The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, March 16, 2007 - 9
PETER SCHOTTENFELS/Daly
Sophomore Jack Johnson, who was named the CCHA's Best Offensive Defenseman
last night, hopes to end Michigan's winless streak against Michigan State at the Joe.
Rivals set to
remnatch in Joe
FLORIDA STATE 87, MICHIGAN 66
Sunbaked
Michigan's season ends in NIT
By H. JOSE BOSCH Florida State star forward Al
Daily Sports Editor Thornton brought the crowd
to life when he followed Har-
TALLAHASSEE - The ris's 3-pointers with an alley-
Michigan men's basketball oop dunk. From that point on,
team's emotional season came the Wolverines failed consis-
to an end last night with an 87- tently to take care of the ball,
66 loss to Florida State in the and Florida State (22-12) took
second round of the National advantage.
Invitational Tournament. With Michigan holding a
As the program begins the three-point lead later in the
process of preparing for next half, a Harris pass toward the
year, it's uncertain how differ- basket bounced off the rim and
ent it will look. into the hands of the Semi-
Michigan will lose four noles. The turnover allowed
starting seniors, and questions Florida State to score and pull
abound about Michigan coach within one,19-18.
Tommy Amaker's job security. The Wolverines committed a
"We're going to keep doing shot-clockviolationonthe next
our jobs," Amaker said of him- possession, and the Seminoles
self and his staff. "The next made a pair of free throws on
step for us is to get back to Ann the ensuing possession to take
Arbor, figure out things with their first lead of the game.
our current team and then look Michigan never led again.
at recruiting and then move on The Wolverines held Thorn-
in that direction." ton under his season average,
The game was already in but allowed five other players
hand when Florida State's Uche to score in double digits. Flor-
Echefu hit a 3-pointer to end ida State guards Isaiah Swann
the first half and an 18-7 run by and Toney Douglas led all scor-
the Seminoles. ers with 15 points a piece.
"They had the momentum Harris and Abram paced
going throughout the last half the Wolverines with 15 and 14
of the first half, and then they points, respectively.
came out in the second half and With the season finished, the
stepped the momentum up," four seniors have an opportu-
Harris said. "We got behind nity to reflect on their careers.
and we weren't able to recov- And despite the roller-coaster' 1
er." ride, it'll be the good moments
For most of the first frame, that will stay with them.
Michigan (22-13) was competi- "I just look back on my four
tive and physical. years and think about the fun
With bodies continuously times," senior forward Brent
crashing to the ground, the Petway said. "Once you're done
Wolverines built a 16-8 lead with your career, there will be
after back-to-back 3-pointers some times that will linger in
from senior guard Dion Harris. your head, but you don't want
But after Harris's shots, Mich- to think about the worst times,
igan began to lose its momen- you want to think about the
tum and unraveled in front of time you had fun on the court APPHOTO
the 6,033 screaming fans at the and off the court with the Freshman Ekpe Udoh and the rest of the Wolverines struggled to stop Florida State
Donald L. Tucker Center. guys." all night. The Seminoles had five players reach double digits
Petway questions team's effort
following season-ending loss
By NATE SANDALS
Daily Sports Writer
it's been a long time since No. 9
Michigan last beat No.11 Michigan
State at Joe Louis Arena.
How long?
Try 1,476 days.
March 1, 2003. Michigan
Nineteen days at CCHA
before the Iraq
War began. Tournament
And it's not for
lack of opportu- Matchup:
nities. In seven Michigan State
tries since then, 21-12-3; Michi
Michigan is 0- gan 25-12-1
4-3. When:
That means 8:05 p.m.
no current Wol- Where: Joe
verine player Louis Arena
has defeated
the Spartans in TV/Radio:
Hockeytown. FSN Detroit/
Once again, WTKA 1050
Michigan must
get past Michi-
gan State at Joe Louis Arena to
continue its path toward a CCHA
Tournament championship.
Despite recent history, you
couldn't find any disappointed
faces at practice this week.
"If you're going to win the
CCHA playoffs, you've got to beat
Michigan State," sophomore Jack
Johnson said. "There's no better
way to do it."
Tonight's semifinal matchup
will be the sixth meeting between
the intrastate rivals this season.
The season-long bout is current-
ly tied, each team with a 2-2-1
record.
With such an extensive history,
it's hard to keep any secrets.
"We know their team and they
know our team," said Michigan
coach Red Berenson, who has led
the Wolverines to 18 consecutive
CCHA semifinals. "Each team
knows the other team can beat
them."
The squads last met on Feb. 10.
And while the final score was 3-3,
Michigan came out looking like
the better team.
Down by three midway through
the second period, the Wolverines
went on a tear. Freshman Chris
Summers scored twice and then
assisted on sophomore Andrew
Cogliano's game-tying goal with
less than two minutes remaining.
There was little doubt that if the
game could have continued past
the five-minute overtime, Michi-
gan (18-9-1 CCHA, 25-12-1 overall)
would have broken its streak at the
Joe.
"We had numerous chances to
capitalize and win that game,"
senior captain Matt Hunwick said.
"We didn'tgetitdone. But (tonight)
there will be no ties, so if it takes
80 minutes to play, we will."
Whether tonight's game goes
the regulation 60 minutes or lon-
ger, the winner will play for an
automatic bid to the NCAA Tour-
nament against the winner of the
other semifinal game (No. 1 Notre
Dame vs. Lake Superior State), at 7
p.m Saturday.
Though both Michigan and
Michigan State (15-10-3, 21-12-3)
appear to have sewn up bids for the
NCAA Tournament, the results of
this weekend's games will affect
seeding and which region each is
placed in.
While it's comforting to know
the season will probably continue
past this weekend, the Wolverines
don't want to back into the NCAA
Tournament.
"We have a chance of control-
ling our destiny by winning our
games," Berenson said.
NOTES: Four Wolverines picked
up hardware at last night's CCHA
Awards Ceremony. Defensemen
Jack Johnson and Matt Hunwick
grabbed Best Offensive and Best
Defensive Defensemen awards,
respectively. It's just the fourth
time back liners from the same
team have each won defensemen
awards in the same season. ...
Tim Cook was the recipient of the
Ilitch Humanitarian award. ... T.J.
Hensick officially won the CCHA's
scoring title, but came up short
in the Player of the Year voting
to Notre Dame goaltender David
Brown.
By H. JOSE BOSCH
Daily Sports Editor
TALLAHASSEE - Senior forward Brent
Petway, the vocal leader of the Michigan
men's basketball team, was not pleased with
the effort his teammates gave during last
night's loss to Florida State.
"I thought we were a little casual with
the (ball)," Petway said. "And I thought at a
couple of times we weren't playing too hard.
There were some people that weren't giving
us their maximum effort despite people try-
ing to tell others (to play harder)."
Petway was then asked how a team with so
many veterans could exert less-than-maxi-
mum effort.
"I can't really express (why it happened),"
Petway said. "To each his own, I guess. You
try to be a good teammate and tell them to
pick it up and sometimes they just don't want
to do it. What can you do?"
Fellow senior Dion Harris disagreed.
"I didn't notice anything," Harris said. "I
thought that everybody, for the most part,
played hard and tried to give it their all."
THEIR OWN WORST ENEMY: Whether
it was a result of effort or poor execution,
the Wolverines shot themselves in the foot
numerous times in the first half, even though
they had chances to build on some early
momentum.
When the Seminoles pulled within two
points early in the game, Harris hit two con-
secutive 3-pointers to give Michigan its big-
gest lead of the night, 16-8.
And with the Wolverines trailing 23-21
with just under five minutes to play in the first
half, Harris tied the game with a jumper.
But even Harris on a good day couldn't
save the Wolverines from themselves. After
that game-tying jumper, Michigan commit-
ted three first-half turnovers which resulted
in an Isaiah Swann 3-pointer, an Al Thornton
layup and a Thornton dunk. All three plays
brought the crowd to its feet and put the Wol-
verines into a deeper hole.
"We gave them a lot of things in transi-
tion," Harris said. "We turned the ball over
and they're a great transition team, and
that's what they did. They were able to get
layups and dunks, and knock some (3-point-
ers) down."
Despite shooting 52 percent from the floor
in the first half (50 percent from beyond the
arc), Michigan's 10 turnovers to just three
assists ultimately doomed the team.
The Wolverines' shooting in the second
half didn't help. Their field-goal shooting
dropped to 32 percent, and they committed
11 more turnovers.
"We turned the ball over a lot from our
perimeter players and we weren't able to ini-
tiate offense because of (Florida State's) pres-
sure," Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said.
"When those things happen, it's a formula for
disaster, especially on the road."
NOTES: Last night's contest not only
marked senior Courtney Sims' final game
for the Wolverines. It was also his 132nd
straight game, meaning Sims has played in
every single game since joining the team.
... Last night's meeting between Michigan
and Florida State wasn't the first time the
two schools have met in the National Invita-
tional Tournament. The Wolverines defeated
the Seminoles 82-73 in the 1997 NIT finals.
But because of NCAA sanctions, Michigan's
win and championship were struck from its
records. ... Michigan's record on the road
dropped to 2-7 this season.
Excited for the CCHA playoffs?
If you're not too drunk, head to
michigandaly.com for live coverage
from our writers, who will be ,
blogging from Joe Louis Arena in
Detroit and will have stories posted
online following each game.
Hockey not your thing?
Check out our March
Madness updates, too.
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