The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Wednesday, December 8, 2010 - 7A The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, December 8, 2D10 - 7A Wolverines prepare for Michigan State, Big Chill TEST SKATE berenson grew up games. We can start worrying about it now. It's a reality." playing on Berenson, who grew up in western Canada and played "90 percent of (his) hockey outdoors," Saskatchewan reminisced about tying his skates in the fresh air in Regina, Sas- katchewan. By MARK BURNS "I remember calling my Daily Sports Editor friends, 'Come on, get over to the rink. We've got to shovel it off,' A week before the Cold War - the first outdoor college hockey game, held in Oct. 2001 in NOTEBOOK Spartan Stadi- um - Michigan junior forward Mike Cammal- leri wasn't slated to play against Michigan State due to a hip inju- ry. But Cammalleri insisted that he play against the Spartans, and Michigan coach Red Berenson finally gave in to his wishes. And followinghis two-goal, one-assist performance, Cammalleri earned MVP honors for the Wolverines. The meaning, the magnitude and the stakes of the matchup made his injury a non-issue. And with the Big Chill at the Big House three days away, this year's Wolverines (8-3-1-0 CCHA, 9-5-4 overall) are not underesti- mating the gravity of their date with the Spartans, a game that was finalized in January. "We've been waiting for this, and now we can say it's our next game," Berenson said during Monday's press conference. "We don't have to keep it off in the distance and worry about current " Berenson said. "And there'd be three feet of snow on the rink. We'd shovel it off and then play hockey all day until it was dark, then we'd go home and do it again the next day on the weekends." "We'd shovel (the snow) off and then play until dark." When he was 19 years old, Berenson dropped out of school for a semester to join the Cana- dian National team in the World Championships in 1959. Beren- son described playing in Oslo, Norway in front of 15,000 fans as truly "magical." "Then we did the same thing in Helsinki and Stockholm in these huge, outdoor stadium rinks," Berenson continued. "Now we get a chance to play in what are the biggest games of my recent ten- ure, and once again, it's a game that's going to be magical." BROTHERLY LOVE: Senior for- ward Louie Caporusso doesn't mess around when it comes to the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry. Throughout the first few months of the season, Caporus- so and his friend Derek Grant, a Spartan sophomore forward, occasionally texted back and forth just like any friends would do. Just recently, though, Capo- russo joked that he deleted Grant's BlackBerry Messenger PIN number from his cell phone, explaining he just "didn't want him on there." With more than 100,000 peo- ple projected to be in attendance, fireworks set to go off after every Michigan goal, and the less-than- favorable expected weather con- ditions, the Big Chill isn't your run-of-the-mill college hockey game between Michigan and Michigan State (3-7-1-0, 6-8-3). Said senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick: "This game is with our arch-rival Michigan State. We're going to break records. I don't think anyone has ever played a game of this magnitude, inside or outside." NOTES: Berenson was sick on Tuesday and watched yesterday's practice from the MGoBlue.com web cam. ... There has been no decision from Berenson and the coaching staff regarding whether Bryan Hogan or Shawn Hunwick will start against Michigan State. ... Hogan has a 7-2 record on the year while Hunwick is 2-3-4. ARIEL BOND/Daily (Top) The Michigan club hockey team played Michigan State's club team in a regular season contest Tuesday night at Michi- gan Stadium. The varsity hockey team will play its Spartan counterpart Saturday in the Big Chill at the Big House. (Bottom) Club hockey goaltender Bryan Thomas (35) defends the net located at the north end of the Big House. Post players learning on the fly for young squad Quijano makes comeback, emerges as leader for Blue By ZAK PYZIK Daily Sports Writer All five forwards on the Michigan men's basketball team are either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. And anyone familiar with the Wolverines will vouch that youthfulness is the team's most significant problem. Those post players especially have shown their inexperience. Redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan has been Michigan coach John Beilein's starting center/forward in every game this season. Tied for the Big Ten's leading offensive rebound- er, averaging four per game, Morgan is also the second-lead- ing scorer on Michigan's squad - notching about 11 points per game. Morgan credits his redshirt season for his growth. "Playing against players like DeShawn (Sims) or Zack (Gib- son) last year and just going through practice and every- thing, I'm a little more com- fortable with what needs to be fulfilled through the role of the five-man," Morgan said after Saturday's game against Har- vard. "I definitely feel more com- fortable, especially as the games go on, just trying to do my job for the team." But in Beilein's offensive scheme, Morgan is normally accompanied by four guards, making him the only threat in the paint. That role has caused Morgan to play more aggres- sively at times, and he has been whistled for a team-high 24 per- sonal fouls. "Morgan has good defense, but doesn't have really good defense when he's sitting next to me," Beilein said last Friday. "The harmless fouls that he doesn't have to necessarily com- mit are huge things that we are working on." As a result of these fouls, the Wolverines (6-2) have have been forced to dig deep into their line- up to see how the other forwards would perform. Redshirt fresh- i After being benched little cringe in my knee, and from then on it put me out for about a earlier this season, month and a half." Entering the season, Quijano senior defender was healthy enough to start the finds niche team's first two games. But poor play and a strong push from freshman defender ByZACH HELFAND Ezekiel Harris relegated Quijano Daily Sports Writer to an unfamiliar position: the bench. Perhaps it's fitting that senior Initially, he wasn't too recep- defender Jeff Quijano scored the tive to the change. But with time goal to put the Michigan men's he grew into his new role. soccer team on the board against "At first, I really didn't Maryland on Saturday in the embrace Orange Crush - kind NCAA quarterfinals. The game, of a pride thing," Quijano said, after all, seemed to parallel Qui- referring to the nickname given jano's season - a journey from to the reserve players because disappointment to determina- of the orange vests they wear. tion to triumph. "But I realized ... the team is It was a game filled with bigger than I am, so I became a almost as many ups and downs as big Crush leader, and a die-hard Quijano experienced this season. Crush." In his first three seasons with Added Burns: "It takes a lot the Wolverines (17-4-3), Quijano of character to be able to deal totaled 31 starts and saw the field with that kind of environment in nine other games. He expect- and that type of reality that has ed to play a major role in his final faced. It would have been very season with the team. easy for him just to have drifted "(Quijano) came in as a senior off and kind of gotten upset and (and) thought he was going to be just acquiesced and dropped a big-time starter for us," Michi- away from the team." gan coach Steve Burns said after But Quijano didn't. And as the game on Saturday. he began to accept his new role, But this summer, while play- Quijano started to think of ways ing alongside senior goalkeeper to lead the team from the side- Chris Blais in a player-develop- lines. During the Wolverines' ment league in Seattle, Quijano nine-game win streak that ulti- suffered a setback when he sus- mately propelled them into the tained a freak injury to the ilio- NCAA semifinals, Quijano began tibial band in his knee, a new team tradition - he starts "It was the weirdest thing," each match in the middle of the Quijano said during a press con- team huddle yelling, heightening ference on Monday. "I was sitting the pre-game hype. down one day, I stood up, I felt a According to Quijano, his new role also helped him on the field. And the coaches took notice. Before Michigan's game against Northwestern on Nov. 6, Burns spoke privately with Quijano, letting the defender know that he was getting the start. Since then, Quijano has been one of the team's most important contributors, giving the Wolver- ines an infusion of energy and hustle every game. Of course, the goal against Maryland and the subsequent National Team of the Week honors were pretty impor- tant, too. Senior midfielder Alex Wood, who has lived with Quijano for three years and has even had him over for Thanksgiving Dinner multiple times, described what Quijano means to the team. "He's an emotional leader, but he's also led by example through these nine (straight wins)," Wood said on Monday. "He's been out there fighting. If you watch the game, the right side is on fire right now, and Jeff's the main reason for that." Quijano returns to his home state of California for the team's NCAA semifinal matchup against No. 2 Akron in Santa Bar- bara on Friday night. He will need to stay hot if the team hopes to contend with the Zips, who handed the Wolver- ines their last loss on Oct. 19, 7-1. "It's a new team compared to then and now and it's a team that I think is ready to play Akron," Quijano said. "We've definitely come a long ways since playing them." So, too, has Quijano. iAKc FROMM/Daily Redshirt freshman forward Jordan Morgan has been Michigan's primaryoption in the paint early on this season. man Blake McLimans and fresh- man Colton Christian have been Morgan's primary replacements. In Michigan's 65-56 loss to the University of Texas-El Paso on Nov. 27, McLimans replaced Morgan after four fouls. The Miners didn't cover McLi- mans outside the paint, giving him open looks, but he went 0-for-4 from three-point range. "It was kind of depressing," McLimans said of his shooting drought against UTEP. "I'm a big man that can shoot, that's kind of my M.O., so it's something I'm going to have to work on." A week later, McLimans had to cover Harvard's leading scor- er, forward Keith Wright, when Morgan was in foul trouble again. But this time against the Crimson, McLimans contrib- uted on the defensive end in his seven minutes of play by hold- ing Wright to just two points. Wright finished the game with a total of 18 points. On offense, McLimans scored four points, collected one rebound, and swatted a block in the brief time that he was on the floor. But McLimans isn't the only big man who takes pride in his shooting. Freshman Evan Smotrycz has turned out to be one of Michi- gan's go-to guys on the perim- eter. Smotrycz scored a career- high 18 points in the Wolverines' 69-61 win against Clemson on Nov. 30. But less than a week later against Harvard, Smotrycz post- ed zero points. That type of inconsistency is exactly what Beilein attributes to youth, and something that Michigan is trying to avoid - especially from its forwards. 'A;. NEED A STUDY BREAK? CHECK MICHIGANDAILY.COM FOR MICHIGAN SPORTS UPDATES DURING FINALS WEEK 4 Senior defender effrey Quijano scored his first goal in more thas a year on Saturday against Nth. 3 Maryland.