was all smiles
after the blowout. At an apparent loss for
words to describe how one quality team
could beat another by 35 points, Knight
walked around the perss room, shaking
hands with every journalist and asking
each one, "How are you?"
"I told Ellerbe, 'These things happen
to everybody when things don't go your
way.' It happened to us at Michigan (in a
112-64 Michigan victory two years
ago)," Knight said.
Indiana used a deadly inside-outside
combination on offense, and patiently
worked the shot clock when no immedi-
ate options presented themselves. Center
Kirk Haston led his team with 19 points
(17 in the first half alone) and 11
rebounds, and sharpshooting guard A.J.
Guyton scored 18 points, including two
3-pointers.
Michigan's lone bright spot, though
Ellerbe refused to admit it as such, was
Blanchard's 19-point, 13-rebound per-
formance - the sixth double-double of
the season for the athletic freshman.
Josh Asselin and the entire Michigan basketball team had trouble guarding Indiana's Kirk Haston, who had 19 points and 11
rebounds in the Hoosiers 85-50 schooling of the Wolverines.
Free car, tuition up for grabs at State game
'M'
encounters defensive force
By Dave Den Herder
Daily Sports Writer
0 BLOOMINGTON --At 12:48 in
thesecond half last night, on a free
throwe from Kevin Gaines, the
Wolverines pulled within thirty.
Also, they had 30 points.
.The rest of the night was less
interesting.
After Gaines drove to the hoop
and put up an airball, Brian Ellerbe
let his hands flop down to his sides,
letting all the air in his body escape
hrough his fluttering lips.
Whoever came up with the word
flabbergasted' must have been
watching someone similar.
Out although there was plenty of
.ime for disappointment last night,
there wasn't much room for disbe-
hief..After all, Ellerbe has been clam-
ty foreshadowing this day since the
season began.
."We know we can score," Ellerbe
aid then. "We need a lot of work
defensively"
There is no doubt that the latter is
true. But if this game was anybody's
first look at the Wolverines (and it
was for a certain bunch of Hoosiers),
then there might be some doubt
about the former.
Michigan hit one out of every
four shots on average - but that
average was boosted substantially in
garbage time, when nothing really
mattered.
The exact point at which
"garbage time" began is up for
debate, but Michgian did trail by 27
at halftime. At that point, the
Wolverines had recorded zero steals
and a lonely block. They finished
with only two steals while the
Hoosiers racked up nine. It was a
defensive battle, except Michigan
wasn't playing defense.
"When you play IU, you know
they're going to play tough help
defense," said Michigan guard Gavin
Groninger, who hails from
Plainfield, Ind. "I heard coach
Knight saying, 'Get your hands up
for the block."'
The Hoosiers obeyed, and five
times, they weresuccessful. But
another Michigan freshman, Jamal
Crawford, wasn't all that impressed.
"They didn't do anything differ-
ently then any other team," Crawford
kept saying after the game. "We just
didn't play hard."
Whether or not Indiana smacked
the Wolverines with the best defense
they've seen all year loses some rel-
evance when the team looks ahead to
its next two games.
See HOOSIERS, Page 10
The Michigan Marketing Department plans to have
its biggest campaign yet at the Michigan-Michigan
State basketball game Tuesday. Michigan Marketing
Director Tom Brooks said his department will give sev-
eral fans a chance to win a free Michigan tuition or
new car at halftime.
Contestants selected from the crowd will have to
make a tree throw and then a half-court shot to either
pay for tuition or drive away in an automobile.
Michigan will also give away 5,000 free headbands,
giving supporters a chance to idolize Michigan fresh-
man Jamal Crawford, who wears a headband every,
game. Pom-poms, 3-point cards and other promo-
tional items are in the works.
Brooks encourages all fans to wear maize for the
game.
Hockey fans will have an opportunity to grab one of
2,500 free maize t-shirts to be given away at Yost Ice
Arena this Saturday, when Michigan faces Ohio State
in its only game of the weekend.
Tickets for the 7 p.m.game against the Spartans are
sold out. The Feb. 13 Indiana matchup sold out last
week, while only about 500 tickets remain for Ohio
State on Feb. 6.
All tickets cost $12 and $15 Students can pick up
tickets at the Michigan Ticket Office next to Yost Ice
Arena on State Street.
- Mark Francescutti
ii
Travel
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Cancun
Acapulco
Puerto Vallarta
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...v. r
I