8A - Wednesday, December 3, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Sauer losing ground in
goalie battle
By MICHAEL EISENSTEIN
Daily Sports Editor
It was supposed to be Billy Sau-
er's year.
Last season he emerged as one of
the country's elite goalies, leading
the country in wins, and played a
key role in Michigan's first Frozen-
Four run in five years.
But after posting 30 wins and
a 1.95 goals-against average last
season, the senior is splitting time
between the pipes with sophomore
Bryan Hogan. It's the same role
Sauer had as a freshman, before
he spent two years as the full-time
starter.
And with Michigan's startling
win-loss differential between start-
ers - Sauer is 2-6, Hogan is 7-1
despite similar statistics - Sauer
might end up watching from the
bench for both games against Mich-
igan State this weekend.
"It's really a tough situation for
me because I know if we're not win-
ning when I'm in net, I know it's
tough for coach to put me in, even if
he does think I'mplayingwell," said
Sauer, who led the nation in win per-
centage last year. "It really is hard
for me soI can just hope for the best.
There's only so much Ican control."
Michigan coach Red Berenson
usually chooses his starting goalie
early in the week, but he's taking a
different approach this week.
"If Hogan plays Friday, we
might wait until after the game to
announce Saturday's goalie," Beren-
son said.
And with the offensive support
Hogan has been getting this year,
it's very likely he could be back in
net Saturday if he gets the first start.
The Wolverines have scored 37
goals when Hogan starts and just 10
with Sauer in goal. Michigan hasn't
scored a goal with Sauer in net in
almost 150 minutes, dating back to
Nov.14.
Last year, Sauer had the support
of the nation's No. 2 offense, which
averaged nearly four goals a game.
"It'stough," Sauer said."If I could
score goals or something, that'd be
great."
It's not as though either goalie is
with Hogan
playing statistically better than the
other. Sauer has a 2.64 goals-against
average with a .903 save percent-
age. Hogan has allowed 2.29 scores
a game and tallied a .909 save per-
centage.
And that just further clouds the
situation.
"It's not as simple as it might
look," Berenson said. "It's not black
and white. It's all the intangibles."
And that's the biggest advantage
the undrafted Hoganhad over Sauer,
a seventh-round NHL draft pick of
Colorado in 2006, coming into the
season. Hogan says he's been in a
similar situation almost every sea-
son since his sophomore year ofhigh
school at Detroit Catholic Central.
"A lot of guys were buddies with
the one goalie and they thought he
was the guy," Hogan said. "That was
when it really got competitive for a
spot. That's really where I started to
learn to develop each year."
Hogan eventually split time with
the other goalie, a junior.
But more importantly, Hogan
grew accustomed to everyday com-
petition and gained experience
earning his team's trust from the
ground up.
"I learned a lot from that," Hogan
said. "And each year and on it was
really competitive. So that definitely
helped me to get where I'm at now."
As a result, Hogan is much more
comfortable playing just one game
a week, whereas Sauer has been the
full-time starter since his sopho-
more year.
Sauer took longer at the begin-
ning of the season to adjust to the
circumstances, over hyping himself
for his one start rather than staying
calm for each game as he did last
year.
Sauer says he has improved on
that. But it may be too late now with
Hogan establishing himself as the
go-to goalie.
The team is simply responding
better to the sophomore.
"There's so many other things,
intangibles," Sauer said. "Maybe I
don't know what I'm doing. Hogan
is doing something right now that
has the team winning no problem,
and I'mnot doing that."
Michigan looks to help end
Big Ten futiylityin, Challenge
Maryland matchup
kicks off big week
for Wolverines
By RUTH LINCOLN
Daily Sports Writer
Since its inception in 1999, the
Big Ten/ACC Challenge hasn't just
been difficult for the Big Ten.
It's been nearly impossible.
The Big Ten
has never won
the challenge, Michigan at
compiling a 31-56 Maryland
overallrecord.In
fact, Michigan Matchup:
State is the con- Michigan51;
ference's only Maryland 4-2
team with a win- When: Tonight
ning record (5-3). 7:30 P.M.
Despite the Where: Corn-
Atlantic Coast cast Center
Conference's TV/Radio:
dominance, ESPNU
ESPN extend-
ed its contract
with the conferences three years
ago, and the network will air the
matchups until 2011.
The Wolverines did not partici-
pate in the 2001 and 2002 games
because NCAA sanctions prohib-
ited them from taking part in tour-
naments. They are 3-4 in the series
of games and have fared relatively
well against what many consider
to be the most competitive basket-
ball conference in the country.
Michigan will try to even its
record in the challenge tonight
when it takes on Maryland in Col-
lege Park, Md., at 7:30 p.m.
The matchups pair all Big Ten
squads against all but one ACC
team. Pairings are based on a vari-
ety of factors, but typically pit the
best teams against one another.
The challenge was competitive
through its first four seasons, but
the past two years has been unkind
to the Big Ten. The conference
went 6-16 in that time. Michigan
fell to Boston College at home last
season 77-64, as the Eagles pulled
away in the second half.
"I think it will cycle both ways
over time," Beilein said.
The Wolverines made headlines
with their upsetvictory over then-
No. 4 UCLA two weeks ago, but
that was at a neutral site. Tonight *
will be their first road test against
a Terrapins team that upset then-
No.5 Michigan State last week.
With Duke coming to Crisler
Arena for a sold-out game this Sat-
urday, the Wolverines have their
work cut out for them over next
four days.
"No matter who we were play-
ing last year, it was going to be a
hard week," said Beilein who went
1-0 against Maryland when he was
the head coach at West Virginia.
"When you play an ACC road game
against a team like Maryland, at
their place, (they're) so difficult to
beat.
"And then you have a team of
Duke's magnitude coming in here,
you just can't even think about
the week. You have to think about
today's practice, and then Mary-
land is the only game left, and then
we'll deal with Duke later on."
Thanks to their win over UCLA,
the unranked Wolverines received
votes in the AP poll each of the last
two weeks. Those were their first
votes since January 2007.
"We want to be ranked," said
sophomore forward Manny Har-
ris, who is Michigan's leading
scorer with 22.3 points per game.
"It's not a player thing, it's more of
a team thing. We've got a chance
to do something big this week."
Sophomore forward Manny Harris leads the team in scoring (22.3) and is tied for
the lead in rebounding (8.0) with junior DeShawn Sims.
No. 13 Michigan State also plays,
tonight against No. 1 North Caro-
lina at Ford Field. The game could
be a preview of the Final Four
which Detroit is slated to host in
April2009.
"For scheduling, it's great,"
Michigan coach John Beilein said.
"It's so hard to schedule.You know,
you have another quality home
game every other year. ... You need
some good road game strength on
your RPI, so why not Maryland?"
Junior powerforwardDeShawn
Sims and redshirt junior center
Zack Gibson both said they sup-
port Big Ten teams in the chal-
lenge even if it means cheering for
a rival like the Spartans or Ohio
State.
COVERAGE OF THE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TEAM'S LATE GAME IS AT WWW.MICHIGANDAILY.COM.
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