Wednesday February 19,2003 michigandaily.com sportsdesk@umich.edu EPORTS 0 8 Unlikely leaders battle for first By Chris Burke Daily Sports Editor When the Big Ten season started this year, no one expected Michigan or Purdue to be at the top of the conference stand- ings come late February. Well, maybe a couple of people TON "The road hasn't fared well for most teams thus far in the conference schedule," Amaker said. "We have arguably the toughest road game in the our conference, playing at Pur- due against a team that's playing as well as IGHT did. "I'll bet you (Michigan coach) Tommy (Amaker) thought they'd better do something - I don't think he thought they had low expectations," said Purdue coach Gene Keady about the unlikeli- Michigan at No. 23 Purdue Time: 7p.m. Mackey Arena No TV in Ann Arbor anyone in our conference." The Wolverines aren't the only ones concerned heading into this game, though. Keady offered up some praise to Michigan, comparing the matchup problems that the Wolverines pres- ent to the ones that No. 4 Louisville gave the Boilermakers. Purdue upset the Cardinals, 86-84 on Nov. 30. Ohio State was able to do just that - one of few things the Buckeyes did well in the Wolver- ines' 70-54 win on Saturday - as center Velimir Radinovic posted a team-high 19 points. But the Boilermakers have received minimal contributions from their centers this year. Their most effective inside scorer has been 6-foot-10 power forward Chris Booker, who has aver- aged 10.7 points and 6.1 rebounds a game. "I don't think we can exploit (Michigan's centers)," Keady said. "I'd like to, but I don't think we can." While Purdue will focus on trying to find a way inside, Michigan will be concerned with shutting down Big Ten Player of the Year candi- date Willie Deane, who leads Purdue at 17.4 points per game. That effort will probably start, as has been the norm, with junior Bernard Robinson matched up man-to-man with Deane. "I think Bernard Robinson should get great consideration for Defensive Player of the Year in our league - he has been as good as anyone when it comes to versatility," Amaker said., "Defense has been one of the staples of our pro- gram, and we've talked about it since day one." 0 hood of the Wolverines and Boilermakers being tied for the Big Ten lead. "That's just like I'm the same way here." Regardless of where Michigan and No. 24 Purdue were supposed to be in the standings heading into tonight's game, the winner of the. battle will take a step toward capturing the con- ference title. But for Michigan, taking that step will require a monumental effort against a Purdue team that is 13-0 on its home floor. "I consider them a lot like Louisville. They're a hard matchup because they have kids that are 6-foot-7, 6-foot-6, who can play inside and outside," Keady said. "They shoot 3's, run hard, they're quick on (defense). We consider them a hard matchup for us." To counter Michigan's quickness at the guard and forward positions, other Big Ten teams have attempted to pound the Wolverines inside, taking advantage of freshman centers Chris Hunter and Graham Brown. RYAN WEINER/Daily Bernard Robinson will once again be tested defensively, likely matching up with Purdue star Willie Deane. Richmond searches for consistency By Courtney Lewis and Dan Rosen Daily Sports Writers How can you tell that the jump from juniors to college hockey has been a big adjustment for Danny Richmond? Ask the offensive- minded blueliner about scoring.' "Points aren't really indicative of how I play," the freshman said. "I think plus-minus would be (a better measure)." That might sound strange to those who knew him as the highest-scoring defenseman in the US Hockey League last season, but the player who put up 9- 45-54 totals for the Chicago Steel has had to work hard at learning the defen- sive part of the game at Michigan. "To come in as an offensive defense- man, it's always a constant battle between how much do I give up, in terms of my offense, to really become a reliable, trustworthy defenseman also," assistant coach Billy Powers said. "I think Danny's going through that battle." Still, Richmond's 17 points rank sec- ond among Michigan defensemen, and Powers believes those are solid numbers for a freshman. But he is more con- cerned with Richmond's lapses in his own zone this season. "We want Danny to make better deci- sions in terms of jumping into the rush, holding onto the puck too long some- times, maybe high-risk offensive plays," Powers said. Both Powers and Richmond said that the defenseman had started to get in a groove earlier in the season, but the win- ter break was a blow to that momentum. Richmond earned nine points, including two goals, before the team's three-week layoff in December. He registered two points in the Great Lakes Invitational Dec. 28-29, but then fell into a six-game scoreless stretch. He has six points in his last seven games and is plus-eight. "There's been some bumps in the road," Powers said. "I think there has been progress for sure, I just think there has been inconsistency. We've seen signs that Danny is going to be a tremendous defense- man at both ends of the ice, and then we've seen games where he has reverted back to maybe not playing as well without the puck." Powers added that Richmond remind- ed him a lot of Bubba Berenzweig, a former Wolverine who took risks in the defensive zone and struggled his fresh- man year in 1995-96, but was a big part of Michigan's 1998 National Champi- onship team. Improving his strength has been a major issue for Richmond, and he said that is one of the biggest differences between the college game and juniors. "It's a different experience than last year. If you whacked a guy once, he'd give up the puck right away. Here, the guys are stronger. You have to work a lot harder," Richmond said. The coaching staff has been pleased that Richmond has shown the willing- ness to put in that extra work. "The nice thing about Danny Rich- mond is he's in watching videos every Monday," Powers said. "He is conscious that he has to be better, he has to do things better without the puck and be USCHIO Top 15 RANKINGS Team Record Pts. 1 Colorado College 23-4-5 589 2 Cornell 20-4-1 553 3 Maine 20-5-5 505 4 New Hampshire 19-7-4 466 5 Boston College 19-8-3 406 6 Minnesota 17-7-7 384 7 North Dakota 22-6-4 375 8 Ferris State 23-8-1 313 9 Boston University 20-10-2 268 10 Michigan 21-8-1 256 11 Ohio State 21-7-3 190 12 MSU-Mankato 14-7-9 131 13 Denver 18-9-5 121 14 St. Cloud State 14-11-3 85 15 Harvard 16-8-1 78 stronger. He wants to be a better defenseman, and that's half the battle." BIGGER THAN HOCKEY: Michigan coach Red Berenson's father passed away last Thursday, and the coach returned to Regina, Saskatchewan after last week- end's series for the funeral. "He went through the weekend because his two sisters were up in Regina, and they were able to handle the arrangements for everybody," Powers said. Berenson had gone back to Regina early last week to visit his father, who had suffered a stroke. Powers said that Berenson is expect- ed to rejoin the team before this week- end's series in Omaha. All may not be lost for struggling Wolverines By Josh Holman Daily Sports Writer Sitting at 2-10 in the Big Ten and 11- 12 overall, the only bright spot at the end of tunnel for the Michigan. women's basketball team might be reaching the end of the tunnel. In the midst of a seven-game losing streak, all the goals and expectations at the beginning of the season have been whisked away. A chance for a Big Ten title is ancient history, an NCAA Tour- nament berth is a near impossibility and even a consolation appearance in the WNIT is in jeopardy. With just four games remaining on the conference schedule, the season is already assured of going down as a dis- appointment. Michigan was swept by its in-state rival, Michigan State, suf- fered an embarrassing defeat to tradi- tional doormat Northwestern and, even if the team wins out, it can only hope to match its record in last season's depressing campaign. The numbers and the records have left the Wolverines wondering what's remaining to play for during the remainder of the season. "Our pride," junior Jennifer Smith said when asked what motivating forces are left. "We have a lot to prove not only to ourselves, but our fans and other teams that we're still capable of doing the things that we wanted to do at the beginning of the season." While pride is something any team can hope to salvage, a pot of gold still remains at the end of a large rainbow for the Wolverines. The Big Ten Tourna- ment, beginning March 6 in Indianapo- lis, couldn't come sooner for a team looking to make something of nothing. "Personally, I feel we should start focusing on the Big Ten Tournament," senior co-captain Raina Goodlow said. "I definitely think the focus will be to use these four games as preparation." If the Wolverines were to enter the tournament today, though, they wouldn't be close to prepared. Michi- gan is last among all Big Ten teams in field goal percentage defense during conference games, allowing oppo- nents to shoot a staggering 49.9 per- cent against them. In contrast, Michigan needs to pick up its own shooting as well. The Wolverines are shooting just 39.3 per- cent in Big Ten games, the 10th worst in the conference. Michigan hasn't shot above 40 percent for five games now. "Before we can start focusing on the Big Ten Tournament, we have to stay focused game to game," coach Sue Guevara said. "These next four games, we have to be very specific in what we want to accomplish." 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