The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, December 10, 2010 - 7A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Friday, December10, 2010 - 7A
'Blue hopes to stifle
Utes' post presence
By CHANTEL JENNINGS
Daily Sports Editor
When Utah coach and East
Grand Rapids native Jim Boylen
comes to Crisler Arena tonight,
it will be more than just his Run-
nin' Utes pride
pushing to take
down the Michi- Utahat
gan men's bas- Michigan
ketball team. Matchup:
There will be Utah 6-2;
a bit of Spartan Michigan 6-2
in him too - a
residual effect When: Tonight
6:30 P.M.
of being a part
of the Michigan Where:
State men's bas- Crisler Arena
ketball coaching TV/Radio:
staff. BTN
Boylen - an
assistant under Michigan State
coach Jud Heathcote from 1987
to 1992 and an assistant under
current Spartan coach Tom Izzo
from 2005 to 2007 - returns to
the Crisler sideline for the first
time since his stints in East Lan-
sing. In his time with the-Spar-
tans, Michigan State went to the
NCAA Tournament five times
and the NIT once.
But Boylen has faced the Wol-
verines as a head coach before.
This game will mark the second
of a home-and-home series with
Utah. Last year, Utah ran away
with a 68-52 win in Salt Lake
City. In that game, despite Manny
Harris's 25 points, six rebounds
and four steals, the Wolverines
couldn't keep up with the Run-
nin' Utes, who finished the game
with a 13-1 run.
This year, Utah (6-2 overall) is
led by junior guard Will Clyburn,
who's in his first season there
after transferring from Mar-
shalltown Community College in
Iowa. The Detroit native is aver-
aging more than 20 points and
nine rebounds per game.
When Michigan faced Utah
Life
After
Lexi
By Heiko Yang
Daily Sports Writer
JAKE FROMM/Daily
Redshirt freshman forward jordan Morgan will be charged with guarding Utah's
7-foot-3 center David Foster.
last season, the Runnin' Utes won Everyone on Michigan's ros-
the rebound battle 41-25 and the ter will have to be better on the
Wolverines were visibly over- defensive end.
powered in the post by 7-foot-3 The Wolverines gave up 65
center David Foster. points to Concordia last week -
"He is incredible," Michigan the only other team to score that
coach John Beilein said of Foster much this season was the Univer-
on Thursday night. "I've never sity of Texas El Paso - and Utah
seen a guy average four points a is averaging more than 74 points
game and have such an impact in per game this season.
a game. The Wolverines won't be
"He did it last year ... and he'll thinking about Concordia when
do it again." they take the floor tonight in the
Michigan (6-2) will look to third game of their eight-game
limit how much Foster can actu- home stretch, but there were
ally do after spending time this takeaways that Michigan can
week focusing on their post and learn from in their close, rough
team defense. Redshirt freshman outing with the Cardinals.
Jordan Morgan will be the man "There were some very good
called upon to slow Foster. things," Beilein said of his team
"It'll be interesting, because I watching the game tape. "But
was thinking it would be like me there were some things that this
trying to guard Morgan in the is what were talking about, 'You
post a little bit," junior Stu Dou- do this against Utah and they
glass said. "But I think Jordan's will dunk on you all night long.'
gotten better every day on the So there were some great learn-
defensive end." ing moments from that."
After years of star-filled rosters,
two 'M' captains start new era
By ANDREW HADDAD
Daily Sports Writer
For the last century, the Michi-
gan men's swimming program has
been symbolized by star power.
Tyler Clary. Peter and Alex
Vanderkaay. Tom Dolan. Eric
Namesnik. Chris Thompson. The
list goes on of ready-made super-
stars who came to Michigan and
experienced outstanding success
from the very beginning of their
careers, including winning Olym-
pic gold medals.
But this season, the symbol
of the Wolverines isn't a hotshot
recruit who was projected as a
future Olympian since middle
school. Instead, it's two lightly
recruited walk-ons who are now
the captains of one of the most sto-
ried swimming programs in the
nation.
Seniors Chris Douville and Neal
Kennedy each took different paths
to their respective leadership roles.
But they share a common bond of
hard work and sacrifice.
No. 6 Michigan fields its young-
est team ever this season, with 17
freshmen and just seven seniors.
With that in mind, Douville and
Kennedy's ability to spread that
type of work ethic onto the rest of
the team will be the key to wheth-
er Michigan can overcome their
unusual lack of superstars and
achieve their usual level of success.
Douville grew up in Dayton,
Ohio as a huge Michigan fan, with
his brother Nick swimming for the
Wolverines from 2002-05. But
coming out of high school, Chris
wasn't just too slow to receive a
scholarship at Michigan as a fresh-
man; he was too slow to even make
the team. Instead, he attended
Notre Dame for a year, delaying his
dream.
"I had always wanted to go
to Michigan," Douville said last
Thursday. "I improved enough in
my freshman year at Notre Dame
to qualify for Michigan, and once I
got my release (from Notre Dame),
the choice was easy."
But Douville still had a long way
to go once he arrived in Ann Arbor.
"When Chris got here, he wasn't
very good, truthfully," Michigan
coach Mike Bottom said. "I had no
real expectations for him."
But since then, Douville has
improved exponentially each year.
He's gone from essentially being a
reserve his sophomore season to
being expected to score in several
events at the Big Ten Champion-
ships this season.
"I never would have expected
this, especially coming out of high
school," Douville said. "But the
biggest key to my improvement, I
think, is that when I got to Michi-
gan, I looked at the best swim-
mers on the team, guys like Tyler
Clary and Matt Patton, and I said
to myself, 'What can I do to get
on their level?' I try to keep that
in mind through every single day,
every single practice, and every
single workout. I have to work
harder than other guys who might
be naturally faster than me."
Unlike his co-captain, Neal Ken-
nedy had his pick of virtually any
university in the country coming
out of high school. But he's faced a
lot of adversity in his college career
as well. He hardly competed his
freshman season and changed
events over the course of his time
in Ann Arbor. He went from spe-
cializing in the 400 individual
medley to becoming one of Michi-
gan's fastest swimmers in the 200
individual medley.
But despite all of that, he grew
substantially and won the team's
Most Improved Swimmer award
last season. He's now considered
one of the team's best performers
and says the key to such dramatic
improvement is humility.
"Mike Bottom has forgotten
more about swimming than I'll
ever know," Kennedy said. "So I've
always understood that I should
listen to what the coaches say."
After being named captain fol-
lowing last season, though, he
experienced one of his greatest set-
backs. A wakeboarding accident
over the summer led to a nagging
ankle injury that forced him to
miss the season's first two events,
in which the Wolverines suffered
a tie and a narrow loss. But he's
come back to swim at a high level
since.
"(Neal's injury) gave him some
time to reflect on just how impor-
tant swimming was to him," Bot-
tom said. "It's like shaking up a
coke can. He watched every meet
go by and go by, and once he finally
got his chance to swim, it popped."
Douville and Kennedy are great
friends now. But when they first
met, they butted heads.
"We're very different," Ken-
nedy said. "He's the business guy
who does all the hard work and
just pounds it out every day. I'm a
sprinter; I like to have fun, splash
around, make jokes. He's also more
intellectual, whereas I'm more
emotional. It took a little while
figuring out how to mesh together,
but he's one of my best friends now,
and I think it makes for a good bal-
ance as captains."
For the Wolverines to have any
chance of fulfilling their lofty
goals this season without the usual
superstars, the entire team will
need to work just as hard as Dou-
ville and Kennedy have in the last
four years.
The two captains have tried to
incorporate lessons they've learned
in their careers into their current
leadership approach. Remember-
ing how important the guidance of
older swimmers was to their devel-
opment, they've created a system
in which each freshman has a "big
brother" whom they meet with
regularly to serve as a mentor.
They also constantly emphasize
the value of work ethic to the fresh-
men - an example of this being
Kennedy's speech to the team at
the USA Swimming Minnesota
Grand Prix last month.
"On the last day of the competi-
tion, the whole team was exhaust-
ed and just thinking about getting
home," Kennedy said. "Nobody
seemed to care that much about
that last session. So I led the
stretch that day and went gung-ho
on everyone. I told them, 'Listen,
guys, you're tired, you're dead... but
you're going to have the same feel-
ing at Big Tens. You've got to work
harder and be more of a Michigan
Man if you're going to succeed
when it counts."'
In the annals of Michigan swim-
ming, the names of transcen-
dent stars like Clary, Vanderkaay,
Dolan, Namesnik and Thompson
roll off the tongue. Douville and
Kennedy will probably never have
times as good or win as many indi-
vidual championships as any of
those swimmers. But the stories
of their careers may be just as com-
pelling as any Olympian who swam
the lanes of Canham Natatorium.
T he legend begins in 2007.
The Michigan volleyball
team has just completed
its first week of practice when Ste-
sha Selsky walks into coach Mark
Rosen's office.
"Mark, I want to work on pass-
ing," Selsky tells her coach, as he
recalls it.
Though Selsky has played the
libero position earlier in her college
career, the senior is set to reprise
her role as aveteran setter who had
led the Wolverines to a 21-13 record
and a spot in the NCAA Tourna-
ment the previous year.
"Why do you want to work on
passing?" Rosen asks her, bemused.
Selsky smiles. "Really, Mark?
You know why I want to work on
passing.
"I want to be libero because
she's better than I am."
"She" is Lexi Zimmerman,
a scrappy freshman from Bar-
rington, Ill. who has been recruited
out of high school as the best setter
in the nation. She and Selsky have
been competing in practice to see
who would get the starting job for
the season opener against No. 10
Hawaii at the ASICS Invitational
Tournamet.
The competition is supposed to
be a formality, at least for the time
being. Whereas Selsky is a senior,
a veteran, and a solid setter, Zim-
merman is wide-eyed and untested
at the college level - an unknown.
It would be a huge risk to start a
freshman against a team that has
"future national champs" on their
t-shirts, in an arena full of 7,000
hostile fans.
So when Zimmerman earns the
starting nod after the first week of
practice, eyebrows are raised.
"Our seniors ... didn't feel like we
were making the right decision,"
Rosen recalls. "They were worried
about havingthis freshman set and
whether she would be ready."
But Michigan goes on to upset
the Rainbow Wahine 3-2, and Zim-
merman is awarded All-Tourna-
ment honors. The doubt vanishes
quickly.
"After the tournament they were
like, 'Gee, good decision. Nice job,
coach,' "Rosen says.
Four seasons later, Rosen can
appreciate how well that decision
turned out. Zimmerman has since
written herself indelibly into the
record books and into the annals
of Wolverine lore. A three-time
(soon to be fear-time) All-Ameri-
can. Michigan female athlete of the
year. Back-to-back triple doubles.
Program leader in single-season
assists (as a freshman). Program
leader in career assists (by a lot).
The list goes on and on.
For the past four years, it hasn't
been difficult to spot the best
player on Michigan's team. She
wears number 17, and whether she
is contorting in mid-air to set or
lunging in the backourt to dig, she
has become as much a fixture in
Cliff Keen Arena as the pep band,
the intermission challenges, and
"point... MICH-igan!"
g§§
For the first time since any-
one on the team can remember,
the Wolverines will begin spring
practice in 2011 without No. 17 at
the net. And junior outside hitter
Alex Hunt isn't quite sure what to
expect.
"It's definitely going to be a dif-
ferent experience playing without
her next year," Hunt says. "I don't
know Michigan volleyball without
Lexi."
With Zimmerman's departure,
rising junior Catherine Yager and
incoming freshman Lexi Danne-
P JED MOCH/Daily
miller - arriving in the fall - will
compete for the vacated position.
Fortunately for them, the team
understands that Zimmerman
is a unique talent, so they're not
expected to replicate her role in
the offense.
"I like the idea that they're very
different style setters from Lexi,"
Rosensays, "andthatwill eliminate
some of the comparisons. They're
goingto put their own stamp on the
way they run the team."
Accordingto Hunt, Zimmerman
is a rare "attackingsetter," onewho
is always a threat to hit, forcing the
opposing team to defend her. This
provides more opportunities for
the hitters, and Michigan's hitters
will be the first to say that they've
enjoyed the benefits of having Lexi
on their team.
"It's definitely an advantage for
me as an outside hitter because
Lexi holds the blocks and it opens
things up for me," Hunt says.
Although both Yager and
Dannemiller are traditional setters
who focus on distributing the ball,
Rosen isn't worried about losing
the strategic advantage of having
an attacking setter.
"They're less flashy, they're
less offensively minded," he says.
"They're more steady and rhyth-
mic. They tend to put their hitters
in really good positions, and that's
how they allow their hitters to be
successful."
Though she has never started,
Yager has seen action in a handful
of games during the past two sea-
sons. Her most significant contri-
bution came during spring practice
when Zimmerman was out with
an injured wrist. Rosen is particu-
larly excited about seeing Yager in
more extensive action, noting that,
while her style of play may not be
eyecatching, the results speak for
themselves.
"She's not flashy, she's not super
fast," he says, "but whether it's her
high school team or her club team
or even last spring, her teams just
always seem to win. And that's ulti-
mately what the goal is."
Yager acknowledges that she has
her own style, but that hasn't kept
her from getting tips from Zim-
merman in practice. The veteran
often gives her advice on how to
improve her technique. Yager says
she's grateful for the mentorship,
and she feels up to the challenge of
filling Zimmerman's shoes.
"It's a great opportunity for
me," she says. "The past two years
- especially the past year - I've
really watched her on the court and
off the court and how she's led the
team.
"Iwant to follow in her footsteps
and be something great like her."
The nextchapter inthe Zimmer-
man saga will begin when she com-
mences a winter training program
with the national teamin Anaheim,
Calif. She'll finish her degree in the
fall, she says, and then she'll likely
join a professional team in Europe
or Puerto Rico where she can travel
the world, explore different cul-
tures, sample exotic foods and play
the sport that she loves for "as long
as (her) body can hold up."
But nothing is set in stone.
Always striving for balance
in life and never one to sacrifice
academics for athletics, Zimmer-
man hopes also to go to graduate
school for architecture, another
passion she has cultivated while at
Michigan - she's a Program in the
Environment major with a concen-
tration in architecture.
And then there's the allure of
playing with the national team in
the Olympics. Zimmerman is quick
to minimalize her chances of going
down that path, but not for lack of
confidence or ability.
"I have the utmost respect for
(Olympians) and what they devote
their time to," she says. "But I'm
not sure it's what I want to devote
my time to because you have to
make alotof sacrificestoget alittle
bit better. I value balance more in
my life than I value putting every-
thing that I have into going to the
Olympics. I totally understand it
beingavaluablepathforother peo-
ple, but I don't think it's my path at
this point."
Rosen shares Zimmerman's
feelings, adding that the immense
amount of training compared with
a relatively small amount of actual
competition is anotherturnoff. The
national teamtrains year roundbut
participates in only one major com-
petition a year, not to mention that
the Olympic games occur just once
every four years.
"I think she's a person who has
a lot more interests than just vol-
leyball," he says. "It seems like the
training cycle of a four-year con-
tinuum, and the type of mentality
it takes to go into that type of set-
ting - I don't know how well it will
fit her. It will be good for her to go
there this winter and get a feel for
it."
Zimmerman will spend four
months training with national
team coaches and assistants along
with a handful of the most tal-
ented seniors in the country. With
an Olympic year looming in 2012,
it is unlikely that any of them will
remain on the team for this cycle.
But on the off chance that she does
eventually decide to pursue a spot
on the national team for2016, how-
ever, Zimmerman has a positive
outlook.
"I'm the type of person where,
wherever I am, I'm going to be
happy," she says.
9Ig 9
This is where the legend comes
to an end - the Michigan part of it,
anyway. Though Zimmerman's leg-
acy on the court and in the record
books will not soon be forgotten,
she says her greatest moment as a
Wolverine wasn't when she broke
any records or beat any teams or
won any awards. In fact, her great-
est Michigan moment didn't even
happen during the season.
"I think my greatest Michigan
moment was preseason this year
when I had a chance to be a captain
and lead the team and establish a
culture I've been trying to establish
since I've been in the program,"
Zimmerman says. "I wanted to
prioritize building team chemistry
and being good teammates."
It was also during the preseason
when the coaching staff picked out
their 2010 mantra.
"Commitment to the unknown."
Designed to inspire faith in the
young players, the phrase serves as
a poetic bookend to the Lexi Zim-
merman era. Her freshman and
senior seasons each began with
their own unknowns, but each
ended with clarity. Could she han-
dle the responsibility of directing a
college offense as a freshman? Yes.
Would a team full of inexperienced
players contend with some of the
best teams in the country and fin-
ish with one of the best overall
records of any Michigan team?Yes.
Once again, Zimmerman and
the young Wolverine team she
leaves behind will face a fresh set
of unknowns. But this time, there
is one thing that everybody knows
for sure.
No.17 will be sorely missed.