10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, November 4, 2005 Amaker hopes freshmen gain experience in exhibition game 0 By Scott Bell the true goal of the preseason is simple: Daily Sports Writer improvement. Michigan coach Tommy Amaker hopes While the Wolverine football team may to get his freshmen into game-like situa- be taking its first week off in nine weeks, tions for valuable experience. Romulus action around the intersec- tion of Stadium and Main streets won't be completely nonexistent this weekend. That's because the Michigan men's basketball team offi- cially begins its exhibition season against Grand Valley State. Michigan unofficially had its first preseason contest last weekend with its annual TOMORR Grand Valley" Michiga 2 P.m. Crisler Ar ALEX DZI- ADOSZ/Daily Freshman Jerret Smith hopes to get some collegiate experience this Saturday against Grand Valley State. Maize and Blue scrimmage, but Saturday's contest will be the first opportunity for it to see game action against other teams. "We certainly have been looking for- ward for this for a while," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said at Media Day. "We all recognize that tough year we had last year, and (it's good) for our kids to come back and be excited for a good preseason." The Wolverines have yet to lose an exhi- bition game during the Amaker era. But while streaks may look nice on paper, native Jerrett Smith saw a sig- nificant amount of time at point guard during the Maize and Blue OW scrimmage last Saturday. While State at he struggled with a few early in turnovers on self-proclaimed "lazy passes," Smith was able to make clutch free throws down ena the stretch. - Jevohn Shepherd and Kendric Price are the other two scholar- ship members of Amaker's fourth recruiting class who will be looking to ben- efit from playing time on Saturday as well. "With an upperclassmen-laden team that we have, you're always hopeful that you can get contributions from your younger players," Amaker said. So you never really know. But the main area for our freshmen is to be competitive and be ready to work every day." The Lakers - a Division II team from the Midwest's GLIAC conference - are com- ing off an up-and-down season in which they finished 18-10. They also display a lot of young talent, and it's a returning sopho- more who poses the biggest threat. Muske- gon native Callistus Eziukwu led the team in scoring (13.7), rebounding (8.1), blocked shots (114) and shooting percentage (73.7) - all as a freshman. After finishing second in the GLIAC North, the Lakers dropped the first game in the conference tournament to abruptly end their season. Much like Michigan, they return with their entire squad from last year nearly intact, losing only Marcus Wal- lace to graduation. Along with getting young people the opportunity to play, Michigan will hope to work on its fast-break game. The Wolver- ines showed at times last year the inability to score in the half court set at a consistent basis, so one of their main goals for the year is to play a more up-tempo game. In last Saturday's 23-minute scrimmage, the Maize and Blue scored 103 points combined, many of which were on the fast break. The game begins at 2 p.m. at Crisler Arena. Michigan then has one more exhibi- tion game before it begins the regular sea- son on November 18 at home against the Central Michigan Chippewas. I . --- -- - -------- ------------ -- Your potential. Our passion.: NwaI% .. -. . .., uv x 'f FOOTBALL Continued from page 9 momentum and we're doing some things very well," Carr said. "But given our injury position, I would not trade that bye week." Even so, Carr made it clear that he doesn't believe the week off will stop his team's momentum. If anything, he expects the Wolverines' three-game winning streak to keep them motivat- ed even with the time off. "You hope that you have a football team that understands that there is a lot to play for," Carr said. "I think that's the most important thing. ... If there is something that bottles that, I would like to know what it is." Carr might not have the magic potion to guarantee that his team remains focused through its bye week, but the chance for at least a share of its third straight Big Ten champion- ship should do the trick. And if all else fails, early prepara- tion for Ohio State can't hurt. IRISH Continued from page 9 Michigan must also work on stron- ger offense in the third period. This season the team has scored 13 and 11 goals in the first and second periods, respectively, but only five goals in the final frame. The Fighting Irish do not have a goal- scorer with more than two goals. Their leading point-scorer, freshman center Erik Condra, has five points, all off assists. He will be expected to set up his teammates throughout the night. Notre Dame lost its goaltender from last season, Morgan Cey, and has split time between two goalies so for this year. Likely to start is the CCHA rookie of the week from last week, Jordan Pearce. This season he is 1-1-0 and was responsible for the shut out win against the Tigers on Saturday. The Wolverines will counter with senior Noah Ruden. Ruden notched his first career shutout last Saturday against Alaska-Fairbanks when he blanked the Nanooks on 23 shots. Tonight's game begins at 7:35 p.m. and can be seen on CSTV on tape- delay at 9 p.m. Michigan will come back to Yost on Saturday night to fin- ish the home-and-home series. That game will also start at 7:35 p.m. DID YOU KNOW THAT THE MICHIGAN WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS TEAM HAS EARNED SEVEN STRAIGHT BIG TEN ThiEs ... THAT THE WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY TEAM HAS WON THREE IN A ROW? 01 Use OneNote free for an entire semester. Microsoft' Office OneNote 2003 is a software program that gives you one place to store, search, and organize the info you need. Download your free trial today! Microsoft Office OneNote2OO3 0 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft the Office logo, OneNote, and "Your potential. Our passion." are either regtered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. .. .