6
le ialImIguU &d
PO)cRTS
michigandaily.com/s ports
sport diesk@umich. edu
WEDNESDAY
OCTOBER 31, 2001
8
New York, New York!
MJ scores 19 in MSG return
Walker a threat to Spartans' injured secondary
By Jeff Phillips
and Jon Schwartz
Daily Sports Editors
Michigan at Michigan State
NEW YORK (AP) - Michael Jordan
wasn't exactly No. 23 of old and he
missed his biggest shot of the night in his
return to the NBA.
Looking more like a promising play-
maker than one of the game's greats, Jor-
dan spent the majority of his minutes at
point guard in his regular-season debut
for the Washington Wizards after a 3 /2-
year retirement.
He scored 19 points and passed the
ball as much as he shot it, getting six
assists but making a few key mistakes
that the old Jordan might not have made
in a 93-91 loss last night to the New York
Knicks.
Jordan had a chance to tie the game
with a 3-pointer from in front of the
Knicks' bench with 18 seconds left, but
missed the shot - one of 14 misses in 21
attempts. He also had two turnovers late
in the fourth. and an airball and a missed
layup in the first quarter that diminished
a final stat line that included five
rebounds and four steals in 37 minutes.
The Knicks took an 87-86 lead into the
final two minutes, and after Latrell
Sprewell hit a turnaround, Jordan
answered with a 21-footer -- his first
field goal of the quarter - to cut New
York's lead to 89-88.
The 38-year-old Jordan missed his next
shot, also a jumper, and then failed to
outjump Kurt Thomas, allowing him to
grab an offensive rebound. That led to a
pair of foul shots by Othella Harrington
with 34 seconds left to give New York a
three-point lead.
Jordan threw an ill-advised pass that
was stolen on Washington's next posses-
sion, but Christian Laettner stole the ball
back. After Jordan missed the 3-point
attempt, Thomas was fouled on the
Stopping Marquise Walker, Michigan's star wide
receiver, is a heady task for any team to undertake.
Especially one that has already lost three players from
its secondary.
Michigan State is searching everywhere to find
replacements for the three defensive backs that are
currently injured.
Saturday, Michigan State will be without corner-
backs Tyrell Dortch, Jason Harmon and DeMario
Suggs.
"We've lost quite a few guys since the beginning of
the season," Michigan State coach Bobby Williams
said yesterday.-"Four really good players. These guys
were legitimate starters and really making their head-
way."
In the past few weeks, Walker has jumped into the
Heisman Trophy race. After spending his first three
seasons in other receivers' shadows, he has made a
name for himself in this season's first seven games.
And after a circus catch in Saturday's win over
Iowa, Williams understands the task that lays ahead
for his Spartans.
"They're going to be a huge challenge for us, he
said. "We're down to people playing different posi-
tions, true freshmen playing and moving players from
the offensive side to the defensive side so we're kind
of caught here.
"(Walker's) a guy that definitely you have to be
concerned with and he's a good football player."
ALL YOURS, JOE: After weeks of waiting and wonder-
ing when Penn State coach Joe Paterno would break
Bear Bryant's all-time wins record, he finally did it
last Saturday in a 29-27 win over Ohio State.
Now that the monkey is off his back, Paterno is
finally glad to be receiving questions other than those
about the record.
"That is the best thing about getting the record, now
they can ask Bobby (Bowden)," Paterno said.
Paterno attained his 324 wins all as head coach of
AP PHOTO
Jordan was not his old self, finishing
with only 19 points.
rebound and made both shots for a 93-88
lead that all but ended it.
As bad as his teammates looked for
three quarters, they managed to open the
fourth quarter with an 8-0 run and take a
71-69 lead before Jordan checked in with
8:57 left. Jordan hit his next shot and got
an assist on his next pass, helping the
Wizards maintain a slim lead.
The game stayed close the rest of the
way, setting up an ending that could have
been dramatic if Jordan had been a little
more accurate with his shot. He ended up
missing four of his final five attempts and
showed no emotion when the game
ended.
I Saturday, 3:30 p.m., Spartan Stadium
the same team - something no other coach in the top
five of the all-time wins list can say. His staying power
is unheard of.
Paterno believes it would be nearly impossible to
break the record with the pressure to win caused by
today's fans and administrators.
"The way the game is now with the universities and
other people, the media, the talk shows and the boost-
er clubs and everybody is really impatient" Paterno
said. "He just has one bad
year and everybody is on
his back.It is going tobe 4
tough for somebody to
have the kind of durabili-
ty in the situations as a
college head coach like
Bobby (Bowden), Bryant
and I have."
Behind Paterno, Flori-
da State's Bowden has the
most wins with 320. With
the recent success of the
Seminoles, Paterno
knows that his stay at the
top may be limited.
"Bobby Bowden is
right around the corner
and Bobby is a great
coach and a guy," Paterno
said. "Whether some-
body can beat out Bobby
when he breaks the
record, that is debatable,
because I think it is going
to be tough." Although depleted by injur
Now at 2-4 (2-3 Big Michigan's stud rteceiver,
Ten), a bowl game is not out of the question as the
Nittany Lions end the season against Southern Missis-
sippi, at Illinois, home against Indiana, at Michigan
State and a game from Sept. 13 against Virginia that
was postponed.
ToP RECRUITS CoMMrr: One of Michigan's top tar-
gets finally committed Monday, but not to the Wolver-
ines.
Gerald Riggs, Jr., son of former Pro Bowl running
back Gerald Riggs, chose Tennessee over the Wolver-
ines. Riggs will have to battle with an already crowd-
ed backfield at Tennessee, which landed top prospects
Cedric Houston and Jabari Davis last year.
Also on Monday, quarterback Ben Olsen commit-
ted to Brigham Young. Olsen is considered the top
pro-style quarterback by most analysts.
DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily
y, Michgan State's secondary hopes to be all over
Marquise Walker, this weekend.
More of the same: Stanford to knock off Huskies
Yanks win, cut lead to 2-1
GAME THREE
NEw YORK 2, ARIZONA 1
NEW YORK (AP) - Roger
Clemens and Mariano Rivera showed
the Arizona Diamondbacks they know
a little bit about pitching in the World
Series, too.
The Rocket won when the New York
Yankees couldn't afford to lose, shut-
ting down the Diamondbacks over
seven innings for a 2-1 win yesterday
night that cut Arizona's lead to two
games-to-one.
Pumped and psyched, Clemens
allowed only three hits and struck out
nine. Rivera threw two perfect innings
in relief, and that was it for Game 3.
"I knew it was a game that we had to
have," Clemens said.
"It was exciting to be part of every-
thing. It was something I'll always have
with me," he said.
The Yankees, who hit only .102 in
losing to Curt Schilling and Randy
Johnson at Bank One Ballpark, are still
struggling at the plate.
They'll see Schilling again tonight
in Game 4. There was a chance Miguel
Batista would pitch, but Arizona man-
ager Bob Brenly said he would bring
back Schilling on three days' rest.
"He's the right guy," Brenly said.
"He said all along he's prepared to
pitch."
Orlando Hernandez is set to start for
New York tonight.
An early home run by Jorge Posada
and a tiebreaking single by Scott Bro-
sius in the sixth were enough to win for
the Yankees yesterday. Especially when
Arizona managed three hits, the same
total Schilling and Johnson served up.
No baseball team has ever rallied
from an 0-3 deficit to win a postseason
series. Thanks to Clemens' win and
Rivera's save, the Yankees won't have
to try to do it, either.
The win, before President Bush and
a quieter-than-usual crowd of 55,820
bundled up against the cold and wind
at Yankee Stadium, also ensured some-
thing new: Baseball will have a Mr.
November, with Game 5 scheduled for
tomorrow.
By David Oxfeld
For the Daily
After a week of upsets and dramatic
shakeups in the polls, college football
will likely return to normalcy this
weekend. The Pac-10 is on center-stage
this week as four of the top teams in
the conference, each with one loss, bat-
tle.
No. 13 STANFORD AT No. 10 WAS-
INGTON, 3:30 P.M, SATURDAY: Stanford
comes into Husky Stadium buoyed by
the news of its lat-_
est position in the AROUND
BCS poll. Now
ranked sixth. the the Nation
largest jump this
week, moving up eight spots after
upsetting previously unbeaten UCLA
38-28 in Palo Alto.
This week the Cardinal hits the road,
still led by backup quarterback Chris
Lewis. Lewis, replacing the injured
Randy Fasani, threw for 250 yards and
three touchdowns against'UCLA. The
win gave Stanford its best start since
1992.
Washington heads into the contest
with the familiar feeling of narrowly
escaping its second loss of the season,
having beaten Arizona State on a John
Anderson field goal as time expired. It
was the Huskies' fifth, fourth- quarter
comeback this season.
In the win at Arizona State, running
back Willie Hearst ran for 185 yards.
This weekend Hearst meets a steadily
improving Stanford defense that held
leading Heisman Trophy candidate
DeShaun Foster to 77 yards last week-
end. The Washington defense has been
declining all year. Stanford can score
points on anyone and will need to score
early and often to take the crowd out of
the game. The bet here is that the Car-
dinal pull this one out.
Stanford 37, Washington 26
No. 11 UCLA AT No. 19 WASHING-
TON STATE, 5:00 P.M., SATURDAY: Last
week, UCLA's dream season came
crashing down, as the Bruin's fell
behind Stanford and could not catch
up. Now ranked ninth in the BCS, the
Bruins travel to Washington State with-
out starting quarterback Cory Paus,
who is nursing a sore thumb. Redshirt
senior Scott McEwan, who led three
second-half scoring drives at Stanford
last weekend, will make his first start.
Washington State is 12 in the BCS
this week, having fallen from the ranks
of the unbeaten, after a 24-17 loss to
Oregon last week. The Cougars' high-
powered offense - which was averag-
ing 492 yards per game - came up
short against the Ducks, gaining just
392 yards against a weak Oregon
defense. Quarterback Jason Gesser
threw for 249 yards, but had only 50
yards at halftime.
This week Washington State will
need to score, which should be difficult
against UCLA's staunch defense. But
that defense was embarrassed last
week. Washington State will also have
to try and contain Foster, who is still
leading the nation with 144 yards per
game. Foster should be determined to
get his Heisman candidacy back on
track, and UCLA will show they are
still one the nation's premiere teams.
UCLA 28, Washington State 17
No. 14 FLORIDA STATE AT No. 24
CLEMSON, 3:30 P.M., SATURDAY: Flori-
da State rebounded from a tough start
to its season by dominating surprising
Maryland last weekend, 52-31. Quar-
terback Chris Rix silenced his critics, at
least f6r a week, by throwing for 350
yards and five touchdowns. Even more
amazing was Rix's average of 23 yards
per pass, and an average of one touch-
down every third pass.
Similarly dominating was Woodrow
Dantzler of Clemson, who rebounded
from the worst game of his career two
weeks ago against North Carolina to
lead his team past Wake Forest 21-14.
Dantzler accounted for 320 of his
team's 391 yards, throwing for 211 and
rushing for 119.
Without much hype, Florida State
coach Bobby Bowden is four wins
short of Penn State's Joe Paterno's new
all-time victories record. With his
Seminoles back on track, Bowden
might very well catch Paterno in the
same year Paterno set the benchmark.
Florida State 42, Clemson 21
No. 7 TENNESSEE AT NOTRE DAME,
2:30 P.M., SATURDAY, NBC: Two of
college football's most storied pro-
grams meet Saturday in.South Bend.
Tennessee comes into the contest No. 7
in the BCS after a 17-10 win over
South Carolina. The win put the Volun-
teers into a tie with Florida in the
SEC's eastern division.
Carlyle Holiday will start at quarter-
back for the Irish, despite missing the'
final drive of last week's 21-17 loss at
Boston College. Even with Holiday, the
Irish should not be very competitive.
The Volunteers are 3-2 all-time
against Notre Dame, one of four major
college programs to have a winning
record against the Irish.,
When the dust settles on this one,
another win can be added to Ten-
nessee's ledger.
Tennessee 35, Notre Dame 7
After regressive start,
'M' icers needs to grow
AP PHO
Savior Mariano Rivera again made playing the Bombers a seven inning affair.
By J. Brady McCollough
Daily Sports Writer
Just over three weeks ago, 74,000 people filed
into Spartan Stadium. to watch what many thought
to be two of the top five teams in college hockey.
There was certainly no doubt in anyone's mind that
Michigan and Michigan State were to be the top
two teams in the CCHA once
again. HOCKEY
But judging from the per-
TO formances of both teams since C
the "Cold War" it seems more
likely that the world-record crowd was watching
two middle-tier squads. Perhaps the 3-3 stalemate
in East Lansing was just a product of two mediocre
teams canceling each other out.
For the moment at least, the balance of power has
shifted in the CCHA. The Wolverines find them-
selves in a tie for eighth place with a conference
record of 1-3-1. Most recently, Michigan was out-
played at home by an upstart Northern Michigan
team. The home team fell by counts of 1-0 on Fri-
day night, and 5-3 on Saturday night. The Wolver-
ines haven't had a start this slow since 1986 - even
Michigan coach Red Berenson has admitted that his
team is not the dominant force it was in the 1990s.
And don't let the Spartans' 3-2-1 record fool you
- they're in the same boat as the Wolverines. Pre-
viously unbeaten and top-ranked Michigan State
was shown a thing or two by Nebraska-Omaha this
past weekend in Omaha, falling to the Mavericks 4-
3 on Friday night and 5-1 on Saturday night.
So what will it take for Michigan to reverse its
sluggish start and propel itself back to the top of the
conference?
The Wolverines need to find their identity fast -
and stick with it.
One minute Michigan blames its early troubles
on being a young and inexperienced team, and the
next minute players are declaring that youth doesn't
factor into their performance.
"We're a young team," sophomore Andy Burnes
said. "We've still got 10 freshmen that are trying to
get a feel for things. It's just going to take some
time."
"Youth doesn't factor in for us," junior assistant
captain Mike Cammalleri said. "We're tired of
being called a young team. The freshmen are sick
of being called young players. They don't play like
it out there, so it's not something we look at."
Whether youth is a factor or not, Michigan has to
accept that there are 12 freshmen on its roster, and
move on. Former standouts Mike Comrie, Andy
Hilbert and Jeff Jillson are not on this roster, and
that is not going to change.
Eric Nystrom, Dwight Helminen and Jason Ryz-
nar, however, are on this roster. So are Brandon
Rogers, Eric Werner and Milan Gajic. These play-
ers and the other six freshmen are the ones that
make up this eighth-place Michigan team, and
without a surge on the road in the next three weeks,
could be making up a cellar-dwelling Michigan
hockey team.
Cellar-dwelling and Michigan hockey in the
same phrase? It could happen. The Wolverines need
to dig deeper than they've had to in years, and push
themselves back into the CCHA race. That means
desperation. That means forgetting about age and
experience, and remembering what that 'M' on the
sweater is a symbol of - hard work and determi-
nation.
"We have to separate ourselves as a team and as a
program like we have in the past, and we plan on
doing that," Cammalleri said. "We all need to take a
look in the mirror and check our egos at the door."
It's gut check time for the Wolverines. That's no
secret. With a long road trip to Alaska-Fairbanks
ahead this weekend, Michigan needs to come away
with two victories -- especially with a trip to
Nebraska-Omaha on the slate after the Nanooks.
Michigan must start playing to its full potential
soon, or it may be watching the NCAA West
Regional at Yost Ice Arena from the stands, instead
of playing in front of its home crowd for a bid to
the Frozen Four.
"We all know that through crisis for our team,
true character comes out," Cammalleri said. "We'll
show that as a team. We'll get.tighter this week.
Things might be said about us, but we know what
kind of team we are, and what type of team we can
be."
In this current "crisis" for Michigan, the team
must bond together and rally around its upperclass-
men. The captains and leaders of this team are the
only people who can show the Wolverines' talented
freshman class how to translate its immense talent
into victories. And what could be a better chance
for that than a voyage across the continent to help a
team find its identity and turn its season around.
"It'll be tough, but I hope it also will bring our
team together," Berenson said.
I
4
m
m
m
Abd