0 8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 6, 2003 Michigan desperate for conference win Everyone looking up to Purdue in Big Ten By Daniel Bremmer Daily Sports Writer The Michigan women's basketball team desperately needs a win tonight, but there is one problem. So do the Iowa Hawkeyes. While Iowa (3-5 Big Ten, 11-8 over- all) has gone 3-1 in Big Ten play at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the Hawkeyes are a dismal 0-4 on the road since the beginning of the conference season. "It seems like both teams need to win pretty badly," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "It sure would be nice to just get one (road win) and get it over with. The longer (the streak) goes, I think the problem grows bigger and bigger." It's not hard to see why Iowa has been struggling away from home. The Hawkeyes are averaging 15 fewer points, 10 fewer rebounds and five fewer assists in their road contests. But Bluder believes that her team's road woes are not exclusive to her program, and she's right. In the Big Ten, home teams are 85-22 (.794), with 14 of those 22 losses com- CRISLER ARENA Who: Michigan (2-6 Big Ten, 11-8 overall) vs. Iowa (3-5,11-8) When: 7 p.m. Latest: Michigan looks to snap its three-game losing streak against a Hawkeye team that is winless on the road in Big Ten play. ing from the league's bottom two teams, Wisconsin and Northwestern. Michigan (2-6, 11-8) has also strug- gled on the road in the Big Ten, equal- ing Iowa's bleak 0-4 mark. "I'm just happy to be home," Michi- gan coach Sue Guevara said. "The road has not been very nice to us." In fact, no part of the Big Ten season has been very nice to Michigan. The Wolverines have lost six of their eight Big Ten contests - seven of their last nine overall - after opening the season 8-1. "We don't really know what's not there," center Jennifer Smith said. "We'll stick with the gameplan for 30 minutes and fall apart at the end." Following Michigan's embarrassing 68-56 loss at Wisconsin (4-5, 6-14) on Sunday, Guevara said her team would make changes, but she did not know specifically what she needed to change. On Tuesday, Guevara commented, "I think so," when asked if she will make switches with her starting lineup. "We're struggling scoring. We're struggling defensively," Guevara said. "I just think I need to make a few changes, and I think it could be based on who we are playing week to week." Against Iowa, Michigan's defense will certainly be a factor. After allowing Wisconsin to shoot 53.5 percent from the field Sunday, the Wolverines will need to tighten up if they want to shut down a Hawkeye team that has.several TONY DING/Daily Freshman Niki Reams poured in 15 points and added four assists and three steals in Michigan's loss to Wisconsin on Sunday, one of her best games as a Wolverine. scoring options. Leading Iowa are jun- iors Jennie Lillis and Kristi Faulkner, carrying the scoring load with 16.4 and 15.3 points, respectively. With Lillis and Faulkner, the Hawkeyes are one of just three Big Ten teams to have two players in the top 10 in scoring. Iowa knows it will have to overcome Michigan's presence on the defensive end of the court. "I'm impressed with Michigan's size," Bluder said. "They're very athlet- ic, (have) long arms. It's going to be hard for us to run our offense against them." Along with a greater defensive inten- sity, Michigan will also need some offensive adjustments. The Wolverines made their way to the free throw line just 15 times over their last two games because of their lack of penetration. Freshman Niki Reams will look to pick up where she left off against Wis- consin, when she came off the bench to play one of the best games of her career - scoring 15 points, dishing four assists and snatching three steals, all without a turnover. "She's been a real nice spark for us off the bench," Guevara said of her 6- foot guard. "She gets to the basket, she can shoot the three, she forces people to play her on her dribble drive, and she also does a nice job for us rebounding the ball." Tonight's contest marks the first game of the second half of Michigan's Big Ten season. "I'm disappointed in our play. (Being) 2-6 is certainly not something I anticipated for the first half of the Big Ten," Guevara said. "That's why I'm really looking forward to the second half." With a win tonight over an Iowa team in a.similar position to itself, Michigan.. can get off on the right foot. By Naweed Sikora Daily Sports Editor Let the Big Ten logjam begin. It's rare that any one team runs away with the Big Ten regular season title. Last year ended with almost half the conference (four teams) tied for first place, and this season seems to be shaping up in a similar way. With Michigan and No. 25 Purdue having jumped out to quick starts, the heat is on as the pack of wolves in the middle of the conference standings continue the hunt for first place. Very few people, if any, predicted that this sea~bn's standings would look like this at the halfway point. But as the Big Ten crosses over its mid- season hump, there have already been many surprises. Michigan State, Indiana and Illi- nois, who were picked to finish 1-2-3 in the preseason poll, are currently sit- ting in 7th, 5th and 4th place, respec- tively. But each team is poised to make a run. After handling Ohio State to begin their season, the Spartans went on a three-game losing streak before trounc- ing Penn State, but then came into Ann Arbor and lost. With his team's tourna- ment hopes in jeopardy, Michigan State coach Tom Izzo managed to breathe some life into the Spartans, as they came back to knock off Indiana and Illinois at home in the past week. "It was a much-needed two games for us with victories over two of the better teams in the league," Izzo said. "We're feeling a hair better about our- selves, but we realize we have a long way to go." The Spartans play three of their next four games on the road - one each against the teams they just beat, and one at Wisconsin. This stretch will definitely determine Michigan State's final conference position. Aside from the Wolverines, the biggest story in the conference has been the 25th-ranked Boilermakers. After several subpar seasons, Purdue coach Gene Keady finally has his young team playing with passion and pride. The team is young, and Keady says "they are sick of losing. "I think our new recruits have fit into the system much better than I thought they would, and our returning players are hungry to win," Keady said. "We've been through a lot over the years, and we're just playing bas- ketball now, We've played hard, and we've stuck together." BIG TEN STANDINGS Team Purdue Michigan Illinois Wisconsin Iowa Indiana Minnesota Michigan State Ohio State Northwestern Penn State Conference Overall W L W L 7 1 15 4 6 2 13 8 5 3 15 4 5 3 15 5 4 3 12 6 4 4 14 7 4 4 12 7 4 4 12 8 4 5 11 9 1 7 9 10 0 8 5 14 1 1 Led by swingman Willie Deane, who ranks second only to Illinois' Brian Cook in conference scoring with 20.3 points per game, Purdue has bro- ken into the top 25 and isn't planning on going anywhere. But with five of their remaining eight games away from home, the Boilermakers will have to work for it. Their last game of the season is at Michigan, and the two teams could potentially be competing for the Big Ten title if conference posi- tions hold. After their night off yesterday, the Wolverines have eight games remain- ing (four home, four away) and a shot at winning the conference title. Last season, the four teams that tied for first had 11 wins apiece. If that statis- tic holds true for this season (which is highly possible), Michigan needs to win its remaining home games and one road game to finish in first. The Wolverines have Penn State on the road left - probably their best shot at a road win - but must deal with some tough home games first, beginning Saturday with Iowa. "I'm hoping the rest this week will give our team a renewed spirit," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said. "We're looking to get rested and be at full health for the rest of the season." Meanwhile, after dropping its first two conference games, Wisconsin has regained its footing and won five straight as it tries to repeat as confer- ence champions. Minnesota is also beginning to heat up with three straight victories. As usual, each team has taken a few licks, but each is"right in the thick of things as the conference hits its halfway point. Each team - with the exception of Northwestern and Penn State - still has a good shot at mak- ing a run to the top, and it should be an exciting finish to the 2002-03 Big Ten season. 0I 11 UNITED NATIONS TERRORISM UN Secretary-General KOFI ANNAN, speaking at the University of Maryland on November 13, 2002 "denounced Israel . . as an expropriator of Arab land" and said "the only solution is for Israel to relinquish the land the Arabs lost in the 1967 Mideast War and to live side by side with a Palestinian nation." 0 Mr. KOFI ANNAN is violating the United Nations Constitution and threatens the survival of Israel and its Jewish people! The League of Nations in 1922 created their Palestine Mandate which recognized Palestine belongs to the Jewish people. When the United Nations replaced the League after the Second World War, included in their UN Charter is Article 80 to protect "existing international instru- ments." Thus the UN Constitution recognizes that Palestine belongs to Jews, their Israel State. Does Mr. KOFI ANNAN think Arab states did noth- ing wrong in 1948 when they attacked in their attempt to exterminate the Jewish State, killing 6,200 Jews, capturing the eastern section of Holy Jerusalem and leaving the center of Israel along the coast just nine miles wide --- taking Jewish homes, possessions and land --- making the area free of all Jews --- just like the Kingdom of Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and as Hitler tried to do in Europe? Does Mr. KOFI ANNAN support the racism that NO Jews should be allowed in their National Homeland, the Heart of their religion? Does Mr. KOFI ANNAN believe Jews had NO right to defend themselves when Arab armies attacked them in 1967 and Jews had NO right to defeat the Arab armies and get their land back? And that the Arabs did nothing wrong during those 19 years they occupied that territory --- killing 700 Jews and wounding over 5,000 with gunfire? - Mr. KOFI ANNAN calls for Israel to "live side by side with a Palestinian nation." Doesn't Mr. ANNAN know that 78 percent of Palestine as legally recog- nized by the United Nations Charter, has already been given to Arabs, the Arab Palestine Jordan state, leaving the 40 miles Jordan River to the Medi- terranean Sea for the Jewish Palestine Israel? - Mr. KOFI ANNAN's United Nations provides life- long welfare for Arabs in their "refugee" camps that teach hatred of Jews and produce most of the suicide terrorists murdering Jews and fellow Arabs accused of being friendly to Jews. Those Arabs in Gaza camps produce more than 9 children per couple, the highest in the world. Those Arabs, now being called "Palestinians," have 22 homelands with 250 million fellow Arabs. - In 1968, the United Nations put the administration and schools of their 14 Arab "refugee" camps in Lebanon over to the Palestine Liberation Organiza- tion (PLO). Education in the camp schools was slanted to creating a Palestinian identity and indoc- trinating a vehement hatred of Jews. Those UN camps that America was financing was responsible for the PLO destroying the authority of the gov- ernment of Lebanon. The PLO-UN camps were responsible for ruining Lebanon where Moslems, Christians and Jews had lived peacefully. From those camps, tens of thousands of Lebanese were tortured and killed and murderous raids across the border into Israel. UN schools, America helped finance, taught from PLO textbooks containing such slogans as "Be a patriot, kill a Jew." The PLO constructed massive tunnels, miles of them, under and near those camps, crammed with billions of dollars of grenades, rockets, artillery shells, explo- sives and small arms ammunition as well as air raid shelters, food storage rooms, underground prisons, and torture chambers, hospitals, printing plants and radio stations. Arab states paid for that military build-up. The billions of dollars it cost could have provided peaceful settlement of all those Arabs in the UN refugee camps. - It is utterly disgraceful and a blot on America's honor that our State Denartment and our Conoress that America was supporting terrorism in Lebanon. It was in 1994 that huge crowds of Arabs cheered wildly as 14,000 PLO terrorists arrived in Gaza. That was the army that carried out the bloody rampage in Lebanon from the United Nations "refu- gee" camps that pillaged and destroyed Lebanese towns killing thousands of Lebanese and hundreds of Jews in their attacks on Israel. Now that PLO army of savage killers is at the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem --- ready to do to the Jews what they had done to the Lebanese people. President Bush's "peace" means the 250,000 Jews who returned to live in their National Homeland --- Judea-Samaria, Gaza, and holy Jerusalem --- will be forced to leave, giving up their homes, busi- nesses and farms to Arabs, leaving Israel just nine miles wide along the coast. Again, Israel will face deadly gunfire from the Arab occupied hills. All aircraft to and from Israel will be in danger from gunfire. A "peace" that is suicide!! United States, instead of financing the terrorist PLO and their terrorist UN "refugee" camps --- should help sparsely populated Arab Palestine Jordan develop technical schools, industrial parks, agricul- ture, housing and tourism --- so fellow Arabs can move in, out from the United Nations camps and start earning an honest living and set an example for all Moslem states. And that will complete the population exchange when almost a million Jews were driven out after 1948 from Arab countries, countries where Jews had lived for centuries, their homes and all their possessions taken from them. That will complete the two-state solution when 78 percent of Palestine was given to form Arab Pales- tine Jordan. That will leave Israel 40 miles wide -- an Israel well able to defend itsenlf 0 S