oreboard-- NBA BASKETBALL Cleveland at Minnesota at TORONTO, Inc. CHICAGO, inc. Orlando at Vancouver at MIAMI, Inc. DENVER, Inc. San Antonio at Seattle at HOUSTON, Inc. SACRAMENTO, Inc. Milwaukee at Phoenix at DALLA S Inc LOS ANGELES, Inc. NHL Hockey Vancouvernat PHILADELPHIA, Inc Calgary at ATLANTA, Inc. Phoenix at EDMONTON, Inc. Washington at LOS ANGELES, Inc. I - tg Tracking 'M' teams Check out the Michigan field hockey team at Gcker Field at 3 p.m. on Friday. The stickers take on Big TN arch rival Penn State. Wednesday October 27, 1999 , '. it .. .. . . ...v . .. Women's hoops shoots for NCAAs By Raphael Goodstein Daily Sports Writer After dancing in the NCAA Tournament two years ago, the Michigan women's basketball team boogied into the WNIT's second round last year. The post-season experience should prove valuable this year for the Wolverines, who return all five starters and are expecting to be back in the NCAA Tournament this year. "I'm expecting to build off of what we did last year," Michigan coach Sue Guevara said. "Going to the NCAA two seasons ago was great for us. I expect that we'll go again this year. We have all five starters back." In addition to the returning starters, the Wolverines add depth, thanks to two freshmen: guard Infini Robinson and center LeeAnn Bies. The two have played better than Guevara could have expected, and both will get significant play- ing time-- either as starters or coming off the bench. "It's very competitive," Guevara said, describ- ing practice. "Our players are in better shape and I've changed the lineups. (The freshmen) give us more depth and we're more versatile" The 5-9 Robinson is quick and Guevara describes her three point shot as "legitirnate." The 6-3 Bies will add depth Michigan's low post. "She's our strongest low-post player, but most inexperienced," Guevara said. "It's been a major adiustment for both of them. They'll both see time." Another player who will "see time" is point guard Stacey Thomas. The second-team All Big Ten member will need a big year for the Wolverines if they are to return to the NCAA Tournament. "Stacey Thomas is going to leave here as one of the best players we've ever had," Guevara said. "She's certainly been the most talented we've had since I've been here. She just works so hard." But if Thomas is to reach her ultimate goal - making the WNBA - she will have to improve her scoring. "Her scoring will have to improve, but it has every year," Guevara said. Last year, the senior averaged 14.9 points-per- game. But Thomas and the Wolverines will need the two freshmen to step in and play well if Michigan is to return to the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines play one of the toughest sched- ules in the nation, including No. 3 Louisiana Tech and No. 6 Colorado State in the non-con- ference schedule, before conference play. The Big Ten is among the nation's toughest confer- ences, and it is where national champion Purdue resides. Michigan will undoubtedly start the season unranked, but Guevara is not concerned with national rankings - at least not yet. "It can be a motivating factor," Guevara said. "But I'm not really concerned with pre-season polls. I'm only worried about what the polls look like at the end of the season. Home, sweet home 1[EE'M' recuperates from EjE ltrip, 1-1 split in Alaska Michigan seeks to out-pace the rival Badgers at Saturday's Big Ten meet. Big Ten looms for Wolverines By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Sports Writer In the sport of cross country, there is a saying which encompasses the big meet hopes of every team, whether favorite or doormat: 'It doesn't matter what you've done, all that matters is what you do on this day.' Forthe Michigan men's cross coun- try team, nothing could be more truth- ful. The Wolverines, still "riding the wave" from their impressive perfo- mance two weeks ago in the Wolverine Interregional, are gearing up for what has the makings of a showdown in this weekend's Big Ten meet in State College. Standing in the way of a possible three-peat for the Wolverines? Wisconsin, of course. "We're aware of who they've got," senior co-captain Jay Cantin said. "I don't know if they know how good we are, but we've still got to run well to win." See CROSS, Page 11 By Uma Subramanian Daily Sports Writer Prior to heading to Alaska for last weekend's series against Alaska- Fairbanks, Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson said that one of the most unusual things about the trip was having to return home and rake his leaves. But for the players, the weirdest thing about coming back to Ann Arbor after a trip to the northernmost state is readjust- ing to the time zone. "We left after the game on Saturday and flew all through the night on Sunday," freshman J. J. Swistak said. "We didn't get back till Sunday evening, so the whole sleep thing is still messed up. It's still affecting me." To help the players readjust, the Wolverines took Monday off and returned to full practice yesterday. The valuable lessons they learned from their weekend excursion will be implemented this week in practice. On Friday night Michigan suffered its first loss at the hands of the underrated Nanooks, who we're predicted to finish at the bottom of the CCHA. "Both games were hard fought games that were good to get under our belt," Berenson said. "They were physical and emotional close games. We played in a fairly hostile arena. Our penalty killing was really good." Prior to the contests, Alaska coach Guy Gadowsky said that playing Michigan was the measuring stick that teams used to determine how good they were at a particular point during the sea- son. Now, after having beaten the Wolverines and Ohio State, the Nanooks have proven they will no longer be the cellar dwellers of the CCHA. "They didn't surprise us," Berenson said. "We heard they were good. They'd beaten Ohio State and they had some confidence and a little bit of momentum. They did everything we thought they'd do. But our team played with more des- peration on Saturday night to win. "Our team has confidence, they know that they should win. They also under- stand how hard they have to play. I think they learned that after Friday's loss. Every team that we play is going to play us as though they were playing the Detroit Red Wings. They are going to give us their best game and if we give them anything else in return, it's not going to be good enough." The loss came as a surprise to the players - especially the freshmen. M "It was kind of a shock to all of us," Swistak said. "We expected to go in there and win. We didn't expect to go undefeated, but we didn't expect to lose. It just shows us that anybody can beat us." The Wolverines have a fairly light schedule this week, not playing until Saturday night until Yale visits Yost. The Bulldogs finished last season with a 13- 14-4 record and ended up in fifth place in the ECAC. "We're supposed to beat Yale too," See HOCKEY, Page 11 =Around the Horn Wolvennes still have a shot - sure they don 't - A fter Michigan's dumbfound- ing loss to Illinois on Saturday, many students on campus have given up hope on the Michigan football team doing any- thing of note this season. I even saw some random Michigan fraternity boys selling their Abercrombie and Fitch gear for cowboy boots and Wrangler jeans in anticipation of heading to the Alamo Bowl in late December. OK, that wasn't true at all. But it might as well have been. After the okn ost h ihigIln, expectations of Michigan fans have hit the gutter Things have gotten so bad in An Arbor that when the Bowl Championshtp Series rankings were' released Monday night, it created the stir of an intramural field hock cy game. By the way, the Wolverines are No. 12 in the BCS rankings with six weeks left to go until Bowl Selection Sunday While the BCS' sole pur--T.j. pose is to select BERKA the two teams that will play for the national title in the Sugar Bowl, it does have impact as far as Michigan is concerned. TEEI=G With six OFF weeks to go, the- - - Wolverines only have to move up - 10 places in the BCS standings to- get a shot at the Sugar Bowl. While no team has ever lost two games and won the national title, who says that Michigan couldn't be the first?: If it can happen on Sony PlayStation, it can happen in real life. This is what would have to occu" at Michigan would have to kill S Indiana, Northwestern, Penn State, and Ohio State by an average of 56 points. While this is a difficult task - especially since it would proba- bly force the offense to score 87 points per game - -Wolverines can take heart in knowing that this would be the hardest thing that would be asked of them. If Michigan could pull this off, all the rest of the garbage contained in th column could come true. This scenario would also elmini- ate the other Big Ten teams from screwing things up for the Wolverines. Penn State, after losing 63-4 to Michigan. would lose to Michigan State - which would be angry about dropping games to Ohio State and Northwestern by the combined score of 123-2. As for Wisconsin, which is com-0 fortably nestled in the rankings at No. 9, you know they are going to lose to somebody. The Badgers lost to Cincinnati, for cripes sake. b) Maryland would have to win the ACC: While the Terrapins haven't had a winning season since the days of Boomer Esiason and Neil O'Donnell, the Terps have a chance to screw some stuff up. All Maryland has to do is beat Florida State by 17 touchdowns, which can happen if Bobby Bowden takes the Seminoles on a field trip to the mall the week before the game. After all of the Seminoles are suspended for the season for grand theft and extortion, Maryland will- only have to get by Georgia Tech. Which should be easy, as the Yellow Jackets haven't been the same since Stephon Marbury declared for thee NBA Draft. c) Vanderbilt and South Carolina go on a legendary tear: In most years, the Commodores and Gamecocks suck. This year is no different. But both of those bunk teams each get to play Tennessee and Florida in the last month of the sea- son. Vanderbilt is actually 5-3 this year, so beating Florida and Tennessee by 39 points each is a realistic goal. But South Carolina beating any- body is not a realistic goal. In fact, the Gamecocks haven't won an SEC game in over two years. But they do have Lou Holtz, who - if threat- ened to be committed to a nursing home - can lead his team to victo- ryB See BERKA, Page 11. 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