Thought last weekend was bad? Scott Bell examines this week's coaching-search debacle. Page 2B
The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I December10, 2007
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Duke
trounces
Blue in
lowout
By MARK GIANNOTTO
Daily Sports Writer
DURHAM, N.C. - It would seem on paper the
Michigan men's basketball team finally caught a
scheduling break.
They traveled to the unfriendly confines of
Cameron Indoor Stadium on a week's rest, but the
Wolverines, who play seven freshmen or sopho-
mores, went up against a Duke team relying pri-
marily on its own seven underclassmen.
Unfortunately, what's on paper can't always
transfer to the court.
In its 95-67 loss to the Blue Devils Saturday,
Michigan not only learned how farthis team has
to go this season, butexactly how far this program
needs to climb in the long run to one day measure
up to the likes of Duke.
"We do have some upperclassmen who know
the system," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
"For (Michigan), everybody is a freshman, really.
It's new. And they'll keep getting better and bet-
ter. At this point in the season, it's not instinctive,
where our guys have a greater chance of doing
that because our guys know what we want."
Make no mistake, though. This wasn't like the
Georgetown blowout earlier in the season, where
it became clear early on the young Wolverines
were in over their heads.
The Blue Devils allowed Michigan to hang
around in the game's opening minutes. Duke
missed its first seven shots of the contest and the
Wolverines even held a 10-8 advantage with 14:34
remaining in the first half.
Then the Blue Devils showed exactly why they
are poised to be one of college basketball's jugger-
nauts come March. Duke went on runs of 9-0 and
14-0 to give itself an18-point cushion heading into
halftime.
The Wolverines never recovered and, in the
process, lost for the sixth time in seven games.
"It was the transition," redshirt junior C.J. Lee
said. "They were getting out and getting buckets,
and you can't do that, especially on someone's
home floor, because that's going to get the crowd
involved."
Many of Duke's fast-break points came cour-
tesy of its work on the other end of the floor. The
Blue Devils' pressure man-to-man defense made
things hard on Wolverine ballhandlers, who had
trouble even getting the team into its offense at
tunes.
See DUKE, Page 5B
MA X COLLI NS,
Freshman Matt Rust scored a shorthanded goal in the first period Saturday to put the Wolverines on top early. Michigan is 11-1 in CCHA play as the first half of the season comes to an en'
Ugly vitories for Hockey team
Michigan
demands attention
By MICHAEL EISENSTEIN
Daily Sports Writer
BOWLING GREEN - The Michi-
gan hockey team's accomplishments
from its home-and-home weekend
series sweep against Bowling Green:
. First place in the CCHA standings?
Check.
Shot at a No. l ranking? Check.
Outplay the other team? Not so
much.
"I think we were lucky," Michigan
coach Red Berenson said. "Whether
it's holiday hockey or what it is, it's not
the kind of hockey that we're trying to
play."
The third-ranked Wolverines (11-1
CCHA, 16-2 overall) snuck away with
a 4-2 win Friday and 3-2 victory Sat-
urday behind strong play from junior
Billy Sauer and freshman Bryan
Hogan. Sauer helped Michigan end
a two-game losing streak in Bowl-
ing Green with 27 saves Friday, and
Hogan had some eye-popping stops
of his own in his second-career start
Saturday. The two, who led the sing-
ing of The Victors in the locker room
after the game, compensated for the
struggling forwards.
Hogan just missed a rare goal in
a late-game clear with the Bowling
Green net empty, which Berenson jok-
ingly suggested was one of the best
offensive moments of the game.
"We didn't think we had a good
period in the game," Berenson said.
"And you saw what kind of a game it
was - our goalie had a better chance
of scoring than our forwards."
The Wolverines were outshot
through two periods Saturday night,
See FALCONS, Page 4B
BOWLING GREEN -
This year's Michigan hockey
team wasn't supposed to be
good
- not by Michi-
gan standards
at least.
This team
wasn't sup-
posed to be
first in the
CCHA halfway
through the NATE
season. SANDALS
This team _ _
wasn't supposed. Enter
to win 16 of its Sandman
first 18 games.
But it's time
to start paying attention.
Here we are at the end of the fall
semester, and all of those things are no
longer pipe dreams. They're reality.
Be a little amazed. Everyone else
is.
"It's obviously surprising," Michi-
gan coach Red Berenson said. "I don't
think anyone in this room, myself
included, would have predicted this
team could have pulled that off. But
that's the one thing about coaching,
that's the one thing about playing
- you never know until you play the
game."
Now get past the shock. It's time
to look forward and realize this is
one of the most enjoyable Michigan
teams to follow in recent years - in
any sport.
Senior captain Kevin Porter is the
clear favorite for the Hobey Baker
Award, college hockey's Heisman
Trophy. His 29 points leadthe nation,
See SANDALS, Page 4B
Michigan coach Mark Rosen and the Wolverines ended their postseason run by losing to Penn State Friday in the Sweet 16
of the NCAA Tournament.
Historic run ends with loss to top team
Late free throws seal'M' win
By.ALEX PROSPERI
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan's biggest win of the
season wasn't without drama.
As a senior at LaSalle high school
in St. Ignace, Michigan senior guards4,4
Krista Clement missed a free throw
to cost her team a win in the region-
al final.
A similar scenario surfaced late
in Saturday's game against Ken-
tucky, but this time, Clement had
better luck.
Up two points with the clock
winding down, Michigan center
Krista Phillips blocked Kentucky
guard Samantha Mahoney's layup
attempt.
The ball landed in Clement's
hands, and the guard was fouled
with four seconds left.
Clement stepped to the charity
stripe and calmly knocked down
both free throws to seal the Wolver-
ines' victory.A
"If you saw during the game,
everyone was coming around
me," said Clement, who scored 12
points, pulled down a career-high
nine rebounds and committed just
one turnover. "They were joking
about how ever since I was in first
grade, I've dreamed about making-
the game-winning free throws. We ROB MIGRIN/Daily
were making jokes about it, so it was Sophomore Krista Phillips blocked a Kentucky layup attempt late in Saturday's
nice to be relaxed when I was up game en route to Michigan's biggest win this season.
there."
Michigan not only beat Ken- as frustrated as Michigan coacha overs.
tucky 63-59 on Saturday, it beat the Kevin Borseth, who at one point Three times Skrba committed a
Wildcats (4-5) while committing 22 walked down to the end of the turnover after grabbing a defensive
turnovers, the most the Wolverines bench and threw both fists onto an rebound.
have had in a win all season. empty chair. "Coach spoke to me even during
Simply put, the Wolverines made Four Wolverines committed the game and after and (he said)
bad pass after bad pass. three or more turnovers, including 'Just chin the ball and then look
The contest was marked by Stephany Skrba, who almost had for your dribble,' " Skrba said. "But
countless grunts from the 2,000- a not-so-great triple-double - 10 what I tend to do is just get the ball
plus Crisler Arena crowd that was points, 10 rebounds and seven turn- See WILDCATS, Page 3B
By NICOLE AUERBACH
DailySports Writer
STATE COLLEGE - Michigan
won six of the final seven points
in the NCAA volleyball regional
semifinal against No. 1 Penn State
Friday night.
But it couldn't win the most
important one - match point.
The Michigan volleyball team
upset No. 21 Colorado State last
weekend to earn the program's
first berth to the Sweet 16 in the
NCAA Tournament, but the his-
toric high didn't last long.
In less than 90 minutes, Penn
State defeated the Wolverines 3-0
(30-15, 30-18, 30-18) at State Col-
lege. The teams had never met
before in the NCAA Tournament,
but Penn State took both regu-
lar-season matchups between the
two.
"There weren't a lot of scary
moments," Penn State coach Russ
Rose said.
If there were any, the Wolver-
ines' six-point run at the end of
the third game might qualify. For
Michigan, the run concluded the
season on a solid note despite a
tough loss.
"We just went after it hardcore,"
senior co-captain Lyndsay Miller
said. "We were going hard the
entire game, but we wanted to fin-
ish playing Michigan volleyball."
Unfortunately for the Wolver-
ines, Penn State controlled the rest
of the match. The Nittany Lions
dominated from the start, jumping
out to a 10-4 lead in the first game
and not lookingback.
Michigan was on the defensive
for the entire match. The Wolver-
ines couldn't mount a consistent
offensive attack, behind many
attack errors.
"Penn State caused the errors,"
Michigan coach Mark Rosen said.
"Theyhad 16.5 blocks. They served
tough. I don't think our team was
unprepared, and I don't think they
played poorly."
The kill-to-attempt ratio was
negative (-.033) for Michigan in
the first and third games - the .
The Wolverines were just 7-for-
30 in each game. Michigan tallied
27 total kills compared to Penn
State's 48.
See VOLLEYBALL, Page 2B