8 - Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com

8 - Tuesday, February 16, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

Hogan's inconsistency
continues in Nebraska

Freshman Darius Morris had arguably his best game last week against Minnesota, establishing himself as an on-court leader.
Blue heads to Iowa

By NICOLE AUERBACH
Daily Sports Editor
For the first time in quite some
time, the Michigan men's basketball
team will go on the road with some-
thing it has lacked most of the sea-
son: confidence.
And why not?
After arguably MIChigan
the Wolverines' at IoWa
best performance Matchup-
away from Crisler Michigan 12-12;
Arena, a 71-63 win Iowa 9-17
over Minnesota .
last Thursday, 8en: Toright
they come into
tonight's matchup Where: Carv-
against Iowa on a er-Hawkeye
bit of a roll. Well, Arena
as muchof aroll as TV/Radio:
one true road win Big Ten Network
puts you on.
Michigan can focus on its many
positives from Thursday's win, like
another solid team defensive effort
and the on-court leadership of fresh-
man point guard Darius Morris.
Still, Michigan coach John
Beilein isn't exactly convinced that
these positives will automatically
appear tonight in Iowa City.
After Sunday's slate of wild bas-
ketball games, which featured two
Big East upsets of No. 3 Syracuse
and No. 8 Georgetown by unranked
teams, it makes sense that Beilein
remains cautious.
"Watching scores right now,

there's not a lot of carry-over,"
he said. "There's inconsistencies
everywhere about how your team is
going to perform. You look at those
Big East scores from (Sunday), and
you just - that's why I think people
love college basketball."
Of course, a matchup like Mich-
igan-Iowa - two teams in the bot-
tom half of the Big Ten standings
- isn't as high profile as Sunday's
upsets. But the message is clear:
past success isn't necessarily an
indication of future success.
And that brings the Wolver-
ines (5-7 Big Ten, 12-12 overall) to
tonight's game. Michigan defeated
Iowa handily last time the two
teams played, a 14-point win on Jan.
30. Senior forward DeShawn Sims
led the way with a double-double,
and he combined with junior guard
Manny Harris for 40 points on the
game.
But, as Beilein warned, that
doesn't mean tonight's game will be
easy.
"Watch any (Iowa) game - the
halftime score is going to be pretty
close," Beilein said. "They have been
able to shorten games. They only
have a seven- or eight-man rotation.
There's nobody who doesn't know
their role on the team. They can stay
in any game. "Their record doesn't
show it, but they're getting better
and better every day"
The Hawkeyes (3-t0,9-17) recent-
lv pulled off a nice upset of their

own, a home win over NCAA Tour-
nament bubble-team Northwestern
last week. Going into Carver-Hawk-
eye Arena, like going into any Big
Ten team's home arena, is difficult,
even for teams like the Wildcats.
To prepare for all games - home
or away - Beilein says he likes to
blast music throughout the prac-
tice the day before the contest. He
doesn't want his players to get used
to communicating in a quiet envi-
ronment, because that's not what
they'll face - even in Crisler.
"We're always trying to make it
difficult so they're used to having
that adversity," he said.
That coaching tactic, as well as
others that keep the players focused
on basic drills, seemed to work -
at least in Thursday's win. Morris
said yesterday that he thinks the
team has had some great practices
recently, and that he's felt a good
team vibe lately. From the coaches
to scout team players and everyone
in between, nobody wants to mail in
the rest of the season - even with an
NCAA Tournament appearance out
of the picture.
"The season is never over," Mor-
ris said. "You always hear stories
about teams that catch on late.
One thing about Beilein's teams is
they're known for getting better. At
one point, we weren't getting better.
Now, I think it's starting to click.
Hopefully, a win at Iowa (today)
will show that."

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during

ior goaltender's the netminder was blasted with
odd-man rushes at will.
s-against average "He made good saves, and he
gave up goals he should've saved,
about 16 percent simple as that," Michigan coach
Red Berenson said. "There were
from last year times when he saved us, and there
were times where he cost us. Four
By TIM ROHAN goals against is not good enough.
DailySports Writer And that's a team thing too, but
Hogie is the last line of defense."
Wolverines won't forget Hogan finished each loss with
Nebraska-Omaha forward 27 and 24 saves, respectively, and
vanson, not after this past deserves credit for keeping the
id. games from getting obscenely out
Saturday, Swanson out- of hand.
d Michigan junior goalie With all of the odd-man rush-
Hogan and sealed a cru- es Nebraska-Omaha got, things
ekend sweep for the Mav- could have been much worse for
tver the Wolverines. Michigan.
ten minutes remaining "There's been a lot of pressure
third period of Saturday's on him," Berenson said. "Our
a Nebraska-Omaha player team has not been consistent and
as double-teamed near the neither has Hogie. You're hoping
t the top of the circle sent that your goalie can win you a
ck to streaking freshman game here and there. And I think
d Brandon Richardson. he's been a factor in some of our
ating with Richardson was wins. But he also, like the rest of
tn - they had created a our team, has been the victim of
-one, odd-man rush. some of our losses as well."
ardson passed the puck This season has been a roll-
he Michigan defenseman ercoaster to say the least for the
ht to Swanson, who easily goalkeeper.
on Hogan, who was out of Hogan has four shutouts on
n on the pass. the season, a 2.30 goals-against
nty-three seconds later, average and an average of 21 saves
sn carried the puck up the per game. But he has had week-
nother two-on-one oppor- ends like this past one in Omaha
This time, Michigan soph- when the offense struggled and
defenseman Greg Pateryn he needed to keep the opponents
o his stomach to block the down, but couldn't.
After a 2008-09 campaign dur-
Swanson calmly pulled the ing which he went 24-6 as a start-
ack and ripped a shot over er and had a 1.97 GAA, he has lost
s shoulder. more than double that amount
just like that, Swanson of games this season. One of the
t history. The Wolverines biggest differences, and one that
one. showed up this past weekend, was
an and the Michigan that the offense was scoring goals
e gave up eight goals in all in bunches when Hogan started
the weekend sweep, and last season. This year, the support

just hasn't been there.
But a lack of offense wasn't
completely at fault for Nebraska-
Omaha's sweep, either.
Berenson saw his goalie out of
position on some of those odd-
man rushes which resulted in
goals. Hogan was put in a tough
position, but he wasn't playing the
pass and was just waiting on the
shot. When the puck was passed,
the Mavericks had a wide-open
backside of the net to work with.
"There were times when he
had no support and times he
didn't read the support," Beren-
son said. "Like, if I know this guy
(to my side) is wide open, and
I'm focused on (the guy with the
puck), and I'm convinced he's
going to shoot. And he passes it.
I'm toast. I didn't read it. Every
time they got a two-on-one, they
scored."
Nebraska-Omaha prevailed in
the end because of the smallest of
errors.
The sweep could have crip-
pled the Wolverines' chances of
making the NCAA tournament
- Swanson put a dagger in the
game, the wee, end and possibly
Michigan's season, too.
INJURY UPDATE: Senior cap-
tain Chris Summers was held out
of Saturday's 4-3 loss to Nebras-
ka-Omaha due to concussion-like
symptoms. Berenson said Mon-
day that Summers told him that
he feels "100 percent." Summers
will skate today and probably
take limited contact for a couple
of days.
And he will take a baseline
test today to see whether he
indeed suffered a concussion in
Omaha.
Berenson said he was "opti-
mistic" his captain would play
this weekend against Northern
Michigan.

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