0 Wednesday November 10, 2004 sports. michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily. com JbRE iihau rngi SPORTS 10 .......... Cagers eager to shape up By Brian Schick Daily Sports Editor Just as quickly as it began, the exhibition sea- son for the men's basketball team draws to a close tonight. With the start of the regular season - in the form of the preseason NIT - on Monday, there isn't much time before Binghamton comes to town. Tonight's game against Wayne State is the- last chance to work out. TONIGIT the offseason kinks. Mehign v. During the first half of Michigan's 60-43 exhi- : bition win over Michigan. C.s AP Tech on Sunday, the Wol-. verines came out looking sharp, shooting a scorching 60 percent. But the wheels quickly came off the wagon, as Michi- gan made just 11 of its last 30 attempts from the floor. On several occasions, Michigan was able to find good shots from the floor, but couldn't find the stroke. Add that to the fact that the Wolverines were able to pull down just four offensive rebounds and the conclusion is that the offense looked shaky in its first time out. "We've just got to try and finish," junior Daniel Horton said. "We got the type of shots we want- ed. We just need to continue playing like we did today." Said Michigan coach Tommy Amaker: "We didn't (execute) as well as we wanted to. But for our first time out, I thought we did pretty well." Against Wayne State tonight, execution will also be important in slowing down the Warriors' offense, which averaged 70.4 point-per-game last year. Senior guard Morris Hall is the top returning scorer, averaging more than 10 points per game last season. Whereas Michigan Tech had a prolific forward in Josh Buettner, Wayne State features a solid backcourt of Hall and Darrell Evans (7.4 point per game). "We want to see carryover from practices into the game and see players do the things we've been coaching," Amaker said. "We need to go from being in good basketball shape to being in game shape." Perhaps the person who looked to be in the best "game shape" on Sunday was sophomore Courtney 0 So, Buckeyes: Was Clarett worth this? CHRIS BURKE Goin' to Work At some point, everyone associ- ated with Ohio State's football program will have to look in the mirror and figure out if the Buck- eyes' 2002 national championship was worth it. Yes, Maurice Clarett ran for 1,237 that year and scored the game-winning touchdown in the Orange Bowl against Miami. But he's been haunting Ohio State's program ever since. The worst spook of all came yester- day, when a story in ESPN The Maga- zine became public in which Clarett alleged that he received cars, passing grades in classes and thousands of dol- lars while in Columbus. Several other former Buckeyes backed up his story. Now, Ohio State - despite the best efforts of athletic director Andy Geiger and coach Jim Tressel to dispute the claims swiftly and definitively yesterday afternoon - faces a potential investiga- tion. And Geiger and Tressel are left standing as a collective Atlas, trying to keep the Buckeyes' world from crashing down. There's no mistaking how serious this could potentially be for the Ohio State program. The charges presented by Clarett are very big ones in the eyes of the NCAA - just ask the Michigan basketball teams of the 1990s. Oh, that's right ... you can't, because most of them have been erased from the record books because of improper contact with booster Ed Martin. But before everyone throws Ohio State to the lions, let's take a second to remember who is making these claims against the Buckeyes' program. It's Clar- ett, a guy who was kicked off Ohio State at the start of the 2003 season for lying to the police about being robbed. And the other character central to the ESPN article is Marco Cooper - who was in jail until March of 2003 because of drug charges. Not exactly the pick of the litter when it comes to honest human beings. Still, Tressel's had his issues, too. In a very "under-the-radar" story, Youngstown State was twice forced to internally investigate its football program under Tressel's reign there because, as it turned out, the team's quarterback took money from a booster. Sound familiar? So the question becomes: Who do you believe? Clarett, a player with a bone to pick with Ohio State, who is trying to re-book his ticket to stardom? Or Tressel, who had an isolated incident at Youngstown State and now has players pointing fingers at him? Here's the thing - it shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter because college athletics shouldn't be boiling down to things like lawsuits and boosters and dirty programs. Somewhere along the lines, we've forgotten that. Every year, when recruiting season rolls around, coaches say things like, "We've landed a real character guy," or "He's a (insert school name) man." And everyone in the public just asks, "Yeah, but can he play football?" Then, when a team loses a couple of games it's not supposed to, the coaches are lambasted and run out of town. So why does everyone act so shocked when allegations like this come out? College football has turned into a "win first" sport - to the general public, all that matters is being victorious. So Ohio State bought into that. The Buck- eyes brought in a guy of questionable character, who wanted to use college as an NFL springboard in exchange for a national title. That's fine, but when everything doesn't work out perfectly, there's a chance something like this might happen. When you play with fire, sometimes, you're going to get burned. Ohio State - and college athletics as a whole - has to figure out if it wants to continue to open its doors to guys like Clarett, who might be great or might be your worst nightmare. Or a little bit of both, Chris Webber-style. And these players might bring you your national title. But they also might turn out to be your program's undoing. So, is it worth it? Chris Burke can be reached at chrisbur@umich.edu RYANss 1 s -EINEgR/Dg' iy Sophomore center Courtney Sims scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting In Michigan's first exhibition game. Sims, who bulked up during the offseason. Adding this muscle allowed Sims to gain confidence in him- self, as well as his game. With the improved phy- sique and confidence, Michigan is looking to Sims to carry more responsibility. "I need to continue to be a consistent threat from the floor," Sims said. "I have a lot more con- fidence this year, and I'll need to be one of the main scorers." Amaker believes that exhibitions are invaluable for his team to bridge the gap from offseason train- ing and practice to game situations. This season, the discrepancy between offseason and regular season is exacerbated, as the team jumps right into the pre- season NIT, which features national powers Arizona and Wake Forest. In order to be ready, Amaker wants to face solid exhibition teams. "We want to set the tone for where we're going with our team," Amaker said. "We want to do some things against quality opponents right now. We want to have a good feeling when we leave the floor." Changes help line turn around By Sharad Mattu Daily Sports Editor After playing nine games in as many weeks, Michigan finally was rewarded with its bye week. Tight end Tim Massaquoi "slept all weekend." On Saturday, linebacker Roy Man- ning was a "couch potato." And cornerback Marlin Jackson admitted that "it was crazy having that much time to ourselves." But if there was one group that benefited the most from having Saturday off, it might have been Michigan's starting offensive line- men - five guys who weigh a combined 1,600 pounds. "We are a little heavier, and there is a little more weight on our knees, so we definitely appreciate (the bye week)," senior David Baas said. "But everybody is a little beat up right now." Regardless of how sore Baas and his cohorts have been feeling following games lately, the defensive linemen they have been squaring off against lately have likely felt significantly worse. That's because Michigan's running game has made a dramatic turnaround. After run- ning for just 171 combined yards in their first two games, the Wolverines have now run for 200 yards or more in four consecutive weeks. While the insertion of freshman Mike Hart at running back is considered the main reason for the marked improvement, changes to the offensive line have also had a big effect. Left tackle Adam Stenavich and right guard Matt Lentz have started every game this sea- son, but the other three positions have under- gone changes. After two games, Michigan replaced Mike Kolodziej with redshirt freshman Jake Long at right tackle. But the more radical changes came the fol- lowing week, when Michigan began its Big Ten schedule. During practice this past spring, in an effort to find a way to put the five best linemen on the field, coach Lloyd Carr toyed with the idea of moving Baas from left guard - where he was a second-team All-American last year - to center. He came back to the experiment before the Iowa game, shifting Baas to center, removing Mark Bihl from center and putting Leo Henige Jr. in at left guard. "Taking an All-American at one position and moving him to another position is some- thing you would prefer not to do," Carr said. "But we also knew that David had the ability to do it, and he never hesitated to do it." But, just when Carr had the offensive line he wanted, he had to make another change. In Hen ige's second game as starter, he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Not wanting to move Baas back, Carr opted to go with Rueben Riley, a former tackle, at left guard. Lately, Michigan has become known for its quarterbacks and receivers lately, but it will always be considered a running team. "Early on, we hadn't established the running game, and we really needed to do that," Baas said. "That's what Michigan football is sup- posed to be, and, even though we've improved in that area, we're trying to get better every week." This season has also been a struggle for the offensive linemen simply because dealing with change is something new for them. Last year, Michigan started the same five offensive line- men in all 13 games. "I think having the ability to adapt to change is important," Carr said. "It's certainly impor- tant in football, and their ability to adapt this fall has had a big impact on our team." NOTES: Safety Ernest Shazor is one of 12 semifinalists for the Thorpe Award, presented annually to the nation's top defensive back. The redshirt junior leads the team in tackles with 65 and tackles for loss with 10. He also has two interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. Three finalists will be named on Nov. 22, and the winner will be announced on Dec. 9. TONY DING/Daily David Baas switched from left guard, where he was an All-American candidate, to center this season. A ii