Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 41

Tuesday, Flav. 24, I8S7 SPORTS WORLD 2 SCOREBOARD 5 MOVIE GUIDE 7 DETROIT FREE PRESS r-l I 1 I With talent such as Magic Johnson (left) and in a weak I conference, the Los Angeles Lakers should end up with the best record in the league. Clifton Brown's NBA column. Red Wings coach Jacques Demers says he's not panicking, but he says it a lot. The way the team is playing, l-' maybe it's time to panic.

Keith Gave's NHL column. 1 Plus: NBA, NHL, AHL, IHL and OHL statistics package. Complete report, Page 4D. Call with sports newt: 222-6660 A little sports hotbsd; Martin, population 500, is going crazy over its football and girls basketball teams. Page 2D.

Sports Phone (scores): 1-976-1313 Braee-0 rattle heats Chailie 'jpJ Uincent Free Press Wire Reports COLUMBUS, Ohio The Earle Bruce controversy is far from over at Ohio State. A judge refused Monday to block Bruce's firing as football coach, and a Cleveland newspaper reported that OSU president Edward Jennings, who fired Bruce, was leaving on vacation today with a woman who is not his wife. Two lawsuits already have been filed, one by Bruce, the other by Columbus lawyer Phillip D. Cameron, an Ohio State graduate and former baseball player. Judge William T.

Gillie denied the request by Cameron for a preliminary injunction to stop Bruce's dismissal. A hearing was scheduled for Dec. 7. In his $7.44 million lawsuit, Bruce's lawyer, John Zonak, alleged that Bruce was fired last week because he did not approve of Jennings' lifestyle. "I think that will have to come out in the lawsuit," Bruce said.

"But I think when a man judges me he ought to stand high as far as his honesty and his moral character." In the lawsuit, Zonak asked to take the deposition of Barbara Real, director of OSU's regional fund-raising campaign. The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported Monday that Jennings and Real were to leave today for London for a nine-day vacation. The newspaper said two reservation clerks for Trans World Airlines confirmed Real and Jennings had reservations as "a party of two." Stephen Sterrett, a spokesman for the university, was asked by the Plain Dealer to determine whether Real and Jennings planned to take the trip. Sterrett said Real was going to London Tuesday for a vacation, but that "Ed Jennings is not going." Jennings is separated from his wife, Mary Eleanor. See EARLE BRUCE, Page 2D women heal wounds MMMmiimiiiiiiiiiiwiiiuuiiwimpnaiii iiii i lli IIIIIIIIIIIIIIMlWimMTIII ii -v 1 j' 1 (r-' Ji 1 V' ih I i il i pO' i li HTrial I I i ii i i WMWi i 0 1 I TODAY: Women I WEDNESDAY: Big Ten I THURSDAY: State colleges Heisman vote is tough, but the choice here is There it sits on my desk, the small sheet of pale blue paper bearing the simple words that have caused me too many anxious moments during the past 10 days or so.

"I hereby designate as my first choice to receive the Heisman Memorial Trophy awarded to the outstanding college football player in the United States for 1987," it reads. "My second choice is: "My third choice is: My candidates are the same as everyone else's: Tim Brown from Notre Dame, Lorenzo White from Michigan State and Gordie Lockbaum from Holy Cross, with Michigan's Jamie Morris as a longshot. I'm not quite sure what we're looking for: The best statistics, the player who has made the biggest contribution to his team, or the epitome of old-time football. Most of the season, I have assumed I would vote for Brown. Now that it's time, I don't know.

Seldom has the choice been so difficult. I have voted for Vinny Testaverde and Billy Sims, for Archie Griffin and for Herschel Walker. I have carefully printed in the names, signed the bottom of the form, shipped it off and never given it another thought. This one is not so routine. Strong credentials all around Look at the qualifications: LORENZO WHITE, Michigan State tailback: Gained 1,459 yards on 322 carries for 14 touchdowns and caught 12 passes for 115 yards.

His 1,574 yards of total offense accounted for 42.7 percent of Michigan State's total. Had huge games against Indiana (56 carries for 292 yards) and Michigan (34 for 185). JAMIE MORRIS, Michigan tailback: Gained 1,469 yards on 259 carries, caught 17 passes for 126 yards, rushed for 11 touchdowns and scored another on a pass. His 1,595 yards of total offense accounted for 37.7 percent of Michigan's total. TIM BROWN, Notre Dame flanker: With a game remaining, has rushed 33 times for 1 42 yards and a touchdown, caught 36 passes for 809 yards and three touchdowns, has returned 20 kickoffs for 414 yards, and 32 punts for 387 yards and three touchdowns.

His 951 yards exclusive of punt and kickoff returns is 23.6 percent of Notre Dame's total. GORDIE LOCKBAUM, Holy Cross tailback-cornerback: Rushed for 403 yards and 13 touchdowns on 85 carries, caught 78 passes for 1,152 yards and nine touchdowns, and completed his only pass of the season for a touchdown. Returned 12 kickoffs for 277 yards and 21 punts for 209 yards and made 19 tackles on defense. His 1,555 yards of total offense excluding punt and kick-off returns was 25.6 percent of Holy Cross' total. He was on the field an average of 88 plays a game.

On the other hand: You could fault White's candidacy due to ordinary days against Ohio State (22 carries for 80 yards), Illinois (31 for 67) and Florida State (22 for 84). Against Morris, you could complain he was unable to lead Michigan to the Rose Bowl or Big Ten championship. Of Brown, you could point out that his candidacy rests heavily on the pre-season hype of Notre Dame, the nation's leading producer of Heisman winners. And you might note that his biggest accomplishments two punt returns for touch By DREW SHARP Free Press Sports Writer ANN ARBOR Last season was another low point for University of Michigan women's basketball. The Wolverines finished 9-18, last in the Big Ten with only two victories in 18 conference games.

Perhaps worse were the conflicts among players. "There were big arguments on the team," said senior Lorea Feldman, who has led U-M in scoring the last three seasons. "The experienced players tried to advise the freshmen at times, but they took it the wrong way and got upset." Center Lisa Reynolds was one of three freshmen who started last season. "I thought there was some pressure on the freshmen to come in and produce right away," said Reynolds, who averaged 10.3 points and 6.8 rebounds. "It made it difficult for some." BUT BOTH say the mood is different at U-M this season, a crucial one for coach Bud Van De Wege.

"Now, the freshmen have a year's experience and we know what to expect," Reynolds said. "We're all working together and helping each other out." Van De Wege, a former assistant to U-M men's coach Bill Frieder, inherited a losing tradition when he became women's coach in 1984. Michigan has had only two winning records in its 14 seasons and in the past five years is 15-75 in the Big Ten. U-M was 14-14 overall two seasons ago, but never finished better than 7-21 in the five previous seasons. "This is a very critical year for the program," Van De Wege said.

"A .500 conference season is certainly within our capabilities. That may not seem like much to some, but there would be terrific long-range benefits. We'll be able to show the state's players that there is a sense of stability with the team that previously wasn't there." Feldman said part of the difference this season is that Van De Wege is getting tougher on the players. "He's leaning on the players more when they make mistakes," Feldman said. "I think it took him a couple of years to get comfortable in the position.

He's more assertive and it rubs off on the team." IT'S BEEN a difficult battle for Van De Wege to rebuild a team that was perceived as unable to attract the state's top talent when he took it over three years ago. Last year's freshman class, anchored by Reynolds, a two-time all-stater from Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills, was a good start. This season, Van De Wege added another big-name freshman in Carol Szczechowski, who led Wyandotte Mt. Carmel to the 1986 state Class title. Van De Wege is confident that a winning season will convince the top undecided seniors in the state to give Michigan a second thought.

Feldman nearly left Michigan her freshman season because of doubts about the team's stability. She was See WOWEN'S BASKETBALL, Page 2D fluff. WILLIAM DeKAYDetroll Free Press who has led Michigan women in scoring the past three to make Wolverines respectable in basketball. Lorea Feldman, seasons, hopes Lions look to easier foes OU 1st, MSU 8th Okalahoma replaced Nebraska atop UPI's Top 20 football poll and Michigan State moved into the Top 10 (tirst-place votes In parentheses): MSU 8th; six on Big Ten team downs against MSU occurred in the second weekend of the season, and since then he has merely done nothing to lose the award. Lockbaum's biggest negative is playing for a Lions-Chiefs game won't be on local TV The Lions' Thanksgiving Day game against Kansas City will not be televised in the Detroit area.

At 12:30 p.m. Monday 72 hours before kickoff only about halt of the 80,638 Silver-dome tickets for the game had been sold. Games must be sold out 72 hours in advance for the local television blackout to be lifted. The last time the Lions' Thanksgiving Day game was televised locally was 1983, when they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 45-3, on the way to an NFC Central Division Cur Sylvester By CURT SYLVESTER Free Press Sports Writer If you think the pressure is on coach Darryl Rogers and the Lions to win, you're right. If you think the pressure is greater than it was at the start of the season, you're wrong.

"We're in the cross hairs from day one," Rogers said Monday. "It has never changed; it won't change." With eight losses in their first 10 games, the Lions are buried in last place in the NFC Central Division. That's the bad news. The good news is that the toughest part of the schedule is over. The Lions have five games remaining, four of them against teams with losing records Kansas City, the Los Angeles Rams, See LIONS, Page 5D Division I-AA school, against such teams as Lehigh, Villanova and Bucknell, inferior to the competition Morris, White and Brown face.

But he is probably running behind linemen inferior to those RANK Rec. Pts. Prey. 1. Oklahoma (48) 11-0 748 2 2.

Miami (2) 9-0 691 3 3. Florida State 9-1 644 4 4. Syracuse 11-0 575 6 5. Nebraska 9-1 558 1 6. Auburn (M-1434 9 7.

LSU 9-1-1413 10 8. Michigan State 8-2-1328 11 9. South Carolina 8-2 311 12 10. UCLA 9-2 2B7 5 11. Notre Dame 8-2 222 7 12.

Oklahoma State 9-2 200 13 13. Clemson 9-2 108 8 14. Southern Cal 8-3 96 18 15. Texas 8-2 87 14 16. Tennessee 8-2-1 68 15 17.

Georgia 7-3 49 16 18. Penn State 8-3 35 19. Pittsburgh 8-3 32 17 20. Indiana 8-3 23 in front of Morris, White and Brown, too. The envelope, please As much as I like the Gordie Lockbaum story, a wonderful true-to-life saga of a student-athlete with priorities and commitments in place and with a real talent for playing the game on a grass-roots level, I feel he took himself out of the running for the Heisman four years ago when he chose Holy Cross over Syracuse, a Division I school that offered him a scholarship.

Bo shuns past, looks ahead Others receiving votes: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, San Jose State, Texas, Wyoming. Michigan State skipped football practice Monday for the first time in more than three months, but the Spartans were rewarded in two ways: They were ranked eighth nationally by United Press International, and six players were named to UPI's All-Big Ten team. MSU hasn't finished in the Top 1 0 since it was ranked second after the 1966 season. Tailback Lorenzo White, previously named to the Kodak Coaches All-America team, is among three All-Big Ten players from Michigan State's offense. Others are tackle Tony Man-darich and center Pat Shurmur.

Safeties Todd Krumm and John Miller and punter Greg Montgomery made the all-conference team on defense. The All-Big Ten team is selected by the league's coaches. Four more members of MSU's defense ranked third nationally made UPI's second team. They were tackles Mark Nichols and Travis Davis and linebackers Tim Moore and Percy Snow. Wide receiver Andre Rison was also a second-team pick.

Three Michigan players tailback' Jamie Morris, offensive tackle John Elliott and defensive tackle Mark Messner made the first (First-team list, Page 2D.) My heart wants to vote for him first. My head tells me I cannot. Tim Brown? Maybe he's not a big-enough part of Notre Dame's overall game, with only 69 rushes and receptions. Include kickoffs and punt returns, and he has had the ball only 121 times the equivalent of three games for White. "It's the best time schedule for our exams (which conclude Dec.

22). I like the date. I like the opponent, and I like Tampa. All three of them are good." Hall of Fame general manager Don Mains said about 34,000 tickets remain at Tampa Stadium, and advertising doesn't begin for another week. "As soon as people heard the word Michigan, the calls started coming in," Mains said.

They called mostly because of tradition, because this was not a typical Wolverine season. They had visions of winning a second consecutive Big Ten championship, but finished 7-4 overall See Page 4D By TERRY FOSTER Free Press Sports Writer ANN ARBOR Michigan's football season has been disappointing, but coach Bo Schem-bechler was in good spirits during Monday's final weekly press luncheon. Schembechler is looking forward to the Jan. 2 Hall of Fame Bowl. The team will fly to Tampa, on Dec.

27 and return Jan. 4. The Wolverines will play one of three Southeastern Conference runners-up Alabama, Auburn or Louisiana State. Each team will be paid $800,000. It matters little to Schembechler who his team plays.

He's just looking forward to the trip. "I think it's great for us," Scflembechler said. Jamie Morris? Good. But not good enough. So here goes: "I hereby designate Lorenzo White as my first Michigan State won't work out again until term exams are completed Dec.

11, although players will run and lift weights on their own. The Big Ten champions will reconvene Dec. 1 1 for a week of practice for their Rose Bowl game with Southern Cal before breaking for Christmas vacation Dec. 18. They will leave for the Rose Bowl on Christmas Day.

As has been its good fortune all season, MSU avoided serious injury in Saturday's regular-season finale against Wisconsin. jMyhr choice to receive the Heisman Memorial Trophy awarded to the outstanding college football player of the United States for 1987. "My second choice is Tim Brown. "My third choice is Jamie Morris." "--fil.