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Iarsity draws Auburn on New Year's Day
By Stephanie Offen
Daily Sports Editor
Some may say that the Wolverines' 8-3
record is a disappointment. After losing three
games by a total of seven points, it is easy to
wonder what could have been.
But for Michigan's Citrus Bowl opponent,
Auburn, which declared
yesterday that it would face
e Wolverines on Jan. 1,
that same record is a dream L
come true.
Two years ago,
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville took
over a depleted 3-8 football program.
Now his team exceeded all expectations
- completely turning itself around
quicker than anyone imagined. Two years
after the coaching change, the Tigers
ave racked up an 8-3 record, an SEC
est championship and a trip to the sec-
ond-place SEC bowl.
Auburn received a provisional invitation to
the Citrus Bowl before its 28-6 loss to Flori-
da on Saturday. If Auburn defeated the
Gators it would have headed to the Sugar
Bowl instead.
But the Tigers gave up a devastating early
lead to Florida and fell behind with four
turnovers. An injury to quarterback Ben
Leard was another setback Auburn faced in
the third quarter, but the Tigers' fate was
already decided by that time. Leard suffered
a sprained foot but Tuberville expects the
swelling to go down in a couple of days.
"This ballgame is a good distance away
and I would be shocked if he wasn't ready to
play," Tuberville said.
Leard will lead an Auburn offense that is
highlighted by running back Rudi Johnson,
who averages more than 130 yards a game
and is a candidate for SEC Player of the Year.
"He is as good a running back as there is
in this part of the country," Michigan coach
Lloyd Carr said. "He is a very powerful guy,
very difficult to bring down."
The same can be said for Michigan running
back Anthony Thomas, who will be compared
to Johnson until the two meet on New Year's
Day. Unfortunately for Thomas, Auburn has
the top-ranked defense in the SEC, allowing
just 98 rushing yards per game.
But Florida found some way around the
Tigers' top line. The Gators ran for almost
200 yards on Saturday in their victory.
Since the two teams haven't met since
Auburn defeated the Wolverines, 9-7, in the
1984 Sugar Bowl, the two coaches must rely
mostly on this type of statistic to evaluate
each other for now, Carr did not have a
dhance to watch Saturday's SEC champi-
onship game because it was a recruiting
weekend for the Wolverines.
Carr was the Wolverines' defensive coor-
dinator when the two teams met in the Sugar
Bowl and is excited to once again play a
member of what he describes as "one of the
best conferences in the nation."
The Tigers are finished with finals on Dec.
12 or 13 and will head down to Florida
approximately five days later. In that time,
the team will focus on fundamentals since it
has not scored a touchdown in its past two
games.
Michigan, on the other hand, will not be
finished with finals until Dec. 21, but will still
head to Orlando a few days before Christmas
to get accustomed to the weather.
That type of preparation is normal for the
Wolverines, who have not missed out on a
bowl in 26 years. Auburn is heading to its
first bowl in three seasons.
"It's been a dream year," Tuberville said.
"We weren't picked to do a whole lot
because we have a lot of young players. To
top it off we get to be going to magic king-
dom in magic city of Orlando."
Auburn se
Wyoming
at No. 18 Missis;
Louisiana State
Northern Illinois
Vanderbilt
at No. 20 Mississ
at No. 9 Florida
Louisiana Tech
Arkansas
No. 13 Georgia
at Alabama
SEC Champio
at Florida
Florida Citrus Bowl
inuary 1,1 p.m., ABC
ason results Notables
W, 35-21
sippi w, 3527 Michigan is 04 all-
W, 34-17 time vs. Auburn (9-7
W, 31-14 loss at 1984 Sugar
W, 33-0 Bw)
ippi St. L, 17-10 Bowl).
L, 38-7
W, 38-28 This is the second
W, 21-19 Citrus Bowl appearance
W, 29-26 for Michigan (1-0), the
nship W, 9-0 third for the Tigers.
1Ean1N
L, 28-6
Ninth meeting
between SEC and Big
Ten teams in Citrus
Bowl (SEC leads all
time series 5-3).
Auburn's Ben Leard
and Michigan's Steve
Hutchinson met in 1996
Rorida-Georgia high
school all-star game.
This year will mark
Michigan's 26th
consecutive bowl
appearance.
Almost
Icers take 3 of 4 points,
vie for CCHA lead
200
MICHIGAN 6, NORTHERN 2
MICHIGAN 2, NORTHERN 2
By Jon Schwartz
Daily Sports Writer
MARQUETTE - For the fourth
time this season, the Wolverines were
taught a heady lesson, this time at the
hands of Northern Michigan: Friday
nights and Saturday nights are very
different.
Michigan jumped out of the gate
strong on Friday night, and behind a
goal by Jeff Jillson 15 seconds in, went
on to win the game 6-2.
Northern reacted impressively the
next night, matching up perfectly with
the defensively-shorthanded Wolver-
ines and securing the 2-2 tie.
After the weekend, Michigan stands,
at 11-3-3 overall, 7-3-1 CCHA and
Northern fell to 7-5-5, 5-5-4.
Currently, Michigan State lead the
Wolverines by three points in the
CCHA standings. Michigan came into
the weekend one point behind the sec-
ond-place Wildcats in the conference,
and by securing three out of four
points, moved into second place, as
} CCHA play goes into a four-week hia-
tus with Christmas break. St.
Lawrence of the ECAC comes to Yost
on Friday and Saturday night.
In many ways, it seemed like there
was a different group of players
dressed in Wildcats jerseys on Satur-
day, a conglomerate far superior than
the team that took the ice on Friday
night.
"I thought the kids worked really
hard to bounce back after a very disap-
pointing performance last night,"
Northern coach Rick Comley said.
"You never like to get a tie at home,
but when you lose as badly as we did
last night, it shows a lot of character
coming back the way we did tonight."
One of Michigan's biggest concerns
entering the weekend was its weak-
ened defensive corps. On Friday night,.
the group suffered another great blow.
Freshman defenseman Andy Burnes
broke a rib after getting checked intor
the boards in front of the Michigan
bench. Burnes became the third Michi-
gan defenseman (along with Dave
Huntzicker and Brad Fraser) out of the
lineup, bringing the once-strong eight-
man defensive unit down to five, one
fewer than the amount Berenson usual-
ly dresses in a game.
Because of the Burnes injury, the
Wolverines understood the risks of los-
ing any more blueliners to fights,
injuries or ill-conceived penalties.
Berenson "warned the defense because
we're really thin on the blue line,"
Michigan defenseman Mike Roemen-
sky said. "We only have five guys so
we had to be really careful out there.
We couldn't take any unnecessary
penalties and we had to stay out of the
See WILDCATS, Page 4B
Volleyball's
season ends
i blowout
By Kristen FWdh
Daily Sports Writer
The desert was dehydrating, and its
team was defeating.
In the second round of the NCAA
tournament played in Tucson, Ariz., the
Michigan volleyball team ended its
2000 season this past Friday with a
three-game loss (15-1, 15-1, 15-8) to
No. 5 Arizona.
Coming off a win over Louisville in
the first round, the team faced its tough-
est competition of the season, a task
even more difficult without the services
of injured starters Katrina Lehman and
Chantel Reedus.
The team worked its usual strategy
by establishing the middle and strength-
ening its passing. Unfortunately for the
Wolverines, the results were not as pro-
ductive as the players would have liked.
"Obviously losing the first game 15-
1 was definitely a downer, but I don't
think we were ever like 'Let's just get
this match over,"' senior Sarah Behnke
See NCAAS, Page 31
SATURDAY:
MARYLAND 82, MICHIGAN 51
YESTERDAY:
ST. JOHN's 97, MICHIGAN 83
I. -k -
JEFF HURVITZ/Daily
Michigan certainly had its chances this weekend, but like this Josh Langfeld opportunity, not all of them found the net.
| definitely 02
Hoops drops both BB&T games
BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily
Michigan's Heather Oesterde caught fire
behind the arc against the Wildcats.
With strong
second halves,
women sweep
By Jeff Phillips
Daily Sports Writer
By Michael Kern
Daily Sports Writer
WASHINGTON - As St. John's coach Mike
Jarvis put it, the last thing any of the four partici-
pants in this weekend's BB&T Tournament want-
ed to do was to go home 0-2. But with a 97-83
loss to the 19th-ranked Red Storm in the consola-
tion game yesterday, the Michigan basketball
team did just that, dropping its record to 2-4 for
the season.
Despite some early foul trouble, things were
looking good for the Wolverines as they jumped
out to an Il -point lead with 8:51 to play in the
first half. But St. John's came back and cut the
lead to two with a chance to tie the game before
the half.
After running down the clock, St. John's fresh-
man Omar Cook made a running jumper in the
lane to tie the game with four seconds left in the
half. St. John's senior Reggie Jessie then stole a
Josh Asselin inbounds pass and laid it in to give
the Red Storm a 36-34 lead at the half.
"Not only does it hurt you on the scoreboard,
but it hurts your psyche," Ellerbe said.
A big factor in the loss for Michigan was early
foul trouble. Not since a 97-90 season-opening
loss to Oakland had the referees been such a fac-
tor in the game for the Wolverines. But yesterday,
the two teams combined for 50 fouls - second-
play," Ellerbe said. "Chris Young had two ques-
tionable situations. He is a pretty good defender.
He does a good job of keeping his hands away
and moving his feet and getting position. And I
think he got penalized."
Michigan's two leading scorers, Bernard Robin-
son and LaVell-Blanchard, picked up two fouls
within the first five minutes of the game. As a
result, Michigan had both players sitting on the
bench for large chunks of the first half, some-
thing that has not happened all season.
Combined, Blanchard and Robinson scored just
seven points for the half on 1-of-4 shooting.
The foul trouble "definitely had a big effect on
LaVell," Ellerbe said.
"We need him to be on the floor. He has the
ability to make shots, and if he is tentative defen-
sively, he is going to give up baskets too."
Led by 27 points from junior Anthony Glover,
four players from St. John's scored in double-fig-
ures. Glover dominated the Wolverines inside,
taking advantage of Michigan's inability to dou-
ble-team effectively.
Cook scored 20 and freshman Willie Shaw and
Jessie added 19 apiece.
"We thought that with Chris and Josh that we
could battle (Glover) with our size and strength,"
Ellerbe said. "But obviously, he really got the best
of us tonight."
The loss was Michigan's second of the weekend
antird -,~Atraid~t ti-s ear_ On Ratnirdav,_the Wordip.
GRAND RAPIDS - At the
Women's College Basketball Show-
case, Michigan put on a showcase of
its own, as the Wolverines used their
defense to shutdown Western Michi-
gan 84-56.
The victory was Michigan's fourth-
straight, lifting its record to 5-2.
Michigan utilized tenacious defense
in the second half to hold the Broncos
to just 23 points on 6-of-25 shooting,
after they shot 52 percent in the first
half.
"I knew in the second half that if we
could keep up that kind of defensive
intensity (from the first half), it would
wear them down, and I think it did,"
Michigan coach Sue Guevara said.
The Wolverines put the clamps
down on leading scorer Sarah Hurrle,
holding her to 14 points (she averages
25.3). Junior Heather Oesterle and
freshman Stenhanie Garndv took tiurns
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