10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, February 4, 2003
CRAWFORD
Continued from Page 8
"I think (all of the recruits) will
complement one another well," said
Francis of Michigan's next two class-
es. "It's a lot of wing players, but
that's a pretty good situation.
"The one thing Michigan's going
to need at this point is another point
guard."
With the commitment of Craw-
ford, Amaker is left with one schol-
arship available for the class of 2004.
That needed point guard could fill
the final scholarship, and could
come from a familiar place, as
Michigan is courting current
Wolverine Daniel Horton's brother,
point guard Jason Horton. The
younger Horton is in high demand
around the country, and Michigan
will be in contention for him with
schools such as Duke, Arizona and
North Carolina.
Michigan is also in the running
for yet another swingman from
Detroit Renaissance, 6-foot-6
Malik Hairston.
"Will they get Jason Horton? Well,
it's going to be a war," said Francis
of the excitement of the next Horton
recruit. "But even if they don't sign
another player for the next two years,
they're in great shape."
There's little doubt - barring the
pending NCAA decision on any fur-
ther penalties against the Michigan
program - that another big-name
recruit would only further add to
what is already shaping up to be a
very exciting Michigan team for the
next few years.
"Michigan should be in the tour-
nament this year, and I'd be surprised
if Michigan wasn't in the tournament
next year," Francis said. "They could
be Final Four, final eight, final 16 in
a year - that's how good I think
Michigan could be."
M' freshman trio a
pleasant surprise
By Dan Rosen
Daily Sports Writer
After the most important weekend
of the Michigan hockey team's sea-
son to date, a series split with first-
place Ferris State, it's clear that the
Wolverine s'
freshmen for- HOCKE
wards are for
real. They con- Notebook
tinue to produce
numbers beyond their years, and
they're drawing rave reviews from
coaches and teammates.
Said Wolverines assistant coach
Billy Powers of center Andrew
cu* . GW " I',' , " 11 '': , "" %i,
Ebbett: He's "a real good play-mak-
ing center, a real smart center."
Of Brandon Kaleniecki, Powers
said, "He does all the dirty work but
yet he can score goals."
And as for Jeff Tambellini, "Right
now, I don't think it matters who he
'plays with. He's just riding the con-
fidence," Powers said.
The three are all among Michi-
gan's top seven scorers. Tambellini
leads the team with 27 points, while
Kaleniecki and Ebbett are sixth with
16 points apiece.
These newcomers are playing so
well that on Saturday, coach Red
Berenson decided to bring them
together onto the same line to pro-
vide the team a boost with the
Wolverines trailing.
The freshmen responded, getting
Michigan on the board 7:32 into the
second period. With the Wolverines
down four, Kaleniecki notched a
score off of a nifty exchange with
Tambellini at the top of the Bull-
dogs' zone. The Livonia native
launched a wristshot over Ferris
State goalie Mike Brown to cut the
deficit to three.
It wasn't the first time this season
that Michigan put the three new-
comers on the same line to provide
a lift. On Dec. 7 against Northern
Michigan, they came together on the
powerplay with the score knotted at
zero. Kaleniecki gave Michigan a
temporary lead on that sequence,
roofing another wristshot off of a
fIl
TONY DING/Daily
Michigan freshman center Andrew Ebbett battles for possession of the puck
during last Friday's 6-4 win over Ferris State.
rebound.
"(They play with) a lot of energy,
you know, it's young energy," Powers
said. "They're excited and they're
good."
With another series with the Wild-
cats slated for this coming weekend,
the newcomers could be back on the
ice together. Powers said that while
Berenson has made no decision as to
Pairwise Rankings
The Pairwise ranking system attempts to replicate the method the NCAA uses
to pick participants in the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season. This is
the first year that 16 teams will be invited to dance at four regional sites. Last
season, just 12 were selected.
what the lines will be, it is possible
that the freshmen could be paired
together at some point.
"It's a positive that we can stick
them together ... and have a real
good chance of making some things
happen," Powers said.
GOING TO WORK: Senior J.J. Swis-
tak wasn't pleased with his first
weekend on defense. The West
Bloomfield native switched over
from forward last week to help make
up for the loss of defenseman Eric
Werner,, who was declared academi-
cally ineligible by the Big Ten.
"I don't think I did that well,"
Swistak said. "If I'm going to play, I
have to get a lot better."
On Friday, Swistak was on the ice
for Ferris State's fourth goal, 14:37
into the second period. He played
limited minutes on Saturday.
"I think I can get better, it just
might take some time," Swistak said.
"As a forward, you don't spend that
much time skating backwards. But
I'll get used to it."
BECOMING A FORMALITY: Tambelli-
ni was named CCHA Rookie of the
Week yesterday. It was the second
week in a row and league-leading
third week overall that the freshman
received the honor.
The Port Moody, British Colum-
bia native had three goals and an
assist against the Bulldogs.
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Team
1. Maine
2. Colorado College
3. New Hampshire
4. North Dakota
5. Cornell
6. Boston College
7. Boston University
8. Minnesota
9. St. Cloud State
10. Ferris State
11. Ohio State
Michigan
13. Denver
14. MSU-Mankato
15. Providence
Northern Michigan
Record
21-3-4
21-2-5
18-6-3
21-4-3
17-4-0
16-6-3
16-10-2
14-6-7
13-10-3
19-8-1
18-6-3
18-7-1
17-7-4
12-7-9
14-12-1
14-10-2
USCHO Rank
2
1
4
3
5
6
12
7
15
9
10
8
11
14
NR
NR
Conference
Hockey East
WCHA
Hockey East
WCHA
ECAC
Hockey East
Hockey East
WCHA
WC HA
CCHA
CCHA
CCHA
WCHA
WCHA
Hockey East
CCHA
01
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