Daily forum Is something about Michigan's hockey team bothering you? ., ou disagree with a sports columnist? What seed would the Wolverines get if they won the BTT? Stop yelling from the sidelines. Speak your mind at michigandaily.com/forum. We'll see you there. michigandaily.com /sports be Sirbigtn ?aug ORT~rS WEDNESDAY MARCH 7, 2001 9 I I 0 Crunch Tine DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily Jeff Jillson (No. 5) and Michigan figure to be in for a fight for the league title, with so many dangerous teams in the CCHA playoffs. urprise'Haws flying *nto CCHAs Parity thrives in hockey playoffs THE SECONDSEASON 2 COUNTDOWN To ALBANY By Joe Smith Daily Sports Editor "The parity is scary," said Michigan coach Red Berenson, whose team enters the first-round of the CCHA Tournament against Ferris State this weekend. Despite the fact that no team other than Michigan, Michigan State and Lake Superior has taken the crown home from Joe Louis Arena in the tournament's 18-year history, there could be a new owner of the coveted trophy as this year's field includes 10 teams that are pretty evenly matched. "Nobody's that good that they can take a night off and expect to win - we've seen that before. We're a pretty good team, but we're not good enough to have a bad night and win." Berenson remembers Michigan's losses to three teams that were in last place at the time. The Wolverines fell to Alaska-Fairbanks and Ferris State early on, along with a defeat to Lake Superior in the last few weeks of the season - proving that statistics and standings are not as indicative as one might think. In fact, only three of the 10 playoff teams clinched their spots prior to the final weekend of the season. Many of the coaches have emphasized the importance of three ingredients - good goaltending, efficient special teams and balanced scoring. But old-fashioned intangibles and the bounce of the puck may bring a few surprises into this week- end's series. No. 1 MICHIGAN STATE (214-3 CCHA, 2844 OVERALL) vs. No. 10 ALASKA-FAIRBANKS (7-14-7, 9-17-8) Carrying the No. I ranking for over four straight months now, there's no question that Michigan State has been a domi- nant team this year. The reason? The Spartans don't make mistakes. And if they do by chance slip up, the Spartans carry the deadly weapon of goaltender Ryan Miller -- with a stifling goals against average of 1.33 - who can erase any wrongdoing. "It's tough to lose with Ryan Miller in goal," Western Michigan coach Jim Culhane said earlier this season. But he's not a one-man show, as the Spartans boast the nation's best defense, giving up just 37 goals in 28 league games this year. They play a balanced, disciplined style of hockey where every player on the team knows his role and sticks to it. But Michigan State coach Ron Mason feels the performance of each team's stars is most important come playoff time. "Most important thing is, are your best players going to be your best players?" While Alaska-Fairbanks pulled some amazing upsets over some top teams this year, including Michigan and Miami, the combination of the Nanooks winning only one game in their last 10 and the Spartans impressive home record of 13-1-1 will equal an early return flight for the Nanooks. Prediction: Michigan State in two. No. 2 MIAMI (17-10-1 CCHA, 20-14-2 OVERALL) vs. No. 9 BOWLING GREEN (8-15-5, 13-18-5) While Miami is the hottest team in the CCHA, winning nine of its last 12 games, Bowling Green coach Buddy Powers is just as elated that his team is still playing. "We're just happy as hell we made it' Powers said with a chuckle. Bowling Green has been settling near the conference cellar all season. But with a few precious weeks remaining, a post- season spot was still within reach, forcing the Falcons to play playoff hockey for their final six games - and pull off a little bit of magic in their final weekend of play against Ferris State. "It's like playing game seven every night," Powers said. This sense of desperation makes Bowling Green a confi- dent team with nothing to lose - except a playoff series to Miami. The RedHawks have too many weapons, including Jason Deskins and Gregor Kranjc, to go along with one of the best home-ice advantages in the league in a hostile Goggin Arena. Miami has posted an 11-3-2 record there this season. While the Falcons will turn some heads behind the impressive play of goalie Tyler Masters, their lack of more than two consistent scoring threats will be their downfall. Prediction: Miami in three. See CCHA, Page 10 By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Sports Writer An antagonistic relationship between the established coach and his young upstart counterpart would make for better newspaper fodder. But nothing could be further from the truth. When Miami, under second-year coach Enrico Blasi, usurped Michigan for the No. 2 seed, in the CCHA tournament, coach Red erenson looked past the initial sting of it. The legendary leader of the Wolverines was congratulato- ry towards Blasi - in stride with the teacher-student rela- tionship that's developed between the two. "We've talked about how it was when he started," Blasi said of his conversations with Berenson. "I've tried to do the same things in the community that he did to try and make the team and myself visible. "Coach Berenson has always had good things to say - when he says he likes what our team is doing it gives us con- fidence." All that listening and learning has paid off for the 29-year- ld Blasi - the young coach with a name straight out of The Godfather is in a position few predicted at the start of the sea- son. His team hosts ninth-seeded Bowling Green at home in w Goggin Arena for the start of the league tourney and his prospects for the CCHA Coach of the Year award remain promising. In the preseason CCHA polls, Miami was picked to finish sixth by the league's coaches, ninth by the media. "You never know what will happen in a year," Blasi said. "We've had our share of ups and downs - I'm real proud of the way we've played." An ironic statement, considering Miami is just a year removed from a season in which it went 13-20-3 and finished tied for ninth in the CCHA. This season, the RedHawks went 20-14-2 - the program's first twenty-win season since it joined the CCHA in 1981-82 - and racked up a 17-10-2 record in the league. Blasi, a forward on Miami's 1992-93 CCHA playoff title team describes his freshman campaign behind the bench as a transition period" - a stepping stone to this season's great- ness. "We've developed a good understanding between coaches and players - we've enjoyed happy and disappointing times, but at the end of the day we're a family. It's good that the seniors have embraced that philosophy." What Blasi failed to mention is that the RedHawks played much of their season last year without two of their top play- ers - seniors Jason Deskins and Gregor Kranje - both early casualties to blown-out knees. "I picked that team to finish in the top-five," Berenson said. "Their top scorers were injured for the entire second half of last season. When I talked to (Blasi) this summer he seemed pretty optimistic and I was too -they had their defense and their top scorers back. "If they stayed healthy they were going to have a good team and they have had a good team." Current captain Deskins restored his scoring touch of two seasons ago with 39 points in 36 games, while Kranjc and senior Pat Leahy complemented Deskins by each finishing in the top 15 in scoring in the CCHA. Miami started slowly, going 3-5-2 out of the gate including two losses to Michigan at Yost. The RedHawks then swept Nebraska-Omaha and played .500 hockey for the next two months until Feb., in which the team went 6-3 en route to nine wins in their last 12 games. Miami eventually tied a fal- tering Michigan team for second place on the last day of the regular season, then won the tiebreaker with more league wins. A product of bad circumstances in the PairWise Rankings -Miami currently holds 14th place. "I don't know of any team that had to play Michigan and Michigan State in their own arenas without the benefit of a home rematch," Blasi said. "Some of the teams ahead of us don't play in great conferences or against top-ten teams - it makes no sense. Our opponents' records are good, our RPI is good, we've been penalized for playing good, quality teams." A stellar showing in the CCHA tournament could change all of that - a possibility Berensen believes is well within reach. "There's a lot less pressure, their expectations are not as high as we're talking about at Michigan - they've done a great job (so far)." BRANON SEDLOFF/Daily The women's gymnastics team will go head-over- heels if it can knock off No.1 UCLA Friday night. Olympians a plenty as hosts Brins By Chris Burke Daily Sports Writer Friday night, Crisler Arena will do its best imita- tion of an Olympic venue. The No. 8 Michigan women's gymnastics team, paced by 2000 U.S. Olympic team captain Elise Ray, will host No. 1 UCLA. The runs boast four 2000 Olympians of thiir own - Kristen Maloney, Alyssa Beckerman and Jamie Dantzscher of the U.S. and Yvonne Tousek of Canada. Earlier this year, when Ray made her debut for the Wolverines, a crowd of 2,143 packed into Cliff Keen Arena and its 1,800-seat capacity. With four more Olympians on display for this meet, the Wolverines will be shooting for their largest crowd ever. "Hopefully having all these Olympians compet- ing will bring a level of excitement to the meet," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "We're hopingall the hype is going to lead to a bigger attendance because when the crowd gets into the meet, the ath- letes really feed off that." The Wolverines will later host the Big Ten and Regional championships at Crisler, which holds several thousand more people than Cliff Keen. "It's an advantage for us in the long run," said Plocki of competing in Crisler. "Cliff Keen really doesn't prepare us for bigger arenas, and this will give us more of a feel that we have home-court advantage at the important competitions later." Michigan has posted its top-three team scores of the year in its past three meets. Those meets included taking No. 3 Utah and No. 4 Georgia to the wire on the road before losing tight competi- tions. The meet against Utah concluded a tiring ruin of four meets out of five away from Ann Arbor that required over 7,000 miles of travel. The Utes held off Michigan 197.425-196.675, but Ray managed to capture her third all-around victory of the year. "She's close to where we need her to be," said Plocki about Ray. "We still want to upgrade, her vault - she's at a 9.9 start value and we eventual- ly need to get her up to a 10." While most of the attention focused on UCLA this season has centered around their national stars, two of their top three all-around averages for the year belong to non-Olympians -- Mohini Bhardwaj and Onnie Willis. The powerful UCLA team has been ranked No. I since Jan. 22, and has shown no signs of slowing down. "I doubt many people would have any opirion about UCLA other than that they are the team to beat," Plocki said. "If we could pull off the upset it would be huge for us and our confidence for the rest of the year." Urueling regimen for prospects at Combine NFL hopefuls must withstand both physical and psychological tests By Seth Klempner Daily Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS - When the lights turned on, the cameras are rolling and the players step out in their neon red three-piece suits on draft day, they will look calm and collected - showing no glimpses of the endless interviews and twice-a-day training sessions that have filled their lives since the end of the hncv c4+ac months of preparation for the draft. In an effort to increase the value of their product, many agents send their clients down to training camps to work on their speed, strength and general preparation for the higher level of play in the NFL. "Every little thing you can do to add value to the player," representative Vince Larmier said. "That has become the new trend on the agents' side as far as prepar- in +hem fer n + hi-,_ _nst the fact that a under scrutiny for being in trouble with the law, poorly answered questions and past transgressions can be as detrimental as a slow time in the 40-yard dash. Once at the combine, players go through a rigorous schedule of inter- views, drill work and meetings with doc- tors from every team - each of whom performs a separate checkup. Most nights end with little sleep. On day one, the players woke up early in the Crown Plai hotel and headed to the players performed strength tests that measure how many bench press repeti- tions they can do at 225 pounds. Once they were done with these, the players went back to the hotel to continue inter- viewing with teams and taking psycho- logical examinations. "You're up at 6:30 - running around and talking to everybody," Dyson said. "It is exhausting. They want to know everything about you and how you do eveivthing because they are going to put NFL Draft 2001 Draft Order Eligible Michigan Players 1. San Diego WR David Terrel 2. Arizona RB Anthony Thomas 3. Cleveland OG Steve Hutchinson 4. Cincinnati OT Maurice Williams 5. Atlanta OT Jeff Backus 6. New England C David Brandt 7. Seattle (from Dallas) 8. Chicago SS DeWayne Patmon 9. San Fransisco CB James Whitley 10. Seattle DT Eric Wilson ..U B U U U W' m