Thursday November 10, 2005 sports. michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily.com Oe RTSiliganil 13A - - ----- . . ... ........... .. - ----------- Spikers sweep Spartans By Robert Kaitz For the Daily Pistons are still beast of the East T he world's best basketball team the game who's never tried to play the plays in Auburn Hills. slow-it-down, grind-it-out, overwhelm- I'll say it just four games into ingly defensive style that characterizes the season. Brown's teams. You see, the Pistons - despite win- As a matter of fact, the chief com- ning the 2004 NBA Finals and making plaint from the squad's critics over the it back to the championship round last past few years has been that watching a year - might actually be Pistons game ranked some- better than ever this time where between studying around. for final exams and eating Sure, the Pistons' season dorm food on the fun scale. is young, but if you've seen But these detractors - and any of their contests so far, I know plenty of students you've probably noticed who fall into this category some changes. Changes, - have no reason to whine believe it or not, for the anymore. better. I don't mean to take any- This isn't Larry Brown's GABE thing away from Brown. team anymore. The Pistons' He's clearly an excellent nomadic former coach is EDELSON coach, and he probably pos- mired on the bench in New Honest Cabe sesses the best X's and O's Rivalries always have the unique way of bringing out the best in both teams. The crowd was rocking, the music from the band was blaring, and emotions were running high at Cliff Keen Arena last night for the volleyball team's game against Michigan State. In a highly competitive match, the Wolverines dis- patched Michigan State behind a vocal, enthusiastic crowd in three games, 30-26, 33-31, 30-27. With the victory, the Wolverines clinch the 2005 State Pride Series, having already won the first match in East Lansing by a score of 3-2. The win returns Michigan to the .500 mark for the season, with a 12- 12 overall record (6-9 Big Ten). Junior Danielle Pflum and sophomore captain Lyndsay Miller paced the Michigan offense with 14 kills apiece behind great passing from redshirt fresh- man setter Mara Martin, who picked up an impres- sive 44 assists. Sophomore libero Stesha Selsky led the defensive effort with 14 digs. Although many Wolverines put up huge individual statistics in the victory, Michigan coach Mark Rosen contributes the great performance to a collective effort, and the players agree. "We stuck together as a team and played great vol- leyball," Pflum said. The second game was filled with drama, and the Spartans gradually built a 19-14 lead capped off by sophomore Katie Johnson's kill. After Rosen called a timeout, Michigan State (4-11 Big Ten, 11-14 overall) moved out to leads of 22-14 and 27-20. It looked as if the home team would head into the locker room tied at 1-1, but Michigan rebounded. "Everybody stayed positive, and we took it point by point," Selsky said. "Looking at each point indi- vidually helped us get back into the game." The Wolverines inched back into the game behind great offense from Miller and Pflum, who had four kills and three kills, respectively, during the come- back. "Winning, that second game was huge," Rosen said. "It gave us a big cushion for the third game to play loose." In contrast to the second game, the first game was close from start to finish. Michigan State went on a 4-0 run to open up a 19-17 lead, but Michigan responded and held a slim 23-22 lead before Spartan coach Kathy George called a timeout. The Wolver- York, where he's enjoying his "dream job" at the helm of the hap- less 0-4 Knicks while working along- side former Bad Boy and current bad front-office executive Isiah Thomas. In Brown's old spot is Flip Saunders, who is everything his predecessor wasn't. Flip has transformed this team's personality. While the players remain largely the same, they're actually - gasp! - putting the ball in the basket at an above-average pace. The Pistons rank fifth in the league in scoring, aver- aging over 102 points per game. That's nearly 10 points better than last season's average. Not exactly ugly basketball anymore. The defense has remained predict- ably stellar. The Pistons rank second in defense, allowing just 85 a tilt. The newfound offense and the smothering defense have already combined to pro- duce some serious blowouts. Tuesday night's road win over the Sacramento King's was the team's first in ARCO Arena since 1996. The Pistons aren't treading water or sinking from their place among the NBA's elite. Instead, they're moving forward. Saunders is a (relatively) younger, more dynamic players' coach who refrains from ruling with Brown's iron fist. He's an offensive-minded student of mind in all of basketball. The Pistons might very well not have their diamond-encrusted world championship rings without him. But something tells me that Saun- ders is a better fit for this year's team than Brown would've been. Brown has a reputation for molding young play- ers into seasoned veterans and pushing teams over the hump. That's just what the Pistons needed when the team hired Brown in 2003. Now that the players - most of whom have played together for several years - have extended post- season experience, leadership abilities and exceptional chemistry, the laid-back Saunders has become the other half of a match made in heaven. Joe Dumars, the team's president of basketball operations, has continued to further his reputation with a near-spot- less record of shrewd and well-timed moves. Acquiring swingman Maurice Evans, a bit player on last year's Kings, has already paid immediate dividends. When I heard about the signing a couple months ago, I didn't expect Evans to bring much to the table. Let's face it: A player who averages six points and three rebounds with an unrecognizable name isn't usually something to get excited about. But through the season's See EDELSON, page 16A JEREMY CHO/Daily Sophomore captain Lyndsay Miller recorded 14 kills in Michigan's 3-0 win over Michigan State last night. ines finished the game strong, with huge kills from Pflum. Michigan carried the momentum from the sec- ond-game comeback into the third game, quick- ly building an 8-3 lead. But Michigan State did not raise the white flag, and the Spartans pulled within two. With Michigan ahead 8-6, the teams put together an extended rally, which ended in an emphatic kill by Miller. The Spartans clawed back into the game, and they remained close until the Wolverines pulled out the victory in the end. Fit- tingly, the match ended on a powerful Pflum spike, sending the crowd home happy. Rosen is thrilled with the way his team is currently playing. "While the win is important, I like that we are playing our best right now even more," Rosen said. Behind great leadership from captains Katie Bru- zdzinski and Erin Cobler, many Wolverines are step- See SPARTANS, page 16A WO MENS CROSS COUNTRY No carbs, no problem for Gjesdal in her transition to 'M' By Katie Field For the Daily Carbo loading - the guiltless, pre-race con- sumption of carbohydrate-heavy foods like breads and pastas that keep runners going dur- ing challenging endurance events. It could arguably be the best part of being a runner. But Ana Gjesdal, a fifth-year senior on the Michigan women's cross country team, has never been able to experience this usually essential starch-induced bliss. But don't think for a minute she's let it stop her. For Gjesdal, her allergy to Gluten - which requires her to eliminate most grains from her diet - has never been more than a slight incon- venience. This may come as a surprise to those who wonder where she gets her energy to com- pete at such a high level. Gjesdal not only runs without carbohydrates, but she also runs more miles per week - an average of 80 - than almost anyone on the team. "I never believed in carbo loading," Gjesdal said. "Since I can't have what would be consid- ered traditional runner food, I make sure what I do eat is full of nutrients." The California native has faced other obsta- cles, but as a runner and a student she always tries to turn things around and make the best out of a difficult situation. After high school, Gjesdal was registered and ready to start at Michigan, but financial situations arose that prevented her from attend- ing. Instead she entered Glendale Community College in California with enough AP credits to finish her associates' degree in one year rather than two. This unique experience is something Gjesdal's teammates find interesting about her. "She comes from a different background," said senior captain Rebecca Walter, who has been Gjesdal's early-morning running partner. "She didn't discover she was a great runner until then. She ran a marathon prior to coming to college. I think it was more developmental for her, and I'm impressed that she was able to do it." Gjesdal said she was only an average run- ner in high school, and she used her year at community college to gain valuable experi- ence that eventually enabled her to walk-on to the Michigan team the following year when her improved financial situations allowed her move to Ann Arbor. Now a master's student studying sports man- agement, Gjesdal is enjoying her final year on the team. Her success at Michigan has been the result of hard work and her ability to overcome less than ideal situations. Coach Mike McGuire has observed this in Gjesdal throughout her career at Michigan. "More than anything, I'm really proud of the commitment she's made to both her running and academics," McGuire said. "Ana is really someone who maximized what Michigan has to offer by putting her max effort into every- thing she's done." Gjesdal can best explain her success. "I'd rather run than anything," she said. "It's not something I feel like I have to do. It's some- thing I really want to do." 0 MENS BASKETBALL Sims, Morris commit to Blue I UMM = By Scott Bell Daily Sports Writer With up to seven players leaving at the end of this season, the Michigan men's basketball team faces the daunting task of refilling its roster for years to come. The process began positively yesterday when the Wol- verines inked their first two recruits for the 2006-07 season. Michigan native DeShawn Sims heads Michigan coach Tommy Amaker's fifth recruit- ing class. The senior at Detroit's Pershing High School was a five- star recruit courted by some of the nation's top teams: Connecti- cut, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan State and Syracuse. Joining Sims will be K'Len Sims Morris. Also an in-state recruit, Morris should contribute to the Wolverines' perimeter attack in the upcoming years. The 6-foot- 4 shooting guard from Grand: Blanc was a three-star recruit .. and chose Michigan over schools such as Purdue and Missouri. "We are extremely excited that these two young men will be a part of the Michigan basketball Mois program," Amaker said in a statement yesterday. "Both play- ers are versatile with outstanding athletic ability and commitment to academics. We think they will have a, very promising future here at Michigan." After being named to the AP Class A All-State team last year, both Sims and Morris will try to carry their respective high schools to Class A state championships in their senior seasons this year. Both are projected to be candidates for Michigan's Mr. Basketball award. Junior Dion Harris was the last Mr. Basketball award winner to commit to Michigan and is the only one to commit since 1995. Sims averaged 21.4 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks last year while leading Pershing to the state quar- terfinals, where it lost to now-Michigan freshman Jerrett Smith's Romulus team. The 6-foot-8 Sims is expected to be a small forward by most scouting agencies. His versa- tility has been praised because he has shown the ability to score from both the block and the perimeter. He's been ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation at his position and No. 19 overall. Almost all scouts place him within the top-50 recruits in the nation. Morris is listed as the No. 139 overall player by RivalsHoops 2006 and as the No. 38 shooting guard. He averaged 14.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.5 steals during his junior year at Grand Blanc, which went to its first regional championship game in over 50 years. "As a coach, when you're recruiting and trying to put together your team, you certainly think of (balance)," Amaker said during Michigan Media Day. "I think we have a good mixture and balance with our club." The addition of the two soon-to-be Wolverines will help fill the void left by the outgoing seniors this year and main- tain the balance that Amaker alluded to. Michigan will lose key contributors Daniel Horton, Chris Hunter and Graham Brown to graduation. Also likely to leave next year are co- captain Sherrod Harrell, Amadou Ba and fifth-year seniors Troy Sanchez and Hayes Grooms. .............. ti - ... &Y . . <. a .P.s .f,.