Tuesday
November 15, 2005
sports. michigandaily. com
sports@michigandaily.com
abE leidigzn ail
PORTFS
11
For sake of unity,
Blue Out wins
What do you get when you
convince 25,000-plus stu-
dents at Michigan Stadium
to all wear maize for a Michigan
football game? A pretty kick-ass stu-
dent section.
What do you get when you con-
vince them all to wear blue? A
slightly less awesome group of fans.
But I guess the bottom line is that
either of these options is better than
the alternative of an unor-
ganized mash of Maize
and Blue. So I'm ready
to begrudgingly endorse
the plan for a Blue Out at
Michigan Stadium this
weekend against the Buck-
eyes. I'm willing to join
the athletic department,
Michigan Replay and the
Detroit Free Press, all
of which have supported
Saturday's blue outfits. H
Especially to the fans Ca
who know, like I do, that a in t
Blue-Out is second fiddle,
I implore you to reconsider this
weekend and dig up that blue Michi-
gan shirt. A united student section
- heck, a united stadium if every-
thing works out - would be a sight
to see at Michigan Stadium.
Like many of you out there, I
don't like wearing blue to football
games. I don't like that it doesn't
show up on television like Notre
Dame's bright green or Wisconsin's
scarlet red student sections do. I
don't like that it feels as if the Maize
Rage is just doing this because
the Athletic Department said so
- probably just so Bill Martin's
crew can honor its contract with the
M-Den or something stupid like that.
I don't like that there are so many
cool things 112,000 people could do
with colors, but instead the powers
that be chose to go simple. (For the
record, in the future Michigan Sta-
dium could be divided into a maize
student section and blue everywhere
else. Or the people who sit on the
'M' at the 50-yard line could wear
maize shirts, which would look
ridiculously awesome). And I don't
particularly like that Vince from
the Maize Rage sends out an e-mail
calling me a "moron in a pink shirt",
I
ER:
he
just because I realize all this and he
doesn't.
But I'm willing to put all that
aside for one game of true solidarity
among Michigan football fans.
Ohio State is currently favored by
2.5 points, even though they have
to travel to "enemy territory." So
because Michigan Stadium can be
pretty tame, the Wolverines need
all the help they can get. I never
thought I'd write a col-
umn directing Michigan
fans what to do, but I've
heard some cool ideas
over the last couple of
days, and this is the best
forum to share them.
This isn't a typical list
about cheering when
Michigan is on defense
or not doing the wave
- ever - so take a few
BERT minutes to look over
ght up some novel ideas to
Game make Michigan Stadium
a little more hostile this
weekend.
Towels: I heard that the athletic
department has bought - I use
the term "bought" loosely because
they probably got them sponsored
- 25,000 maize towels to wave.
This looks cool. Trust me. If there
is a towel on your seat when you
get to the stadium - or if someone
hands you one when you come into
the stadium, wave it as much as pos-
sible. The great thing about towels
is that you can yell while waving
them. Genius. I would even support
students bringing their own towels
or yellow shirts to the game to swing
around your head like a helicopter.
Ah, the wisdom of Petey Pablo.
Bottles with coins: Some students
told me about their plan to bring
bottles of water and a pocketful of
coins to the game, drink the water
and put the coins in the bottle. This
is an excellent noise-maker, and I
support it fully as long as the coin-
filled bottles stay in the stands and
don't find their way onto the turf at
Michigan Stadium. That means that
even if there is a bad call, you have
to resist chucking the bottle at the
ref. This is kind of like waving the keys
See HERBERT, page 12
EUGENE ROBERTSON/Daily
Senior Carl Tabb, seen celebrating with fellow wide receiver Steve Breaston, quietly anticipates another showdown with the neighbors to the south.
oRivairy gan
By Matt Venegoni
Daily Sports Editor
When it comes to what's at stake this Saturday,
Michigan coach Lloyd Carr put it best.
"I don't think as a coach you ever get away
from the immediate competition," Carr said of
the game consuming him. "The people that you
are competing against, whether it be in recruiting,
whether it be on the field, it's a job that is con-
suming. If it isn't consuming, then you shouldn't
be in it."
It's "The Game."
Michigan and Ohio State is often cited as the
best rivalry in college football, and Monday's
press conference revealed that, as much as play-
ers and coaches try not to worry about the game
before the week of the contest, it happens.
Le crafts grea
But this year - just like many of the past
matchups - the Big Ten title is potentially on
the line. With a little help from a Michigan State
victory over Penn State, either the Buckeyes and
Wolverines can take the title with a win in the Big
Ten's preeminent rivalry.
That fact is not lost on veterans of this showdown.
"Well, if we don't win the Big Ten title, it's not
the best of a season," Barringer said.
Added senior Carl Tabb: "One game can make
or break a season just like one play can make or
break a game. I say that to say that every game is
important."
All the players know that the victory over the
Nittany Lions helps turn their season around, but
the game against Ohio State usually means even
more. Senior left tackle Adam Stenavich admitted
that for many seasons, the Ohio State game deter-
it memories
mines whether the year was a success or not.
Noted at the onset of yesterday's conference
was that every one of the players was an upper-
classmen that had played - at least a little bit
- against the hated-rival.
With the experience, players know what to
expect.
"There's something definitely to being a senior
and there's something definitely to being the role
of being a leader on the team," Tabb said. "And
when you've been here three, four, five years you
tend to learn the things that you can and can't do,
and you tend to not fall for some of the things that
get thrown your way."
It usually takes a little while for the importance
of this game to set in - nothing can substitute for
actually playing a role in the game.
See MEMORIES, page 12
* WOMEW~S BASKETBALL
Coming to America, Miss
Canada doesn't miss a beat
By Sara Livingston
Daily Sports Writer
Stephany Skrba made a trade-off.
Forgoing a chance to spend her first summer as a Wol-
verine in Ann Arbor and practice with her new team-
mates, Skrba stayed at home in Canada to play with the
Canadian Junior National Team for the second year in a
row. Skrba missed out on crucial team bonding time and
group workouts. Instead, she played against the some of
the greatest players in the world.
After arriving in Michigan, Skrba barely missed a
beat with the team's work out regimen, and she has done
everything possible to fully acquaint herself with the ins
and outs of the Michigan women's basketball program.
"I just think Skrba has done a tremendous job since
she has come in," coach Cheryl Burnett said. "I think she
has really accelerated, and in the last two weeks she has
really come on really well in everything."
In the team's first two exhibition games, Skrba has
averaged nine points while grabbing four rebounds and
picking up three fouls in each game. Though she didn't
start either game, Skrba increased her playing time by
11 minutes in the team's second exhibition game against
the Ohio Legends. The Wolverines went 1-1 to start the
regular season at the Women's Sports Foundation Chal-
lenge, where Skrba came off the bench in the loss against
No. 21 Temple to score eight points in 23 minutes while
collecting four rebounds. In the team's second game - a
win against St. Francis (Pa.) - Skrba earned her first
start of the season, scoring 19 points and grabbing eight
rebounds in 30 minutes.
After her domination in Oregon, Skrba was named Big
Ten Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 14.
"Mr NOTE new en
Women's golf team M
bags two blue chips
A piece in the puzzle fell into place
yesterday when women's golf coach
Kathy Teichert signed two highly tout-
ed recruits, Ashley Bauer and Andrea
Ratigan.
With the departure of seniors Kelly
Skrba's lack of adjustment tribulations can be largely
credited to the positive environment her teammates cre-
ated and their efforts in making sure Skrba was comfort-
able upon her arrival. When she came to campus, she
was greeted with open arms from her teammates. In her
words, "made it seem like I was here the whole summer."
They also took the time out to teach Skrba various team
drills that she was unfamiliar with and show her what
her new role is in practice.
"(Knowing Skrba was coming) made us work harder,"
freshman guard Jessica Minnfield said. "It made us thinkj
that 'OK, she is going to come up here, and she is going
to come into the program, and we have to get her ready.'
Everybody knew they had to stay focused."
In addition to Skrba's teammates, Burnett and the
coaching staff were extra careful in insuring that Skrba
didn't feel like a pariah on her own team. New NCAA
legislation enacted this year allowed Burnett to work
with the whole team starting in September - something
that has been illegal in past years - which also helped
Skrba, giving her more time to adapt to the team's offense
with Burnett there to walk her through it. Additionally,
Burnett made sure that her transition on the court went
as smoothly as her transition off it.
"I think we as a coaching staff and we as a team were
very proactive of when Skrba came," Burnett said. "It's
the simple things, the socialization of it, where players
would be talking about something that happened this
summer and she was the only one that didn't really know
what they were talking about. But we made sure that
didn't happen."
Luckily for Burnett, Skrba was already ahead of the
pack in terms of her understanding of what playing at
See SKRBA, page 12
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