The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.come Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 5 Rodriguez praises seniors, dodges job security question .0 JAKE ROMM/Daly Redshirt freshman center Jordan Morgan chases for a balt against USC Upstate. '6M' struggles to find center By LUKE PASCH did look comfortable on the other Daily Sports Writer side of the ball, stifling a couple of Spartan drives to the hoop with By most measures, the Michi- bigblocks. gan men's basketball season open- "I felt great, and this was really er was a success. a team win" McLimans said. "We In Saturday's 66-35 blow- played pretty good defense. And out victory over South Carolina the blocks were great - it's kind Upstate, sophomore point guard of what I did in high school. That Darius Morris played with the first one got me into a groove confidence of a proven floor gen- again and really set the tempo on eral. Freshman Tim Hardaway Jr. defense." tallied 19 points in an electrifying And Horford, who will likely collegiate debut. And junior Zack see less game time than the other Novak was Zack Novak - he hus- two at center this season, finished tIed every second he was on the the night with four points and court. four rebounds. But those positives, along with But the major concern for a lopsided final score, masked an Michigan's big men is play against otherwise glaring weakness for quality opponents. the Wolverines: center play. Even McLimans collected just two against a non-contender team, the boards against USC Upstate (0-1), big men were rather ineffective. which doesn't have a man taller Redshirt freshman Jordan than 6-foot-7 on its roster. And Morgan, who was labeled starting in less than two weeks, the Wol- center prior to the team's exhibi- verines (1-0) will compete in the tion matchup against Saginaw 2010 Legends Classic against No. Valley State, struggled to find a 10 Syracuse, a team with some of groove in the paint on Saturday. the best frontcourt talent in the A week after registering nine nation. points, 15 rebounds and a block The Orangemen's senior for- in the exhibition, he scored just ward Rick Jackson has accumulat- four points, collected six boards ed 20 rebounds in just two games and turned the ball over twice on so far, and 7-foot freshman center opening day. Fab Melo will be a force under- Under the basket, South Caroli- neath unlike any Morgan, McLi- na Upstate junior forward Chalm- mans and Horford have practiced ers Rogers, who's about an inch or played against. shorter and 25 pounds lighter than Which of Michigan's three cen- Morgan, won inside position and ters will step up against Syracuse, boxed out the Detroit native all if any, is hard to predict. None of night, en route to nine rebounds. the three will have more than "It's a work in progress, and three game's worth of experience it's a challenge," Michigan coach at the collegiate level when the John Beilein said after the game. team travels to Atlantic City, N.J. "The fact is it's always a challenge for the tournament next week. at this level. Having a very good For now, it looks as though five-man takes time and patience Beilein will play the hot hand at to really develop that position, and center. (Morgan, redshirt freshman Blake "We saw a little bit of a spike McLimans and freshman Jon (in practice) this week, one day Horford) are working hard." with Jon (Horford) and one day McLimans didn't provide with Blake McLimans; that's what much offensive relief for Morgan we're looking for," Beilein said. in his 13 minutes off the bench. "So that's why they all played, The 6-foot-10 center, who was that's why we burned (Horford's) recruited primarily for his shoot- redshirt. We just said, 'We don't ing abilities, scored two points know what we have, so let's see on free throws and didn't make a what we have when the lights are shot from the field. But McLimans on.' Rust: icers need new attitude on Friday nights By MARK BURNS this season, as the top four Daily Sports Editor teams are separated by just three points. And while conference Through the first two months play is less than 10 games into the of the Michigan hockey team's season for any team, Rust knows season, neither players nor that this current crop of Wolver- coaches have ines (5-2-1-0 CCHA, 6-3-3 over- been candid NOTEBOOK all) will have to work out of their about the Wol- Friday-night funk if they want to verines' inconsistent weekend secure a CCHA regular-season performances - the team is title - their last one was during 1-3-1 on Friday and 5-0-2 on the 2007-08 campaign. Saturday. Prior to Rust's outspoken But following Michigan's 5-3 response, Michigan coach Red victory against Notre Dame this Berenson said that his current past Saturday, senior forward team isn't the "offensive jugger- Matt Rust dropped some words naut we were once." of wisdom that made ears in the "We're battling, and that's press conference perk up a little what you have to do in this bit. league," Bereoson said. "You "We're trying to do all the have to battle every night. I don't right things on Friday," Rust think we're better than anyone said. "We're trying to come out else. strong. ... I think we don't have "We might have a little more that pissed-off attitude that you experience because of our need to win the game on Friday seniors. As for our skill level, night. On Saturday, after losing, I I don't see us being any better think we finally get that edge, but than Notre Dam. or certainly not on Friday we need to find a way Miami (Ohio)." to get that." Those may be surprising Rust spoke of the tight league See ATTITUDE, Page 6 By NICOLEAUERBACH Daily Sports Writer Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez dodged questions Mon- day afternoon about the signifi- NOTEBOOK cance of potential wins over Wisconsin or Ohio State in regards to his job security. But he didn't downplaythe impor- tance victories could hold for his upperclassmen. Saturday's game against Wisconsin will be the senior class's final home game. "These guys - our seniors and our juniors - have beenthrough an awful lot the last couple of years," Rodri- guez said at his weekly press confer- ence, referring to back-to-back losing seasons in his first two years as head coach. "They've heard as much stuff as anybody. I'm proud because when I see them, when we're around them, they've been totally focused and tun- nel-visioned on doing what we tell them to do. . "In the next couple of years, they can come back and say,'We were the ones who got it right when it needed to get right.'" Rodriguez said the Wolverines would honor their seniors at the end of Thursday's practice and then have a special ceremony at the team hotel Friday night. A couple of seniors will likely speak about their experiences at Michigan, a moment Rodriguez said would be "very, very emotional for both the coaches and the players." "The greatest achievement you can (have) as a college student ath- lete is to complete your senior year," Rodriguez said. "It's not winning All-American or setting records. Because if you've done that, gone through your senior year no matter what sport, you've made a commit- ment - a sacrifice - for that team Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez was asked several questions about his job security at his press conference yesterday. and that university that a lot of peo- ple haven't. "If you look at just our seniors now and the guys that came in with them that are no longer here didn't make that same commitment and sacrifice. These guys have, so they should be honoredbecause of it." NOT THINKING ABOUT JOB SECURITY: A 7-3 record - which guarantees Michigan's first winning season with Rodriguez at the helm - should quiet some of the coaching hot-seat talk, right? Well, not in Ann Arbor. "All we do is come to work every day and try to build the best program in America," Rodriguez said. "We've had obstacles. We've had bumps in the road. We're pressing forward. I'm hoping that there's enough posi- tive momentum and positive talk (so that) all the negativity that's been out there kind of gets pushed aside a little bit. We lose agame, then there's negative talk that comes out. That's the nature of the beast." The Wolverines are the fifth-best offense in the nation in terms of total yardage, but questions still arise about whether or not the spread offense works in the three-yards- and-a-cloud-of-dust Big Ten. "That's for everybody else's opin- ion," Rodriguez said. "I understand the talk's out there, and it's been out there for three years, probably since the day I took the job and stood right here for my very first press confer- ence." INJURY UPDATE: Michigan beat Purdue on Saturday without argu- ably its two most productive defend- ers, junior nose tackle Mike Martin and senior linebacker Jonas Mouton. Rodriguez said it's unclear wheth- er or not they will be able to play Sat- urday against Wisconsin. "We're hopeful they both can play," Rodriguez said. "They didn't play at all last week. We'll see what they can do in practice (Tuesday) and Wednesday. Hoping to have both back for Saturday." Senior Adam Patterson started for Martin and senior Mark Moundros started for Mouton against Purdue last Saturday. Sophomore running back Mike Shaw, who left the Purdue game with concussion-like symptoms, is awaiting results of tests that will be conducted the next few days to see if he can play Saturday. Last weekend, redshirt junior Mark Huyge made his third straight start at right tackle for senior Perry Dorrestein, who is nursing a knee sprain. Dorrestein should be back this week. Rodriguez said redshirt sopho- more running back Mike Cox has been banged up, and that's why he didn't make the trip to Purdue. Fel- low running back Fitz Toussaint returned from a shoulder injury against Purdue, though he did not carry the ball. Blue gets 10th seed, first-round bye By NEAL ROTHSCHILD For the Daily The Michigan men's soccer team and its supporters gathered around the TVs at Packard Pub on Pack- ard and State Street in Ann Arbor, eagerly waiting for the team's name to pop up as each regional of the NCAA tournament bracket was revealed. Everyone knew the Wol- verines were in the field, it was just a matter of where. Michigan's Big Ten conference championship vic- tory over Penn State just a day ear- lier gave the team an automatic bid. With three of the four regionals already announced, the Wolverines knew their name would come up in a matter of seconds. Then, they saw the last regional flash onto the screen with Michigan's name on the right side, signifying a first-round bye. They were the 10th seed, which meant a bye and a home game. The pub erupted in cheers, fist pumps and chestbumps. "I thought we could have went anywhere as high as eight and as low as twelve. So we're right where we thought," Michigan coach Steve Burns said of the team's seed. South Florida will play at Central Florida on Thursday for the right to play Michigan on Sunday afternoon. If the Wolverines win, they will be lined up to play seventh-seeded South Carolina in the round of 16. Maryland has the top seed in the region and the second seed overall. Michigan would likely need to get through the Diamondbacks to make it to Santa Barbara for the College Cup, the Final Four of college soc- cer. "The thing I'm most happy about is that when you look at that draw, they're (South Florida and Cen- tral Florida) both warm-weather teams," Burns said. "So it poses some challenges for them as they come into Ann Arbor." Michigan has played six of the 48 teams in the tournament field and has a combined record of 5-2-1 against them. The only team the Wolverines had serious trou- ble with was Akron, who notched the third overall seed and beat Michigan, 7-1, earlier this season. The Wolverines' last NCAA Tournament appearance came in 2008 when they had the eleventh seed and a bye in the first round. They beat UC-Davis, 2-1, before fall- ing to Indiana, 3-0, in the regional semifinals. Their best finish was in 2003 when they made it to the Elite Eight. "It's one thing to make it to the NCAA Tournament," senior mid- fielder Alex Wood said. "But now it's about how far we can go. The way we're playing, I don't see limits. We want to be playing in Santa Barbara in the College Cup." . After starting the season 8-5-3, the Wolverines caught fire, winning five straight. The last three came in the Big Ten Tournament. Michigan will practice all this week while Burns makes the trip to Florida to scout the Wolverines' next opponent. Burns sid the team will address any quirks of Central Florida and South Florida, including their strategies on corner kicks and restarts. The Wolverines beat South Flori- da 2-0 in the schools' only matchup in 2003. They have never played Central Florida. "Upsets are very common in tournaments like these and we can't afford to have that happen to us," Wood said. "We've got to take every game individually and keep moving forward." tar morc infarmatruss call 73/615-S64b49 The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts presents a public lecture and reception I The Effect/Response Paradigm Elzada U. Clover Collegiate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Tuesday, November 16, 2010 Rackham Amphitheater 4:10pm I ,SA. rREA KY FAST DELIVERY!