The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

UeMhgnal- ihanayoJanuary 7, 2008 - 3B

CRASHING THE BOARDS

NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"You can't give freedom to the
masses."
- Purdue coach Matt Painter on his belief that
players usually shouldn't be allowed to break from a
called offensive play. Painter said that Manny Har-
ris and DeShawn Sims were two players talented
enough to be given the privilege.
PURDUE 65 - MICHIGAN 58

PLAYER OF THE GAME
Manny Harris
GUARD
With 15 second-half points, the freshman
guard helped Michigan cut a 14-point half-
time deficit to just two. Although the Wol-
verines couldn't knock off Purdue, Harris's
25-point, five-rebound effort pushed his
team to the brink of a Big Ten road win.
SATURDAY'S GAME

Michigan 58

SMOTHERED
Beilein tweaks
starting lineup,
plays Lee
By H. JOSE BOSCH+
Daily SportsEditor
WEST LAFAYETTE - For just the second time
this season, Michigan coach John Beilein changed f'
his starting line up.
He subbed redshirt junior C.J. NOTEBOOK
Lee in place of freshman Kelvin
Grady at pointcguard.
Beilein made the switch in hopes of jumpstarting -
the Wolverines after recent slow starts.
Michigan fell behind 10-0 to Wisconsin before V
notching its first bucket. Against UCLA on Dec. 22,
the Wolverines surrendered an early 9-2 lead.
"We just said, 'Let's just change it up,' " Beilein
said. "I thought Kelvin did terrific off the bench and
did a great job. Sometimes one little change like that
just might give you a little bit better look."
Saturday, Michigan never trailed Purdue by more
than five points in the game's first 11 minutes. But
both Lee's and Grady's contributions were mainly on
the defensive end - the duo combined for just fourl
points and shot 2-for-7 from the floor.
Despite coming off the bench, Grady finished with
18 minutes on the floor, four more than Lee. He also
remained on the court late in the game - an indica-
tion Beilein trusts Grady more to make shots at the
end of a close contest.
After the game, Beilein seemed inclined to start
Lee and bring Grady off the bench in the future. u
"I do not change starting lineups a great deal,"
Beilein said. "I just hang with them and when I think^
we need to make a change (I just) do it. I don't go back
and forth."
Indeed, Beilein's only other change came on Dec.
8 when he satsophomore Zack Gibson for sophomorey
Ekpe Udoh.
Big Ten is just fancy talk for ugly: The first half of
Saturday's game did little to disprove the Big Ten's
reputation for having teams that play slow, grind-it-
out basketball.
During a six-minute stretch, the teams combinedx
to score just six points.
In that span, both teams missed 11 shots, commit-
ted five turnovers and had two blocked two shots. r
"It's Big Ten basketball," Lee said. "It can get ugly,,
but the thing about it is when you're not making shots,
you have to do things you can control."1
The Wolverines relied on defense, forcing Purdue
into seven turnovers in the first half. But the Boiler-
makers still shot 49 percent from the floor to Michi-1
gan's 29 percent.
In addition to that lackluster run, the Wolverines
made matters worse by not making a field goal for
almost 10 minutes. Gibson finally broke through with
a short-range jumper with just under three minutes
remaining in the first frame.
Notes: Freshman Manny Harris's 25 points were
one more than his previous career-high against Oak-r
land. Harris hit 10 of his 11 free throws, but no other!
Wolverine shot more than two. ... Just two of the 10 CHANELVON HABSBURG LCTHRING /L
starters in Saturday's game were upperclassmen - TOP: Sophomore Ekpe Udoh continued to be a presencesin the paint, notching nine rebounds and two blocks on Saturday.
Michigan seniors Ron Coleman and C.J. Lee. BOTTOM: Freshman Kelvin Grady came off the bench for the first time all season in the loss to Purdue.

Player

PTS

FG FT REB
M-A M-A O-T

A

TO MIN

1-2 0-0 0-0 0 -

G-Lee
G- Harris
F-Coleman
F- Sims
C- Udoh
Gibson
Shepherd
Grady
Wright
Merritt
Block
TEAM

25
25
6
2
2
0
0
58

1-2
7-16
3-5
6-13
1-7
1-3
1-4
1-5
0-1

0-0
10-11
0-0
0-0
1-2
0-0
01 0-0 0- 0

0-0
1-5
1-3
2-4
4-9
. . . . . . . . . .............
0-2
2-3
0-2
0-1

0
3
1
0
2

1
4
3
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
12

14
36
31
26
28
12
11
18
12
0
200

0-1 0-0 0-1 0
0-0 0-0 0-0 0
21-57 12-14 13-34 7

FG%: 36.98FT%:85.73-pointFG:4-18,.222 (Coleman 0-1, Grady
0-3, Gibson 0-1, Shepherd 0-1, Sims 2-3, Harris1-6, wright 0-1,
Udoh1-1). Blocks: 3 (Udoh 2, Harris). Steals: 8 (Coleman 3, Lee,
Udoh, Harris, Shepherd, Grady).

PURDUE 65
Player PTS FG FT REB
M-A M-A O-T

A

TO MI

G- Kramer 8 3-6 0-0 0-4 3 4 27
G- Hummel 3 5-10 2-2 3-7 2 3 29
G- Grant 17 5-7 2-2 1-4 1 0 33
G- Moore 9 3-9 3-4 1-4 6 3 31
F- Johnson 6 2-4 2-3 1-2 0 0 16
Crump 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 8
Martin 7 1-7 S-6 3-7 3 2 26

Green
Calasan
TEAM

5
0
65

1-4
20-51

2-3
16-21

0-1
12-34

Q
0~
15

0
z
14

14
16
200

FG%: 39.2 FT%: 76.2 3-point FG: 9-185, .00 (Kramer 2-3,
Hummel 1-3, Grant 5-6, Moore 0-3, Green 1-2, Calasan 0-
1). Blocks: 7 (Johnson 4, Kramer, Martin, Green). Stealm: 8
(Moore 2, Martin 2, Kramer, Hummel, Grant, Green).
Michigan......... 20 38 - 58 At: Mackey Arena
Purdue..................34 31 - 65 Attendance: 14,010

SEASON STATS
GP Min Pts R

Player

A

Harris 14 31.7 16.4 4.6 3.0
Sims 14 26.1 13.6 4.3 0.6
Grady 14 22.6 6.2 1.7 2.8
Coleman 14 29.6 7.2 4.4 1.7
Gibson 14 15.9 5.9 3.1 0.3
Udoh 14 24.1 5.6 4.3 0.7
Wright 13 13.8 2.5 2.7 0.5
Lee 14 11.6 2.6 1.6 1.4
Shepherd 13 9.8 2.8 1.5 0.4
Merritt 8 6.0 0.1 0.8 0.1
Block 2 1.5 0.0 0.5 0.0
Pals 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
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PURDUE
From page 1B
fared better without such a poor
first half. Terrible shooting (29 per-
cent) plagued the team again. Pur-
due disrupted Michigan's rhythm
with man-to-man defense.
During one 10-minute stretch,
the Wolverines failed to convert a
field goal. Making matters worse,
just as the Wolverines ended their
scoreless streak, the Boilermakers'
Keaton Grantbegan one.
Grant hit triples on three con-
secutive possessions from the same
spot near the end of the first half.
Following his third basket, Grant
let out a victorious scream as the
crowd erupted in approval.
"We knew he was shooting and
hitting threes," Beilein said. "We
left him open. ... We got kids who
have a two-second delay (to defend)
and with a guy like Grant you can't
have a one-second delay."
The wild scene in Mackey Arena
showed how agonizing the Wol-
verines' growing pains will be this
season regardless of the progress
the team makes. Itstill appears that
improvement will be just another
word for loss.

FELDMAN
From page 1B
Athletic Director Bill Martin hired Beilein
because the coach had a higher ceiling
than Amaker.
But it hasn't shown. Beilein has put
aside winningto help his young team learn
his complex offense of 3-pointers and
backdoor cuts and his unique 1-3-1 zone
defense.
Michigan needs to learn how to win,
and Beilein isn't teaching that.
Beilein asked the public to judge the
team on its progress learning his system,
not its record.
He's probably a bit scared to see what
would happen if he put pressure on his
players to win. After all, it's a young team
learninga new system - one of the nation's
most complicated at that.
The Wolverines' largest obstacle is they
don't know what it takes to win. Dealing
with the tension of game is the best way to
learn.
Michigan basketball has been devoid of
pressure for too long. Everything is com-
fortable; there's no desperation.
Beilein has said games can be nuisances,
distractions in the way of practices. He's
spending less time preparing for oppo-
nents than he typically does.
Put this team out there. See what it can

do. Beilein might be surprised with what
could happen.
I'm all for building a program, rather
than just focusing on short-term success.
But you don't need to get bad to get good.
Michigan shouldn't lose to Harvard or
Central Michigan - both of which have
first-year coaches, too.
The Wolverines didn't even pretend to
give themselves a chance against George-
town, Duke or UCLA. Once on the court,
they tried to win, but they didn't expect to
win.
Beilein, in his 29 years as a head coach,
has proven himself, and there's still a very
good chance he'll win here. But by makihg
winning a secondary goal, he's drastically
slowing down the process.
For the last eight years, there hasn't
been much wrong with the Wolverines,
but there hasn't been much right either.
If Beilein doesn't put pressure on this
team, the mediocrity will continue. Maybe
he's going to flip that switch next year
when the team knows his system better.
But why wait?
Beilein can work on schemes all he
wants, but until he changes the program's
culture, not much will change.
- Feldman can be reached
at danfeld@umich.edu.

Michigan coach John Beilein's team fell to Purdue on Saturday in West Lafayette,
gan's eighth loss in its last nine games.