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SECTION B
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Parrish refutes the rumors of confrontation
By J. Brady McCollough
Daily Sports Writer
Since the resignation of Michi-
gan offensive
coordinator Stan
Parrish last Thurs-
day, there have
been several dif-
fering reports as
to what his "per- h
sonal reasons"
were for leaving Parrish
the Michigan pro-
gram.
Among them, the Detroit Free
Press reported that Michigan coach
Lloyd Carr asked Parrish to relin-
quish his coordinator duties and
continue as quarterbacks coach,
and in response, Parrish resigned.
The Ann Arbor News cited an argu-
ment between the two coaches as
the "personal reason."
But in a phone interview on Fri-
day, Parrish would not elaborate.
"My press release is the straight-
up truth," Parrish said. "I elected to
resign for personal reasons, period.
Anything else is fabricated."
Among the mysteries surround-
ing the resignation is the timing.
It's easy to conclude that Par-
rish's departure is related to the
Wolverines finishing ninth in the
Big Ten in total offense. But if that
was the case, it would seem more
timely for Parrish to have resigned
in the days after Michigan's 45-17
loss to Tennessee in the Florida
Citrus Bowl rather than over a
month later.
Carr said in last Wednesday's
Signing Day press conference that
the embarrassing loss to the Volun-
teers forced him to evaluate the
program.
"Anytime you lose a game like
that, you take a look," Carr said.
"Offensively, if you're going to
turn the ball over and give (the
opposition) the ball on the short
end of the field you can't be a
championship football team.
"There's an evaluation process
that you have to go through. If you
don't like what you see on that
field, you better do what needs to
be done to change it."
Just one day after Carr made
these statements, Parrish resigned
after six years as quarterbacks
coach - for the last two seasons,
he also served as offensive coordi-
nator.
When asked to address the strug-
gles of Michigan's offense during
this past season, Parrish refused to
comment, saying that "it's inconse-
quential now."
Despite last season's bumbling
offense, Parrish has had many suc-
cesses as a quarterbacks coach. He
coached Brian Griese to a national
championship in 1997. Under his
tutelage in 1999, Tom Brady
became the clutch quarterback that
the world watched last Sunday, as
Brady marched the New England
Patriots down the field to set up the
game-winning field goal against
the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl
XXXVI.
"I had a lot of great, great kids to
help contribute to their success and
a lot of great memories," Parrish
said.
Parrish, who has been a colle-
giate coach for 27 years, has
already started to look for employ-
ment somewhere else. Although
Carr has not officially named Par-
rish's replacement, it's been widely
reported that Parrish's successor
will be offensive line coach Terry
Malone.
Corralled
FRIDAY: MICHIGAN 2, NEBRASKA-OMAHA 1 (OT);
SATURDAY: MICHIGAN 6, NEBRASKA-OMAHA 3
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Michigan's LaVell Blanchard shoots over Penn State's Jason McDougald. The
junior had 18 points and eight rebounds in the 65-58 win.
Not pretty, but Blue
gets the job done
By David Horn
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan coach Tommy Amaker
insisted that the 11 a.m. tipoff for
Saturday's game against Penn State
was old hat for his team. He
explained
that the IoPENN STATE 58
Wolverines
(5-6 Big MICHIGAN 65
Ten, 10-11
overall) meet three times a week for
a team breakfast, and should not
have been at all sluggish in what
ended up being a very difficult 65-
58 win over the Nittany Lions (2-9,
6-16).
But there was no better descrip-
tion of the quality of Michigan's
play - especially in the first half
- than bleary, sluggish and sloppy.
The Wolverines trailed at the inter-
mission, 32-30.
"It wasn't a work of art by either
team," Amaker said.
The two teams combined for 22
turnovers in the first half, and 35 in
the game. Nine different Wolverines
committed turnovers, but neither
team was able to play offensively
with enough fluidity or cleanliness
to capitalize on the other's careless-
ness.
"I think that we were just a little
anxious," senior tri-captain Leon
Jones said. "A lot of guys came in
and tried to force things instead of
Blue upsets
No. 2 Dawgse
at Crisler
letting the game come to us like
coach (Amaker) was saying. We
were trying to make it happen off of
one or two passes. We should have
been throwing the ball around a
couple of times and try to get Chris
(Young) a few touches inside. That
is when good things happen."
Penn State sophomore guard
Sharif Chambliss' 3-point shooting
kept the Nittany Lions in the game.
He shot 4-of-8 from behind the arc
and ended the day with a game-high
19 points.
Michigan's points came, unchar-
acteristically, on the inside. Senior
center Ghris Young posted a double-
double - the fourth of his career
- with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
But for the first time this season
he was not the only Wolverine scor-
ing in the paint. Michigan guards
Jones and Bernard Robinson were
able to create their own shots and
penetrate, and the whole team bene-
fited from quality offensive posses-
sions (quick ball movement, smart
shot selection) in the second half.
"I did a good job toward the end
running the team, getting everybody
touches, getting everybody the
ball," sophomore point guard Avery
Queen said.
Trailing by three with 6:28
remaining, Amaker decided to allow
the five players who many believe
ought to be his regular starters fin-
See LIONS, Page 5B
TOM FELDKAMP/Daily
Michigan captain Jed Ortmeyer finishes a check in Saturday night's 6-3 win. Ortmeyer had two goals and several thunderous checks to subdue the Mavericks.
'M' sweeps at home, now tiedwith State
By Naweed Sikora
Daily Sports Writer
In a weekend that was going to make or break the
Michigan hockey team's season, the Wolverines
finally did what they hadn't been able to do.
They responded at home.
Michigan came back from two one-goal deficits
to sweep Nebraska-Omaha, 2-1 and 6-3. It was the
Wolverines' first regular season series sweep of this
year at home.
Because of Michigan State's loss to Notre Dame
Saturday night, the Wolverines are now tied with the
Spartans for first in the CCHA.
"For the most part we played disciplined," Michi-
gan coach Red Berenson said. "It was good to see
some players step up and put the puck in the net.
The powerplay obviously was a factor, and so was
the penalty killing. It was a big weekend for Michi-
gan.
The first few minutes of Saturday night's contest
mimicked Friday night's win. The Wolverines strug-
gled to find their offensive rhythm and allowed a
goal just 3:33 into the game. But that did not phase
the Wolverines, as they immediately turned around
and unleashed their wrath on the Mavericks.
At 8:15, captain Jed Ortmeyer scored on the pow-
erplay. At 8:47, freshman Milan Gajic put the
Wolverines up 2-1. At 10:32, senior Jay Vancik
scored on a 2-on-1 breakaway to make it 3-1, and
Gajic struck again at 13:30 for a three-goal lead.
"I honestly can't remember what happened," Gajic
said. "They just started going in left and right. It was
inst working. I don't think (Mavericks goaltender
Said Ortmeyer: "When guys are jumping into the
play and things are going into the net, it's like pond
hockey. You just have fun."
It was just the second time this season Michigan
had scored four goals in a single period. Following
the fourth goal, Nebraska-Omaha coach Mike Kemp
immediately called timeout to get his team under
control.
"I called the timeout because I wanted to tell the
guys to keep playing the way that we were playing,"
Kemp said. "Even though we were down, we were
playing aggressive and hard."
The timeout seemed to settle the Mavericks, as
they fought back with a short-handed goal at the end
of the first by Jeff Hoggan and an even-strength goal
by Greg Zanon in the second to pull within one.
"I was proud of the way our team fought back in
the second period," Kemp said.
But, the Mavericks' efforts would be in vain, as an
* early third-period goal by Ortmeyer (his second of
the night) put the game on ice. The junior skated in
along the boards and uncorked a slapshot from a dif-
ficult angle that somehow found the net.
"Ortmeyer continues to be a leader for us," Beien-
son said. "I don't think there was a better player all
weekend."
Friday night, freshman Dwight Helminen became
the first Michigan player to solve Ellis (who had a
scoreless streak of more than 212 minutes coming
into the weekend). The speedy forward, who had just
jumped off the bench for a line change, beat Ellis up
high with a sharp wristshot. Then after a scoreless
third, freshman Eric Nystrom once again stuck it to
the Mavericks in overtime.
12 seconds into overtime to give Michigan the 4-3
win. Friday night, Nystrom scored 39 seconds into
overtime to give Michigan a 2-1 win.
For Michigan, a team that had been concerned
about home-ice confidence coming into the week-
end, a sweep was just the right medicine.
"We needed to have back-to-back games at home
where we could walk out of here and feel good
about the whole weekend," Berenson said.
Said Ortmeyer: "Hopefully this is a weekend that
we can turn the corner. We've got to learn how to
play at home, especially if we get an opportunity to
play in the NCAAs because (the West Regional is)
going to be here. We had some guys step up that
needed to step up. It was a good team effort."
By Matt Kramer
Daily Sports Writer
The match rivaled that of a
heavyweight boxing title bout.
Back and forth the blows went.
And in the end, like a truly great
heavyweight fight, the underdog
stunned the favorite in yesterday's
women's gymnastics meet between
No. 6 Michigan and No. 2 Georgia
in front of 3,037 raucous fans at
Crisler Arena.
Elise Ray's all-around score of
39.625 - including individual
event wins in the vault and floor
exercise - propelled the Wolver-
DAVID ROCHKIND/Daily
Sophomore Calli Ryals scored a 9.95
on the floor exercise for Michigan.
197.175-197.025.
Michigan had been 0-13 against
Georgia in regular season events
and was 1-27 against Georgia in all
meets. The Michigan seniors were
TOM FELDKAMP/Daily
The Michigan powerolav unit celebrates after senior-
i
. I