Jbz £idiguu JfrNlg POTSO Sports desk: 763-2459 sportsdesk@umich.edu SECTION B 'CF7.vfi . *P' E - Y Y Y 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