The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 5A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 5A '85 team reminds Blue of storied dominance SAMANTHA TRAUBEN/Daily Junior Louie Caporusso scored two goals in Thursday's 4-0 shutout of Bowling Green. Last year, Caporusso led the team in scoring last year with 24 goals at season's end. Caporusso' surge gets Michigan going in second half of series with Falcons Snapping out of his recent scoring slump, Caporusso keeps 'M' in contention By MARK BURNS Daily Sports Editor For the first time in recent mem- ory, Louie was being Louie. Junior forward Louie Caporus- so, the Woodbridge, Ont. native, registered the Michigan hockey team's first two goals in its 4-0 vic- tory over Bowling Green last night at Yost Ice Arena. It had been 368 days since Caporusso's last multi-goal per- formance, and it came at a most opportune time, as Michigan con- tinues to vie for a top spot in the CCHA conference. "(Louie) has played really hard in recent games since Christmas," said Michigan coach Red Beren- son who, with the win, moved into sixth place all-time with 690 NCAA wins. "Even before Christ- mas, he was one of our best for- wards in the Notre Dame series, so you see him battling and trying hard. "... And now some of the bounc- es are coming his way." Up until last night, Caporusso had just seven goals on the season, a far cry from last season's team- leading 24. It's been an uphill battle all year trying to get his name on the score sheet. With 13 minutes left in the second period against the Fal- cons, Caporusso spun away from a Bowling Green defender on the half boards. He then made a sharp cut to the slot and threw the puck five-hole past netminder Andrew Ham- mond. Caporusso said if he could fig- ure out what was different about his play last night, he'd "bottle it up and just take itbefore every game." Later in the third, junior defen- seman Chad Langlais corralled the puck at the top of the Falcon left circle and fired a pass to Caporusso on the weak side, who then depos- ited the puck past a sprawled-out Hammond. The two-goal output was the type of showing Berenson need- ed from his former Hobey Baker finalist, who will need to shoulder much of the scoring if the team expects to garner some late-sea- son success. "I think what happens when "Now some of the bounces are coming his way" you're not scoring, you start over- passing the puck," Berenson said. "And I've had to remind Louie that he's got to start shooting the puck. I think he's in a good place right now. He's making good decisions with the puck." Along with Caporusso's First- Star Honor performance, the Wolverines (12-9-1 CCHA, 17-13-1 overall) played lockdown defense on the Falcons all night, allowing just 21 shots. The Wolverine defensemen closed the gap on the Bowling Green forwards, minimizing the speed they gained coming through the neutral zone and into the attacking zone. Additionally, it minimized the number of odd- man rushes throughout the entire contest. But midway through the third period, with the Wolverines up 2-0, a Falcon offender went one- on-one with junior goaltender Bryan Hogan. Senior defenseman Steven Kampfer trailed on the play and at the last split second, lifted the player's stick and reversed the puck back down the ice. While it wasjust one minor play, the defensive maneuver from the veteran blue-liner prevented the Falcons (3-15-4-3, 4-20-4) from potentially scoring in what was at that point a very close game. The win gave Hogan his fourth shutout of the season. "The goals were really pre- cious tonight," Berenson said. "Fortunately, we found a way to score. But it was pretty good team defense, we didn't give them much." By NICOLE AUERBACH Daily Sports Editor Even the Fab Five couldn't do it. Nor could any of the other Mich- igan men's basketball teams of the past 24 years - it's that elusive. The last Michigan squad to win a Big Ten title was the 1985-86 team, which had also won the champion- ship the yearbefore. "(Winning a conference title) is a hell of an accomplishment," then- head coach Bill Frieder said on Sat- urday at a reception for the 1984-85 team held before the Michigan- Wisconsin game. Frieder was back in town for the reunion, and with him came a handful of players, including one of the most prolific guards in Michi- gan history. The 1984-85 team owns the program's all-time high- est winning percentage with a 26-4 final record. Grant, who was a freshman on the 1984-85 team that had justwon an NIT championship the previous year, didn't remember being too nervous playing as a freshman. "I knew they had a great team and (needed) a couple more pieces," Grant said Saturday. "We had an opportunity to go far, possibly win the Big Ten title and go deep in the NCAA tournament." Grant recalled one of the main reasons he chose to come to Michi- gan: a chance to play with Antoine Joubert, nicknamed The Judge. "My nickname was The Gener- al," Grant said. "The Judge and The General - it made sense to me." It worked on the court, too. At Saturday's reception, Frieder called Grant the "glue" that held the team together, and the way Grant flowed fromformerteammatetoteammate at the reunion lunch, it seemed that he still fits that role these days. Grant says he watches Michigan games whenever he can, and that he engages in some friendly ban- ter with his friends who went to UCLA. Grant even addressed the current Wolverines after they lost to Wisconsin on Saturday, saving a few key pieces of advice for another freshman pointguard, Darius Mor- ris. He said the biggest thing he notices is that this year's players need to keep their heads up even if they're losing. "Once they do that, they'llbe back on track," Grantsaid. Other former Wolverines enjoyed being back in Ann Arbor for Saturday's game, too. "These times (at Michigan) were probably the most special times of my career," said Joubert, who played in Venezuela, Argentina, the Philippines, France, Belgium and Poland after his days in Ann Arbor. "I tellmy kids, 'College, that's mem- ories and friends that you'll have for life.' A lot of good memories here." Joubert said the Big Ten champi- onships were his fondest memories, and they keep him connected with his teammates even now, more than two decades later. "That's your goal, as a team, to win these championships," he said. The man who led them to the back-to-back conference cham- pionships and also assembled the 1989 NCAA Championship squad, Frieder, is now retired from coach- ing. But he was thrilled to catch up withhis former players and recount the years before he left Michigan for Arizona State. He now runs an annual skateboarding competition, broadcasts games and runs basket- ball camps. But he doesn't miss coaching. "No, no," Frieder said. "I got out 13 years ago and had done it for 32 years. That's a long grind. When I got out, the first month I had so much fun not doing it. Spent time watching my daughter grow up and spent time with my family, do what I want to do, and I knew I would never go back into coaching." Frieder feels the role of a college head coach has changed, and it's not something that appeals to him much anymore. "You know, when I started coaching at Michigan as an assis- tant it was 90 percent coaching and 10 percent everything else. Now it's 10 percent coaching and 90 percent everything else with the NCAA and the recruiting and all the riff- raff, second, third and fourth par- ties that you've got to deal with in recruiting and all the problems today, it's so much different." The one thing that remains the same, though, is how glamorous a Big Ten Championship is. Frieder's two helped put the Michigan bas- ketball program back on the map. The players from the 1984-85 team would love to see the Wolverines win another, and get back to the prominence they knew so well. t 4 ,. .. '.J A li HPV Fact The treatment for can be a process and can involve or the warts. HPV Fact R Even after treatment, P can come back. In fact, 25% of cases within 3 months. Why erisk it Vsit your campus health center. MERCK Copyright 02010 Merck & Co, In. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. 21050004(41)-01 /10-GRD