Wednesday. February 18, 2004 sports.michigandaily.com sports@michigandaily.com SPORTS 9 Back at home, Blue looks to snap skid It's true: Newest Bluenatic hooked on women's hoops By Chris Burke Daily Sports Editor Much has been made of the Michi- gan basketball team's struggles away from home this season. But the road are nothing compared to what Penn State has suffered through. Over the last three years, the Nittany Lions have bumbled their way to woes of the Wolverines TONIG T Thue- 8:00.pa ~ Crisler Arenawa UP^N 20 consecutive road losses. Tonight, Michigan (4-6 Big Ten, 13-8 overall) would love nothing more than to push that number to 21. With losses in six of its last nine games, Michigan finds itself on the verge of falling com- pletely out of NCAA Tournament con- sideration, making its game against Penn State (3-7, 9-12) - and likely every game the rest of the season - a must-win situation. "Our goals really have stayed the same," Michigan forward J.C. Mathis said. "We haven't lost hope of going to the NCAA Tournament. But our main goal is just winning this next game'." Those goals have been tested as the Wolverines, once expected to challenge for the Big Ten title, have yet to come close to meeting expectations. Despite the Wolverines' woes, Michi- gan coach Tommy Amaker refuses to chalk the year up as a disappointment. "We're in a mode of improving," Amaker said. "I don't think we're regressing - I don't believe that. A lot of times, this time of the year, you're fighting through things." If Michigan looks to "fight through" its current predicament and get back on track, then there's probably no team that the Wolverines would rather see than Penn State. Michigan already took advantage of one meeting with the Nittany Lions. That game, the Wolverines' lone Big Ten road victory this season, ended a three-game losing streak that Michigan was mired in. Now, after losses at Iowa and last- place Minnesota, the Wolverines are again in desperate need of a victory, something they have gotten in their last five matchups against Penn State. Tonight's game also marks the start of a four-game homestand for Michi- gan that will also see Wisconsin, Michigan State and Ohio State travel to Crisler Arena. "If we win our next four games, it will obviously be because we're shoot- ing the ball better and not turning the ball over as much;" Mathis said. "Four wins would mean we've turned things around. We can't play the way we've played and beat some of the teams we have at home" In its 69-59 victory over Penn State on Jan. 24, Michigan played the type of game it has been striving for all season. The Wolverines turned the ball over just nine times in that game, and dished out 14 assists, playing solid defense and cre- ating multiple transition opportunities. Michigan also managed to keep Penn State's leading scorer, forward Jan Jagla, out of sync for much of the game's 40 minutes. Jagla finished with 13 points, but the Wolverines battered and bruised him, and the junior chucked up 13 missed shots as well. History would indicate that Jagla will fall short of his 14.3 points per game average again tonight. In his first two appearances at Crisler Arena, Jagla has averaged just four points a game, as he has been unable to bang with the physi- cal Wolverines. Jagla does have some offensive help from guard Marlon Smith, who joins Jagla as the only Nittany Lions who average double digits in points. Penn State has not won in Ann Arbor since the 1998-99 season, when the Nit- tany Lions snuck out a 78-72 victory. COURTNEY LEWIS Full Court Press 'll admit it; it was mostly the free T- shirt. In three-and-a half years at Michigan, I'd never been to a women's basketball game. Never seri- ously considered going to one. But, newly relieved of my editor duties at the Daily, I didn't have anywhere else to be. And with a second-semester senior's schedule, I certainly didn't have any homework to do. Plus, I had heard that the women's basketball fan group, the Bluenatics, gave away shirts to any students who went to a game. There's not much I won't do for a free T-shirt. So I made the drastic decision to go to the Feb. 5 Michigan-Purdue game. This didn't mean that I would like it, or even be all that interested. You see, I have a long history of not giving diddly-squat about women's bas- ketball. This makes no sense at all, since not only do I love the game, but I also played in high school and resented the fact that the boys' team got more attention - and more funding - than my team. I'm all about female athletes getting fair treatment. But for whatever reason, when it comes to other girls playing basketball, I just don't care. I've never been to a WNBA game - I've never even watched a whole game on television. And, up until that night two weeks ago, I'd paid zero attention to the women's team here, beyond the stories I had to read for the Daily. In fact, I kept read- ing about things the program was doing to try to draw more fans, and ... well ... I sort of rolled my eyes and smirked. They had to beg for fans? Come on. So you could say that finally going to a game was a major step forward for me. I would've said it was just a way to cure my boredom - and get a T-shirt. But then, something strange happened. I actually ... liked it. This is hard for me to come to terms with - I'm still very confused - but somehow, I turned in to a women's bas- ketball fan. I've been to every home game since. The games were as much fun - if not (GASP!) more - than the men's games. Students get in free, which is a major plus. Even though I'm a new- comer, I get to trade in my upper-deck view at men's games for bleacher seats, just feet from the team. And even though there aren't that many of them - er, us - the Bluenatics can still make an impact. Yes, when we tried to start the "Go! Blue!" call-and- response chant at the Purdue game, we had to send someone across the arena to answer us, since the non-student fans just returned our chant of "Go!" with blank stares. But still, the opposing team can be rattled by our insults, and the Michi- gan team appreciates us. As far as on the court, it's not that much different from the men's game. I even got to watch Michigan blow a 17-point first-half lead and lose by five to Michigan State last week. Sound familiar? But seriously. Even though Michigan has lost two of the three games I've been to, there have been plenty of fun things to watch: Tabitha Pool draining three's in a rivalry game and freshman Kelly Helvey getting her first career starts and turning into Michigan's sparkplug, to name a few. Now, with the season winding down, I'm almost wishing I had discovered earlier that women's basketball is pretty cool, after all. Besides, at the last game, I caught (read: yanked out of someone's hand) one of those shirts that the cheerleaders toss into the crowd during timeouts. That's two free T-shirts. Courtney Lewis can be reached at cmlewis@umich.edu. Freshman Dion Harris and the Wolverines hope to play as well as they did when they faced the Nittany Lions on Jan. 24, when Michigan won easily 69-59. For Burlin, road traveled hardly easy LIVJs NOTES By Josh Holman Daily Sports Writer It's hard to believe, but the Michigan women's basketball team's most experienced player is only a sophomore. And that's not even the most interesting fact about her. Mie Burlin - who celebrated her 24th birthday yester- day - has traveled a long, winding road to get where she is today. Sure, every player has her very own tale of perse- verance and toil, but Burlin's journey was truly long - about 4,107 miles, to be exact. But somehow, Burlin managed to find her way from Skovlunde, Denmark, to Ann Arbor just to play basketball. "I knew Anne Thorius, who played here, and I know she had a great experience," Burlin said. "And I knew one of the former coaches here (Eileen Shea-Hilliard) because she used to play in Denmark." Shea-Hilliard - now the head coach at Oakland Univer- sity - played professionally in Europe and coached in Den- mark. When former Michigan coach Sue Guevara took the reins at Michigan, Shea-Hilliard came on as an assistant and was instrumental in the recruitment of Thorius and Burlin, both members of the Danish National Team. Burlin certainly had the connections to get to Michigan, but it wasn't so simple. Her first obstacle came three years ago when the NCAA declared her academically ineligible prior to the 2001-2002 season. "The school systems are so different that, even though I went through four years of business school before I came here, I was 75 percent of one credit short," Burlin said. "It was a biology credit. It was ridiculous. So I had to stay home and take a biology class for a whole year." The confusion over three-fourths of a credit actually set back Michigan's program. Guevara recruited Burlin as a point guard, and expected her to fill the void that Thorius left when she graduated. When Burlin was forced to stay that extra year in Denmark, Guevara was left without a true point guard. "I had just graduated from business school and I knew that I wanted to go," Burlin said. "I was really disappointed but I knew that I just had to take that class and I would be going the next year. But on top of that, I lost a year of eligi- bility so that was hard." When Burlin did arrive, she was part of a point-guard-by- committee that Guevara had compiled to fill the team's glar- ing void. She split time controlling the point with then-junior Sierra Hauser-Price and then-freshmen Lauren Andrews and Rachel Carney. But that was last year, and Burlin is the only remnant of Michigan's old Danish pipeline. Thorius has long since graduated after a successful stint, and Shea-Hilliard left Michigan last year to take the head coaching job at Oakland. In her first year as the Wolverines' coach, Cheryl Bur- nett has shaken up the program, and Burlin has felt the impact. Burnett moved Burlin from a point guard to a shooting guard this season, hoping to capitalize on Burlin's shooting ability - she's fourth on the team in 3- pointers made. It's not an easy transition for any point guard to make. "I've played point guard for 10, 12 years," Burlin said. "Obviously that's my position and that's where I feel com- fortable. I don't mind playing the two guard at all, but it did take me a while to get used to not getting the ball and bring- ing it up the floor." So now, at the ripe age of 24, three years after taking a troublesome biology class and a year into a fresh new regime at Michigan, Burlin is still in Ann Arbor. It may not have been what she expected when she left Denmark, but it's still a chance to play basketball. "Obviously when you get new coaches, some things will change, and that's just the way it is," Burlin said. "I only have one year left, since I lost that year of eligibility, so I'm going to get the most out of it and see what the future brings." Olin leads Blue to third-place finish In the Miccosukee Championship in Miami, the Michigan women's golf team finished third out of 13 teams. Its score of 943 in the 54-hole tourna- ment was seven strokes behind cham- pion Southern Methodist. Three Wolverines - junior Laura Olin, freshman Ali Stinson and sopho- more Amy Schmucker - had strong showings and finished in the top 15. Olin, who finished fifth, lead Michigan for the fifth consecutive tournament with a 230 total. "It felt really good to get back into the competitive mode," Olin said. "It is such a different feeling - grinding out your shots, playing for Michigan, playing alongside your teammates and really just hitting from the turf." Michigan coach Kathy Teichert was pleased with the results. "You always wonder how you go from indoors and not playing to actu- ally hitting a golf course and facing some competition," Teichert said. "I thought we handled all of our obsta- cles very well. Sure, there were some shots left out there, but for the most part I was pleased with the way we performed. It was great to see how everyone responded." The Wolverines travel to Puerto Rico Feb. 22-24 for the Lady Puerto Rico Classic. Ten top 25 programs will compete in the tournament. DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily Mie Burlin had to wait an extra year before coming to Michigan due to missing just one biology class, even though she had finished four years of business school. In October 2004 join a select group of young professionals in the only full-time program on WTO law and trade policy. This unique program combines international law, trade regulation, and economics in both the curriculum and the classroom. " Learn about the leading legal and economic issues in international trade and learn to interpret WTO rules and policies. " Address these issues in the context of new global challenges. " Receive the degree of Masters in International Law and Economics " Tuition: 30,000 CHF (approx. $25,000) with no application fee. " Receive instruction and training from a global faculty of specialists * neutral zone presents * SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION FEB 19, MICH THEATER, 7PM E B.aturing B ANDREW WI. 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