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8A - Thursday, January 14, 2010
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Falling short hurts
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Honestly, I felt claustrophobic.
After the Michigan men's bas-
ketball team upset then-No. 15
Ohio State,
the Wolverine
Nation started
to come crawl-
ing back. That
was fine. It was
good to see
some enthusi-
But when NICOLE
Michigan AUERBACH
pulled off one
of the most
unexpected and exhilarating
comebacks against Penn State a
week ago, the rest of the fanbase
returned to the bandwagon. Or
rather, smushed into the band-
wagon.
{ The excitement reminded me,
well, of last year. Students wore
basketball jerseys to class, class-
mates tried to scalp tickets on
Facebook for upcoming games
and the buzz throughout campus
was getting louder and louder.
Wait. This couldn't be happen-
-11
l ,
on the tip of our tongues.
Are the Wolverines actually
good?
It took 40 minutes and a blown
17-point lead against a rather
mediocre Northwestern team to
answer that question once and for
all: No.
In the most soul-crushing,
stake-through-the-heart kind of
way, the answer was no.
And boy, does that suck.
This was supposed to be the
year of Michigan basketball.
Remember last season - the first
March Madness appearance in 11
years? Well, it wasn't supposed to
be a one-and-done deal.
For the first time in more than
a decade, fans on campus finally
let themselves believe in the pro-
gram. Fifteen games, 7 losses and
an RPI of 162 later, and we're basi-
cally back to square one.
But why? Michigan lost a pair
of walk-on guards this offseason.
That's it. The core of the team, and
most importantly Manny Harris
and DeShawn Sims, remained.
High expectations practically
oozed out of Ann Arbor. The
accolades poured in even before
the Wolverines began their sea-
son: A No. 15 ranking. Pre-season
All-Big Ten selections. Features
in national college basketball
magazines.
Student season ticket sales
increased 500 percent, balloon-
ing to nearly 2,500 tickets this
season. That's nearly 2,500 dis-
appointed students who planned
their winter classes around mid-
week games. That's nearly 2,500
people who expected the season
to extend deep into March with a
trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Now, that sentiment seems
almost ludicrous. In fact, this
season has felt more like a long,
drawn-out dream that none of
us can wake up from. Did I say
dream? I meant nightmare.
Bad losses, a pathetic 29 per-
cent 3-point field goal percentage,
poor interior defense ... the list
of Michigan's on-court problems
could go on for days. The trendy
excuse is that the team suffers
from a lack of leadership. Me? I
don't believe that, and I don't buy
the "maybe the players just don't
care" argument, either. They care,
and they're good guys. They're as
confused as the fans are, and it's
pretty apparent they don't know
how to fix things any more than
we do.
I'm hearing that it's a pretty
similar situation next door at Yost.
A talented team that - for some
reason or another - has fallen out
of the national spotlight.
Sure, the hockey team's 19-year
It was supposed
to be the year
of Michigan
basketball.
NCAA Tournament appearance
streak might snap this year. That's
rough.
Even though Hockeytown is
just 40 miles from Ann Arbor, the
fact is that college hockey isn't a
major sport here on campus, like
football and basketball are.
Even if Michigan hockey won 19
straight NCAA titles, it wouldn't
attract 2,500 student season tick-
et-holders.
If the hockey team's tourna-
ment appearance streak ends, half
the campus won't notice.
But when the basketball team
snaps its one-year tournament
appearance streak, it's going tobe
a long, quiet March.
And after DeShawn and, in all
likelihood, Manny leave this sum-
mer, it could be the first of many.
- Auerbach can be reached
at naauer@umich.edu
PPW61
ing.
And then Sunday came along
and brought us all back to reality.
Welcome to Michigan basketball
circa 2009-10.
This is the
team that
lost to Utah,
which
lost to a
school
called
Illinois State
(Who?). These are the Wolverines
who, in front of a hopeful Crisler
nfiUi. Arena crowd, were embarrassed
by Boston College, ateam that lost
to Maine ... at home (Seriously).
Those losses were head-
scratchers, but after a while, we
became numb to the pain. A few
false glimmers of hope later -
aka the Ohio State and Penn State
shockers - and we couldn't quite
figure out this bipolar team. That
question we didn't dare ask was
What do you think? Which season is more pair
Join Auerbach and Kartje and sound off in the
Duel of the Disappointments Live Chat
Today at 6 p.m. on michigandaily.com
f" r- 4 0'
Failure hits
hardestat Yost
4
Imagine that for 19 straight
years, your family has gathered to
celebrate your birthday.
I'm talking
balloons, choc-
olate birthday
cake with that
special frost-
ing your mom
knows you like .
and presents
just for you. RYAN
The whole she-
bang. KARTJE
Then, you -
wake up with
a smile on that fateful day, expec-
tations through the roof, because
nothing - by your judgment - is
out of the ordinary. Much to your
chagrin, there's no cake, no bal-
loons and no presents.
Your family has forgotten your
birthday, a la Sixteen Candles.
Except, in this case, the Michi-
gan hockey team is Molly Ring-
wald. And that birthday you have
marked on your calendar year
after year, because well, it's your
birthday, that's the NCAA Tour-
nament.
John Hughes couldn't have
written it any better.
At 12-10, the Wolverines are
enduring one of the worst seasons
of coach Red Berenson's 26-year
tenure.
And with each crushing loss
to teams increasingly inferior to
their own, hopes of extending the
longest streak of NCAA Tourna-
ment appearances in the nation to
20 are looking slimmer and slim-
mer.
With a returning group of 11
NHL draftees - four of those in
rounds one or two - and a Hobey
Baker finalist from the year
before, Michigan looked like the
Fab Five on Mark McGwire's ste-
roid regimen.
So in front of a crowd of loyal
Michigan hockey fans on Nov. 7, a
following that forgave the team's
near screw-up in the home opener
against Niagara and its two-goal
defeat at the hands of Miami
(Ohio) the night before, fans
expected a triumphant comeback,
a return to glory, a piece de resis-
tance of sorts.
Instead, they got 65 penalty
minutes - 51 in the third period.
For a frame of reference, that's
more than a third of the penalty
minutes upcoming CCHA oppo-
nent Alaska has tallied all season.
Berenson, a man of little visible
emotion, looked embarrassed.
He took nearly half an hour
to address his team in the locker
room, and when he finally left,
called them "spoiled brats" to the
media.
Four games and 14 goals later,
the star-studded defense was
underachieving, the offense
couldn't score and Michigan fans
were praying for an early arrival
from mega goaltending recruit
Jack Campbell to spell Bryan
Hogan's mediocrity and turn
around a five-game losing streak.
That is of course, before Camp-
bell decommitted, opting instead
for the OHL.
And to add insult to injury (lit-
erally and figuratively), Spartan
forward Corey Tropp, who was
kicked off the team for a cheap
shot on senior Wolverine Steve
Kampfer a year before, beat
Kampfer one-on-one tosecure the
series sweep.
It vas enough to stomp on
the grave of Michigan's 19-year
streak, but Enemy No. 1 of Michi-
gan hockeyfans did his best rendi-
tion of "Twist and Shout" on the
way out of Yost Ice Arena.
And much to the delight of
masochists everywhere, Tropp's
a shoe-in to be a Hobey Baker
Award finalist this year.
Pouring salt in their own
wounds became a hobby, one
capped off when Berenson
benched Hogan for the final
period of the Wolverines' open-
ing round loss to RPI in the Great
Lakes Invitational.
As two-time defending GLI
champions, Michigan's expecta-
tions were high. And though they
trailed early, they even scored two
quick goals in the third to tie it up
with backup Shawn Hunwick in
net.
But in a fit of bad luck that would
make Lemony Snicket blush, Hun-
wick's .5-foot, 7-inch frame was
about three inches from stopping
the game-winning goal.
This had to be a dream.
Sure, 2010 was supposed to be
the year of Michigan basketball.
Bandwagoners all around cam-
pus bought tickets in droves when
they saw the shiny number before
the Wolverines' name.
But what they don't understand
is that it's been the year of Michi-
gan hockey for nearly two decades
It's been the
year of Michigan
hockey for two
decades now.
I
now. And fans abandoned the
bandwagon long ago for a charter
bus.
Michigan wins are like a life-
style for dedicated hockey fans,
who have been coming to Yost
for years to get away from the
culture of disappointment fester-
ing a few miles down the street
at Crisler.
Nearly a quarter century of
lofty expectations in the Beren-
son era have been sent swirling
down the toilet as Michigan has
limped to splits with CCHA base-
ment dwellers like Bowling Green
(who has been as bad in the past 19
years as Michigan has been good)
and Ohio State.
So when the basketball team
misses the Tournament this year,
Michigan students will look to
the hockey team for postseason
comfort. Just like they have every
year, with the exception of last
season, since 1998.
But this time, there won't be
any birthday candles waitingto be
blown out.
- Kartje can be reached
at rkartje@umich.edu