4 DAILY SPORTS BREAKS DOWN THE WEEKEND THAT WAS 2B - Monday, February 19, 2007 'M' SCHEDULE MONDAY-239 W Golf at Central District Classic WEDNESDAY -2.21 MBasketballvs.Illinois,9P.M. THURSDAY-2.22 Water Polovs. Loyola Marymount, 6p.m. WBasketball vs. Minnesota, 8p.m. FRIDAY- 2.23 Softball vs. Aubum, 2:30 p.m. WTENNIS VS. NORTHWESTERN,3P.M. M Tennis vs.Notre Dame, 4 p.m. Baseball vs. Bethune-Cookman, 7p.m. IceHockeyvs. OhioState, 7:05 p.m. Softball vs. Hotstra, 7:30 p.m. W Gymnastics no. Utah, 9 p.m. 7 SAID AND HEARD "I was really surprised. Usually Courtney has frustration coming off the bench. ... I think with the importance of this game, he put that aside and just went hard." - Michigan guard DION HARRIS on teammate Courtney Sims's performance off the bench in Saturday's 58-55 win. The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom ATHLETE OF THE WEEK ALEX VANDERKAAY MEN'S SWIMMING The junior helped lead Michigan to an impres- sive second-place showing at this weekend's Big Ten Championships. He won the 400-yard individual medley, the 200-butterfly and the 800-meter freestyle relay events. 4 12th game leaves sour taste for '07 season A4 S B S is MN S B MN ATURDAY -2.24 F orthose of you who complain W Rowingvs. Central FloridaTBA about the Michigan football Water Polo at Anteater Invitational, 11a.m. team's easy nonconference W Track/Field at Big Ten Championships schedule, your cries have finally been heard. M Track/Field at Big Ten Championships This past asebal vs. Bethune-Cookmanl p5m season, after M Basektball vs. Minnesota, 2:32 p.m. thewolverines oftball vs. Southern Illinois,3:30p.m. fell to Ohio eoftball vs. North Carolina, 6p.m. State on Nov., ce Hockey vs.Ohio State,8:05 p.m. 18 and their ° BCS title game1 V Gymnastics hopes fell into at Pacific Coast Classic,10 p.m. the hands of UNDAY--2.11 random Har- aseball vs. Bethune-Cookman,12 p.m. ris Poll voters W BASKETBALL VS.OHIO STATE,2P.M. and a few com- ttGolf at Puerto Rico Classic puters, one SCOTT of the biggest BELL arguments to 'home games in all caps keep Michigan *all times EST out of Glendale was the Maize and Blue's relatively easy early-season READ OUR BLOG schedule. O BBut notnextyear. THE GAME. As announced on Friday, the Wolverines will open their 2007 season by welcoming the defend- ing national champs into the Big House. That's right, the Maize and Blue are opening up its schedule in style, by competing against Urban Meyer and the Flori... Wait, what's that? Yeah, check the fine print on that press release. Oops. You might want to hold off on the "Lloyd-Urban I" posters. Michigan will be clashing with Division I-AA powerhouse Appala- chian State. And though the Moun- taineers can in fact claim they're the defending national champions (two-time champs, actually), the addition of a non-Division-I oppo- nent isn't exactly the schedule strengthener the Wolverines need- ed coming off of last year. Winning a national title in Divi- sion I-AA is kind of like beating your not-so-ripped, not-so-athletic younger brother in an arm wres- tling match. Sure, it's cool, but it's probably not something you'd use as a line to pick up a girl. And following a season where Michigan came under fire for scheduling teams like Ball State, Central Michigan and Vanderbilt in its nonconference schedule, I'm pretty sure this isn't a step in the right direction. Now, before everyone begins e-mailing Bill Martin, asking him why we can't get a nice home-and- home set up with Texas like Ohio State recently did, it's not that easy. . First, it's hard enough even to find a decent team with a date open for the12th game. With the NCAA's new mandate for 12 games (driven solely by the almighty dollar, by the way), it's very difficult for two strong teams to find a similar open date on which they can agree. And while we're on the subject of money, that certainly comes into play, too. There were prob- ably more qualified opponents that offered to play Michigan, but they either wanted us to come there and play, or wanted a long-term home- and-home deal. Both may be better for fans, but when you rely on home football games to fund the rest of your athletic programs like Michi- gan does, the popular thing isn't always the right thing to do. But still, Appalachian State? Did we lose a bet? It sucks, plain and simple. Even though the three games follow- ing the home-opener against the Mountaineers will be matchups against Oregon, Notre Dame and Penn State - all quality opponents - Michigan fans will still have to live with the fact that for the next six-and-a-half months, the "next opponent" portion of most fan sites will be graced with those dreaded 16 letters: A-P-P-A-L-A-C-H-I-A-N-S-T-A- T-E. I gave the men's hoops team enough crap for scheduling stink- ers like Army and Wofford for its nonconference schedule, but that's a little different - our basketball team sucks. For a football team stacked with senior power and poised to make a run at the BCS Championship Game, jumpstarting your Road to New Orleans Tour against a school the size of my poli sci lecture is a joke. Blame it on the NCAA, blame it on Martin, blame it on not wanting to lose early. No matter what excuse you hear, there shouldn't be one. And there shouldn't be excite- ment for a season-opening52-3 win against an undersized, outmanned and awestruck team just happy to be beaten in the Big House. - Despite his whining, Bell is still excited for the 2007 season. He's just going to pretend it starts on Sept. 8 and not Sept. 1. He can be reached at scotteb@umich.edu. 4 Foolish play, miserable first half doom'M' in Evanston By DAN FELDMAN couldn't fully erase a 14-point shall's 3-pointer - was blocked goals in the first 20 minutes. The DailySports Writer Northwestern lead, falling 63-54 and the Wildcats gathered the Wildcats, led by senior forwarc to the Wildcats. loose ball. A.J Glasauer's 14 points on six-for EVANSTON - This was their Michigan used its final timeout "We called an option that takes eight shooting, held a 32-18 advan chance. trailing by six with one minute 20 seconds to run when we need tage at the break. The Wolverines have been stuck left, but played foolishly after the to score quickly," Burnett said. But Michigan (3-11 Big Ten, 10 in the cellar of Big Ten's women's stoppage and couldn't complete "Forty seconds left and we're not 17 overall) started the second hal basketball, finishing last in the the comeback. trying to do our quicker-hitters." strong. The Wolverines opener confer- "We talked to the kids that at Northwestern passed the ball the frame with a 14-4 run over the ence the NORTHWESTERN 63 some point, you just have to make around for eight seconds before first four and a half minutes an< previ- MICHIGAN 54 decisions on your own and go out calling a timeout. Michigan didn't held Glasauer scoreless over th ous two and play the end of the game," seem to make any effort to inten- span. years. Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett tionally foul. "We knew Michigan was goin Michigan won just three Big said. "So once we're out of time- "If you're down (and) there isn't to come out hard in the seconc Ten games in that span. outs trying to stay in the game, the very much time left, you assume half," Northwestern coach BetI But things seemed to be improv- kids just have to play the game the you have to pick up the ball. You Combs said. "They came out hard ing. The Wolverines lost by just way we hoped we'd taught them. assume you have to double. And er on defense. Michigan fights anc ,iy five to No. 16 Purdue Thursday. But we didn't do a good job at the then you assume you have to foul," they fought down to the end." And a win at lowly Northwest- end." Burnett said. But Glasauer resumed her scor ern yesterday - the only team Resuming play, Northwestern And then there was the free- ing responsibilities and netted the behind Michigan in the Big Ten had the ball; and after running throw shooting. The Wolverines next four points. A Carly Bensor standings - would've been the 18 seconds off the clock, Wildcat made just three of their last seven 3-pointer with 10 minutes left first time the Maize and Blue won Beth Marshall drained a wide attempts. put Michigan within two, but the a Big Ten road game in more than open 3-pointer from the left cor- Michigan needed the potential- Wolverines were never able to ge three years. ner to extend the lead to nine. comeback late because of how it over the hump, failing to take the But the Wolverines weren't Then Michigan came down and was dominated in the first half. lead at any point. ready to turn the corner. set up its offense, but freshman The Wolverines shot 35 percent Michigan was close, but in col They made several crucial forward Lequisha Whitfield's shot worse from the field than North- lege basketball, close won't elevate mistakes down the stretch and in the lane -18 seconds after Mar- western, netting just seven field a program to the next level. Hot second half wasted in loss ie .d r- 1- If A ie A fe ig A :h d r- ie a ft ie A ie I- le 0 0 Sophomore guard Jessica Minnfield and her teammates came close to catching last- place Northwestern, but couldn't complete the deed, eventually failing 63-54. d i Aete the grid so that every row, column 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. I 618 4 l- .1- 4 ......-..... By CHRIS HERRING Daily Sports Writer EVANSTON - Freshman LeQ- uisha Whitfield scored the first basket of each half yesterday, doing her best toN jumpstart NOTEBOOK the Michigan women's basketball team on the right foot. But that was about the only sim- ilarity between Michigan's shoot- ing in the first frame and second half. After shooting a frigid 23 per- cent from the field before halftime, the Wolverines turned things up a notch in the last 20 minutes, cut- ting into a 14-point Northwestern lead. Michigan shot 44.4 percent in the second half and put pressure on the Wildcats to keep up the pace they had set in building their lead. But once again, the Wolverines couldn't quite dig their way out of the deep hole they dug for them- selves early in the game, falling to last-place Northwestern, 63-54. "We did a marvelous job of being aggressive defensively and offensively (in the second half)," Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett said. "But then at that point ... you have to play a perfect game. We couldn't get over the hump." Northwestern coach Beth Combs agreed with Burnett's observations. "We know that once you're down double-digits how hard it is to fight your way back into a game," Combs said. "A lot of times, you're expending your energy just to get even." GUARDING GLASAUER: After shooting39percent (9-of-23) inthe last meeting between the squads, A.J. Glasauer, Northwestern's leading scorer, played a much more efficientballgame againstthe Wol- verines in yesterday's rematch. Although Glasauer managed 18 points in both contests, she did so with 11 less shots in yesterday's game, connecting on 7-of-12 from the field. Michigan coach Cheryl Bur- nett knew her team would have its hands full guarding the Freiburg, Germany, native. "I think she's a great player," Burnett said. "I've said that for years. She can do many things very, very well." Ballscreens at the top of the key hindered the Wolverines' defen- sive schemes and allowed Glasauer to get open looks. "It was difficult," junior Janelle Cooper said of defending Glasauer. "She likes to move around a lot without the ball. A lot of times I don't play against girls who do that." Though Glasauer torched Mich- igan for 14 first-half points, the Wolverines held her to just one field goal and four points after the break. "We wanted to take the ball out of her hands in the second half, and I feel we were pretty success- ful doing that," Burnett said. PROUD PARENTS: Sophomore Melinda Queen played a solid game yesterday, tallying 11 points, four rebounds and two steals. Burnett, impressed by Queen's 41 4 1 7 18 7 1 _ 2 6 93 1i1 i 5 1 7/ 8 Freshman LeQuisha Whitfield's opening basket of the second half awoke Michigan from itsfirst-halflslumber yesterday. But the Wolverines still fell at Northwestern, 63-54. play, rewarded the forward with "For us, it was great to be here. the most playing time (17 minutes) But for Melinda, it was spectacu- she's seen in 10 contests. lar," said Rodney Queen, Melinda's Burnett's confidence in Queen father. "We don't get to make it out may have grown with yesterday's to Ann Arbor very often, and all performance, but there's no ques- their other games are kind of far tion where the bulk of the Oak from us." Forest, Ill., native's support comes Asked how his daughter played, from. Rodney had no hesitation. Queen's family took advantage "This was her best game," he of the road game by making the said. "We know for a fact that this short trek to Evanston. was her best game." 4 3 : M.