Tuesday February , 2005 sports.michigandaily. com sports@michigandaily.com PORTS 9 - - ------- ---- - Amaker: Effort not "in question in loss Hard to know who to blame for season By Eric Ambinder Daily Sports Editor After Michigan's 64-53 loss at Michi- gan State on Jan. 28, Spartans coach Tom Izzo pulled Michigan coach Tommy Amaker aside. Izzo told Amaker how impressed he was with the effort of his players. He told Amaker that he was proud. But what about the Wolverines' effort in Saturday's 84-55 train wreck at Purdue - a team that has won just one of seven Big Ten games? "I don't think there is anybody that watched our game that felt that our kids stopped trying," Amaker said. "We had kids on the floor with a loose ball with 14 seconds left in the game." Amaker benched three starters - freshman Ron Coleman, guard Dion Har- ris and forward Courtney Sims - for a majority of the second half and opted to play four walk-ons, who, to their credit, have matured significantly this season. "We are going to play the players that we think will give us the best chance to win the ball game, and that's what we did," Amaker said after Sunday's game. But even while Harris - the last of the three starters to go to the bench - sat mid- way through the second half, Purdue pro- gressively increased its lead. Michigan's best offensive option seemed to be perim- eter jumpers from forwards Chris Hunter, Graham Brown and Brent Petway. So what do the Wolverines (3-4 Big Ten, 12-9 overall) need to improve on before they host Minnesota (4-3, 14-6) tomorrow night at Crisler Arena? "Well, we have to get better at every- thing," Amaker said. Specifically, he mentioned boxing out, limiting opponents' second-chance points off offensive rebounds and, perhaps most importantly, becoming more efficient on offense. "We just haven't been able to have an offensive rhythm," Amaker said. "We need to get better at that - have more confidence in that. You need to have some success to have confidence, and, right now, we haven't had a lot of success recently." Guard Daniel Horton's absence on the court and in practice has noticeably hurt the Wolverines. Harris has had trouble finding open shots when he draws the opponents' best defender. And with teams applying traps and full-court man-to-man defense, Michigan's biggest weakness - ball handling - has been exposed. "We are hoping to get better at handling the ball," Amaker said. "That's obviously been an area that people have attacked us. And probably rightly so ... I'm sure that is what (teams) are going to continue to do." KYAN WEIlNE R/Daily Guard Dion Harris has struggled in the absence of backcourt teammate Daniel Horton. Horton remains suspended indefinitely and his return to the lineup is uncertain. The guard was arraigned on misdemeanor domestic assault charges in a Washtenaw County court on Jan. 24. Amaker stated yesterday that there haven't been any new developments regarding the junior's avail- ability. "I don't have any other information to add to my previous statement," Amaker said, referring to his official statement released on Jan. 25. "I don't have anything else to share to give any indication one way or another in terms of a timetable. We have no timetable for (his return)." Horton is healthy enough to play against Minnesota tomorrow night. The junior injured his right knee in the waning moments against Wisconsin on Jan. 22. Amaker said Horton underwent extensive testing on the knee after that game, and the injury wasn't serious. DANIEL BREMMER Garden State of Mind Before the season, the Michigan basketball team was expected to do decently well in confer- ence play - probably not contend for a Big Ten title with teams like Illinois or Michigan State but be just behind them. The Wolverines were expected to earn an NCAA Tournament bid but probably as a mid- to lower-seed. Now, take the two best players off of that Michigan team, and what do you expect to happen? You can't blame Tommy Amaker, like many students and fans are doing, for failing to reach what have become unre- alistically lofty goals this season. At the same time, maybe some of it is Amaker's fault. But no matter what you think about the future, don't forget about what Amaker has already done to help erase memories of a dishonorable past. The Abram and Horton situations are the root of why Michigan has floundered this season, yet people continue to take their absences too lightly and place the blame squarely on Amaker's coaching. The Wolverines have played nearly all season without Abram, arguably their best and most consistent player from last sea- son. Abram may have been a role player when he got to Michigan, but, last year, he proved that he was much closer to a star on the team than just a role player. Horton's injury and legal issues have been a huge blow to the team as well. But people try to play off the Horton struggles like they're no big deal. They say that Horton hasn't been playing well anyway, so what's the point whether or not he's on the floor or suspended indefinitely. But Horton meant a lot more to Michi- gan than points or assists could represent, namely with his defense and leadership. Making matters worse are all of the other guys who missed multiple games due to injury - Chris Hunter, Brent Pet- way, Graham Brown and Dani Wohl. Amaker is often criticized for his in- game coaching. Even I'll admit that I second guess him in certain situations, like when he's slow to call timeouts while opponents make runs. But the fact is that he was able to guide his depleted, role-player-laden-with-few- real-stars team to win its first three Big Ten games - as part of a larger six-game winning streak - despite the surround- ing circumstances. That says something about his coaching, even if the team has now lost four straight. You can argue that, if Amaker had more and/or better players around to begin with, the team would be in less trouble after losing Abram and now Hor- ton. Recruiting - which has always been considered to be one of Amaker's strong points - is something that might have Michigan fans worried. Amaker was highly touted as a great recruiter when he took the helm of the Wolverines, just a year after he brought one of the top players in the country, Eddie Griffin, to Seton Hall. And in his first recruiting class at Michigan, he man- aged to bring Horton - a McDonald's All-American - to the University, despite the fact that the program was under NCAA scrutiny and faced possible sanctions. Fast forward a few years. Michigan's current freshman class - namely Ron Coleman, because he's the only mem- ber - has played well recently, but he isn't having nearly the impact that a top-tier freshman might have made at other schools. And for Amaker's sake, it doesn't help that two players that he near- ly landed - Kentucky's Joe Crawford and Oregon's Malik Hairston, both from Detroit Renaissance - are both playing well at big programs. As for Crawford and Hairston, you can't blame Amaker for sticking to his guns and not making promises he couldn't keep. Both players seemingly wanted similar assurances - a starting spot and/or guaranteed minutes - while gaining face time for a run at a rising NBA Draft stock. That's even before you consider the three-ring recruiting circus that both of these guys held before corn-, mitting. Both players will likely leave college after this season (or next season, See BREMMER, page 10 ICers By Ian Herbert Daily Sports Editor Even the best cente of their faceoffs. So the draw? In the third period ern Michigan, the M why once again. Wil the draw in the Mich back to junior Jamie past Montoya, who n Losing faceoffs in ous, and, in January,I off defensive-zone fa "We really want t junior center Andrev end of your season, It it a lot. So we justv stretch and into the p Ebbett leads the 0 0 rr 1 improving oft the draw at 56.6 percent. He said that winning faceoffs is about stick placement and reading your opponent. Michigan coach Red Berenson, who played as a center in the NHL rs in the NHL only win 60 percent for 18 years, added that there was a lot more that goes why is so much attention given to into winning the draw. "It's a little bit of technique, it's a little bit of tenacity, of Saturday's game against North- second effort, being ready, watching the referees hand, lichigan hockey team was shown knowing what the other player is going to do, or hav- dcats forward Kevin Gardner won ing an idea about what he's going to do, and then going igan zone. The puck made its way against him," Berenson said. Miliam, and he fired a slap shot Michigan actually wins more than half its faceoffs as ever saw it. a team, and the Wolverines' regular centers - Ebbett, the defensive zone can be danger- David Moss, T.J. Hensick and Chad Kolarik - all win the Wolverines gave up three goals more than their opponents. Kolarik, a freshman, moved ceoffs. to center over Thanksgiving weekend after playing the o bear down come playoff time," first few months of the season at right wing. Berenson w Ebbett said. "That could be the said that he wanted Kolarik to get some experience in 's happened before, and we've seen Michigan's system before moving to center. Kolarik, who want to stress that right down the is a small center at 5-foot-li and 175 pounds, said that he layoffs." needs to be more consistent with his faceoff attempts. Wolverines in faceoff percentage See FACEOFFS, page 10 AMY DRUMM/Daily Forward Chad Kolarik faces off during Michigan's win over Northern Saturday.