The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, January 8, 2007 - 3B CRASHING THE BOARDS PLAYER OF THE GAME Reed Baker GUARD Baker was unheralded when Michigan coach Tommy Amaker snatched him from the depths of Div. IlIl basketball. But following his game-high 11 points against the Wildcats, fans will be saying much more than "Who?" when they hear Reed Baker's name. NOTABLE QUOTABLE "(Michigan fans) were deep today. They were real good. I thought there wouldn't be so many.... If we could get that every game it, would be on and poppin'. - Freshman EKPE UDOH on the presence of Michigan fans in Evanston. The Dance Meter Each week, the Michigan basketball writers will take the team's temperature and determine how close or how far it is from making the NCAA Tournament. Start booking your flights because they're in the tournament! There's a good chance. ESPN will be contacting Tommy Amaker to videotape the team's reaction on Selection Sunday. The Wolverines' bubble is on the verge of bursting, but a string of quality wins could save their tournament chances. Conference tournament winners automatically make the tournament. So Michigan still has a shot. Tommy Amaker will have to host a March Madness - party at his house because this team isn't dancing. SATURDAY'S GAME MICHIGAN 58 Saturday's game MICHIGAN 58 - NORTHWESTERN 46 Access denied Wolverines top conference in blocked shots By DANIEL BROMWICH Daily Sports Writer EVANSTON - Right back at you, Northwestern. With 10:07 remaining in the first half of Saturday's game in Evanston, Michigan leading 11-9, Northwestern junior Jason Okrzesik beat the Wol- verine defense for what looked like a game-tying lay-up. But freshman DeShawn Sims, jumping so high in the air that his forearm touched the ball, swatted the attempt far into the Wildcat student section. "I think I blocked it with my wrist, because I swung hard at it," Sims said. "If I didn't get the ball, and if I had got him, I think I would have got ejected." Freshman Ekpe Udoh had a differ- ent take on the block: "He must have got that from me." While it might seem surprising for a freshman to claim credit for teach- ing a fellow freshman how to block shots, in this case it's easy to believe. Udoh seems to ,have surpassed senior Brent Petway as the team's best swatter. Udoh ranks second in the conference (Indiana's D.J. White), averaging 2.44 blocks per game. Udoh's average was helped by his performance against Army, when he recorded nine rejections (second all-time for Michigan basketball). "I've been doing it all my life, real- ly," Udoh said. "It's just natural (to block shots) now." Petway and fellow senior Courtney Sims are not far behind Udoh, rank- ing fifth and sixth in the conference, respectively. With four big men contributing to the team's rejection infatuation, it's no surprise that Michigan currently leads the Big Ten in blocked shots. It doesn't have much competition, either. Minnesota averages fewer than six blocks per game to take sec- ond place. Greg Oden's Ohio State squad is third. And even when Michigan wasn't At Central Street on the Northwest- FedEx-ing the Wildcat attempts right ern campus, the Wolverines held yet back to them, the threat of rejection another block party this past Saturday. still proved costly. Northwestern Michigan recorded six swats of missed three easy lay-ups in the final Wildcat shots, just one short of its four minutes of a game that was with- conference-leading average of seven in reach until the closing seconds. per contest. "Getting those blocks early, it put "They blocked a bunch of shots it in their heads that they have to that were lay-ups, that were executed get (their shots) off quicker," Pet- pretty well," Northwestern coach way said. "Sometimes when you rush Bruce Carmody said. "It's major. Five shots, you leave it short, and I think or six times in the second half we had that's what happened." lay-ups, and they took them away Michigan's guards like to pressure from us, and that's huge." the opposing ball-handler, and hav- Player MN M A_ I M A O- _AIF PTS Petway 29 2-3 3-4 4-8 0 1 7 Coleman 20 3-7 0-0 2-7 2 1 6 Abram 32 4-8 0-0 0-4 0 4 9 Sims, c. 19 3-3 3-4 2-6 0 4 9 Harris 37 2-10 2-3 0-2 8 2 6 Smith 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 Baker 26 3-8 2-2 0-2 0 0 11 Udoh 21 4-5 0-3 3-7 2 0 8 Sims,D. 8 1-2 0-1 1-1 0 3 2 TEAM TOTALS 200 22-47 10-17 12-37 13 15 58 FG%:46.8 FT%: 58.83-pointFG: 4-19 ,211(Baker3-7, Abram 1-4, Harris 0-5, Smith 0-1, Coleman 0-2)Blocks: 6 (Udoh2, Abram, Petway, C. Sims, D. Sims)Steals: 2 (Abram, Petway). Turnovers: 11 (Baker4, Coleman 2, Abram, Petway, C. Sims 2, D. Sims, Smith) Technical fouls: Nose Northwestern 46 Player MIN FG FT REB A F PTS M-A M-A o-T Doyle 37 5-8 3-4 4-5 5 4 13 Coble 28 3-13 3-3 2-5 2 0 10 Scott 40 3-8 2-3 0-3 3 2 8 Moore 37 2-9 0-0 1-5 1 2 5 Williams 13 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 2 0 Okrzesik 19 2-5 0-0 0-0 1 3 6 Nash 13 1-5 0-0 0-1 0 1 3 Ryan 13 0-1 1-2 0-1 1 0 1 TEAM TOTALS 200 16-50 9-12 7-22 113 14 46 Senior Dion Harris and the Wolverines are now 2-0 in conference play. BIG TEN STANDINGS WILDCATS From page 1B from the field in the second half and 32 percent for the game. Michigan had to deal with a very deliberate Wildcat attack. Northwestern (0-2, 10-5) tried to use up all 35 seconds of the shot clock on each possession. The Wolverines wanted to use their superior athleticism and get out on the fast break. Northwestern's strategy won out - Michigan failed to eclipse 30 points in either half. The first half ended withbothteams dead- locked at 28, and the 5,793 fans in attendance anticipating an upset. "That's where, you have to show poise and patience, know- ing that you aren't going to get as many fast-break opportuni- ties," Harris said. With its usual firepower on the offensive end blunted, the Wolverines instead persevered on defense. "We came in saying we had to stay more disciplined than we had been," senior Brent Petway said. "Against (Northwestern), you have to stay disciplined for the entire 35 seconds; and I thought we did an excellent job of that." BROMWICH From page 1B long way toward helping the team make the tournament (Amaker's stated expectation). Winning two of the games is absolutely necessary. One reason is because of the caliber of these upcoming oppo- nents. Purdue beat ACC-power Vir- ginia at home and almost toppled current No. 13 Butler on the road, ix but has dropped a game at Min- nesota and suffered a 19-point loss to Indiana State. Penn State fell just four points short of upsetting then-No. 24 Georgia Tech on the road, but has lost home games to Southeast Louisiana and Stony Brook. These are inconsistent teams, both of which have the potential to beat or lose to anybody on any night. These are the teams that Michigan must beat at home, and With the game crawling at a snail's pace, Michigan had to create extra opportunities for themselves. The Wolverines pounded the glass, grabbing 12 offensive rebounds, including nine in the second half. Petway led the team with eight boards. "They just killed us on the backboards," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "We would stop them two or three times in a row, and they would get second shots." Unlike Wednesday's confer- ence opener against Illinois, inr which seniors Harris and Les- ter Abram led the Wolverines to victory, Saturday was freshman Reed Baker's time to shine. The Fort Myers, Fla., native hadateam-highilpoints,includ-. ing three 3-pointers against Northwestern's zone defense. And after altering his lineup for games against Army and Georgetown, Michigan coach Tommy Amaker stuck with the lineup he used in the win over the Illini and in the season's first 13 games. Seniors Harris, Petway, Abram and Courtney Sims started alongside junior wing Ron Coleman. But in the end, the game wasn't decided on a certain line- up or a big shot. The Wolverines didn't pull away in the second needs to find ways to defeat on the road in order tobe consid- ered a contender in the Big Ten. The other, perhaps more important reason the Wolverines must win two, if not all, of their upcoming three games is because of the schedule that follows. After the home game against Purdue, Michigan travels to No. 4 Wisconsin. Three days later, the Wolverines head to Bloom- ington to face Indiana (where they have not won since 1995). After a home game against Iowa, Michigan hits the road again, this time on its way to Columbus to face current-No. 6 Ohio State. That's at least three games that will be incredibly tough for the Wolverines to win. If Michigan hopes to present itself to the Tournament com- mittee as a viable selection, it needs to finish at least .500 in the Big Ten. Two wins over Purdue and one against Penn State (the shot-blockers behind them allows m to be even more aggressive and :e more turnovers. It gives us more room for error, so can get up and pressure the ball," ior guard Dion Harris said. "If a happens to blow by us, then we >w we have those guys on the back to erase our mistake. I get more fidence in guarding the ball when now I have my guys back there, I they're talking to me, they're ing 'Send him down here."' o the Michigan big men can send ight back. half until they found their old, reliable friend: defense. "We talked about how the sec- ond half was going to be a game for the taking, and whatever team would dig in a little more could muster out a victory, and I thought we played tremendous defensively," Amaker said. "I liked the energy we played with defensively, and we mixed up our defenses a little bit to see if we could take away some of their rhythm on the offensive end. We wanted to disjoint them." The win was the Wolverines' second on the road this season, and puts them in a tie atop the Big Ten standings with Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa. "I think everybody is on the same page right now, from top to bottom," Harris said. "And I think we're back to the normal way that we've been playing." Notes: Freshman guard K'Len Morris will have sea- son-ending surgery to repair an injuredshoulder. The procedure will likely take place in the next two weeks. Morris has been out of the Michiganlineupsinceheinjured the shoulder in practice on Nov. 28 when he fell awkwardly on a dunk attempt. The team is hop- ing he will be granted a medical redshirt by the NCAA. Wolverines won't travelto State College this season) would give them five conference wins, and virtually assure that Michigan finishes no worse than .500 in the Big Ten. Should the Wolverines win just three of their final five home games, they would have eight conference wins, which they fin- ished with last season. If Michigan can win even one road game (they travel to Minne- sota late in the year), that would give them nine conference wins, a mark that should be enough to convince the selection commit- tee that the Wolverines deserve to dance. If so, then this would be the year that Amaker's squad fulfills its potential. And, yes, reaches expectations. - Bromwich hopes he is the first Daily writer in nine years toncover an NCAA Tournament game. He can be reached at dabromwi@umic.edu. FG%: 32 FT%: 75 3-point FG: 5-24, .208 (Okrzesik 2-4, Nash 1-3, Coble 1-5, Moore 1-7, Ryan 0-1, Williams 0-1, Scott 0-3). Blocks: 1 (Williams). Steals: 8 (Moore 3, Nash 2, Coble, Doyle, Williams). Turnovers: 10 (Doyle 4, Coble 2, Okrzesik 2, Moore, Williams ). Technical fouls: None. Michigan...........28 30 - 58 At: Welsh-Ryan Arena Northwestern....28 18 - 46 Attendance: 5, 793 Team Ohio State Michigan Wisconsin Iowa Purdue Penn State Minnesota Michigan State Indiana Illinois Northwestern Big Ten 2 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 2 Overall 13 2 14 3 15 1 9 6 12 4 10 5 7 9 13 3 9 4 12 5 10 5 Player GP Min Pts R j1A Sims, C. 17 23.7 13.1 6.7 0.4 Harris 17 30.8 12.5 2.4 4.5 Coleman 17 25.3 6.7 3.4 1.4 Petway 17 23.7 7.2 6.6 1.4 Abram 17 26.9 9.3 4.4 2.4 Udoh 17 19.9 5.2 4.5 0.8 Smith 17 20.4 3.9 2.1 2.8 Sims, D. 15 9.9 3.8 1.9 0.4 Shepherd 14 10.4 2.5 1.9 0.5 Price 4 4.0 2.3 1.5 0.3 Baker 14 10.4 3.6 0.6 0.4 Morris 7 5.3 1.0 0.3 0.1 Merritt 2 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 DeVries 1 3.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 THIS WEEK'S PAST GAMES Tuesday's games No. 6 OHIo STATE 74-Indiana 67 Wednesday's games MicHIGAN 71-Illinois 61 MINNESOTA 65-Purdue59 Thursday's games lWoWA 62-No. 24 Michigan State 60 Saturday's games No. 4 WscoNSIN 68, Minnesota 45 No. 6 Ohio State 62, ILLINoIS 44 PURDUE 64, Penn State 60 Michigan 58, NoRTHwESTERN 46 Sunday's games INDIANA 73-No. 24 Michigan State 51 A