The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 6, 2001- 13 Senior star watching from afar Michigan State goaltender Joe Blackburn takes backseat to phenom i By Joe Smith Daily Sports Editor EAST LANSING - Imagine a sophomore All-American, enjoying one of the most remarkable seasons by a collegiate goaltender, shattering CCHA records, posting the nation's best goals-against average of 1.55 and leading a team to the Frozen Four. And then, two years later on his senior night, the same netminder is sitting on the bench, just like he did for all but two games his final season, watching a upstart goalie and teammate gain the acclaims of the record-set- ting crowd. ' This is the life of Michigan State's Joe lackburn, probably the most talented backup goaltender in the NCAA, who rarely performs outside of practice while remaining deep in the shadows of sophomore phenom Ryan Miller. Now, the only chants of "BLACKBURN" come from the Spartan faithful when they have been heckling Michigan's netminder, Josh Blackburn, who is no relation to Joe. But he doesn't seem to mind a bit. *"We're playing so well and Ryan's playing .o well that it's kind of hard to complain," Blackburn said. Just "playing well" is quite an understate- ment. The Spartans have only lost four games San Jose trades former 'N'goalie to Anahleim By Di issoated Press Daily S Teemu Selanne is moving up the Th California coast to San Jose, where the four Sharks hope his flashy offense will Begin push them deep into the postseason. tourna Selanne, the sharpshooting wing securi who was the NHUs top goal-scorer two reachi seasons ago with the Anaheim Mighty TH Ducks, was traded yesterday to San State Jose for former Michigan goalie Steve Big Ti ields, wing Jeff Friesen and a condi- for a t'onal draft pick. "TI "Does this make us a better team? a one Hopefully it does," Lombardi said. ment "Sooner or later, if you keep getting think better, you're going to be at the top." give t The deal cost San Jose two, talented ting tv players who struggled even as the No Sharks surged into contention this sea- Rating son. Shields lost his starting job, while Michi Friesen struggled to score. RPI - "Our objective is to improve the club Tourn ediately and in the future, and we the m eive the two players we obtained "I t will make our team better now and as to adv we go into the future," Mighty Ducks good GM Pierre Gauthier said. Michi The Ducks also announced plans to trade Guy Hebert, their longtime start- ing goalie and the only player remain- ing from the franchise's first season. The Sharks' goaltending is now the sponsibility of two rookies: Evgeni bokov, among the top contenders for the Calder Trophy, and Miikka Kiprusoff, having an outstanding sea- son with the Sharks' top affiliate in Kentucky. Cleaves caught driving with suspended license GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP (AP) - Detroit Pistons rookie Mateen Cleaves was ticketed this *eekend for speeding and driving with a suspended license. The player was driving 85 mph in a 70 mph zone Sunday morning on an interstate, and a routine check showed his license was suspended, police said. He is to appear in court in Grand Blanc on March 26. Last month, Cleaves' older brother, Since Herbert Cleaves, was shot to death his fut tsde a house in Flint, their home- Cleaves' license was suspended because of failure to pay two previ- ous tickets, Michigan Secretary of State spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. The suspensions probably will be lifted once the tickets are paid, but Cleaves could face an additional 30- day suspension under Michigan's LO repeat-offender law, Boyd said. Louis) The former Michigan State star terday was alone when stopped Sunday. He search Offreleased at the scene to another tion R driver who picked him up, police Cru said, - all season and have held the No. 1 ranking for the past 16 weeks. Meanwhile Miller has grown to legendary status in East Lansing. He has already broken several NCAA records, including the record for career shutouts with 17. This has put Michigan State coach Ron Mason in a position that any hockey coach would drool over - having two All-American goaltenders at his disposal in a sport where the position has such a huge influence. But Mason said that picking one over the other last year when they both had nearly identical statistics was difficult, especially with Blackburn having such a stellar sopho- more season the year before. Last year, each goalie played nearly half the games with each earning nine conference wins, but Miller emerged late in the season to tally a 1.53 GAA and notch eight shutouts - which gave him the edge. "I went in with the idea that Joe would be the go-to-guy, and Ryan was going to fill in where he could," Mason said. "As time went along, Ryan proved he was having a better year, so I had to give the team the best chance to win. That's what happened." Since then, Mason's confidence hasn't wavered, as Blackburn has only seen action in two games this season, leading the Spartans to a shutout of Yale and a 5-2 win over Ohio State. But Blackburn's lack of playing time hasn't caused any dissension in the ranks. More importantly, it hasn't created a negative envi- ronment around the team - something Miller said has been so important in the success of the Spartans. "He's just a great character person," said Miller, who is Blackburn's roommate on all roadtrips. "He's just a standup guy, and I can't say enough about him. Nothing about him is fake. He's one of the most real people I know." Blackburn said that being a goaltender is like playing a different sport when compared to other hockey positions, and that helped them grow a special bond. The two grow clos- er by both chatting and even competing against the forwards in practice each day in a ritual game. In fact, Miller admits that he's learned a great deal from Blackburn in the Spartans' two goalie practices each week and from watching him play in the past. "He's seen a lot and is always offering advice," Miller said. "He's seen a lot of things - how players shoot, how power plays are working out there for another team." This type of guidance could be common- place next year, as Blackburn is undecided about his future in hockey, and might become a graduate assistant at Michigan State along as Falling from glory From a sophomo records to a sen two games, Mic career has taker Check out Blackb Ryan Miller, whoi 1998-99 .Joe Blackburn > < 1999-00 k:..Joe Blackburn Ryan Miller 2000-01 Joe BlackburnJoe Blackburn Courtesy Michigan State Athletics Ryan Miller well as a goalie coach. That means that by next year, Blackburn could be Miller's coach. "Right now I just want to finish up this sea- As son and hopefully hang up a couple more ban- ners," Blackburn said. Tea Mason says that despite his lack of playing 1. P time, Blackburn will never be forgotten for his 2. E contributions to the program - on and off the 3.P ice. 4. "Face it, it's not easy for anybody" Mason 5. P said. "And I think he's handled it better than 6. P anybody could. He's been one of the reasons 7. P Ryan has done so well. He's done a lot for 8. Michigan State hockey and he'll always be 9. remembered here too," 10. re year in which he shattered NCAA ior year where he has only seen action in higan State goaltender Joe Blackburn's n an interesting turn. burn's stats in comparison to his successor, came on the scene his sophomore year. GP GAA SV% Record 33 1.55 .928 21-5-7 GP GAA SV% Record 18 2.17 .907 11-6-1 26 1.53 .932 16-5-3 GP GAA SV% Record 2 1.00 .966 2-0-0 34 1.32 .949 26-4-4 USCHO TOP 10 of March 6, 2001, from www.uscho.com m Record PVS Michigan State 28.44 1 Boston College 26-&2 3 North Dakota 24-5-9 2 St. Cloud 27-8-1 5 Minnesota 25-10-2 4 Michigan 22-11-5 6 New Hampshire 20-106 7 Colorado College 22-11-1 9 Clarkson 20-9-3 10 . Maine 17-10-7 12 BLANCHARD Continued from Page 11 to the All-Big Ten second team, reward- ing the sophomore for averaging 17.7 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. "He's had a good year. He got better on offense. He got better on the defen- sive end. He got better at rebounding," Ellerbe said. "Not many sophomores can say they put up those numbers." Blanchard struggled in Saturday's game against Michigan State, shooting just 2-of-11 from the field. Ellerbe has said all season that the going has been doubly tough for Blanchard, who is the focal point of everyone else's defense.," "What I would like for him to do is to not get so caught up when he doesn't score," Ellerbe said. SEARIGHT STILL BENCHED: Ellerbe said nothing yesterday to indicate that freshman Maurice Searight will finally return to game action in the Big Ten Tournament. "He's had a tough time adjusting to college and college basketball," Ellerbe said. Searight has found his coach's bad side all season for missing practice time among other things. He has not played in a game since Feb. 3 against Wisconsin. )st(season) positioning in the BTT an Williams ports Editor e Big Ten can be categorized into distinct groupings in basketball. ning Thursday in the conference ament, teams' goals will vary from ng an NCAA Tournament seed to ing far-fetched postseason dreams. E HEAVYwEIGHTs - Michigan and Illinois, the co-regular season en champions, are likely battling No. i seed in the NCAAs. he only way that I think we will get (seed) is if they win the tourna- Illinois coach Bill Self said. "I there are too many scenarios to oo much stock in the Big Ten get- wo (number one seeds)" . 4 Illinois is 23-6, and sixth in the gs Percentage Index while No. 2 gan State is 24-3 and second in the - a tool used by the NCAA ament committee to help decide akeup of the Tournament bracket. think if both us and Illinois were able vance to the finals, we'd both have a chance of being a No. 1 seed," gan State coach Tom Izzo said. The Spartans have won the past two conference titles, and the Fighting Illini finished runnerup both times. The rest of the conference's coaches are looking at a different trend, the fact that the top-two ranked teams have never both made the championship game. "Certainly (a major upset) could hap- pen this week because there are a lot of teams playing good right now," Purdue coach Gene Keady said. "I'm not sure what happens to kids minds about keep- ing focused or looking ahead." THE TOURNAMENT CLIMBERS - With such a muddied Big Ten picture this year, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana took the bull by the horns and finished over .500 in conference. This all but guaran- tees the three teams a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This weekend will simply be a chance for them to rise in the seedings. Ohio State rode the experience of Big Ten coach of the year Jim O'Brien and two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Ken Johnson. Wisconsin over- came the early-season loss of coach Dick Bennett, with interim coach Brad Soderberg adopting a similar system. Indiana may have survived the most adversity - even interim coach Mike Davis was questioning his own ability during the pre-conference season. "I think we've come to a point this sea- son where we've overcome so much," Davis said. "I think the tournament is a good opportunity to show the country that we can play basketball." THE BUBBLE BOBBERS - Penn State heads into Thursday's contest with Michigan needing a victory. The Nittany Lions finished 7-9 in the conference (17- 10 overall), and are ranked No. 31 in the RPI. Iowa is in a similar situation, with a 7-9 conference record (18-11 overall) and a No. 37 RPI ranking. "We have not finished the season the way we wanted," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "Now we start a new sea- son. If we don't perform well and don't get a win or two, it could be difficult." It's very likely that the two teams are competing for one NCAA slot. THE CINDERELLAS - Purdue, Michigan, Minnesota and Northwestern would most likely have to make a shock- ing run and win the Big Ten Tournament to make the field of 65. Big Ten honors The Big Ten handed out its all-con- ference honors yesterday. Here's who the media selected as its top players. FIRST TEAM: C - Ken Johnson (Ohio State) F - Kirk Haston (Indiana) F - Jason Richardson (Michigan State) G - Frank Williams (Illinois) G - Charlie Bell (Michigan State) SECOND TEAM: C - Brian Cook (Illinois) F - Andre Hutson (Michigan State) F - LaVell Blanchard (Michigan) F - Reggie Evans (Iowa) G - Joe Crispin (Penn State) THIRD TEAM: F - Brian Brown (Ohio State) F - Gyasi Cline-Heard (Penn State) F - Jared Jefferies (Indiana) G - Dean Oliver (Iowa) G - Titus Ivory (Penn State) PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Frank Williams (Illinois) FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR: Jared Jefferies (Indiana) COACH OF THE YEAR: Jim O'Brien (Ohio State) resigning from the NBA's Boston Celtics, Rick Pitino has denying rumors of ture left and right. Yesterday, he denied that he had spoken with Louisville. i .e tino quells e rUors )Out Louisvie, UL NCAA men Yesterday's results Missouri Valley Conference: Indiana State 69, BRAoUNY 63 Colonial Athletic Association: A rwge Mason 35, NC W~uwroN33 Wetro Atlantic Athletic Conference: logN 74, Canisius 67 Northeast Conference: Monmouth NJ at St. Francis NY, inc. NCAA women Yesterday's results No.1 NGME DAME 67, Virginia Tech 49 year coach champ consic Piti had n Louisv lives i return Cru ment h his rep directo that h commi icy reh UISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Retiring ville coach Denny Crum said yes- '"nothing has happened" in the for his successor, despite specula- ick Pitino was interested in the job. um retired last Friday, ending a 30- Hall of Fame career. Pitino, who ed Kentucky to the 1996 national pionship, withdrew his name from deration for the UNLV job. no told ESPN.com yesterday he ot been contacted by anyone at ville. His agent, Rick Avare, who n Lexington, did not immediately a phone message. um said at his retirement announce- he wanted to help in the search for placement, but Louisville athletic or Tom Jurich said minutes later e would act as a "one-man search nittee." The two have developed an lationshin since January. Sunday, UNLV posted a statement on its website saying the former Boston Celtics coach won't be working there. "While speaking with Rick Pitino ear- lier this evening, he expressed to me the fact that he didn't feel he was a good fit for the UNLV men's basketball pro- gram;' UNLV athletics director Charles Cavagnaro said. "Obviously, we are dis- appointed that Coach Pitino has reached this decision, but we are moving forward with our continued search for a basket- ball coach that will benefit both JNLV and the Las Vegas community." He had been involved in a long court- ing process with the president and ath- letic director at the Las Vegas school. Most recently, his wife visited the city, and Pitino said she enjoyed the trip. He said he was interested in the job, but was worried about whether he could recruit well enough from the iunior col- Old Way Buy the Sunday paper. Read the classifieds. Send your resume. Wait. New Way Log on. Get hired. At the first Virtual Career Fair, sponsored by your Alumni Career Center, you'll find job opportunities in business, engineering and information technology. No wading through the paper. Just the best jobs for the best people. If you want a great job, the Virtual Career Fair is the place to go.