The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, February 5, 2009 - 5A
How Mother Nature could stifle Wolverines
n the early-morning hours of
Jan. 11, Mike Jones was talk-
ing on the phone in his dorm
room when the fire alarm went off.
Jones, an early enrollee on the
Michigan football team, figured
someone was playing a prank. So he
grabbed a light jacket and headed
outside. He quickly realized he'd
walked into the
annual West
Quad-South
Quad snowball
fight.
Jones, a
Florida native,
didn't throw
any snowballs
because he DAN
didn't have FELDMAN
gloves. So he
just stood off
the side and watched.
Asked which dorm won, Jones
said he had no idea. He was too
cold to concentrate on what was
going on around him.
So how will he, or any of the
other 11 signees from warm-
weather states, handle November
football games - or just living - in
the Midwest?
In his first full offseason, Michi-
gan coach Rich Rodriguez has sig-
nificantly altered the Wolverines'
recruiting strategy after replacing
Lloyd Carr, emphasizing the South
as a recruiting pipeline.
Seventeen of Rodriguez's 29
recruits have come from warm-
'weather states, compared to 33 of
Carr's 136 recruits from 2002 to
2008.
This new strategy of marching
through the South carries signifi-
cant risk, but Rodriguez has done
an impressive job of minimizing it.
Risk: Wasting time on pros-
pects who wouldn't want to come
and missing out on local recruits
who would be more receptive to a
Michigan offer, therefore ending
up with a lower-quality class.
Response: The Wolverines had
a more-impressive class from the
state of Florida than any out-of-
state program. And Michigan is
seventh in rivals.com's recruiting
rankings - eight spots ahead of
Michigan State, which focused
mostly on in-state recruiting.
The Wolverines already have a
commitment from Ricardo Miller,
one of Florida's top-ranked players
in the class of 2010. And Michigan
is high on the list of several other
Floridians in the class.
Secondary coach Tony Gibson
said opposing coaches use the
cold, snowy Ann Arbor weather in
hopes of persuading recruits not
to travel north. But Gibson said a
lot of negative recruiting can be
a positive when recruitsvisit and
see the weather isn't as bad as they
imagined.
And many of the players, some
of whom had never seen snow
before, actually see the weather as
a positive for Michigan.
Denard Robinson and Adrian
Witty, two of the eight Florida
natives to sign with the Wolverines
Wednesday, made snow angels
and had a snowball fight in the Big
House with Rodriguez on their
official visit.
Rodriguez even told the story
of a recruit who tried to take some
snow in a Ziploc bag, just to be dis-
appointed when it melted on the
plane home.
Risk: Players used to playing in
warm weather will tank in Novem-
ber.
Response: Five players from
warm-weather states are already
on campus due to early enrollment.
This is, by far, the biggest worry
with Rodriguez's recruiting strat-
egy.
Enrolling early will help play-
ers get accustomed to the cold. A
freshman last year, slot receiver
Martavious Odoms struggled
mightily against Northwestern -
the Wolverines' first game of the
season in the bitter cold.
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez has made a point of opening a recruiting pipeline in the talent-rich state of Florida.
Most of the early enrollees from
warm-weather states acknowl-
edged their play would be affected
by the cold if they had to play a
game today. Still, they were confi-
dent they would be well-adjustedby
the weather changes next season.
But I'm not so sure. Wide receiv-
er Greg Mathews, an Orlando, Fla.,
native, shivered uncontrollably
after last year's spring game. To be
fair, that was a very cold day - but
that was his third year at Michi-
gan.
On the flip side, players should
have more productive offseasons.
Quarterbacks coach Rod Smith
said summer workouts were
"so hot and humid, you couldn't
breathe," when he worked at South
Florida.
But wins over Ohio State, not
summer workouts, will obviously
be how this class and Rodriguez's
recruiting strategy will be judged.
Games against the Buckeyes
are in the bitter cold of November.
Rodriguez is taking a calculated
risk that his southern imports can
heat up the rivalry - and that The
Game doesn't freeze them out.
He has done all he can to
increase his chances, but his
team's fate may have more to do
with Mother Nature than his
coaching.
- Feldman can be reached
at danfeld@umich.edu.
Blue not concerned by shooti
Lucas-Perry and
others work on
shots with Beilein
By JASON KOHLER
Daily Sports Writer
In the locker room following the
Michigan men's basketball tean's
66-51 loss to Illinois on Jan. 14, each
player echoed a similar sentiment.
"We just didn't make our shots
tonight."
It seems like the Wolverines have
been saying that a lot lately.
So on Tuesday morning, the
Michigan players had individual
workouts to focus on their shot.
"We're just trying to get our
stroke back," fifth-year senior guard
David Merritt said.
Since the Illinois game, Michigan
has lost five of six games and made
just 39.1 percent of its shots.
Before the skid, the team was
shooting 44.2 percent from the coach John Beilein on Tuesday, the
field. pair didn't find much wrong with
The Wolverines have been out- Lucas-Perry's form.
shot in every "We shot one day, and he shot so
game during the Penn State well, it was like,'there's nothingbro-
six-game stretch, ken here,"' Beilein said. "So you just
including three in at Michigan keep going. When you're open, you
which the oppos- Matchup: got to justto continue to keep shoot-
ing team shot bet- PSU 17-5; ing. You also got to leave him alone
ter thani50 percent Michigan 17-9 because there can be a tendency to
from the field. When: Tonight overthink a bit like a golfer."
Redshirt 7 p.m. The key for the Wolverines to
freshman Laval Where: Crisler bounce back this evening against
Lucas-Perry has Arena Penn State may be simple - stop
especially strug- TV/Radio: BTN overanalyzing and just shoot.
gled as of late. The Nittany Lions (6-3 Big Ten,
Lucas-Perry is Live Blog: 17-5 overall) beat Michigan 73-58
known for having http://thegame. two weeks ago when they shot a
one of the smooth- blogs.michi- blistering 58 percent from the field
est releases on the gandaily.com and 52.9 percent from behind the
team and scored in arc.
double figures in his first six games And it wasn't a fluke. Penn State
as a Wolverine. But in his last six upset No. 14 Michigan State 72-68
games, Lucas-Perry is just 10-of-35 in East Lansing on Sunday by shoot-
for 32 points. ing 56.3 percent.
When he worked on the funda- "They're one of the most danger-
mentals of his shot with Michigan ous teams because of the fact they
ng slump
run great sets, great plays," Beilein
said. "If you can win at Michigan
State, you can beat Duke at Duke."
Tonight's game begins a tough
three-game stretch that includes at
No. 1 Connecticut on Saturday and
Michigan State on Tuesday.
And with Michigan sitting
squarely on the NCAA Tournament
bubble, the players know they can't
afford to lose all three of these criti-
cal games.
"These next three games can
make or break our season," Mer-
ritt said. "The sense of urgency is
definitely there ... Penn State is a
really good team, and this league is
so tough this year that if we can get
this one at home, that will set us up
nicely against Connecticut."
As for tonight, Beilein simply
hopes his team can pick up a win
one shot at a time.
"It's important - to have some
bounce in your step," Beilein said.
"The way you get a bounce in your
step is by getting wins."
'M' penalty-kill unit
strong after slow start
By MICHAEL EISENSTEIN
Daily Sports Editor
Oct. 25 was the lowest of lows
for the Michigan hockey team's
penalty kill.
On that day, the unit got demol-
ished in its first real test of the
season, surrendering five power-
play goals in an embarrassing 7-2
loss at then-No. 7 Boston Univer-
sity.
"We weren't involved in our
system, we weren't working with
each other and you need four
guys to be in concert out there,"
Michigan assistant coach Billy
Powers said yesterday, reflecting
on the game.
"They got to be pulling and
working together because if one
guy breaks down, it affects the
other three as far as what we're
trying to do in our rotation."
What made it even worse was
that Boston and Michigan run
a very similar power play. But
with a man down, the Wolverines
played passively and fell furthier
behind the play with each Terrier
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