8A - Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Terrible shooting plagues
'M' in tough loss at home
Wolverines shot
under 25 percent
from the field against
Fighting Illini
By CHRIS MESZAROS
Daily SportsEditor
It's not often that junior guard
Manny Harris misses a layup.
And for the Michigan men's
basketball team, when he misses
four of them - some of them on
fast breaks - it's not a good sign.
In yester-
day's 51-44 ILLINOIS 51
loss to Illi- MICHIGAN 44
nois, it sim-
ply epitomized the Wolverines'
problems.
From the get-go, Michigan
never really got in sync. The Wol-
verines hit just 1-of-tO to start the
game, their sole basket coming off
a three by sophomore guard Zack
Novak.
In fact, it looked like Novak was
the only one who came to play,
scoring 12 points - one shy of the
team-high 13, scored by Harris
But beyond that, the Wolver-
ines' shooting was simply dread-
ful.
Michigan shot 24.6 percent in
the contest and just over 19 per-
cent from behind the arc.
"They're shooting not to
miss," Michigan coach John
Beilein said. "Or they're think-
ing tlhey're going to get fouled
and we just aren't clean with
what we're doing. They're think-
ing too much. It's a shame right
now because I really thought we
played one of our best defensive
games of the year."
That defense helped the Wol-
verines (6-9 Big Ten, 13-14 over-
all) stay in the contest, despite
the lackluster field-goal percent-
age.
Down 41-35 with just over six
minutes to play, Michigan looked
poised to make a comeback.
Just then, Harris stole the ball,
drove up court and looked to
have an easy layup. But instead of
making the routine play, the ball
clanked off the iron and into the
hands of Illinois center Mike Tis-
dale.
"Definitely frustrating, it's
something that all my life I've
been able to do," Harris said of his
missed layups. "When you get out
there and get right to the rim and
miss it, it's frustrating.
While Michigan has strug-
gled shooting all season, its two
stars, Harris and senior forward
DeShawn Sims are usually reli-
able.
But not last night. Harris shot
5-of-17 and Sims's impact was
largely nonexistent, as he got into
foul trouble and scored just seven
points.
Despite Michigan's poor shoot-
ing - particularly in the first
half when the team shot just 20
percent - Illinois turnovers kept
the Wolverines in the game. The
Fighting Illini turned it over
17 times, which prevented any
lengthy second-half runs.
And even with two minutes
left, Illinois (10-5,18-10) had just a
four-point lead and hadn't scored
a basket in the previous three
minutes, putting Michigan in a
manageable situation.
With the shot clock ticking
down, freshman guard Darius
Morris poked the ball away from
Illinois's Demetri McCamey.
After DJ Richardson picked up
the loose ball for the Fighting
Illini, he chucked it up just as the
shot clock expired.
Tisdale was there once again to
grab the offensive rebound. From
there, McCamey dished the alley-
oop to Mike Davis and it looked
like Michigan's chances were
over.
While Harris and Sims had
off nights, the rest of the team
besides Novak was worse.
Sophomore Laval Lucas Perry
continued his slump, scoring no
points and extending his score-
less streak to two games. Fellow
sophomore Stu Douglass matched
him, shooting 0-for-8 in the con-
test including five misses from
behind the arc.
"Stu's not alone, he's not the
lone ranger here," Beilein said.
"There's a lot of guys. Laval, its
been a longtime since he's made a
shot out there."
It drew a stark contrast to the
two recent road games in Min-
nesota and Iowa where the Wol-
verines shot over 50 percent from
downtown.
But after two straight loss-
es and with just three games
remaining in the season, it is get-
ting hard for the team toput aside
all the negatives that have mount-
ed so far.
"It's all mental for everybody
on the team. All mental," Mor-
ris said. "You've just got to go out
there and believe. I feel like a lot
of people are not believing and
that's a part. You've got to have
faith and yourself and in your
team and what we're trying to
accomplish."
0
"
JAKE FROMM/Daily
D More photos at Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez looks on during yes-
Muhe ~y m Ory terday's press conference.
RichRod stands
to lose mostfrom *
NCAA violations
Sims invisible in loss to Fighting Illini
By NICOLE AUERBACH
Daily SportsEditor
Everywhere you looked, there
was a problem. Everywhere you
looked, there was a culprit, some-
one or something to blame for
Michigan's latest loss.
But then, seemingly in the mid-
dle of it all, there was someone
missing - the invisible DeShawn
Sims.
He posted seven points, which
would be respectable for any Wol-
verines not named DeShawn Sims
or Manny Harris, but two came
when the game's outcome was
already decided. He sat out a large
part of the second half due to foul
trouble, eventually succumbing to
his fifth in the game's final min-
ute. And perhaps most frustrating
for the Wolverines, when the out-
side shooters struggled, he wasn't
there to take the ball in the paint
and give the Michigan offense
another dimension.
It hasn't been a secret this year
- the Michigan men's basketball
team goes as Sims goes. He's more
than just a backup plan, and his
role on the team goes beyond his
points down low. Though there
were plenty of concerns after the
Wolverines' loss last night, Sims's
seven points certainly stood out.
The only times Sims has scored
fewer than seven in a game this
season? A pair of four-point per-
formances, in - not surprisingly
- two Michigan losses (Boston
College and Northwestern).
"I don't know how many shots
I took, but I wasn't efficient," said
Sims, whose stat line read 3-for-
12 from the field. "I guess offense
wasn't clicking for me today. The
team went otherwise."
But when the team plays with-
out Sims at his best, it often strug-
gles. The Wolverines don't just
miss his scoring, either. It's his
height down low, his rebounding
and the way he draws defenders.
Sophomore guard Stu Dou-
glass said it's "hard to kind of
get things going" without much
action from Sims, whom Douglass
called "arguably the best low-post
offensive big man in the Big Ten -
maybe sporadically, but at times,
he can be unstoppable."
"We've been going through
him a lot this year," Douglass said.
Douglass said the team didn't
ignore the Sims-in-the-post
option during practice this week,
but it wasn't as available yes-
terday as it has been in recent
games. The Fighting Illini had
a considerable size advantage,
with two 6-foot-9 guys and a
7-foot-1 center in their starting
lineup. That, undoubtedly, made
the game plan a bit more difficult
to execute.
Sims mostly worked against
the 7-foot-1 junior Mike Tisdale,
and after the game, Illinois coach
Bruce Weber said he was pleased
with the way Tisdale guarded
Sims.
"(Sims is) 6-7-and-a-half up
against a 7-1 guy, for some reason
it wasn't working with him today,
for obvious reasons, I should say,"
Michigan coach John Beilein said.
"He's not going to post up and
score over the guy inside. He had
a couple of wrinkles that I think
he could have got there, but did
not have a great game."
Both Beilein and Douglass
made note of senior forward Zack
Gibson's performance in Sims's
absence, and spoke highly of the
6-foot-10 big man whose playing
time has fluctuated all season.
Douglass said Gibson provided
a spark to' the team during the
game's second half. Beilein went
so far as to call Gibson's recent
Finally, the suspense is over.
Nearly six months ago,
when the Detroit Free Press
published a report saying Michigan
football players were being over-
practiced, the internet was ina fren-
zy and Michigan
fans came out
in droves to
talk about the
once-lofty moral'
values of their.
program gone
awry. .,
And outside RYAN
of the initial KARTJE
backlash of the
story, the reac-
tions were the same: Don't most
football programs overpractice their
players? What does overpracticing
mean per se? Confusion ensued.
There were West Virginian tears.
Defecting players. Angry fans. Dis-
appointed alumni. You name it.
It seemed like just about every-
one had had enough of the new
direction in which Michigan coach
Rich Rodriguez was taking the
football program - one that had
been defined by inexcusable losses,
a botched drug deal and possible
NCAA violations.
But with yesterday's announce-
ment that the football program was
indeed found to have committed
NCAA violations, despite a continu-
ing firestorm of mistakes made in
the RichRod era, all IScan think
about is how much worse the situa-
tion could be.
Looking through the five viola-
tions with a fine-toothed comb, it's
hard to find anything resembling a
"major" violation.
Sure, the environment Rodri-
guez and the athletic department
promoted may not have "assured
compliance." A graduate assistant
may have lied. And the quality
control assistants may have partici-
pated in a practice or two.
Hell, they may have even forgot
to count stretching as part of the
countable practice hours.
Butwhen I think of major NCAA
violations, I think of recruiting
fraud, paying players, cheating on
tests and other obvious fraudulent
charges that border on criminal
- not a few extra wind sprints for
skipping class.
Clearly, the athletic department
didn't think there was much of a
problem, either, as it stood by while
Rodriguez promoted one of those
quality control assistants - Adam
Braithwaite - to fill the Wolver-
ines' vacant assistant coaching
position.
In no way am I condoning the
alleged actions, which incoming
Athletic Director David Brandon
called "internal confusion." I'm
sure there were a whole lot of con-
fused participants in this charade.
Whether they should have been so
ignorant, we may never know.
But I can't help but look out West
and see schools like USC under the
microscope with much more seri-
ous NCAA violations and think,
"This isn't so bad."
In a salacious scandal that
involved houses and cash for former
Heisman-winner Reggie Bush as
well as possible recruiting violations
regarding star basketball player O.J.
Mayo, the Trojans are in deep.
The difference with USC is that
its football coach from when these
possible violations took place -
now with the Seattle Seahawks -
just happened tobea patron saint
of Los Angeles.
And Rich Rodriguez, well, he
won't be canonized in Ann Arbor
any time soon.
Rodriguez's stock continues to
fall in an awful bout of bad karma
and questionable decision-making.
By now, I'm sure he realizes he's not
in West Virginia anymore.
These violations, in addition to
his signing day fiasco involving
blue-chip recruit and suspected
felon Demar Dorsey have made his
seat scolding hot in 2010.
Still, Brandon made it clear
that rash decisions won't be made
this offseason on the Wolverines'
embattled coach.
"Rich Rodriguez is our football
coach, and he will be our football
coach," Brandon said.
In the end, these NCAA viola-
tions will most likely have little
effect in tarnishing the Michigan
tradition. Sure, the Wolverines will
no longer have the spotless record
they once had. And there's some-
thing to be said about the program's
image, in that sense.
Truth be told though, a slap
on the wrist, probation sod a few
docked scholarships probably won't
do much to derail the entity that is
Michigan football.
It's Rodriguez who stands to suf-
fer from this. After all, for a coach
who has already pushed his luck
with the Michigan fan base, with
the baggage of a $2.5 million buyout
from Morgantown and little on-
the-field success, these violations
could be the straw that broke the
camel's back come next offseason.
Kartje can be reached at
rkartje@umich.edu.
Senior DeShawn Sims scored just seven points in last night's loss to Illinois. He
fouled out with 28.7 seconds left in the game.
play a "bright spot" during the
team's latest "funk."
Though Michigan is trying its
best to find and focus on positives
right now, like Gibson's perfor-
mance, doesn't exactly make up
for the glaring absence of Sims,
one of the Wolverines' most
important players.
After Sims fouled out with 28.7
seconds remaining in yesterday's
game, at the end of the de-facto
senior day, the student section
chanted an appreciative "Thank
you, Peedi," referencing the four
years of work he's put in.
Maybe he wasn't invisible after
all.
Unlike past senior nights, this year's holds
postseason implications for Wolverines
By MICHAEL FLOREK
Daily Sports Writer
In the past, senior night for the
Michigan hockey team hasn't been
all that climactic. Usually, there's
no lingering possibility that this
could be the last game in front of
the home crowd; usually, the Wol-
verines have already guaranteed
themselves a home playoff series in
the coming weeks.
That won't be the case this year.
Michigan currently sits in sev-
enth in the CCHA. The team must
win Thursday against Notre Dame
and then in South Bend on Satur-
day to negate any chance Michigan
has of falling below the eighth spot
and losing home-ice advantage in
the opening round.
More than anything, earning
extra time at Yost Ice Arena for
a playoff series is on the seniors'
minds as Thursday quietly
approaches.
"I think the time it will set in is
actually when I know I play my last
game here," senior defenseman
Steve Kampfer said yesterday. "But
I think Thursday night will kind of
be a wake up for me, but not right
now. It hasn't set in at all."
And Michigan coach Red Beren-
son wouldn't have it any other way.
The coaching staff scheduled the
game on a Thursday so that stu-
dents could be there to support the
seniors. But he remembers good
and bad performances from his
seniors in the past. Because of this,
he won't even mention the event to
his team this week.
"I've gone so far as, 'this game's
for the seniors,' and we stunk the
joint out," Berenson said. "You
never know what the emotional
trigger is, butI don't think it works
for us."
The 2010 class - consisting
of Kampfer, fellow defensemen
Chris Summers and Eric Elmblad
and forwards Brian Lebler and
Anthony Ciraulo - already knows
that this regular season will be
the worst of its career at Michi-
gan. Barring a run to the CCHA
Tournament Championship, the
Wolverines will also miss out on
their first NCAA tournament in 20
years.
Despite the comparatively poor
season this year, the class has a
CCHA title and NCAA Frozen
Four appearance to their credit
(both in 2008). They are also
nearly 60 games over .500 in their
time wearing the winged helmet,
including a 55-16-3 record at Yost.
Even with more games to play in
the season and Berenson's opposi-
tion to building up senior night
emotionally, the team recognizes
that it will be different from a nor-
mal game. At the very least, the
Wolverines' post-game routine
will be different, if the game itself
doesn't seem abnormal.
"It's obviously going to be a
pretty emotional affair," Sum-
mers said. "It is every year for the
seniors, even the guys that aren't
seniors, seeing them do that whole
ceremony after the game."
As for who will get the most
emotional, how about a 6-foot-3
inch, 212-pound Canadian?
Both Summers and Kampfer
joked that Lebler, the Penticton,
British Columbia native, will get
the most emotional when his name
gets called over the loud speaker.
"When I came in here I never
thought that Brian would be a
softie," Kampfer said with a grin.
"I think now he's a softie. He's
going to be the one that's going to
tear up the most. There's been a
couple of times he's choked up in
meetings.
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