Friday January 10, 2003 michigandaity.com sportsdesk@umich.edu SPORTS 8 Michigan hopes to let good times roll against Penn State 'M' faces Broncos without Werner , By Seth Klempner Daily Sports Writer The trade winds have shifted around Crisler Arena and have brought with them a new way of thinking and playing. After last Saturday's 84-79 win over IUPUI in which Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 8-6 overall) struggled to put away an inferior opponent, coach Tommy CRISLER Amaker admitted that it was the type of game that the team might have Who:Michiga lost in the past. Ten, 86 overa Sae(-,5- Then, to continue the trend of Sta4pm breaking old habits, the Wolverines Latest:After V climbed back from a seemingly insur- emotional vict mountable 15-point deficit with less consin, Michig than six minutes remaining to beat match its long the Badgers, who were beginning streak since1 their defense of the Big Ten title. "It was a great comeback from a team that was really (searching) for a reason to come back - if you were to (take a) deeper look into it," Amaker said of the Wisconsin victory. Michigan is also on an eight-game winning streak and is playing the type of basketball that fans expected when Amaker joined the Wolverines last year. The winning streak is the program's longest since the 1996-97 season, the same year that Michi- gan captured the NIT Championship. The winning streak and Wednesday's win "show that we have a lot of character," freshman Daniel a an ,all) h7) We or igan get 199 Horton said. "When we started 0-6 a lot of people were doubting us and saying that it is the same old Michigan team - but it is not. "We are a totally different team from years past and right now we are showing it. We believe in what coach Amaker is teaching us. They tell us if you play hard and give effort, that we have enough talent to win games, and right now that is what we are doing." ARENA Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 8-6 overall) is looking to continue its recent trend (1-0 Big and prove that it has turned over a vs. Penn new leaf tomorrow against Penn State (0-1, 5-7). dnesday's The Nittany Lions entered their Big y over wis- Ten opener on a five-game winning n could streak against the likes of Bucknell and t winning Robert Morris, but fell to Indiana by 13 93-94. points Wednesday night. Meanwhile, senior LaVell Blanchard has been the Wolverines' best performer during the current stretch, and is fourth in the conference in scoring. Blanchard is averaging close to a double- double over the past eight games with 19.8 points and eight rebounds per-game in 31.1 minutes. "We struggle and get into trouble when we don't have LaVell doing the things that he is capable of doing," Amaker said. "We try to do other things or make up for other things, and we aren't good enough to do (that)." If the Wolverines are able to get LaVell involved the way Amaker needs him to be, they should be Cagers searching for first conf By Gennaro Fice Daily Sports Writer In 2002, the Michigan women's basketball team pro- duced an impressive 9-2 nonconference record, earned a No. 25 ranking, and looked to be ready for the grueling Big MACKEY Ten season. But so far, 2003 is a com- Who: Michig pletely different story. After tipping off Ten, 9-4 over January with two blowout Big Ten losses, due (0-1, 11 the Wolverines have dropped out of the When: 2 p.m. top 25, and have quickly found them- Latest The w selves in the conference cellar. So much hope to avoid< for ringing in the New Year. ference starta After Michigan dropped its home Arena in Purdu opener against Illinois, 89-59, coach Sue Guevara commented on her team's demise. "1 was shocked and stunned with how we played in the first half," Guevara said. "I was embarrassed. I've never seen that Michigan team play. We were a much better basketball team in December." With a game Sunday at No. 7 Purdue (0-1 Big Ten, 11-2 overall) in the hostile setting of Mackey Arena, the Wolverines (0-2, 9-4) have no time to dwell on their two-game skid. YARENA an (0-2 Big rall) vs. Pur- -2) olverines an 0-3 con- at Mackey ue's confer- Wener. Wright," "A big strength for Purdue is their crowd," Guevara said. "Mackey Arena is a very tough place to play. Their crowd really appreciates a good basketball game." With Purdue's impressive array of talent, handling the crowd is just the first step toward knocking off the Boilermakers. Junior Shareka Wright, who currently leads the team in scoring (18.9 points per game) and rebounding (6.6 boards per game), paces Purdue's high-octane offense. "They have a very nice player in Shareka Guevara said. "She can just hurt you in so BRENDAN O'DONNELL/Daily Freshman Graham Brown drives hard to the hoop during Michigan's 66-65 victory over Wisconsin able to come away with a notch in the win column this weekend. Their nine-game winning streak would become the longest for the them since the 1993-94 season, when Jalen Rose and Juwan Howard were playing in Ann Arbor. 'ernence victory say one of their biggest strengths is their team attitude. They really do know how to pull it out." Guevara said Purdue is a very disciplined team that takes exceptional care of the ball and leads the Big Ten in turnover ratio. This is an area in which Michigan has struggled lately, turning the ball over 49 times in the last two games. "The No. 1 thing we have to key on is limiting our turnovers, really taking a value in the basketball," Gue- vara said. The Wolverines will need a big game from junior Stephanie Gandy. Michigan is 7-1 when Gandy hits double figures, but a meager 2-3 when she does not. Although playing one of the best teams in the coun- try after losing two straight games can be intimidating, it is essential that the Wolverines don't let these outside factors effect their play. "Every game is going to be tough, but if we go into that game, 'Oh god;here we go, we're going in to play Purdue, we've already lost two games in a row,' then you know what, don't make the trip," Guevara said. By Kyle O'Neill Daily Sports Writer Bobbleheads aside, this weekend against Western Michigan will be taken very seriously by the Michigan hockey team. And it just got more serious given that defenseman Eric Werner has been declared ineligible for this weekend's series. Michigan coach Red Berenson said Werner did nothing wrong, but the Big Ten - Michigan hockey athletes must meet NCAA, Big Ten, CCHA and school regulations - wanted to ask some questions of him. There was no comment as to what the questioning was about. Berenson has already sus- pended sophomore Milan Gajic for two games this season due to academic rea- sons, but said that this suspension was just for precautionary measures. Wern- er, who has 13 points (four goals and nine assists) on the season, will be replaced by Reilly Olson in the lineup. Whether it has been fractured bones in the hand (forwards John Shouneyia and Michael Woodford), a torn MCL (captain Jed Ortmeyer) or the World Junior Championships (forwards Eric Nystrom and Dwight Helminen), the Wolverines' top squad has yet to play an entire 60 minutes together this season. And given that the toughest portion of the schedule is staring the Wolverines in the face, they will need everyone for the stretch run. "We definitely have some things to work on," Ortmeyer said. "We need to tighten up in our own zone. In the sec- ond half, we're going to be playing some better teams, and we've been giv- ing up too many chances." Even though this home-and-home weekend against the Broncos will have gimmicks - the first 1,000 fans at tonight's game will get bobblehead dolls of Michigan coach Red Berenson and in Kalamazoo, fans will try to "Black- Out" the Wolverines with black t-shirts and Thunderstix - these are vital games for the two teams, The Pairwise Rankings - consid- ered to be the next best thing to the official rankings in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee - have successfully projected the teams in YOST ICE ARENA, LAWSON ICE ARENA Who: Michigan (8-3-1 CCHA, 14-5-1 overall) vs. Western Michigan (6-6.0, 8-11-1) When: 7:30 p.m. today, 7:05 p.m. tomorrow Latest: Red Berenson bobblehead night kicks off a pivotal home-and-home series for the Wolverines who sit in third place in the CCHA. the last four NCAA tournaments and currently have Michigan as the ninth- ranked team in the nation. The Wolverines are the highest CCHA team ranked, though they are current- ly third in the conference. First place Ferris State and second place Ohio State are No. 10 and 13, respectively. "What really matters is that you take care of things on the ice because the Pairwise Rankings take so many things into consideration that are out of your control," Berenson said. "You'd go crazy trying to figure all this out, and you can't position yourself any better than just by winning the games." Winning, as simplistic as it sounds, is all Michigan needs to do, as there is no room for error. The Wolverines play four teams ranked in the Pair- wise's top 30 (Ferris State, Ohio State, Nebraska-Omaha and the Broncos) in the next two months. With schools like Northern Michigan (No. 17) and Notre Dame (No. 20) - which have already beaten Michigan - on the outside looking in and waiting for a team to slip up, the Wolverines cannot afford to drop to "bubble-team" status because the losses earlier this season will most certainly come back to haunt them. "It's tougher to stay at the top because everyone's gunning for you," Ortmeyer said. "Teams look and they see that they're playing the No. 1 or No. 2 team, and you're going to get their best game day-in and day-out. When you're work- ing your way up, you'll get on a roll, and that's when you can make a run at it." But pre-postseason rankings are just that, and the Wolverines know that since the power to change them is out of their hands, there's only one thing they can do. "I feel like we can move up, but we can't really have too much control"of that other than just going out and play- ing games," Ortmeyer said. S many ways." Perennially one of the nation's best teams, Purdue exudes confidence. "They know how to win," Guevara said. "I would 4 irw i (f tfi ff iMfi l wirflfii I. ,ry t 3: