The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 6, 2006 - 3B Difficult year ends with tourney loss By David Murray Daily Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS - The nightmare finally ended. The Michigan women's basketball team was asleep for the Big Ten season, losing all 16 games, and the bad dream concluded Thurs- day when Indiana dismissed the Wolverines 68-52 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan (0-16, 6-23), the Ilth seed in the tournament, was never a serious threat to the sixth-seeded Hoosiers (9-7, 17-13), succumbing easily in front of a record crowd of 6,015 fans at Conseco Fieldhouse. The Wolverines never held a lead and trailed by double-digits for more than 30 minutes. The Maize and Blue went on a late sec- ond-half run to pull within 11 points, but that was the closest it came to a second-round game. Thursday's game was like most of Michigan's games this season - one good half, one bad half and a loss. The Wolverines were just 9-for-31 from the field in the first half, and the Hoosiers made 15- of-27 first-half shot attempts. The shooting discrepancies between the two teams coupled with Michigan's nine turnovers and just two free- throw attempts led to a demoralizing 40-20 half- time deficit for Michigan. But the Wolverines didn't surrender without a fight, trimming Indiana's lead to 11 with 3:06 left in the game. Sophomore guard Janelle Coo- per, who led the Wolverines with 16 points, had two steals and hit a runner from five feet and an 11-foot jumper in the lane to give Michigan new life late in the game. Cooper's late burst wasn't enough though, and the Hoosiers closed out the final three minutes of the game with a 7-2 run. "My teammates just kept telling me to shoot the ball," Cooper said. "Some shots weren't fall- ing. Some were going over the basket. But I just used their confidence in me to keep shooting and trying to make poinits." The Wolverines forced 12 Indiana second-half turnovers and outscored them 32-28 in the peri- od, but Michigan's first-half woes trumped its strong second-half performance and inevitably led to its 17th straight loss. "This is a special group of kids that continue to fight back," Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett said. "It showed their integrity today. You are down at halftime, and it would have been easy with the season we've had just to throw up their hands and finish it. But they fought back and that takes an incredible amount of heart and integrity." Michigan was also given a spark coming into the game, with leading scorer Ta'Shia Walker playing for the first time since Feb. 5 against Minnesota. Walker - who was out due to throat surgery - chipped in eight points and three rebounds. More importantly, she gave the Wol- verines the strong post player they had been lack- ing since her departure. Walker freed up numerous outside shots for Wolverine guards, but they were unable to capi- talize. Michigan made just 6-of-23 3-pointers. With few outside shots falling, the Wolverines leaned on freshman point guard Jessica Min- nfield's passing to find baskets, and she tallied nine of their 11 assists. On the other hand, Indiana's guards took full advantage of its offensive possessions. Senior guards Cyndi Valentin and Jenny DeMuth shred- ded the Wolverine's defense for 19 and 17 points, respectively. In addition, DeMuth made seven free throws, one more than the entire Michigan team, and Valentin also added eight assists - just three less than the Michigan assist total. "We knew going into this game that we def- initely had to stop their guards," Burnett said. "Specifically everybody knows Valentin and DeMuth and the experience that they bring being seniors, and DeMuth being a fifth-year senior. We knew we had to contain them." Unfortunately, the Wolverines didn't con- tain anybody all year, going winless in the Big Ten for just the second time since the 1982-83 season, when they played their first full Big Ten schedule. Michigan's six total wins was an improvement from last year's five wins, but not even close to a respectable amount. "It was a rough year," sophomore captain Kris- ta Clement said. "But I think that people got a lot of experience. Going through something like this it is going to bring people together, and it's really going to help us build going into next year." Staffer ramblings take cheap shots at sports world or this week's SportsMonday Column, various Daily staffers stayed in the Spring Break mood and got together to come up with a "ramblings" piece. Please don't be offended, because we really don't want to have to read the Opinion section if you guys write angry letters about us. Why was the Duke/North Carolina game on every channel imaginable? It's not like it was the State of the Union or anything.... JJ Redick is far too ugly to have one camera on him for a minute, let alone hav- ing about 50 on him for half a night.... And we're convinced that Tyler Hansbrough is about five years away from being able to see AN an R-rated movie. M Kirby Puckett suf- The Spo fered a stroke yesterday, C 0 MEWS TRACKI E AND FELD Men's track takes fourth at Big Tens, again O 0: By John Geise Daily Sports Writer The race didn't turn out exactly as he had planned. But with 700 meters left to go in his 1,600-meter race, Mike Woods saw the opening he had hoped for the whole afternoon. "Going into the race, (Michigan coach Ron Warhurst) and I had talked about when I should go for the lead," Woods said. "We decided I should do it at the half-mile, but I was kind of boxed in, and I could not get out. At about 700 meters, I saw the opening I was looking for and hammered to the front." The lead Woods took at this critical juncture would prove to be decisive, and he won the 1,600- meter in 4:14.26, earning his first career Big Ten victory. Woods's win was one of the many high- lights for the Wolverines, who finished fourth at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Iowa City on Saturday, Feb. 25. One of the other impressive performances included Justin Switzer's fourth-place finish in the mile (4:15.29). He led the race for the first 800 meters, but Switzer faltered after Woods took the lead. The freshman finished a mere 0.02 seconds out of third place. Switzer and Woods led the distance runners, and juniors Jeff Porter, Stann Waithe and fresh- man Adam Harris paced the sprinters. Porter started out slow in his 60-meter hurdle race, but rebounded to finish second with a 7.86, a narrow 0.03 seconds out of first. Harris and Waithe finished fourth in the 60- meter and 200-meter sprints, respectively. Harris achieved a 6.86 in the 60-meter, his second-best time of the season. Waithe finished in 48.26 to gain his fifth career top-five finish in Big Ten competition. Later, Waithe anchored Michigan's 4x400 relay team as they finished third for the second year in a row, clocking in at 3:13.35. "We could have gotten a little bit better here or there, but you always think that," Warhurst said. "All in all, it was a tremendous meet. Brad Miller came up big in the high jump, as did Mike Wood's win in the 1,600 and second-place finish in the 3,000." Miller's high-jump mark was a 6-11, a mere half inch off his career best. This mark - good enough for fourth at the meet - was a fitting send-off for the senior captain in his last indoor Big Ten meet. But Miller's career performance was overshad- owed by the victory of triple-jumper Michael Whitehead, who earned the first indoor Big Ten field-event title for Michigan in 12 years with his mark of 51-3 3/4. He hit that on his first qualify- ing jump and then sweated it out as the field fin- ished up. He ended up winning the competition by three inches. Rounding out the scoring, freshmen Brendan Lodge and Sean Pruitt finished sixth and sev- enth, respectively, in the weight throw. "It seems like everyone performed really well," Woods said. "We never thought we had a chance to win it this year. We are such a young team that this year was more about experience. That is why it's great to see, when you look at the compe- tition, everyone performed well and gained the experience they needed. Next year, we should be one of the favorites to win Big Ten." ' With NCAA Championships coming up next week and the indoor season all but over, War- hurst sees the result of this meet as a good build- ing block for the coming of the more important outdoor campaign. "We have the NCAA Championship coming up with three racers," Warhurst said. "After that, we will take a few weeks off to look at these results and prepare for the outdoor season. We have a few partial-team outdoor meets early, and then, by the Georgia Tech Invitational (on April 1), we should be ready to go." which was shocking news. Kirby Puckett is still alive?!? Phil Mickelson handed a fan $200 after breaking his watch with an errant approach shot ... looks like his snack machine budget got cut in half for the day. Mike Martz recently gave his vote of confidence to Joey Har- rington for the upcoming NFL season. Maybe he's not a meat and potatoes guy, either, if you know what we mean. Speaking of old guys with bad tickers, don't go quail hunting with Dick Cheney. Actually, if your name is Stuart Scott, go ahead and go hunting with the guy. It will be best for all involved. Has anyone heard the hot new "Measly Penny" single? You know it has to be pretty bad when its lyr- ics make Brent Petway look like a musical genius. Vince Young managed to score just a 6 on the Wonderlic test. What does that say about Jim Herrmann? Did you know Jerome Bettis is from Detroit? Does anyone want to buy an NCAA Tournament ticket? Some staffers got a little excited and bought a ticket early, forgetting who Michigan's coach was. Which reminds us ... Tommy Amaker might be the answer, after all. But the question would have to be "who isn't the right coach for Michigan?" Does the softball team understand the season started yet? N Y. And while we're on US the subject of under- s11loncaki achieving teams at Michigan, someone needs to wake Red Berenson up at his nursing home and let him know they might want to start winning now ... I guess he was taking notes during Ronald Reagan's presidency. The women's basketball team is almost as bad as the Knicks. Luckily, the Wolverines don't have a first-round pick to trade away. Excited about the World Base- ball Classic? You must not live in America. For those of you who enjoyed watching curling during the Winter Olympics, we have good news for you. The Summer Olympics just announced a new sport - watching grass grow. Michelle Kwan, at least Bode Miller has an excuse for not win- ning gold medals, you quitter. Do you think JJ Redick ever slips dirty messages to Adam Mor- rison when they're playing Halo 2 together during the wee hours of the night? And Maize Rage, we'll save you the trouble, every loss for the rest of the year was the referees' fault. NIXERI '1 It's possible at St. John's University - the only American University that offers this unique opportunity for graduate study. Whether you are interested in pursuing an M.B.A. degree in International Finance, International Business or Marketing Management, or an M.A. degree in Government and Politics with a specialization in International Relations, our expert professors and the Eternal City itself, will help you prepare for the global arena. { i.