ReTSiditn ag michigandaily.comi/sports sportsdesk@umich.edu 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 Your Holidao r Goes Farther A t fiR es HOMEMADE DELI ENTREES WASflENAW -In the CONVENIENT BUS STOP IN FRONT OF THE MALL 1gb! Forget The Milk & fookies. *HOT ROTISSERIE CHICKEN & RIBS TO GO! eSOUP & SANDWICHES AFRESH FRUIUS & VEGGIES DELI MEATS - ALWAYS 734-677-2370 SLICED FRESH TO ORDERI FHILLER'S U OF M HOLIDAY COUPON COUPON NOT AVAILABLE IN STORE fsl 'looI o __ __.,c-