2B - January 28, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Here's a proposition...
Whether you're excited
for the Super Bowl
itself, the halftime
show and commercials or just
the simple fact
that a week
from now Tom
Brady's ankle,
will no longer
be front-page
news, nearly
everyone has a
vested interest SCOTT
in this Sunday's BELL
Patriots-Giants
matchup.
Me? While those are enough
to get me excited, I truly love the
Super Bowl for another reason.
Prop bets.
When else is it socially accept-
able to put money on whether the
coinflip will be heads or tails?
(Tails never fails, obviously.) Does
the idea of winning money for
correctly guessing the length of
the national anthem intrigue you?
(Always take the over, nobody sim-
ply sings the traditional anthem
anymore.) Wouldn't you be excited
to be rewarded for simply predict-
ing the first person the Super Bowl
MVP thanks after the game? (The
early favorite: God.)
Let's be honest - Sunday's game
won't be that good. Despite what
40.5% of ESPN.com's visitors (and
a lot of delusional New Yorkers)
say, the Giants don'thave much of a
chance. Since the pageantry of the
Super Bowl can only entertain you
until the Patriots take a double-
digit lead, prop bets are a great
way to stay awake as the confetti
falls and the post-game celebration
begins.
Does being bored through
games where the outcome is pretty
much already determined hitclose
to home for you? If you're a Univer-
sity of Michigan student, it should.
So instead of helplessly watch-
ing the Michigan basketball team
limp across the finish line this
season, I'm offering you a variety
of odds to spice up your Michigan
sports viewing experience.
Case in point: Yesterday's
Michigan-Michigan State hoops
game. Most of Wolverine Nation
was probablyupset over the 15
point loss. Me? I was high-fiving
my roommates after Michigan's
buzzer-beater made the margin
15 points (the spread was 16.5).
Pathetic? Of course - but I'm a
Michigan basketball fan. I'll take
any silver lining I can find.
Of course, I don't condone
gambling for cash - you should be
wagering M&M's or high fives or
anything else I need to say to cover
my butt. With that disclaimer
aside, if you're up for something
new, here are some starter lines
to enhance your Michigan sports
experience:
Michigan football: Number
of innovative plays in Michigan's
home opener this year vs. total
number of innovative plays in the
past 13 years. (Early favorite: home
opener).
Michigan women's basketball
team: Total wins this season vs.
total home attendance this season.
(Early favorite: Total wins).
Michigan men's basketball
team: Moral victories vs. actual
victories. (Early favorite: Moral
victories - by a lot).
Michigan hockey: Kevin Por-
ter's chances at winningthe Hobey
Baker award vs. the field. (Early
favorite: Porter).
Michigan hockey: Number of
curse words coming from the Yost
crowd at the next hockey game
vs. number of letters in the alpha-
bet multiplied by 1,000,000 plus
grains of sand along the Pacific
Coast. (Early favorite: curse words
at Yost).
Michigan/Michigan State
interaction: Number of MSU
students who say "Who's little
brother now?" in the next week
vs. number of Michigan students
who respond with "Hey, at least I
still go to Michigan." (Early favor-
ite: Push).
Michigan football: Michigan
landing the nation's No. 1 recruit
Terrelle Pryor vs. Ohio State get-
ting Pryor's commitment. (Early
favorite: Ohio State).
Michigan graduation: Seniors
graduating in the Big House vs.
seniors graduating in Anchorage,
Alaska. (Early favorite: Anchor-
age).
Michigan football: Number of
angry Michigan students if Ter-
relle Pryor goes to Ohio State vs.
number of angry Michigan stu-
dents if graduation isn't at the Big
House. (Early favorite: Push).
West Virginia/Michigan
interaction: West Virginia fans
with rational arguments plus
West Virginia fans with full sets
of teeth vs. number of former
Mountaineer coaches at Michi-
gan. (Early favorite: Number of
former Mountaineer coaches at
Michigan).
- Bell can be reached at
scotteb@umich.edu.
Up and down weekend for Wolverines
Low
giVE
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the No.
all se
son. TI
week-
end's p:
of du
meets
Cliff Ki
Mich
tiers pu
an earl
victory
But
Saturda
Lara an
couldn'
"We
muchi
Joe Mc
gling a
have ki
fidence
er weight classes there and fight."
Lara and Diehl suffered early
e opponents 'too pins and Michigan couldn't recov-
er. Despite eventually closing a
nuch respect' 15-point deficitto three, Michigan
fell to the Golden Gophers, 24-15.
By IAN KAY In the meet's opening match,
DailySports Writer Minnesota's No. 1 nationally
ranked 125-pounder Jayson Ness
nsistency at the lower took just 1:13 to pin Lara. At 133,
classes has been an issue for Michigan faced a similar fate
6 Michigan wrestlingteam against another highly ranked
a- -- -- opponent. No. 2 Mack Reiter
his MINNESOTA 24 stacked up Deihl and pinned him
MICHIGAN 15 at the 1:26 mark of the first peri-
air 'PURDUE 12 od.
ial MICHIGAN 24 The two falls gave Minnesota
at a 12-0 lead that they didn't relin-
een Arena revealed why. quish.
sigan's two lightest wres- The Wolverines were shut out
dled the Wolverines out of until eighth-ranked Josh Churella
y hole en route to a 24-12 turned in the Wolverines' stron-
over Purdue Friday night. gest performance of the day at 149
against No. 4 Minnesota pounds.
ay, 125-pounder Jason Churella recorded two take-
id 133-pounder Chris Diehl downs and six back points before
t repeat their success. finally pinning his opponent in
just gave them way too the second period. The fifth-year
respect," Michigan coach senior captain recorded more than
Parland said. "We're strug- four minutes of riding time in the
t 125 and 133 because we 4:13 match.
ds that are lacking in con- "I was trying to get our team
and aren't ready to go out back on track after we fell down
pretty hard in the first two
weights," Churella said.
Churella's win did just that,
spurring Michigan's best rally of
the day. All Americans Eric Ten-
nenbaun, Steve Luke and Tyrel
Todd each earned decisions. Mich-
igan trailed by only three points
with just two matches remaining.
But the Wolverines' momentum
wasn't enough to carry them to
victory.
Redshirt freshman Ryan Selley
appeared outmatched filling in
for classmate Anthony Biondo at
197 pounds and at heavyweight,
redshirt freshman Matt Guhn was
unable to secure the pin needed to
tie the dual.
"We have some guys who
are not wrestling with great
intensity," McFarland said.
"Maybe they just don't understand
what intensity is, but it's hurting
us in some of these dual meets."
Michigan's inability to com-
plete the comeback was even more
disappointing because the Wol-
verines had rallied from a similar
deficit the night before against
Purdue.
Against the Boilermakers,
Michigan found itself facing a 9-
During the game's last media
timeout, the crowd burst into a
"little sister" chant, referring to
Michigan football player Mike
Hart's "little brother" comments
after Michigan beat the Spartans
this fall.
Michigan hasn't won in East
Lansing since 1997. The 14,759
in attendance provided a rau-
cous atmosphere for Beilein's
first experience in the intra-state
0 deficit after 14th-ranked Biondo
was forced to retire with a hyper-
extended elbow and Guhn lost a
close heavyweight match.
But Michael Watts turned the
tables against Purdue in the 125-
pound match. The junior outlasted
his opponent to score a 2-0 deci-
sion and start a Wolverine rally.
At 133 pounds, Diehl scored three
takedowns and accumulated more
than two minutes of riding time in
a solid decision.
The back-to-backvictories were
especially encouraging because
Watts and Diehl came into the
dual with a combined 19-25 record
for the season.
"We needed those wins,"
McFarland said. "I knew 125 and
133 were critical matches for us
because we needed to get back
into it."
Following Diehl's win, the Wol-
verines overwhelmed Purdue in
the middle weights. Michigan
won five of the meet's final six
matches.
With such dominance at 165,174
and 184 pounds, Michigan doesn't
need dominance from its lightest
wrestlers. What the Wolverines
need is consistency.
rivalry.
"I don't think there's (a rival-
ry) that's better than this," said
Beilein, who has been coaching
college basketball since 1978. "We
just have to improve so that we
can make it a game right down to
the end and sneak out of here with
a win one of these years."
After winning just four of 40
minutes yesterday, that might not
happen for a while.
Clock management
mishap seals road
loss to Hawkeyes
Iowa senior Solverson
torches Michigan
with 28 points
By ALEX PROSPERI
Daily Sports Writer
IOWA CITY - The Michigan
women's basketball team looked
helpless during the final 30 sec-
onds of yesterday's game at Iowa.
Although Michigan was still in
the game, trailing by three, the
Wolver-
inesfailed MICHIGAN 61
to foul to IOWA 66
stop the
clock.
The mental error cost Michi-
gan a chance to tie and the Wol-
verines eventually lost, 66-61, to
the Hawkeyes Sunday at Carver
Hawkeye Arena.
The game wouldn't have been
that close if Iowa senior forward
Johanna Solverson hadn't carried
the Hawkeyes on her back. She
carried, lugged and hauled her
team to a victory.
Michigan helped her cause,
too. The Wolverines committed
18 turnovers in addition to falling
apart defensively in the waning
minutes.
"As poorly as we played we still
could have won that game down
the stretch," Michigan coach
Kevin Borseth said.
BASKETBALL
From page 1B
into East Lansing.
But Harris, the hero of last
week's game for the Wolverines,
couldn't get anything going yes-
terday. And the other primary
source of Michigan offense, Sims,
had even more trouble.
The Spartans gave the duo what
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo
called the "Michael Jordan treat-
ment" on defense and held them
to 5-for-21 from the field and just
17 points.
The 3-point shooting that kept
the Wolverines in the game in the
first half went cold in the second.
A 2-for-18 performance beyond
the are kept the Spartan lead in
double digits for the rest of the
game.
Before the matchup, Michigan
and Iowa were part of a five-team
logjam tied for second place in the
Big Ten.
Michigan forward Carly Benson
did her best to make sure the Wol-
verines didn't drop in the stand-
ings, but her 22 points weren't
enough to rescue Michigan from
the "Solverson Show."
The 6-foot-2 redshirt senior,
who chipped in just three points
when Michigan beat Iowa in
December, scored a season-high
28 points yesterday. It was her best
game since her return from two
knee injuries that cost her the last
two seasons.
"I've been working really hard,"
Solverson said. "This game just
put me right up where I want to be
and hopefully, it continues."
Michigan tried to prepare for
Solverson's dominance, but its
efforts came up short.
"We definitely knew she was a
shooter coming in," Benson said.
"Her size was a difficult matchup
for us."
Michigan (5-4 Big Ten, 12-7
overall) led 10-4 after five minutes,
led by Benson's seven points.
And then the show began.
Over the next six minutes, Solv-
erson rallied for 15 points. She hit
three 3-pointers during the stretch
and single handedly kept Iowa (6-
3,13-7) in the game.
Michigan relied on its sharp
three-point shooting to counter
its sloppy play in the first half.
The Wolverines gave up 11
turnovers.
The Wolverines went into
the locker room up 27-26,
unaware that another Iowa
player was about to have a "Sol-
verson-like" performance.
At the beginning of the sec-
ond half, Iowa forward Wendy
Ausdemore stepped up.
The Big Ten's best 3-point
shooter scored 11 of the Hawk-
eyes' first 16 points, including
three from behind the arc.
To add insult to injury, Solv-
erson wasn't finished.
In the final 5:44, Solverson
scored 10 points by hitting six
shots from the charity stripe
and beating the lackluster
Michigan defense to the rim
on layups.
Despite a disappointing
ending, Benson proved, once
again, she can take control
when needed.
After scoring seven points
in the first five minutes, Ben-
son was quiet the rest of the
half. She started the second
half as she did the first, scoring
Michigan's first eight points on
an array of shots. But instead
of letting up, Benson stayed
aggressive and kept the Wol-
verines in the game.
Solverson's hot hands
dropped Michigan to sixth in
the Big Ten standings and gave
the Wolverines their fourth
loss in eight games.
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