The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, March 27 2008 - 5A MICHIGAN 4, IPFW 2 Miller's tough year gets better By MICHAEL EISENSTEIN Daily Sports Writer One more day, and Tim Miller would have stayed scoreless for a full calendar year. But against Michigan State Feb. 23, the junior's 364-day score- less streak came to an end. Miller scored not one, but two goals against the Wolverines' in-state rival in their only triumph over the Spartans this year. While the dreaded streak came to end in a brief, celebratory moment, Miller's struggles have lasted throughout the top-ranked Wolverines' historic season. At the end of last year, Michigan coach Red Berenson chose Miller to don the alternate captain 'A' on his sweater. The two-way forward was coming off a 24-point season with a plus-13 rating. Berenson said he thought Miller looked like one of the team's best forwards in Min- nesota for the season-opening Ice Breaker Invitational in October. After that, things went down- hill. As Michigan swept team after team, Miller went longer and lon- ger without a goal. "When the puck doesn't go in, sometimes you psych yourself out and you make it even worse on yourself," junior" Travis Turnbull said. "You could tell he was really squeezing the sap out of his stick. He had some great chances, but when that would happen, he would kind of panic." As time progressed, Miller's goal-scoring confidence decreased and he started passing the puck more. "He'd be in great position (to score) and he'd try and make a pass to someone else and they wouldn't expect it," Berenson said. "And then it was a non-play that he should've shot." Turnbull added: "When you're not playing well, it can be really mis- erable. If you make it to this level, hockey is your entire life. If it's not going well and you're working this hard everyday, it's pretty tough." Associate head coach Mel Pear- son also saw Miller's frustration in practice. "Just, 'Wow, am I ever going to score?'" Pearson said. "It definitely plays with your mind. You probably think you're never going to score again." Then, in December, Berenson took away Miller's 'A' and award- ed itto junior defenseman Mark Mitera. It wasn't as though Miller was playing badly. He was one of the team's best penalty killers and defensive forwards, and was dish- ing out plenty of assists. He was See MILLER, Page 8A ROB MIGRIN/Daily Junior Mike Wilson threw two innings as part of Michigan coach Rich Maloney's pitching rotation in the Wolverines' 4-2 win yesterday against IPFW. Maloney gave eight pitchers time on the mound after weather forced him to postpone three games. FULL ROTATION Maloney uses eight pitchers in victory Despite big bats, Blue struggles to capitalize Physical point guard pushes floor for 'M' By ALEX PROSPERI Daily Sports Writer Ja elle Cooper, Carly Benson and Krista Phillips get most of the credit for the Michigan women's basketball team's resurgence. But there's one player whose impact has been overshadowed - junior Jessica Minnfield. As the starting point guard, Minnfield's role isn't to take over games - it's to manage the game. "It doesn'tbother me," Minnfield said of her perceived secondary position. "I don't pay attention to that stuff." Minnfield's selfless attitude has translated into a team-high 3.2 assists per game. It's her energetic style that helped the Wolverines (9-9 Big Ten, 18-13 overall) get to the Sweet 16 of the Women's National Invita- tion Tournament and manage their first postseason victory since 2001. Tonight, the Wolverines face Southern Mississippi (8- 8 Conference USA, 21-13) after coming off an 18-point victory against Virginia Commonwealth Monday. Minnfield also SO. MiSS.at Michigan Matchup: So. Miss. 21-13; Michi- gan 18-13 When: Thursday 7 P-M. Where: Crisler Arena By JASON KOHLER Daily Sports Writer WhenjuniorMikeWilsontook the mound yesterday against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, he knew all he had to do was get through the first inning. After givingupjustone hit and striking out his final two batters, Wilson headed to the dugout as the ace of an eight-pitcher rota- tion that surrendered just one earned run. Except for junior Mike Pow- ers, who pitched both the sixth and seventh innings, every Michigan pitcher worked one inning for the Wolverines in a 4- 2 win yesterday at Ray Fisher Stadium. "It was really no decision," Michigan coach Rich Maloney said. "We hadn't played in a long time and guys have to get out there. You can't use them much more than an inning because then they wouldn't be ready for the weekend." The biggest factor in Malo- ney's personnel choices was a six-day layover between games. Since last Thursday's 7-4 win over Oakland, Michi- gan (10-6) had three straight contests postponed due to the winter weather. in the seventh inning, Malo- ney decided to break from his pitching strategy and put Pow- ers in for an encore performance on the mound after an impres- sive sixth inning. In two innings, Powers allowed one hit and struck out two batters. Powers struggled earlier this season, posting three straight losses against Portland, Arizona State and East Carolina, so Malo- ney wanted to give him a chance to regain confidence by pitching multiple innings. "It was good to get him work- See MASTODONS, Page 8A By CHRIS MESZAROS Daily Sports Writer It took eight innings for the Michigan baseball team to finally pull away from Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, but it wasn't because they didn'thave the opportuni- NOTEBOOK ties. Despite tallying 11 hits, the Wolverines scored just four runs, two of them coming in the eighth inningfrom senior DerekVanBus- kirk and sophomore Chris Berset. But Michigan's eight stranded runners were the night's most telling number. The problems started early, when Michigan left two runners on base in the first inning after a one-out walk from senior Leif Mahler and a single by junior Zach Putnam. The struggles con- tinued into the seventh inning, when freshman Ryan LaMarre started the inning with a double to left-center field. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by junior Kevin Cislo but was unable to score. For a team thathad to postpone three games in one week, Michi- gan was just glad it got on track. "We've had a longtime off from seeing live pitching out in the field," VanBuskirk said. "This is See NOTEBOOK, Page BA Spend Your Summer leads the team in scrapes and bruises. Duringthe second-round match- up, Minnfield was knocked to the ground numerous times and, at one point, had tobe restrained byjunior See MINNFIELD, Page 8A Complete the grid so that every row, column every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9. 1. I5 8J 4_ 42 4T81 7 1 1~t 6 7 2 3 7 5 T7 9 5 4 Si Contact us: summer.stanford.edu summersession@stanford.edu (650) 723-3109 STANFORD UNIVIERSIT Y I ,, lication.cor 4