The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - 9 Novak hits big shots for Blue in upset Freshman scores career-high 14 in Saturday's victory By ALEX PROSPERI Daily Sports Writer There are big shots and then there are really big shots. In the Michigan men's basketball team's upset of then-No. 4 UCLA, freshman Stu Douglass hit an off- balance 3-pointer to give the Wol- verines a late lead. In order for Michigan to beat No. 4 Duke, someone had to step up in place for Douglass, who didn't hit a 3-pointer all game. Luckily for the Wolverines, fresh- man Zack Novak stepped up - twice. After takinga53-50 lead with8:38 remaining in regulation, the Blue Devils seemed to have finally pulled away from unranked Michigan. But Novak single-handedly saved the day, sending Duke into a tail- spin. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers less than 30 seconds apart to propel the Wolverines to a 56-53 lead, Easter one they wouldn't relinquish. Michigan at "All the credit Michigan has got to go to my teammates," Matchup: Novak said. "I'm Michigan 3-6; wide open on Michigan 6-2 those. It's easy for me when they've day 4 PM setting me up and finding me with Where: Cris- nobody within 10 ler Arena feet." Novak scored a career-high 14 points, going 4-of-7 from behind the arc. He has made 10 total 3-pointers in the last three games. Michigan's top two scorers, soph- omore Manny Harris and junior power forward DeShawn Sims, account for 53 percent of the team's points. Novak is the only other Wol- verine to score in double-figures in multiple games. So it's a breath of fresh air for Michigan to see another scorer emerge. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called Novak's improvement from the first game on Nov. 21, when he washeldscoreless, one ofthebiggest differences in the Wolverines' play. "That's what we were missing," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "Everybodytalks aboutlastyear.We were missing having those distance shooters, the guys that really open the floor for DeShawn and Manny. And that was really the big differ- ence." CRASHING THE BOARDS: Beil- ein likes to downplay rebounding as much as he stresses the importance of the assist-to-turnover ratio. Saturday, Michigan held Duke, which averages 42 rebounds per game, to just 34 boards. The Wolver- ines grabbed 35. When asked what he thought about his team outrebounding the physical and athletic Blue Devils, Beilein chose to look past it once again. "That doesn't happen very much with us, does it?" Beilein said. "Once again they missed a lot of shots, I don't remember what their percent- age is, but 41 percent right?" Then he looked at the boxscore and saw Duke's shooting percent- age: 47.7, better than its season aver- age. "I guess we rebounded it pretty good," Beilein said while laughing. Considering the Wolverines were outrebounded by 15 the last time they played the Blue Devils, maybe rebounding is important after all. CHESSANYONE?: Iftherewas an opposing player Beilein was worried about Saturday, it was Duke forward Kyle Singler. "He's a tough guard because Mike plays him as a five. He plays him as a four. He plays him as a 3," Beilein said. Singler leads the Blue Devils in scoring, rebounding and assists. He is so versatile that ESPN announcer Jay Bilas said Krzyzewski uses him as "a queen on the chess board." Although Singler had 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists Sat- urday, his production was hard- earned. The sophomore shot just 6-for-17 from the field and 1-for-9 from behind the arc, tyingthe worst 3-point shooting performance of his career. Back in November, Singler scored 15 points againstthe Wolverines, but it was on just 5-of-8 shooting. Michi- gan's 1-3-1 zone was much more suc- cessful containing Singler in the rematch. "The first time we played them, we felt we could have played our zone more aggressive," Harris said. "So we came out more aggressive and flying around trying to con- test every shot." But it also may have just been a bad day for the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year. "What would you do? Would you tell a really good player not to shoot?" Krzyzewski said. "In the second half, (the shots) were pretty wide open." BILAS IN THE HOUSE: One of the more respected ESPN person- alities, Jay Bilas, had some nice things to say about Michigan dur- ing Friday's practice. "First of all, I'm a huge Michi- gan - I don't know if 'fan' is the right word," Bilas said. "When I was a kid I used to go to the Rose Bowl. It seemed like Michigan was there every year. The best fight song in the history of fight- ing or singing." Bilas, who played at Duke under Krzyzewski from 1983-86, ranked this matchup as one of the best he'll see this season. But he also warned the Michigan faith- ful to not put too much into one game. "The same thing happened at Purdue last week," Bilas said referring to Boilermaker fans camping out before they hosted Duke on Dec. 2. "There's a dan- ger with fans of making one game into a crusade. It's an important step but at the end of the day, win or lose, its just one game. It's not going to get you into the tourna- ment. It's not going to keep you out. A body of work does." With two quality wins now on their plate, the Wolverines are on their way to putting together a successful resume. BRING ON THE EAGLES: Before Big Ten play begins at the end of December, Michigan has four games against non-BCS con- ference opponents. The first is Dec.13 against East- ern Michigan, who is 2-19 all-time againstthe Wolverines. The last time the Eagles beat Michigan, Beilein was coaching at the University of Richmond. Eastern Michigan has gone win- less against the Wolverines since December 21, 1997, when former Denver Nugget Earl Boykins led the Eagles to an 89-83 overtime victory with 29 points. prDpel u ALSALAH/Da iy helped poe Michigan In its 81-73 upset victory aver then-Nn. 4 Duke an Saturday.-. Freshman Zack Novak's clutch shooting Tak Your Career IA NEWDI RECTION! Try a health care career in CHI ROPRACTIC, MASSAG E T HE RA PY, ACUPUNCTURE or ORIENTAL MEDICINE. Wolverines to split into Blue ' and Maize for intrasquad meet By COLT ROSENSWEIG Daily Sports Writer The rivalry in Michigan men's gymnastics is back. Not Michigan vs. Ohio State - Maize vs. Blue. The Wolverines hold an intrasquad at Cliff Keen Arena each December, with each side gunning for bragging rights. Last year, Maize gymnasts replaced "blue" with "maize" in all the usual Michigan cheers. Many Maize team members refused to wear blue shorts or t-shirts to practice for weeks. The Blue team appeared at practice one day and whipped off their Michigan fleeces in unison to reveal iron-on team t-shirts that said, "What did you do to beat Maize today?" The rivalry will continue on Sat- urday, when senior co-captain Phil Goldberg leads the Blue team in search of its firstvictorysince 2005. Maize already has one advantage - because Goldberg picked first when the squads were drafted, junior co-captain David Chan's crew will compete in Olympic order, the nor- mal rotation of events. Blue will fol- low Olympic "disorder," meaning events like floor and vault, which often feature the same gymnasts, will not have any break between them. Manyoflastyear'sBluegymnasts maintain the complicated scoring process was the key to Maize's vic- tory. The coaches will use it again this time: they will determine the average score from every routine on an apparatus, then multiply that number by four to calculate the event total. Normally, just the top four marks on each apparatus count toward the team score. The intrasquad will offerthe first look for fans at a team that finished i in sixth place at the NCAA Cham- pionships in April. Last year's team usually finished workouts and was out of the gym by 6 p.m. each day. Now, it's typical to see half the team still practicing at 7 p.m., working on new skills as well as strength and conditioning programs. For the only time all year, Michi- gan coach Kurt Golder won't have to worry about lineup constraints. This offseason, collegiate coaches across the board supported expand- FILE PHOTO/Daily Junior Mel Santander will try to lead the Maize team to its third-straight victory. DECIDE WHAT Michigan Daily Advertising is hiring a Production Layout Designer. Begin winter semester and work two hours every weekday. Applicants should have a knack for spacial relationships and a distinct attention to detail. Experience with Adobe InDesign is a plus. Email bce@umich.edu (7 .i ta al ing the competition limit to 15 men from 12. But the NCAA shot the modification down. Golder said he was "very disap- pointed" in that decision. For one night, at least, the only restriction on Michigan will be how many men can compete in each event. And the coaching staff has high expecta- tions, especially for the freshmen and the four sophomores coming off redshirt seasons. For Michigan's two freshmen, Syque Caesar and Douglass John- son, the Maize and Blue will mark their first competition as college gymnasts. "We'll get to see how the fresh- men are as competitors," senior Ralph Rosso said. "There may be some surprises, which would be great." The last time Michigan fans saw sophomores Devan Cote, Steve Crabtree, Adam Hamers and Andrew Vance was at last year's intrasquad, when they'd only been Wolverines for three and a half months. All of them have added sig- nificant difficulty to their routines and will add extra fire to the this year's meet. Twenty-two gymnasts from last year's 24-man team are back, and with the changes made to the gym- nastics Code of Points, routine upgrades will be rampant at Cliff Keen. Every member of the team has added at least one more diffi- cult skill to his repertoire. Withsomany new skills, safety on regulation equipment may be an issue. In the week leading up to the competition, each athlete must demonstrate to one of the coaches that he can safely per- form all his planned skills with- out the extra padding available at the practice gym. The intrasquad won't direct- ly determine which gymnasts compete in the season-opening Windy City Invitational on Jan. 17, especially since Michigan has been holding its own infor- mal intrasquads for more than a month at practice. But it will be one more opportunity for the gymnasts to place themselves in pressure situations and gauge their responses. "We've been focused on put- ting ourselves in pressure situa- tions a lot more frequently," said senior Scott Bregman, who will be on the Blue team for the fourth straight year. "We'll be so used to raising our hand and having every single person watching you and being evaluated by the coaches."