8A - Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
MICHIGAN 55
A BLOWN OPPORTUNITY
2nd-half
shooting
slump ends
upset bid
By IAN ROBINSON
Daily Sports Editor
COLUMBUS - Ekpe Udoh
doesn't shoot many 3-pointers in
practice.
But when the Michigan men's
basketball team trailed by four
with four and half minutes
remaining last night, the 6-foot-
10 sophomore nailed one from the
top of the key.
The basket, his fifth trey of the
season, cut the Buckeyes' lead
to one and gave Michigan hope
down the stretch.
It was also Michigan's lone
basket in the last eight and a half
minutes of the game.
That offensive drought spelled
defeat for the Wolverines as they
went on to lose, 65-55, to Ohio
State at Value City Arena.
"It's like it was in your hands
and just slipped away," freshman
Kelvin Grady said. "(We didn't
do) those things that you need to
do at the end of the game to win."
Last night's field-goal drought
couldn't be blamed on the usual
turnovers or lack of intensity.
This time, it was a lack of offen-
sive aggression. Michigan (1-9 Big
Ten, 5-17 overall) attempted nine
shots during the final eight-and-a-
half minute stretch against Ohio
State (7-3, 16-7). Six of them were
3-pointers and none were layups.
In that time, most Wolverine
shots came from the corner with
the shot clock running out.
"Coach definitely was telling
us to penetrate," Grady said. "We
just never got to that."
The team's playmaking also
left the Wolverines in a poor posi-
tion to win. Halfway through the
second half and coming out of a
timeout with 11 seconds on the
shot clock, Michigan didn't even
Harris didn't heed
his own pep talk
COLUMBUS -
'm not exactly sure what
freshman Manny Harris
told his teammates during
this week's players-only meeting.
But if you
needamotiva-
tional speaker
for your next
business
meeting, Har-
ris is your guy.
Sophomore
Ekpe Udoh H
shot 3-for-4 BOSCH
(seven points)
and grabbed
five rebounds.
Redshirt freshman Anthony
Wright scored eight points and
had a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover
ratio.
Freshman Kelvin Grady shot
50 percent from beyond the arc
and scored 11 points - his highest
point total since Dec. 12 against
Central Michigan.
It seems like a lot of Harris's
teammates paid attention to what
he said in that meeting, but the
player who didn't take the mes-
sage to heart was Harris himself.
The team's leading scorer put
up just seven points in 35 min-
utes. He had a chance to carry
the team on his back, make plays
near the end of the game and lead
Michigan to its first significant
road win since 2003.
It wasn't because of a lack of
effort. Instead, he literally passed
up the opportunity.
"I just tried to be patient with
(the game) and let it come to me
and basically pass," Harris said.
"Today I was looking to pass and
let everything else come to me. I.,
didn't wantto rush anything."
Rushing has been the Wolver-
ines' biggest problem offensively,
and Harris has been the biggest
culprit.
All of a sudden, the player who
drove aggressively to the lane
was content with running along
the perimeter. For the first time
all year, he didn't reach the free-
throw line. When the team need-
ed its leading scorer the most, he
was too busy looking for someone
else to make a play.
As a freshman, Harris still has
a lot to learn about playing at the
college level. One of those les-
sons is that he has to trust him-
self. He's one of just a few Big Ten
players with the skill to break out
of an offensive system and create
his own plays.
At Wisconsin, Harris dropped
26 points in a hostile environ-
ment, mostly from driving to the
basket. And eventhough he hasn't
reached the free-throw line much
in recent games, Harris is by far
the team leader in drawing fouls.
He has taken 128 shots from the
charity strip. The next highest
total on the team is 55.
But Harris wasn't the only top
scorer who found trouble scoring
last night. Sophomore DeShawn
Sims scored just six points in 15
minutes.
The two top scorers on the
team combined to score 13 points
in a winnable game against their
archrival.
That can't happen.
Ohio State's defense was tough.
The Buckeyes deserve credit for
harassing the Wolverines and
forcing tough shots the last eight
and a half minutes of the game.
But all good teams tighten up
at the end of games, and Ohio
State won't be the only one giv-
ing Michigan fits in.the waning
moments of a close contest.
Michigan had a chance to
win and shrunk under pressure,
despite playing with confidence
for most of the game.
And it all started with the kid
who was willing to challenge his
older teammates.
There certainly wasn't a lack
of effort on Harris's part - just a
lack of killer instinct.
Let's see him challenge his
teammates on the court, too.
- Bosch can be reached
at hectobos@umich.edu.
I
Senior David Merritt struggles for the ball during Michigan's second-half collapse against Ohio State last night in Columbus.
get off a field-goal attempt.
Even more frustrating, the
Wolverines had done everything
well in the first half that they
fouled up in the second. In the
first 20 minutes, Michigan broke
the Buckeyes' full-court press and
created the fast-break opportuni-
ties Michigan coach John Beilein
has sought from his squad all sea-
son.
With eight minutes remaining
in the first half, Ohio State had just
scored five unanswered points
and looked ready to take control
of the game. But in the next four
minutes, Michigan went on a 13-2
run. With all their starters on the
bench, the Wolverines reversed
the momentum of the game going
into the second half.
"We made the extra pass that
we haven't been able to make in
past games," redshirt freshman
Anthony Wright said.
Wright came off the bench
and scored all eight of his points
in the first half, but it was his
passing and decisions in transi-
tion that impressed Beilein most.
Reserves C.J. Lee and David Mer-
ritt and senior Ron Coleman, who
returned to the starting lineup for
the first time in almost a month,
were diving for loose balls -
showing intensity that was miss-
ing from last week's embarrassing
home loss to Minnesota.
"Ijust like the idea that we were
competing all the way through
the game," Beilein said.
Though the game could be
called a moral victory, Beilein
still considers last night a missed
opportunity. And for a team that
has lost 11 of 12, opportunities
to win have been few and far
between.
Blue shrugs off Quick's sudden exit
4
Nerves, illness and injury
can't stop walk-on junior
By COURTNEY RATKOWIAK
Daily Sports Editor
Kevin Quick was kicked off the
Michigan hockey team - and the
Wolverines have moved on.
The team learned of Quick's
dismissal, for what Michigan
coach Red Berenson said was "a
total violation of our team trust
and rules," before last weekend's
frustrating series against North-
ern Michigan. Coming in the
midst of a four-game winless
streak, the news could have made
the Wolverines even more fraz-
zled this week with No. 1 Miami
(Ohio) looming ahead.
But thanks to its depth on the
blue line, Michigan's adjustments
will be minimal.
Quick played with junior
alternate captain Mark Mitera
on the first pairing in 14 of the
freshman's 21 games. Mitera said
hearing the news of his friend and
lockermate's dismissal was "dis-
appointing" and that it'd be tough
to continue their friendship.
"(Quick) always hung out with
(Mitera) after practices - they'd
go back and play Halo together,"
senior alternate captain Chad
Kolarik said. "But he was a quiet
kid, he stuck to himself. I don't
think it really affected anyone
else that bad."
Originally, Michigan coach Red
Berenson rotated freshmen Scoot-
er Vaughan, Tristin Llewellyn
and Quick between two defensive
spots, which kept intensity high
during practices.
But after the first half of the
season, Quick and Vaughan estab-
lished their spots in the lineup.
Quick had played in 13 straight
games, with his last scratch in the
first game of the College Hockey
Showcase on Nov. 23.
Prior to last weekend's series,
Vaughan had played 19 games. He
missed the Michigan State series
two weeks ago due to illness, but
before that, he was in the lineup
for eight straight games.
CHANEL VON HABSBURG-LOTHRINGEN/Daily
Freshman Kevin Quick was dismissed from the Michigan hockey team before last weekend's Northern Michigan series.
By COLT ROSENSWEIG
Daily Sports Writer
Junior Phil Goldberg thought he
would never again be as nervous as
he was before his first Maize and
Blue intrasquad.
But when he found himself
in the starting rings lineup for
Michigan's first meet of 2008,
the Windy City Invitational, the
nerves returned with all their old
intensity.
"I always thought the most dif-
ficult meet I'd ever been to was
intrasquad my freshman year,"
Goldberg said. "That was the most
nervous one in my mind - until
Windy City."
An anxious freshman walk-on in
the 2006 season, Goldberg worried
that his first performance would
determine how the coaches judged
him for the rest of his career. He
expected at best to redshirt his
first season - and at worst, to be
cut.
But the coaches must have liked
what they saw, because Goldberg
became a regular in his first sea-
son. He made rings finals at Big
Ten Championships, and barely
missed the event finals at NCAA
Championships.
"He was just about an All-
American as a freshman," Michi-
gan coach Kurt Golder said. "If he
could have made it into the finals
and finished in the top eight, just
beat a couple guys, he would have
made it."
But before his sophomore sea-
son, Goldberg partially tore his
bicep. And when he tried to come
back too quickly, he aggravated
the injury, forcing him to redshirt
the season.
This year, Goldberg wouldn't
be left out. In December, he com-
peted in this season's Maize and
Blue intrasquad just as he was get-
ting over mononucleosis. To add
further obstacles to his comeback
path, he got the flu just before the
start of the regular season.
The emotions of coming back
from extended time off showed in
his Windy City routine, which was
shaky enough to put his lineup
spot in jeopardy.
But Golder had faith in the
junior's ability to bounce back.
After removing one big skill, a push
to inverted cross, from Goldberg's
routine, the remainder of the set
improved dramatically.
"He just needed a beginning,"
Golder said. "That's why I wanted
him in the Windy City. The most
dramatic change most of the time
comes between your first and sec-
ond meet."
To Goldberg's surprise, his
name was in the rings lineup for
Michigan's home opener against
then-No. 2 Penn State. He didn't
waste his second chance.
With Goldberggoingsecond-to-
last, Michigan needed a hit. The
Wolverines were down after two
rotations and the comeback had to
begin with rings. Using five gym-
nasts instead of the usual six (the
top four scores count), they could
not afford a mistake.
With the pressure on, Gold-
berg turned in a performance
starkly different from his Windy
City debut. His positions were
all strong and solid, and when he
landed, he'd scored a 15.1- far bet-
ter than his 13.65 in Chicago.
With his confidence boosted
further by another well-done
routine at Oklahoma's raucous
McCasland Field House, and his
first-ever event title at Iowa the
following week, Goldberg is work-
ing on adding difficulty back into
his routine.
Once his endurance improves
enough to put the push to invert-
ed cross back in, Goldberg's start
value will rocket into the mid-16's,
well within championship range.
And by April, Michigan could
have another All-American on its
hands.
g
Llewellyn had seen action in 18
games but was scratched for three
of the last six. Quick's dismissal
meant he had to unexpectedly suit
up for this weekend's series.
"Our concern with Tristin was
playing with a sense of urgency in
our zone, because he plays with
a calmness that most defense-
men don't play with," Berenson
said. "But I think he's handling it
well."
Now that the three-freshman
rotation has been eliminated, the
six-man defense is set. Vaughan
will likely play with Mitera on
the first pairing, like he did when
Quick was out of the lineup, and
Llewellyn will continue to play
with sophomore Chris Summers.
"Definitely, I thick the other
defensemen were not excited for
him to leave, but excited for the
opportunity that, 'Now, I'm solid-
ified in the lineup, I can really go
out there and show them what
I've got,' " Mitera said.
Without the extra depth on the
blue line, previously one of Mich-
igan's biggest assets, Berenson
said the Wolverines can play with
a five-man defense if one blueliner
is injured or sick.
But if two defensemen are out,
Michigan will need to explore
other options.
Like Michigan did with former
Wolverine forward David Rohlfs,
who skated 23 games on defense
as a junior, Berenson could tem-
porarily pull a forward back to the
blue line. He acknowledged junior
forward Danny Fardigcould be an
option.
Michigan technically still has
seven defensemen on its roster,
but sophomore Eric Elmblad has
never seen game time. Berenson
said he might consider playing
Elmblad, a walk-on added to the
team before last season, if the
team is low on defense - but he
t
would rather rely on a forward
who has already had significant
playing time.
"If I was guaranteed that he
would play well and not hurt us or
cost us a goal or a game, then he
might have had some game time
already," Berenson said.
Associate head coach Mel Pear-
son, who is in charge of recruiting,
said Quick's departure will have
no impact on next year's recruit-
ing class. Michigan already has
two defensive recruits for next
year.
And for now, Kolarik and other
members of the team made it clear
- they're done worrying about
the issue.
"We've got to concentrate on
the guys who are here and who
are playing for us, not playing for
themselves," Kolarik said. "The
guys that left or the guys that
got kicked off, we have to forget
them."