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TUESDAY
DECEMBER 11, 2001
9
'M' stars struggle to
adjust to new system
JON
SCHWARTZ
By Joe Smith
Daily Sports Editor
No one ever said that change is easy.
Just ask Michigan's stars, LaVell Blan-
chard and Bernard Robinson.
Blanchard and Robinson, who com-
bined last year to, average 33 points per
game, were once again virtual non-fac-
tors in one of Michigan's key games.
The dynamic duo's stat line at the half
against Duke more closely resembled
stage-fright instead of a breakthrough
performance - zero points and four
fouls. Robinson finished the game 2-11
from the field and scored four points,
while Blanchard had a quiet 16 points
- with most coming in garbage-time.
Blanchard still leads the Wolverines
in scoring at nearly 15 points per game,
but Robinson has fallen to fourth on the
team with a 10.3 average.
"I don't know," said a puzzled Robin-
son about his performance. "I just don't
know. If I knew I would fix it."
But the answer may not be that hard
to figure out - and it's not injuries.
When new coach Tommy Amaker
came on, the scene, he brought a new
offensive system and new roles for
Michigan's two top players.
Blanchard, who was a preseason Nai-
smith Award candidate, admits he's had
to change his game to adjust to Amak-
er's new offensive sets and Michigan's
lack of frontcourt depth.
"Basically, it's just a different system,"
said Blanchard, who led the Wolverines
with 49 3-pointers last season and a 40-
percent clip from behind the arc. "Last
year I came off screens more and was
more of a jump-shooter. This year, I'm
more of a post player and I have to get
used to that role."
Meanwhile, Robinson has harnessed
his role from last season as a slasher
who drove past other small forwards.
Last year, with his aggressive playmak-
ing style, Robinson found a comfortable
home at the free-throw line, where he
led Michigan with an 80-percent clip
from the charity stripe. Robinson also
led the team with 93 turnovers - 29
more than any other player.
Coming off a summer during which
he was bed-stricken due to mononucleo-
sis and was forced to miss nearly 75 per-
cent of Michigan's preseason drills,
Robinson has found himself pressing
too much.
"Looking at videotape, I may have
tried to come back and prove too many
things to the coaching staff," Robinson
said. "I'm getting calmer and trying to
play my game - but the big thing is
learning the system"
While Robinson is being more cau-
tious with the ball (just 10 turnovers in
the past six games), instead of penetrat-
ing and getting to the foul line, he has
been stuck playing around the perimeter,
where he is a dismal 2-for-17 from 3-
point range.
But the emotional Robinson has also
If Michigan will rebuild, it
D/ANNM VLO OK/D aily
LaVell Blanchard's 20 turnovers rank second on the Wolverines.
channeled his frustration and energy in
the wrong form. Robinson smashed a
fire extinguisher in Bowling Green's
University Arena two weeks ago, which
lacerated his right (non-shooting) hand
and resulted being benching for the first
half of the Boston College game.
"Once coach takes that from you, you
tend to think about that," Robinson said.
"And if you sit on the bench, you pay
more attention and do things harder and
quicker.
"It's an easy, passing system but you
have to know when to shoot the ball -
and if you don't know when to shoot the
ball it will make you look bad."
Resurgent 1cers living up to preseason billing
By Seth Klempner
Daily Sports Writer
At the end of October, the Michigan hockey team
was off to its worst start in over a decade (2-4-1 overall,
1-3-1 CCHA), and had just been swept at home by
Northern Michigan.
But the team has finished off the semester strong
and is playing like the No. 4 team it was projected to be
at the beginning of the year.
The Wolverines are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games with
the lone loss coming at the hands of No. 1 Minnesota.
In addition, the Wolverines are playing strong road
hockey -six of those eight wins came away from Yost
Ice Arena.
"We have played well on the road and I think it has
been good for us - a young team - to get to know
each other," said associate head coach Mel Pearson.
"We do have to establish a home ice presence and play
like we have been playing on the road - hard, strong
and together."
Michigan has put together a five-game winning
streak, its longest run since the beginning of last sea-
son. In addition, the Wolverines have drastically
improved their powerplay performance from a 9.3-per-
cent success rate to 18.8-percent efficiency. Mean-
while, the penalty kill has lowered opponents'
powerplay conversion rate by 5.2 percent to 13.8 per-
cent.
In addition, stronger play on defense has helped
goalie Josh Blackburn lower his goals-against average
from 2.99 to 2.71 and improve his save percentage to
.897.
. The Wolverines will try to continue their string of
success against Harvard this weekend. That will be
Michigan's final game before it plays North Dakota in
the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 28.
While most people associate Harvard with its 300
Rhodes Scholars instead of with its 30 Olympians, it
does have a celebrated athletic history. Harvard's hock-
ey program - which started in January of 1898 - is
the oldest college hockey program in the U.S., and the
Crimson captured a national championship in 1989.
But Harvard will bring more to Yost than its history.
The Crimson were picked to finish first in the ECAC at
the beginning of the year and received 23 top 15 votes
in this week's USCHO poll.
"I am very impressed with their team," Pearson said.
"They have a big team, they are going to be bigger than
we are. They skate well and should give us a good test"
What makes this game particularly hard for Michi-
gan's players is that it falls during the final exam peri-
od. The coaches canceled practice yesterday so that
players would be able to focus on their schoolwork.
USCHO top 10
Team (First Place Votes)
1. St. Cloud (39)
2. Minnesota (1)
3. Denver
4. Michigan State
5. Massachusetts-Lowell
6. New Hampshire
7. Boston University
8. Cornell
9. Michigan
10. Colorado College
Last Week Record
1 13-2-1
2 12-2-3
3 12-2-0
5 12-3-2
6 12-2-0
4 10-3-2
6 10-3-1
9 8-2-1
11 10-5-2
12 9-6-1
can 't think it s
How do you define a rebuilding
season? Take a close look at this
year's Michigan basketball
team, and you'll see how.
I didn't really notice this until a week
ago tonight, when I sat in the Crisler
Arena tunnel after the Wolverines
stomped IUPU-Fort Wayne. Talking to
the Mastodons coach, Doug Noll, I
couldn't help but be taken aback by what
people think about this Michigan team.
Let me pause here and say that I'm
no die-hard Michigan basketball fan.
I'm not naive enough to think that this
team is any better than it is.
Still, I was shocked when I saw how
angry Noll was, not because his team
lost by 30 points, but because it didn't'
beat Michigan.
I kind of laughed to myself. Here is a
guy who coaches a team that has been
Division I for three weeks, whose team
came into the game with an 0-6 record
and who coaches several players that -
in the Mastodons' media guide - list
the Wolverines as their favorite basket-
ball team.
This guy was upset that his team
couldn't beat Michigan?
But shortly before tipoff in the Duke
game, it hit me. These Wolverines have
already lost to Western Michigan and
Bowling Green. Who's to say that they
can't lose any game? Has this team
proven that a win against IUPU-Fort
Wayne should be a given?
The basketball program is not like the
football program. Many would consider
this football season to have been a down
year. The team lost its entire offense in
the before the season. But Miami
(Ohio) didn't come into Ann Arbor on
Sept. 1 with a win on its mind. It might
have told the media that it doesn't play
to lose, but all the Ben Roethlisberger
magic in the world couldn't have given
the RedHawks a victory.
Small-time football programs love a
chance to play Michigan. They strive
for the chance to run onto the Michigan
Stadium field, to line up across from the
winged helmets and to appreciate the
fact that they're playing in front of the
largest crowd watching football that
afternoon.
No-name basketball teams love fac-
ing Michigan for another reason - the
chance to win. It doesn't matter if
Michigan doesn't win more than 3
games this season - if IUPU-Fort
Wayne had beaten the Wolverines, that
MI
Cammalleri, Nystrom
earn CCHA honors
During the 2000-01 season, Michi-
gan forward Mike Cammalleri was
named CCHA Offensive Player of the
Week twice. Now, just two months into
this season, Cammalleri has equaled
that total by winning the award for a
second straight week.
The junior, who has had nine points
in his past four games, provided much
of the offensive spark in Michigan's
sweep of Miami this past weekend. In
Friday's game, Cammalleri broke a 2-2
tie with his 12th goal of the season. He
there already
program would be bragging about it for
the next 60 years, particularly empha-
sizing it when Michigan finishes
rebuilding. You don't think that Oakland
is still milking its victory over Michigan
last year for everything its worth?
Back in Crisler, I proceeded to watch
as my fears became realities. Before I
could write that Michigan won the
opening tip, the Blue Devils were ahead
34-8 and looking to show how little had
changed since last season.
Duke made something very clear to
the Wolverines - a new coach doesn't
make up for a lack of talent, doesn't
automatically extinguish what was a
miserable team attitude.
Michigan heard the Blue Devils
laughing. And the Wolverines, made to
look like fools, went on a tear of their
own, outscoring Duke 79-77 from that
point on.
And then, for the second time that
afternoon, my opinion of the team
changed.
Michigan's going to need to hear a lot
more laughing this season. The team is
going to have to pay heed to the fact
that it's not very good. This is still Brian
Ellerbe's program, with Brian Ellerbe's
players. Tommy Amaker might have his
name in the scorecard, but Ellerbe's
impact will be felt for years.
So how do you combat that? You
rebuild. You listen to the people that
laugh, and beat them at their own game.
When you know that you're not very
good, you can surprise a lot of people
when you play well.
Michigan is going to need to pay
more attention to Noll's comments
regarding the fact that his Mastodons
should have won, and find a way to
ignore Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's
claim that this team is vastly improved
from last year's.
They need to listen to Amaker. They
need to be patient and realize that the
wins will come. Michigan has a system
now, for the first time since Steve Fisher
was forced out. They need to use it.
This Michigan team will impress a
lot of people this season. Maybe not in
the won/loss record, but these Wolver-
ines are developing the foundation to be
special again.
Just don't tell them that.
In addition to academic distractions, the Wolverines
must deal with the loss of center Mike Cammalleri,
who left for Team Canada tryouts on Sunday.
With Michigan playing its best hockey of the season,
the holiday break comes at an inopportune time, and
may break up the rhythm of the team.
"We have some younger players that are really start-
ing to understand what it takes night-in and night-out to
be successful at this level," Pearson said. "You can tell
they are starting to get an idea of what it really takes to
win, so the break does take away from that:'
Jon Schwartz can be reached at
jlsz@umich.edu.
1
Daugherty's persistence puts fans in seats
By Jim Weber
Daily Sports Writer
With her community service projects
and youth clinics, June Daugherty
might sound more like a politician than
the Washington women's basketball
coach.
Daugherty's grassroots campaign
resulted in an average attendance of.
4,179 fans at Bank of America Arena
last season - an increase of 1,900 fans
from the year before. It gave the
Huskies the 19th-largest average atten-
dance in the country.
Michigan coach Sue Guevara said
that before Sunday's 71-70 win over the
Huskies, she expected the atmosphere
to be like an NCAA Tournament game.
She was right. There was a dramatic
finsh to the game and a loud crowd of
3,311 in attendance -2,175 more than
at Michigan's home opener against
Marquette.
Part of the increased fan base is due
to the resurgence of Washington's team
last season. The Huskies, who finished
ninth in the Pac-10 two years ago, won
the conference title last season and
advanred to the Elite Eight of the
NCAA Tournament.
Daugherty has also brought fans to
the Bank of America Arena by getting
herself and her players out in the Seattle
community. She attends many Lions,
Rotary and Optimist clubs to give the
members free tickets and to inform the
community about the Huskies' brand of
basketball and, more importantly, about
the kind of players she has on her team.
pital. Players and coaches also teach
kids the game of basketball during 10
youth basketball clinics held over the
summer. Daugherty's players are also
good students - they led all NCAA
women's basketball teams last spring
with a 3.59 team grade point average.
"If they find out what great role mod-
els these (players) are and you invite
them to games and tell them you need a
fan base and guarantee them an exciting
game, it's amazing how many people
turn out," Daugherty said yesterday.
Like any good politician, Daugherty
has used the Seattle media to bring fans
to games. She has weekly radio and tel-
evision shows on which she receives
calls from people all over the North-
west. The Huskies also receive good
coverage from the Seattle Times and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer because of the
excitement Daugherty has created for
Washington women's basketball.
This isn't the first time Daugherty has
increased interest in women's basketball.
She made Boise, Idaho a women's bas-
ketball town when she coached Boise
State for seven years before leaving for
Washington in 1996. The Broncos aver-
aged just 500 fans per game the year
before her arrival but were in the top 30
for attendance every season during her
tenure, including an average of 4,003
fans in the 1993-94 season.
INJURY UPDATE: Michigan seniors
Raina Goodlow and Heather Oesterle
did not play in the Wolverines' games
last weekend. Oesterle was injured dur-
ing Thursday night's practice in Seattle.
added his 13th and 14th goals the fol-
lowing night to help the Wolverines
complete the road sweep against the
RedHawks with a 5-2 victory.
Also earning accolades for the sec-
ond time this season was freshman Eric
Nystrom, who was named the CCHA
Freshman of the Week. This was the
third time in four weeks that a Michigan
player has won this award. Forward
Dwight Helminen received the honor
last week and Nystrom took home the
award the week of Nov. 19.
Nystrom became the first Michigan
freshman since Mike Comrie in 1999 to
score four points in a single game.
- Staff reports
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