8A - Wednesday, January 19 2011

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam

Post struggles "
evident in fifth
straight defeat*

M
inex
Co
trou

organ, rest of and inexperienced. But the four
have had glimpses of greatness
perienced front all season - giving even some
of the nation's most elite centers
urt encounter and forwards problems - but the
Wildcats knew where they could
able against NU exploit the Wolverines.
Scoring 13 points and col-
By ZAK PYZIK lecting eight rebounds against
Daily Sports Editor Michigan, Wildcat center Luka
Mirkovic scored at will.

TODD NEEDL/Daily
Junior Northwestern forward John Shurna scored a game-high 24 points in the Wildcats'14-point win Shurna averages 19 points per game for Northwestern.
Shurnaheats up in first half,
leads Wildcats past Michigan

By CHANTEL JENNINGS
Daily Sports Editor
EVANSTON - For a player who's
been nursing a high-ankle sprain
for almost a month, Northwestern
junior John Shurna put on a shoot-
ing clinic
in the MICHIGAN 60
Wild- NORTHWESTERN 74
cats'
74-60 rout of the Michigan men's
basketball team last night.
First, Shurna hit a shot over
freshman Evan Smotrycz, then
over junior Zack Novak and then
over redshirt freshman Jordan
Morgan.
In fact, it'd be hard to find a Wol-
verine on the roster who didn't get
a front-row seat at the John Shurna
shooting show - the 6-foot-8 for-
ward had 22 of the Wildcats' 44
first half points in just 16 minutes
of play.

"Find him (on defense), is the
first thing (we needed to do) and
we just didn't do that," junior Stu
Douglass said after the game. "I
think we might have been think-
ing too much about switches and
getting overworked a little bit men-
tally more than anything. And we
were just in a scramble a little bit,
too much."
With Shurna's hot hand (he fin-
ished with 24 points), Michigan
(1-5 Big Ten, 11-8 overall) struggled
to find an offensive rhythm early
in the game. Sophomore guard
Darius Morris spent more time on
the bench than on the floor in the
first half due to foul trouble, which
meant Douglass ran the point for
the Wolverines.
But with the team's floor gen-
eral out, Michigan's offensive game
flattened - findingjust eight assists
the entire game. The Wildcats
passed the ball with a military-like

precision, picking up 18 assists and
turningthe ball over just five times.
The Wolverines' first-half strug-
gles carried over to after the break,
with Northwestern (3-4, 12-5)
stretching its 13-point halftime
lead into a 20-point cushion before
Michigan cut the final margin to14
points.
The Wolverines tried to rally late
in the second half, moving into an
aggressive man-to-man defense.
But it was to no avail, as the Wol-
verines had dug themselves in too
deep a hole with their poor shoot-
ing.
Douglass led Michigan with 17
points and was the only Wolver-
ine to shoot better than 50 percent
from the floor. Morris, who played
more in the second half, racked up
16 points and was the only other
Wolverine to score in double digits.
"That's just tough to overcome
especially against a team like that,

that's as good offensively as they
are - you know they're gonna
score," Novak said after the game.
"You do your best and try to stop
them. We had a good gameplan,
tried to execute it as well as we
could but we were gonna have
to make shots and we didn't. We
didn't make enough."
The loss is Michigan's fifth
straight, but the team is sticking
to its positive thinking and focus-
ing on its next game against No. 15
Minnesota at Crisler Arena on Sat-
urday.
"We just have to keep getting
better - that's all you can say,"
Michigan coach John Beilein said.
"You don't worry about that stuff
you just say, 'Hey, it's another day,
another practice. Forget about it.
I don't care if we lost 10 in a row,
forget about it. It's the next day, it's
the nextgame, that's what's impor-
tant."

EVANSTON - It was around
the three-minute mark of the
Wolverines' 74-60 loss to North-
western when Michigan men's
basketball center Jordan Morgan
missed a wide-open dunk.
Everyone at Welsh-Ryan Arena
looked. on as Michigan's only
starting post player couldn't put
home the high-percentage shot.
Morgan has made plenty of
dunks this season, but this time,
the ball hit the back of the rim and
it popped out. Whether it was an
anomaly or not, it was representa-
tive of Michigan's struggles in the
paint all night long and through-
out much of the Big Ten season.
Dunking was the least of Mor-
gan'sproblems Tuesdaynight,but
his miss revealed that the team is
vulnerable and inexperienced in
the paint.
Throughout the evening, the
Wolverines played Morgan,
freshmen Jon Horford and Colton
Christian and redshirt freshman
Blake McLimans in the post, and
all four players had trouble in the
paint.
The four combined for just
seven points and 12 rebounds.
Northwestern completely shut
down the Wolverine big men any
time they even attempted to make
a move in the post. And when a
Michigan post player did get a
shot off, he often couldn't finish.
"I can't explain it," Michigan
guard Zack Novak said after the
game. "We put a lot of time into
that kind of stuff, working on
different types of finishes. Some
nights it just doesn't fall."
Michigan has known all sea-
son that its post players are young

The Wolverines tried dif-
ferent man-to-man matchups,
double-teaming him and even
attempted to leave him open -
no matter the circumstances,
Mirkovic scored.
"I'd like to know
his birthday ...
(he's) older than
our big guys."
"I'd like to know how many
games he's played in the post in
his life," Michigan coach John
Beilein said. "I'd like to know
his birthday, because he's prob-
ably three or four years older
than our big guys. He's played in
Europe, he's played against all
the best post players. I'm not say-
ing he's too old - I'm saying he's
really experienced ... I don't know
where he's played, but he gives
them a great dimension."
Like Michigan's offense,
Northwestern's offense focus-
es a lot on perimeter shooting.
Thus, the 6-foot-11, 248-pound
Serbia native is normally the
Wildcats' only designated post
player. But even with such atten-
tion, Mirkovic continued to back
down any Wolverine that had to
defend him.
"You can't double him because
he's a really good passer," Beilein
said of Mirkovic. "Then they'll get
a three instead of a two."


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