10 - Friday, November 2, 2007

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

MEN'S BASKETBALL
Seniority rules for
Blue in exhibition
By DAN FELDMAN get them out. So there was no plan
Daily Sports Writer there."
NEW DEFENSE: Michigan held
Seniority rules worked last the Bulldogs to just 40 points.
night. Will it work again next Fri- In the second half, the Wolver-
day? ines even mixed in the 1-3-1 zone,
After practice Wednesday, which they only learned just eight
Michigan men's days ago.
basketball coach NOTEBOOK The zone forced a few turnovers.
John Beilein And the Wolverines disrupted Fer-
wouldn't release last night's start- ris State's passing lanes.
ing lineup, but told people not to Beilein said the zone finally
put much stock into it. He said, clicked withabout seven or eight
when in doubt, he tends to go with minutes to go in the game, just
experience. before Michigan switched back to
Senior Ron Coleman, junior man-to-man.
Jerret Smith, redshirt sophomore "We talked," Coleman said. "We
Zack Gibson, sophomore DeShawn communicated. We made sure we
Sims and redshirt freshman K'Len helped each other out there. Coach
Morris started for Michigan. Cole- made a call, we made sure every-
man said the Wolverines didn't body knew by echoing."
know the lineup until they showed Grady, in particular, was a nui-
up for the game. sance to the Bulldog offense, living
The unit began the game in a up to his high school reputation by
fury, opening up a 15-2 lead against swarming passing lanes and regis-
Ferris State. tering two steals.
Although the Wolverines Sims and Gibson had two steals
struggled to a 14-to-19 assist- each. Ekpe Udoh had four blocks.
to-turnover ratio, the first unit LIGHTS OUT: For all the talk
had just one passing mistake and about those new $800,000 lights,
assists on 3-of-5 field goals (one Crisler Arena was darker than pre-
of the non-assisted ones was a renovation for a bit last night.
Gibson putback), while playing The lights flashed off briefly
together for the first 5:45 of the at 6:50 p.m. And with 12 minutes
game. left to tip-off, the lights turned off
"I think already we have a great again. The cheerleaders and dance
bond, a great team chemistry," team ran out and surrounded the
Coleman said. floor. Spotlights waved around the
Beilein said he'd like to get a set arena as a cheerleader waved an
starting lineup, but isn't yet sure 'M' flag on the court under another
what he'll change before Michigan spotlight.
opens the regular season against The lights turned back on and
Radford next Friday. He said he more cheerleaders carrying flags
has to make sure five players who that spelled out M-I-C-H-I-G-A-N
are struggling to pick up his new led the Wolverines out, and Michi-
schemes never end up on the court gan went into its typical pregame
at the same time. layup line.
All the starters left the game After the national anthem, the
with 14:15 left in the half to make lights went back out, and a video
way for junior Jevohn Shepherd, played on the scoreboard showing
sophomore Ekpe Udoh, redshirt old Michigan games, from early
freshman Anthony Wright and grainy footage to the team's 1989
freshmen Manny Harris and Kel- National Title run.
vin Grady. The lights went back off for
"I probably had never done that player introductions. The spotlight
in my life," Beilein said of the five- followed Michigan players, but the
for-five switch. "There was a lot Bulldogs came out in the dark.
of coaching today that was about "That was crazy," Coleman said.
an exhibition game. Get guys in, "I never expected that."

M' welcomes fans to Beilein Ball

By IAN ROBINSON
Daily Sports Writer
For Michigan basketball fans
that came to last night's exhibition
game against Ferris State hoping
to learn John Beilein basketball
didn't have to wait very long.
On the first possession, Michi-
gan forward DeShawn Sims hit a
3-pointer from the right wing.
Sims made just one last season.
He started the second half in the
same way, knocking down a three
for the first hoop of the period.
Forget making them.
Sims attempted seven threes all
of last year. He finished last night
with six tries - he made three.
"He's shownus that he can really
shoot the ball in practice, so he has
a greener light than other people,"
said Michigan coach John Beilein,
whose teams are known to shoot
frequently from behind the arc.
The Wolverines continued the
long-range shooting all night, hit-
ting 10 from downtown in the 78-
40 win under the new lights at
Crisler Arena.
In addition to some of the out-
side shooting, Beilein liked the
team's attitude.
"We ran on an off the court; the
kids looked like they were play-
ing as a team," Beilein said. "They
shared the ball."
The Wolverines finished the
game with 14 assists.
He cautioned, however, not to
take too many positive things out
of this first exhibition game.
Along with those assists came
19 turnovers - something natural
BREAKDOWN
From page 9
Special teams:
Earlier this season, the coach
of Ann Arbor's Pop Warner team
probably wouldn't have trusted-
the Wolverines' special teams.
Jason Gingell missed field goal
after fieldgoal, Michigan's returns
went nowhere and the Wolverines
made more mental mistakes than
President Bush.
But recently, things have come
together for the unit. K.C. Lopa-

for a young team in a new system.
But even that was an improvement
upon last week's unofficial scrim-
mage against Kent State. Beilein
joked his players did a better job of
throwing passes to Michigan play-
ers last night instead of the oppo-
nent.
"I could stop the tape and make
five different remarks on every
single play," Beilein said. "So, that's
the way it's going to be for awhile.
... But we're not that good at any-
thing yet. And it's going to take a
long process."
Part of that process has been
working on the fundamentals of
shooting - and maybe even more
important - the confidence to
shoot.
"When I got out of the shower
this morning, I knew I was going
to shoot that three because it's a
confidence that I have now in my
shot," said Sims about game's first
shot. "I worked enough on it, and
(I'm) gonna keep working on it to
get even better at it. I wasn't sur-
prised that I made it at all. I knew
that it was going in."
Sims's three, two Coleman
threes and a Zack Gibson putback
off a missed three helped the Wol-
verines build an early 15-2 lead
that they never relinquished.
About six minutes into the game,
freshman Manny Harris came off
the bench with four other subs
and immediately made an impact
by scoring Michigan's first basket
with a layup.
Harris led Michigan with 15
points, but his impact was felt all
over the court. He provided ener-

I

Forward DeShawn Sims demonstrated Michigan coach John Beilein's philosophy
by shooting six threes in yesterday's 78-40 win.

gy off the bench, jumping the pass-
ing lane and grabbing rebounds in
the key. ,
"He was flying all over the
place," Beilein said. "He has a
chance to be a good player one day
because of those qualities. ... He
wants to be a good player, and he's
willing to be coached."
Harris was just one rebound shy
of a double-double. He might have
achieved that mark if not for alate-
game injury.
With three minutes left in the
game, Harris went down in front
of the visitor's coaching boy. He
lay on the floor for moment, not
moving his leg as the entire arena
went silent - more silent than the
sparse crowd had been all night.

Harris got off the floor under his
own energy, sat on the bench with
his teammates and walked the
steps up to the locker room.
"I think that when he hit the
floor pretty hard. It shook him up
pretty good," Beilein said. "We're
very hopeful."
With one week until Michigan's
season opener, against Radford
next Friday night, Beilein set the
schedule so his team would have
enough time after last night's game
to prep for the first regular-season
game.
"We're not going to know the
system all right now, but if you
work hard, sometimes you can
cover up for the little things,"
junior Jerret Smith said.
quite as much about winning for
rivalry's sake. The Wolverines are
focused on continuing to redeem
their season. Michigan has slowly
moved up the polls thanks to its
seven-game winning streak, and,
not to jinx it, but atrip to the Rose
Bowl seems like a very real pos-
sibility.
The Wolverines have also beat
their annoying rival for the past
five years.

ta is a perfect 8-of-8 on field- Intangibles:
goal attempts. Returners Greg
Mathews and Carlos Brown are As Detroit Fr
poised to break off big runs soon. nist (and Daily
And Zoltan Mesko continues to Rosenberg point
boom punts, he just needs his cov- day, Michigan S
erage team to down them. Dantonio is tak
For the Spartans, Thomas out of Jim Tress'
poses a threat on kickoffs, and Much like Tr
kicker Brett Swenson is 10-of-16 legacy of the J
on the year. But given how poorly from day one, I
Michigan played earlier this sea- team hyped for
son, we're not ready to give it this the Wolverines.
category yet. Spartans' locker
counting downt
Edge: Push Saturday's matc
Michigan prol

I
6

ree Press colum-
alum) Michael
ted out the other-
tate coach Mark
ing a page right
el's playbook.
essel erased the
ohn Cooper era
Dantonio has his
its game against
A clock in the
r room has been
the seconds until
hup.
bably doesn't care

Edge: Push
Prediction:
Michigan State

Michigan 28,
e21


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