Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 6

cpEGE Football SECTlOIi NHL, Page 2 Scoreboard, Page 6 Comics, Pages 8-9 Scores: 1-900-370-0990, Sports: 222-6660 (Calls to the score line are 75C per minute) hM running Jcflison one of 13 indi iFame, ec. 8, Settoit JTrce 00 i aowton 1992 Tmdav.K ui WELCOME BOME EOS PROBERT YOU RIBS WAITING Probert gets green light INS allows Red Wing to travel to and from Canada At: I'' he 4 i if I 1 'V tj si'' A wX, a mi i Service, will be reviewed annually. Probert was visibly relieved after learning of his new freedom. "Skating out there today, I felt a lot lighter," he said after practice. "It's been frustrating, especially when the team went to Canada and I had to stay back here.

It makes life tougher when something's hanging over your head. "It hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm sure it will around Christmastime when I visit my family and have a turkey dinner there for a change. When I talked to my mother last night and told her, she was ecstatic." And so were the Wings, who play See RED WINGS, Page 2D 'Welcome home, Bob Probert. Your ribs are waiting." Sign outside Tunnel Bar-B-Q in Windsor.

By Keith Gave Free Press Sports Writer Welcome home, Bob Probert. Canada awaits. And so do the Toronto Maple Leafs. Probert Red Wings forward, Windsor's favorite son and ribs aficionado received his long-anticipated waiver Monday from immigration authorities that allows him to travel to and from Canada. And though they expect to see him soon at Tunnel Bar-B-Q, Probert is looking forward most to spending the holidays with his mother, Theresa, at the Windsor home where he grew up.

Probert hadn't crossed the border in more than three years before a brief trip Monday to Windsor. His first game in Canada will be Wednesday night at Maple Leaf Gardens, where he hasn't played since December 1988. A federal drug conviction stemming from a March 1989 arrest on the U.S. side of the Detroit-Windsor tunnel led to a deportation order in January 1990. Probert remained in the United States pending an appeal.

The deportation order and appeal are still pending. The waiver, issued by the Immigration and Naturalization 1 BILL WAUGHAssoclated Press tooth or two -r- after AL KAMUDADetrolt Free Press Bob Probert has a bone to pick at Windsor's Tunnel Bar-B-Q. Bob Probert was all smiles Monday minus a learning he can visit his native Canada. ttWT 92-77 get weir pim 9 ii Webbers24 on U-D eases hss to Duke U-Mhob for identity, and it snot as lr otters December has not been the fun the University of Michigan's basketball team had thought it would be. First, Rice nearly beat the Wolverines.

Then, Duke did. And Monday, after Chris Webber promised the loss to Duke meant "we murder our next opponents," the Wolverines came home to a partially empty Crisler Arena looking a lot like the By Greg stoda Free Press Sports Writer Home opener? Go ahead and start without us. We'll be along in a few minutes. OK, maybe more than a few minutes. Michigan's sixth-ranked Wolverines did what was required of them Monday night in Crisler Arena and knocked off Detroit Mercy, 92-77.

No big deal. Hey, there's no time clock to punch. Fashionably late is still in style, right? And the Wolverines are nothing if not fashionable. Detroit Mercy scored the first five points of the game, and eventually led, 20-10, before Michigan is there a trend developing here? decided to involve itself. "The effort was there," said Chris Webber, who led the Wolverines with 24 points and 14 rebounds.

"People think we play lazy. We know we don't." In fact, Michigan coach Steve Fisher mentioned how happy he was with See WOLVERINES, Page 4D Charlie Vincent Lou stays a Tiger, barely Signs 3-year deal; Gullicksongone? BY JOHN LOWE Free Press Sports Writer LOUISVILLE, Ky. The Tigers have rallied to keep Lou Whitaker. "I was very close to going to the Braves," Whitaker said Monday after signing again with the Tigers. "Very close." As the Tigers kept their second baseman, they were about to lose their top starting pitcher.

With the midnight deadline for signing him only a few hours away, the Tigers and Bill Gullick-' son apparently remained about $1.6 million apart on a two-year deal. Atlanta offered Whitaker a three-year deal last week. He said he likely would have taken it had the Tigers not increased their offer from two to three years. General manager Jerry Walker kept the free-agent second baseman with a $10-million deal. Whitaker said that was slightly more than Atlanta offered.

But whereas Whitaker was almost an ex-Tiger, Gullickson almost certainly seemed to be. "I feel we'll be able to acquire other pitchers who could do the same job that Bill did for us the last two seasons," Walker said. Walker said he would begin negotiating with free-agent pitchers from other teams, perhaps today. He said he would like to find two experienced starting pitchers to join youngsters John Doherty, David Haas and Greg Gohr in the rotation. Walker still doesn't sound ready to offer a contract to free agent Frank Tanana, who did almost as well as Gullickson last season.

Walker finally offered Gullickson a multiyear contract Monday but barely raised the annual salary. He offered Gullickson what Walker thought his market value was two years for $2.2 million a year. See TIGERS, Page 3D Jesse Jackson chides owners; Basic Agreement reopened. 3D. Harlem Globetrotters, who always knew they only had to step on the floor to beat the Washington Generals, who tagged along only to give the Globetrotters someone to whip up on.

It was basketball patterned after what the Detroit Lions used to try to do: run r' I 7 i 1 I 'S8 1 III 1 Tf, I 1 i r3 -i rr-y- Michigan fell from first to sixth in the Associated Press poll. Duke Jumped from fourth to first, skipping over Kansas, which beat Indiana on the road. shoot. Oh, and it was behind-the-back passes, too. It was supposed to be free-form basketball, without restraint and restrictions.

Basketball that allowed some of the best college players in America to do their thing. Funny thing, though. Eight and a half minutes into the game, the University of Detroit Mercy led Michigan, 20-10. That's when Michigan coach Steve Fisher benched Webber and walked over for a talk. Cool it, he said.

Just play the game. Be yourself, but be in control. "He said behind-the-back passes were OK," said Webber, "but not in that situation. I just saw our team in a See CHARLIE VINCENT, Page 4D TEAM W-L LW 1. Duke (36) 2-0 4 2.

Kansas (29) 2-0 3 3. Kentucky 2-0 5 4. Indiana 4-1 2 5. North Carolina 3-0 7 6. Michigan 1-11 7.

Seton Hall 4-1 6 8. Iowa 3-0 10 9. Louisville 1-0 12 10. Florida State 3-2 11 Records through Sunday; first-place votes in parentheses. Polls on 60.

JULIAN H. GONZALEZDetrolt Free Press Chris Webber slams over Greg Grant, left, and Michael Jackson. A U-M foul wiped out the basket. IS Notre Dame assistant gets two years to rebuild EMU More mis(X)mmunication? Lions' Green is suspended i 4 m-r i JUT 1 BY STEVE K0RNACKI Free Press Sports Writer Ron Cooper pulled on an Eastern 'Michigan cap as he took his place 'l'f behind the podium, and the crowd that packed the news conference let out shouts of approval. I 4 The next cheers won't come as easily.

Cooper, a Notre Dame assistant named Eastern's head football coach Mnndav. inherits a team that was 1-10 id WW phone this morning to Detroit Public School League and Catholic League coaches with his recruiting pitch. "All I can promise," he said, "is a tough team that will play hard and Cooper joins Ron Dickerson, recently named at Temple, as the only black coaches in major-college football. The Eagles host the Owls on Sept. 11.

"I don't think of myself as a black head coach," Cooper said. "I see myself as a good football coach. I was never hired as a token, and I wasn't hired here because of my color." Cooper, 31, is easily the youngest Mid-American Conference coach. "But Ron will be 32 in a few months, and that was the same age I See Eastern Michigan, Page 3D BY CURT SYLVESTER Free Press Sports Writer The Lions' season of discontent took another turn for the worse Monday when wide receiver Willie Green was suspended one week for what coach Wayne Fontes called "conduct detrimental" to the team. The action stemmed from an incident late in the fourth quarter of the Lions' 38-10 loss Sunday to the Green Bay Packers.

Neither Fontes nor Green would reveal what happened. Sources say Green, who has been frustrated with his diminished role in the offense, took himself out of the game in a burst of anger and refused offensive coordinator Dan Henning's order to return. Green was obviously shaken by the suspension, which will cost him a game's pay, but he denied taking himself out or exchanging words with Henning. Although he declined to get into specifics, Green said the incident occurred when his helmet was misplaced and he couldn't get back into the game as quickly as the coaches wanted. "My helmet wasn't where I put it," said Green, who said he eventually found the helmet underneath some jackets beneath a bench.

"There was a miscommunication, and I was looking for my helmet and didn't get it in time. "I never said anything to Dan. Dan hollered at me. He didn't see what I See LIONS, Page 3D in 1992. Athletic director Gene Smith contract for $77,000 a season.

"We do not feel you need four or years to build," Smith said. "I liked the fire and desire he displayed. Ron is prepared and ready to outwork the competition." jv Se Cooper said helwould be on the MARY SCHROEDERDetrolt Free Press Eastern Michigan's Ron Cooper, now one of two black major-college football coaches: "I wasn't hired here because'of my color.".