The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I January 11, 2010
Junior Manny Harris reaches for a loose ball in the Wolverines' loss to Northwestern yesterday at Crisler Arena. Despite Harris's team-leading 24 points, Michigan blew a 17-point first half lead to fall to the Wildcats.
Internal
struggles
plague M11
No matter who the Michigan has-
ketball team plays, it's the same
thing.
I'mnot talking about turnovers, or
missed shots, or its
inability to get key
defensive stops, all of
which led to perhaps
the most depressing loss
of the season yesterday
against Northwestern.
I'm talking about what
happens after the games.
Want to know what hap- JOE
pens? The media mem-
bers go into the locker STAPLETON
room and ask players
the tough questions that
need to be addressed even though it's obvi-
ous that if the players knew the answers,
they wouldn't be losing so many games.
After that, we go into the Crisler produc-
tion studio, where Michigan coach John
Beilein steps up to the podium and, far too
often this season, attempts to explain why
his team played the way they did. In yester-
day's case, he was trying to tell us why the
Wolverines gave up a 17-point lead at home
See STAPLETON, Page 3B
Wildcat rally dooms Wolverines
After staging a comeback
against Penn State, Blue
suffers opposite fate
By NICOLE AUERBACH
Daily Sports Editor
The game's final 10 seconds were tick-
tock-ticking away when the Michigan
men's basketball team was given the ball
out of bounds underneath Northwestern's
basket.
Sure, the Wolverines were down a few
too many points, but they weren't defeat-
ed yet. It was still a pray-for-a-miracle
situation.
But no Michigan player went to the
baseline, nobody was ready to throw the
ball in. Eventually freshman guard Darius
Morris tossed it in, got the ball back and
sprinted down the court. As he ran, the
game clock marched toward Northwest-
ern's 68-62 victory, and when Morris
reached the paint, he lost control of the
ball.
It was a painstaking, fitting image
of Michigan's play Sunday afternoon -
though to be fair, the Wolverines lost
control of the game way before the final
moments.
Some may point to the moment mid-
way through the second half when, after
leading by 17 points, Michigan saw its lead
disintegrate into a tied ballgame. Others
could say it was the pair of Northwestern
free throws with 1:14 left in the game, the
points that gave the Wildcats the lead for
good after Morris hit a huge 3-pointer to
give the Wolverines a brief advantage.
The free throws, coupled with Michigan's
three turnovers in the final 1:03, crushed
the Wolverines' final glimmer of hope.
But according to Michigan coach John
Beilein and the stat sheet, the Wolverines
lost their very comfortable grip on the
game toward the end of the first half.
All of the sudden, with four minutes
left before halftime, Northwestern's zone
defense became smothering, and the
Wildcats' offense came alive in the form
of freshman Drew Crawford - who went
on a personal 11-0 run.
And even though Crawford would con-
tinue to pester the Wolverine defense for
25 points on the day, the Wildcat defense
was more troublesome for Michigan.
"Their 1-3-1 defense, what makes it
so successful is the way they can touch
the ball," Beilein said. "When you have
touchers on the ball ... that's really huge.
That certainly took us out of rhythm, and
because that took us out of rhythm, our
defense in the second half was not good."
Northwestern coach Bill Carmody
confirmed how the 1-3-1 zone devastated
the Wolverines, too - his Wildcats were
"really getting their hands on balls and
taking away passing lanes," he said. It's no
coincidence that Michigan's 18 turnovers
more than doubled its season average.
Northwestern's zone worked, and it
certainly confused the Wolverine offense.
See NORTHWESTERN,Page 3B
SAID ALSA LAH/Daily
Freshman Darius Morris led the team with seven assists yesterday.
Despite sweep, Blue
still an average team.
Offensive explosion
keys weekend wins
The Michigan hockey team
knew it needed to sweep Western
Michigan this past weekend. Lo
and behold,
the Wolver-
ines earned
two wins over
the last-place
Broncos. It was
Michigan's
first confer-
ence weekend
sweep since the MARK
end of October BURNS
against Lake BURNS _
Superior State.
With the
sweep, Michigan propelled itself
into a tie for seventh in the CCHA.
The wins also gave the Wolverines
some momentum for the second
half of the season, with the defin-
ing chunk of their schedule still to
come in the next three weeks.
But at the end of the day, every-
one needs to be reminded that
Michigan did nothing more than
beat a mediocre Western Michigan
squad that has seen better days, a
team the Wolverines should beat
handily nine times out of 10.
So, for anyone claiming Michi-
gan is on its way to finishing in
the top four of the CCHA or mak-
ing it to the NCAA Tournament
for the 20th-straight year needs
to step back and realize this team
has proven it is just, well, average
at this point.
See BURNS, Page 36
- By TIM ROHAN
Daily Sports Writer
Freshman forward Lindsay
Sparks and the Wolverines played
with an urgency in the attacking
zone and
scorched MICHIGAN 4
the nets W. MICHIGAN 3
all week-
end ina sweep in a home-and-
home series against the Western
Michigan
Broncos. W. MICHIGAN 1
Michi- MICHIGAN 6
gan (7-7
CCHA, 12-10-0 overall) 6-1 on Sat-
urday and 4-3 on Friday. It was the
team's' second CCHA sweep of the
season and its first sweep since the
offense exploded for 11 goals in two
games against Lake Superior State
on Halloween weekend.
The scoring came in all different
forms. Defensemen scored from
the point, the Wolverines found
wide open teammates off crisp
passing and Michigan tallied a sea-
son-high four power play goals to
win Friday's game.
But it was fitting that a defen-
seman opened the scoring in both
games. Michigan coach Red Beren-
son expected his blue liners to
contribute offensively before the
season, and they were consistent-
ly in the middle of the scoring all
See WESTERN, Page 3B
MAx cOLLINS/Daly
Sophomore Luke Glendening battles for a loose puck in Michigan's 6-1 victory over
Western Michigan. This weekend's conference sweep was the first since October.
WISCO NO-GO
Women's hoops drops another Big
Ten road game, this time in Madison,
after a second-half collapse Page 4B
CLARY-FIED
Defending national champion swimmer
Tyler Clary, now healthy, leads Blue in a
blowout Page 2B
9