2B - December 8, 2008
ortsM
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wolverines win college
portion of U.S. Nationals
Beilein's experience is key
By RYAN A. PODGES
Daily Sports Writer
It's been more than a month since the No.
3 Michigan men's swimming and diving team
last competed. Five weeks ago, they lost to No. 1
Texas.
But after the U.S. Short Course National Cham-
pionship meet this weekend, it was clearly worth
the wait.
The Wolverines easily won the collegiate divi-
sion of the meet, beating 13 other teams in the
field, including No. 6 Florida, No. 8 Auburn and
No. 20 Florida State.
The three-day meet in Atlanta at the Geor-
gia Tech Aquatics Center included several 2008
Olympians, like gold medalists Ryan Lochte, Matt
Grevers and Garrett Weber-Gale returning to
U.S. swimming with their club teams.
The Wolverines won four events and had sever-
al impressive races in the finals. Michigan coach
Mike Bottom said he was proud that the team was
swimming better at this point in the season than
they have the past couple of years.
"It was fun to see everyone swim season bests,"
he said. "Many people swam lifetime-bests, from
our seniors to our rising stars."
Michigan started the meet Thursday by domi-
nating the first individual event, the 500-yard
freestyle. Six of the top eight swimmers in the
prelims were either collegiate Michigan swim-
mers or members of Club Wolverine. Senior co-
captain Matt Patton won the event with a lifetime
best time of 4:12.80, and sophomore Tyler Clary
touched second.
Patton was also the national champion in the
1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 14:50.34.
"It was nice to see (Patton) transition from the
Texas meet, where he didn't feel real great about
his swims," Bottom said. "He had a little bit more
rest before this meet, and he went back to work
really hard after Texas, and he swam with alot of
determination."
In addition to the 500-yard freestyle, Clary
also finished second in the 400-yard individual
medley and the 200-yard backstroke. In the latter
event, Clary broke Chris DeJong's school record
but finished 2.36 seconds behind Lochte, the 2008
Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in
the event. Lochte also won the 200- yard individ-
ual medley and freestyle.
Michigan had two national championship
relays. Juniors Chris Brady, Charlie Houchin,
Alon Mandel and senior co-captain Bobby Savu-
lich teamed upto winthe 200-yard freestyle relay.
Juniors Andr6 Schultz, Adam DeJong, Houchin,
and Patton won the 800-yard freestyle relay.
"The thing that speaks most about our team
is that we could have had any number of six
or seven guys swim on the 'A' relay," Houchin
said. "It happened to be the four that did swim,
swam well. But you could have changed it with
four other guys and had just as good of a perfor-
mance."
Despite a field of Olympians and NCAA All-
Americans, Patton said the atmosphere at the
meet was "pretty relaxed" and lacked the inten-
sity and excitement of the Big Ten Championship
meet. Teams like Texas, California and defend-
ing national champion Arizona, which Michigan
will likely face at the NCAA Championship meet,
were spread around at other large competitions
around the country. .
The Wolverines will have another long break
before their next meet on Jan. 3. Bottom said
although there were several season-best times
in the meet, there were still things that could be
executed better.
"As a coach any time you see someone lift their
head up, or miss a turn or a finish, for a coach,
those are exclamation marks for training," Bot-
John Beilein admitted he was
"a little bit stuck for words."
The Michigan men's bas-
ketball coach was addressing the
media after his
team's 81-73
upset of No. 4
Duke at Crisler
Arena. It was a T
momentous win,
the kind that
could kick-start
a downtrodden NATE
program's return SANDALS
to the top. So it
was understand-
able that he was at a loss for words.
But during the game Saturday
afternoon, Beilein knew what he
was doing and in coaching, know-
ing what to do is far more important
than knowing what to say.
Eight games into his second
season in Ann Arbor, Beilein has
already proven himself the right
choice to lead Michigan back to
prominence. After losing a pro-
gram-record 22 games last year,
Beilein's Wolverines have already
beaten two top-five teams this sea-
son and have a legitimate shot at
making the program's first NCAA
Tournament since 1998.
Big wins like the one against
Duke come with the risk of the
team (and its fans) getting over
excited and struggling with higher
expectations. With Beilein, that
won't happen. After the game he
was quick to remind the media that
there were still be plenty of ups and
downs this season.
While there was plenty of great
basketball to see at Crisler on Satur-
day, there was great coaching, too.
Deshawn Sims, Manny Harris and
their teammates were the ones put-
ting up the points, but it was clear
Beilein was pushing all the right
buttons.
Beilein's quick turnaround of
the Wolverines shouldn't come as a
surprise.
This is his 31st year as a college
coach and he has succeeded at every
level. But like any good leader, Beil-
ein is quick to deflect the credit.
"I think that we are gaining poise
- we still had three timeouts at the
end of the game," Beilein said. "The
players kept their composure any
time Duke would make a run."
Beilein won't say it, but much of
that poise comes from his steadi-
ness in tense moments and the trust
he puts in his players.
With the score tied at 48 in the
second half, Beilein had enough
faith in his team to rest Harris and
Sims for two-and-a-half minutes,
preparing them for the final push.
A less experienced coach might
have hesitated to rest his stars with
a big upset in reach. But Beilein
knew the costs and benefits. He had
coached in big games before, and
he let that experience guide him
Saturday.
Beilein's coaching was all the
more impressive when you looked
at the opposite bench and saw Mike
Krzyzewski roaming ina steel gray
suit.
Krzyzewski, now in is his 34th
season as a college head coach, is
even more experienced than Bei-
lein. He has won three national
titles, an Olympic gold medal and 12,
Coach of the Year awards. Krzyze-
wski is a master at gettingthe most
out of the talent available to him.
Entering Saturday's game, Coach
K's teams had lost twice in Decem-
ber - this decade.
Most importantly, Krzyzewski
knows how important it is to main-
tain perspective.
"These are all experiences and
you build on them - positive, nega-
tive, wins, losses," Krzyzewski said.
"You play good people so that they
put you in positions to have experi-
ence."
Beilein could have said the same
thing, even though his team came
out on the winning end Saturday.
Beilein's greatest strength as
a coach may not be his offensive
scheme or his 1-3-1 zone defense.
It might not even be his ability to
recruit players that fit perfectly in
his system (see the impact fresh-
man guards Stu Douglass and Zack
Novak are already having).
Beilein's greatest strength is his
experience - just as it is Krzyzews-
ki. In the 31 years he's worked at the
college level, Beilein has learned
what ittakes to form a group of
individuals into a team. He has
learned how to deal with the highs
and the lows of each season.
Michigan might make the NCAA
Tournament this year. Then again,
it might not.
Regardless of when this season
ends, with Beilein's steady hand,
the Wolverines will keep improv-
ing.
-Sandals can be reached
at nsandals@umich.edu.
a
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'M' can't scrap its way past Blue Devils
0
ByTIMROHAN
Daily Sparta Writer
The Michigan women's basket-
ball team stole the basketball this
weekend like Facebook steals col-
lege students' time during exam
week.
Entering the weekend, Michigan
averaged just more than six steals
per game. They had 31 steals on the
weekend, for an average of 15.5 per
game.
The defensive pilfering helped
the Wolverines dominate North
Carolina State, 63-52, at Crisler
arena on Friday. But No. 14 Duke
stole the show in the second half
Sunday, beating Michigan, 60-45,
at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Wolverines have been
plagued this season with slow
starts, but that wasn't the case this
weekend. They started quickly at
Duke, and against North Carolina
State they jumped out to a quick
18-4 lead.
After Friday's game, Michigan
coach Kevin Borseth said his goal is
for the team to get "13-plus steals a
game" and limit its own turnovers
to fewer than 13.
Michigan had 20 steals on Sun-
day, but still lostthe game.
The Wolverines had success from
long range early on at Duke, mak-
ing four of its first six 3-pointers.
Thatpulled Michigan to within one
point just seven minutes into the
game.A different player gotinto the
act with each successful shot.
The Wolverines hung with the
Blue Devils in the first half thanks
to their stingy defense. But when
the second half began, Michigan
allowed Duke to go on a 12-4 run
in the first four minutes. The Blue
Devils shot 60 percent from the
field in the second half.
Michigan sophomore guard
Veronica Hicks had a career-high
I
JEREMY CHO/Daily
Sophomore guard Veronica Hicks, shown here against Northwood on Nov. 8, scored 16 points, a career high, in Michigan's
loss to No. 14 Duke on Saturday.
16 points, along with four assists,
and four steals. Senior forwards
Carly Benson and Melinda Queen
also had four steals each.
Michigan forced 30 Blue Devil
turnovers, but the Wolverines
scored just 13 points off of them.
"You need to get easy baskets off
of (steals), Borseth said. "We never
got to the rim a whole lot. That
made it difficult. But I thought our
defense did a pretty good job. (They
were) real scrappy, getting in pass-
ing lanes and creating things. That
probably kept us as close as it did."
Duke's rebounding made up
for the disparity in steals (20-8).
After the game, Borseth called the
Blue Devil squad a "rebounding
machine." Duke finished with 46
rebounds (15 offensive) to Michi-
gan's 22 (nine offensive).
"We kind of strayed away from
what we really wanted to do,
which was to get it on the block,"
Hicks said. "We weren't really
looking at the block all that much,
and we weren't really flashing to
the block like coach wanted us to.
That kind of took our offense out of
the game."
The Blue Devils interior athleti-
cism forced Michigan to generate
offense from the perimeter, butthe
Wolverines couldn't connect.
That the statistics show a win
at home and a loss on the road
shouldn't come as a huge surprise
for the Wolverines. On the season
Michigan has outscored its oppo-
nents by 16 total points at home,
and have been outscored by a total
of 28 points on the road.
"I thought we competed pretty
well with them," Borseth said.
"Had it been at home, who knows,
maybe we would have made some
more shots. Maybe we would've
had a little more energy. I know
that the crowd sure makes a big
difference."
Michigan fails to defend Cliff Keen Invitational title
By ROGER SAUERHAFT
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan was the defending
champion of the Cliff Keen Invi-
tational in Las Vegas and had
taken the title in three of the last
four years.
But the 12th-ranked Wolver-
ines placed sixth in the 44-team
field despite injury trouble dur-
ing the two-day event.
Nebraska finished head and
shoulders above the rest of this
year's competition with 124.5
points. The Wolverines' score of
82.5 was just nine point short of
second-place Cornell.
Michigan was short on bod-
ies for most of the tournament
due to injuries. Fifth-year senior
Tyrel Todd, the top seed in the
197-pound division, was forced
out of the tournament after two
victories because of an injury.
The co-captain is ranked No. 2.
in his class nationally. And 125-
pound senior Michael Watts also
couldn't compete because of an
injury.
The Wolverines managed to
place sixth in large part because
of the efforts of fifth-year senior
Steve Luke.
Luke, the nation's top-ranked
174-pounder, won the individual
title for his weight class with
a sudden-death victory over.
Nebraska's second-seeded Bran-
don Browne.
"I hita single to his left leg and
I came up," Luke said. "I lifted up
with my leg, and I went down to
grab his other leg then he turned
into me and was coming up, so I
grabbed his hip and got the take-
down.
"I just tried to keep pressuring
into him and eventually was able
to take him down in overtime."
The co-captain's win capped
off an impressive 6-0 weekend in
Las Vegas. But few other Wolver-
ines enjoyed similar degrees of
success.
No. 2-seeded sophomore Kel-
len Russell finished third in the
141-pound class on Saturday
morning, slipping past Virginia
Tech sophomore Chris Diaz in
sudden death, 3-1. Russell won
the event as a freshman.
Redshirt sophomore Anthony
Biondo finished fourth [with
a 5-2 record] in the 184-pound
class. Redshirt sophomore Aaron
Hynes was eliminated in the 157-
pound class with a5-2 record.
Five Wolverines failed to qual-
ify for the second day of the Invi-
tational.
Although Michigan didn't
repeat its past success in this
year's Invitational, Russell said
he was happy with the team's
performance as a whole in light I
of its injury problems.
"I think we did a pretty good
job with the guys we had going,"
Russell said. "It was the first time
for a lot of them going wrestling
in a big tournament like that. It I
was good to get out there and
wrestle some guys that we might
not see until nationals and get
them ready for the type of com-
petition that you have in the Big
Ten and nationals."
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