8 - Tuesday, A pril 13, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Men's hoops sends off Sims, Harris*
By TIM ROHAN
Daily Sports Writer
The Manny Harris and DeShawn
Sims era of Michigan basketball came
to a close last month, and last night
was their chance to say goodbye.
At the Michigan men's basketball
team's banquet, Harris gave a brief
speech before the
seniors, saying it NOTEBOOK
had been a plea-
sure playing for Michigan. Harris
also said that Sims was the reason
the Detroit native even came to
Michigan and that Harris "loved
him."
Sims, who won the team's MVP
award, defended Harris's decision
to enter the NBA draft after his
junior season, saying that people
shouldn't have criticized the Wol-
verines' leading scorer because
Harris played like a senior this
year.
When Michigan coach John
Beilein got up to talk, his advice
for the outgoing players was simple
- work harder than you've ever
worked before.
Either way, Harris is leaving a
year early, and Sims is graduat-
ing - the faces of the program are
gone. And whenthe Wolverines
convene again next season, the
team will look drastically different.
This summer, while Harris and
Sims try and make that jump to the
NBA, Michigan is goingto be work-
ing hard to replace 53 percent of its
total point output and 43 percent of
its total rebounding.
"We see some good things,"
Beilein said. "Their summer work-
outs right now are so huge. We have
almost a five-month summer where
coach Beilein and his staff can watch
them. And this is huge. They must
be self-starters, they mustgo after it.
This is really bigtime for them."
If there was any promising sign
for next year's Wolverines, it was
that sophomore Zack Novak took
home the team's leadership award.
BYE BYE BYE: Last Friday,
Beilein announced that assistant
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Senior DeShawn Sims, left, and Junior Manny Harris, right, accounted for 53 perent of scoring and 43 percent of rebounding for the Wolverines last season. Both are leaving for the NBA.
CLIF REEDER/Daily
coaches Jerry Dunn and John
Mahoney were leaving the pro-
gram to pursue other collegiate
coaching opportunities.
"If anybody follows college bas-
ketball, change is everywhere,"
Beilein said. "I can't say there is
anything specific. I would just say
that change is part of a program and
we're going through that right now.
I'm the head coach at Michigan, I've
got to make changes as I see."
Dunn had been on Beilein's
staff for seven years and Mahoney
for the past five years. Both were
also with Beilein at West Virginia
before coming to Michigan.
Beilein said the moves were
based on the future and not on the
team's disappointing season. Jeff
Meyer will move into the assistant
coaching role permanently after he
took over for Dunn in the middle of
this past season. And Beilein said
he is tying to fill the other position
as quickly as he can.
SCHOLARSHIPS APLENTY:
With Harris, Sims, redshirt junior
Anthony Wright and redshirt
senior Zach Gibson all leaving the
program and redshirt freshman
Ben Cronin having left due to a
career-ending injury, Beilein has
some scholarships left to fill for
next season.
Beilein went through the num-
bers and mentioned commitments
from Tim Hardaway, a guard, and
Evan Smotrycz and Jon Horford,
forwards, occupying three of those
five scholarships opening up. That
would leave Michigan with two
scholarships remaining.
Beilein wants to add more more
to the class.
"I think it all depends on how it
lines up right now," Beilein said.
"Where our next commitment
comes from, we'd like to sign at least
one more. But if we don't find the
right guy, but then who that person
is, it dictates some other things. But
I can see us signing a couple more."
That number is also at three
because freshman guard Eso
Akunne, who was awarded a one-
year scholarship this past season,
will have walk-on status once again
next year.
JORDAN MORGAN INJURY
UPDATE: Beilein also gave an
update on how freshman forward
Jordan Morgan is doing regarding
his knee injury.
"He is recovering well," Beilein
said. "What is good now is his knee
is getting a chance to recover while
his shoulder is recovering. That's
the good thing about it. But anytime
a guy is going to be out four months,
he's been out the whole year.
"I am glad that we did get a
glimpse of some things he has to
work on this year."
Morgan is the second-tallest Wol-
verine returning next season. Listed
at 6-foot-8 inches, Morgan will only
be looking up to Blake McLimans
(6-foot-10 inches).
When he was healthy, Morgan
worked with the coaching staff
on scoring around the basket, his
rebounding and even developed a
jump hook. The Wolverines front
line will lose some muscle with Sims
graduating, and Morgan could fill in
nicely in the paint.
Daily Sports Editor Nicole
Auerbach contributed to this report.
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M' loses first game in two years
By BOBBY REEDY
Daily Sports Writer
It had been two years and 329
days since the Michigan men's club
lacrosse team had lost a game. In
the 2007 National Tournament, the
Wolverines lost a consolation match
on May16 to Georgia. The next day,
the Wolverines defeated Colorado
13-8 and began an MCLA-record
49-game winning streak.
On Friday night, No. 1 Michigan
took its winning streak to Colorado
with the goal of reaching the half
century mark in consecutive wins
against the same team that started
the streak - the unranked Buf-
faloes, who had lost their previous
four contests.
It didn't happen.
Colorado stunned the Wolver-
ines by a score of 12-10 and sent
shockwaves through the MCLA by
ending the streak.
Michigan made sure to redeem
itself two days later, beating No. 2
Colorado State 10-6.
"In the warm-ups (against Colo-
rado) we definitely were a little
quiet, maybe a little flat and I take
responsibility (for) that factor in the
sense (that) I should have brought
the team in," senior captain David
Rogers said. "I should have helped
make sure everybody was focused
and let everyone know that we're
not invincible and we can lose. We
were complacent going into the
game and it cost us."
Colorado jumped out to an early
lead and never let go. They took a
5-3 lead into halftime and Michigan
had its first halftime deficit of the
season. The Buffaloes' lead grew to
seven in the fourth quarter and they
were able to hold on after the Wol-
verines rattled off five unanswered
goals.
"It was my first time ever los-
ing at Michigan,"" junior goalie
Mark Stone said. "After the game
all the players come and meet the
goalie. As a goalie, it was a hard loss
because you wanted to put so much
pressure on yourself to win the
game for the team and we were just
lacking all around. After the game,
the whole team came together, we
all kind of embraced and one of the
players gave a nice speech about
how we have to come together and
how it's just a loss."
For a large majority of the team,
it was their first time losing while
wearing the winged helmets. Not a
single member of the junior, sopho-
more or freshman class had ever
lost a game at Michigan.
"(The players) were devastated,"
Michigan coach John Paul said.
"It was a shock and it was a tough
pill to swallow for a lot of them
for about 24 hours. But once they
reflected on it and started to under-
stand why ithappened theygotpast
it pretty quickly."
The Wolverines have won two
national championships in a row and
have beaten the nation's best club
teams throughout the streak, which
is why Friday night's loss came as
such a shock. Colorado had been
ranked No. 7to begin the season but
quickly fell down the rankings as it
lost five ofits first sevengames.
"This wasn't about a team that
was better beating us," Rogers said.
"This was about us not playing to
our potential and us not bringing
the proper amount of focus and
respect to the game. I don't think
this was a disheartening thing
where we are starting to doubt how
talented we are as a team."
Two days later, Michigan took
on No. 2 Colorado State. The Rams
brought a 12-0 record into the game
and had just thrashed Colorado
13-6 the week before.
"Right when we came out to do
our stretches we had a chip on our
shoulder that we had to go out and
play that game," Stone said. "Kids
were getting really pumped dur-
ing warm-ups and you just knew it
was different than that CU game.
For me personally, I just wanted to
make sure to make every save to
make sure we won this game."
Knotted up at 5-5 going into the
fourth quarter, Rogers got the ball
rolling with his second goal of the
game as the Wolverines scored five
straight goals to assume a com-
manding lead of 10-5 with 6:10 left
in the matchup.
"It was good to see the team
recover like that," Rogers said.
"CSU was the perfect team for us
to play after the disappointment
on Friday. You don't want to play
a cupcake. You want to play a team
that is going to challenge you and
test your character and you really
get a chance to see what you're
made out of. I think we did that
and (the win) reinforced the fact to
us that we are a good team and we
are very talented and we still have
the tools to accomplish our goals in
May."
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With LaMarre back in lineup, Blue
will take on hot Rockets' batters
By ZAK PYZIK due. "These guys, for the most part,
Daily Sports Writer picked me up while I was gone, but
I can only watch so many games
After a seven-week hiatus, junior from the sidelines. It's definitely
outfielder Ryan LaMarre is back in great to beback out there."
the Michigan LaMarre hita triple and two dou-
baseball team's Tiedo at bles on Sunday against the Boiler-
lineup and hot- makers. One double came when the
ter than ever. MiChigan bases were loaded and sparked a sev-
LaMarre pushed Matchup: en-run inning for the Wolverines.
his hit streak, Toledo 21-9; LaMarre, who was awarded the
which started Michigan 18-11 Big Ten Player of the Week yester-
before his injury, When: Today day, is batting .519 and is arguably
to 10 games in the 3:05 P.M. the best hitter for the Wolverines.
Wolverines' 94 Whore- "What a week," Michigan coach
victory over Pur- Ray Fisher Rich Maloney said. "If he is not
due on Sunday. Stadium Player of the Week, I don't know
LaMarre's what more you could do. It was
reliability, along Lichi aly pretty special, especially in his first
with a consisten- com d week back. He hasn't seen much
cy in the infield live pitching and to perform the
and a strong bullpen, should serve way he did, get big hits, it really
as the catalysts in Michigan's con- helped the team."
test against Toledo today. The Rockets (8-1 MAC, 21-9
"It feels unreal," LaMarre said overall)just recentlyousted confer-
after Sunday's game against Pur- ence foe Buffalo 17-8. The win gave
Toledo a three-game series sweep
and extended its winning streak to
eight games. The Rockets haven't
been defeated since March 31, when
they lost to Ohio State 4-3.
The last time the two teamsfaced
offwasin2008, and Michigan came
out victorious, 12-4. It was then-
freshman pitcher Travis Smith who
pitched a one-hit scoreless inning
and then-sophomore pitcher Eric
Katzman who took over and threw
three scoreless innings.
Junior Matt Miller, today's start-
er for the Wolverines, is 0-2 this sea-
son despite having only allowed two
runs over six innings and striking
out seven batters against St. Johns.
Most recently, Miller threw a score-
less inning and struck out one batter
coming out of the bullpen against
Central Michigan on April 7.
Miller will have to be stable
to handle the top of the Rock-
ets' lineup to find success. Toledo
boasts four batters hitting better
than .350. And when Miller gets
to the meat of the that lineup, he
will really have his hands full. Dan
Sherwood, Jaren Hoying and Tim
Krofcheck come to the batters box
in the sixth, seventh and eighth
spots consecutively and each have
home-run potential for big slams.
The three have accumulated 24
home runs this season.
But if the play in the field is con-
sistent, the burden on Miller will be
significantly less.
Michigan is fielding .968 and
the Wolverines are averaging just
1.24 errors a game. The biggest
switch for Michigan has been mov-
ing redshirt junior Anthony Toth
from shortstop to second base and
chalking in freshman DerekDennis
at shortstop. Toth has played more
comfortably at second and Dennis
is making good decisions at short.
Both will need to be on their
gameto stopthe Rockets'hotstreak
today.
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