The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, January 6, 2011- 7A
4 'M'no match
for Badgers at
Kohl Center
Freshman center Jordan Morgan battles for a rebound against Wisconsin during last night's game. Michigan lost the game, 66-50.
In second-half Wicosi
turs abeson Wolverines
By CHANTEL JENNINGS
Daily Sports Editor
MADISON - Saying it's tough
to beat Wisconsin at home would
be an understatement. In fact, to
say it's anything other than nearly
impossible is a lie.
According to the statistics that
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan has
racked up in his 10 seasons with
the Badgers, an opposing team
entering the Kohl Center has just
a seven-percent chance of leaving
with avictory.
Michigan coach John Beilein
has never won on the main court
at the Kohl Center. And Wednes-
day was no different, with Michi-
gan dropping its game against
Wisconsin, 66-50.
"I just heard everybody talking
about how hard it is to play there
and they haven't been losing like
other Big Ten schools at home, so
I knew it was going to be a tough
one for us on the road," fresh-
man guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said
after Wednesday's game.
The ambiance of the arena was
quite different this year since
Wisconsin students don't return
to campus for classes until Janu-
ary 18th, but the student section
- known as the 'Grateful Red' -
still filled nearly seven sections of
bleachers.
The $76-million facility seats
17,142 fans - more than 3,500
more seats than Crisler Arena,
but Ryan doesn't believe the arena
had an effect on the young Wol-
verines.
"A lot of these guys played in
state championships with 20,000
or 10,000, they played in packed
gyms," Ryan said Wednesday. "I
think thatfactor incollegenowof,
'Wow, are they gonna go into our
place or somebody else's place and
have it effect them.' I don't think
in this day and age it's that big of
a deal."
But with the win, Ryan
advanced to 71-6 in Big Ten play
at the Kohl Center and 145-11
overall. There are just three other
teams in the country that play bet-
ter on their homecourts - Kansas,
Duke and Utah State.
For seven first-year Wolver-
ines, the loss in Madison marked
the first Big Ten road game of
their careers, with an outcome
that has occurred frequently. But
not a single player on the Michi-
gan roster has ever beaten a Wis-
consin squad, home or away.
The most experienced mem-
bers of the team, juniors Stu Dou-
glass and Zack Novak, are now
0-5 in their matchups against the
Badgers. But in the co-captains'
two previous seasons, the Wolver-
ines improved greatly from their
first to second showing against
the Badgers.
In the 2007-08 season, Michi-
gan lost 70-54 to Wisconsin in
Crisler Arena, before coming back
and losing by just three at the
Kohl Center. The following year,
the Wolverines lost by nine points
in the first matchup of the season
and lost by just five in the second
contest.
"Obviously this is a great facil-
ity and a great atmosphere in the
Big Ten," administrative special-
ist and captain of the 2007-08
team C.J. Lee said Wednesday'
"We always played well for 25 to
30 minutes and then we'd have
those lapses where we wouldn't
score and we wouldn't get stops,
and a similar thing happened
tonight."
In Ryan's ten-year tenure,
the Badgers have dropped just
11 games on their home court.
Six were Big Ten games, but just
three schools have managed to
upend Wisconsin in Madison
- Purdue, Minnesota and Illi-
nois. The Badgers have fallen to
the Fighting Illini three times,
the Boilermakers twice and the
Gophers once.
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By BEN ESTES and his playmaking ability from it to tha
Daily Sports Writer the lead spot in the second half back an
proved too much to overcome. session
)ISON - A board hangs in Wisconsin controlled the "Fro
nel of Crisler Arena, list- game's pace and tempo the rest of are out
h team on the schedule for the way, running its methodical or four
ichigan men's basketball swing play to slowly choke out the because
MICHIGAN 50 Wolverine offense. foul sh
WISCONSIN 66 After shooting 45.5 percent to turn
nt from the field in the first half, The
dnesday night's game is Michigan went just 7-of-21 the.
s 'Wisconson.' While cer- rest of the game.
spelling error and not a Wisconsin continued to hit its "T
disrespect to the Badgers, shots, though, making it nearly T
tng Wolverine squad cer- impossible for the Wolverines to t
espects Wisconsin now. come back in a hostile road envi- to
igan fell to the Badgers ronment.
at the Kohl Center. The Sophomore guard Matt Vogrich 01
ines battled the entire hit back-to-back 3-pointers to ma
nd even led at halftime, but pull Michigan back within four at
sin proved to be too much 48-44 with 8:31 left in the game.
le. But Michigan scored just six
y're really solid," fresh- points for the remainder of the
rward Evan Smotrycz said game. ., . first-ha
e game. "They forced us to The Wolverines rushed their by as m
beat ourselves. We made shots on several possessions and break u
s,just mental lapses (that) couldn't get quality attempts on playing
e been avoided, and they others. DariusI
vantage ... They shortened The Badgers reached the bonus The
se, and they made plays." early in the second frame, allow- commit
ough Michigan held a slim ing them to put the game away minute
ead at halftime, the Bad- from the free-throw line. causing
armed back in the second Wisconsin finished the half And Mt
" 14-of-16 from the charity stripe, time as
by point guard Jordan while Michigan had just eight game -
pair of 3-pointers, the attempts the whole game. utes int
went on a 13-0 run in the "Once we got behind, it was But f
g minutes of the half to really hard to come back on away J
a nine-point lead. them," Michigan coach John frame,c
tr finished the game with Beilein said. "We tried zone, we around
nts to lead all scorers, tried man ... We just couldn't get jumper
a,
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it pointwhere we could get When senior guard Zack Novak
d make it a one or two pos- hit the second of his consecu-
game. tive 3-pointers to put his team up
m there on out the lights 28-22 late in the half, Michigan
usually here with three had momentum, and a blowout at
minutes to go down four, the hands of the Badgers seemed
e they are not going to miss unlikely.
ots, and they're not going But the Wisconsin defense did
it over." what it always does, forcing long
Wolverines enjoyed their possessions and low-percentage
shots by preventing any offense
down low.
The Wolverines had just 12 .
hey forced us points in the paint all night.
kind of beat "They're really good at forc-
T e ing you to take elbow pull-ups.
rrselves. XXe and (3-pointers)," Smotrycz said.
"They're really solid inside, long
de mistakes." enough. They've got the two big
guys (center Keaton Nankivil and
forward Jon Leuer).
"It's tough to get it to the rim,
so you're going to have to make
If success - the team led your pull-ups."
any as six and entered the Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said
p by two - despite largely he'thought Michigan's young
without leading scorer players performed "loose," and
Morris. Beilein was happy with Michi-
sophomore point guard gan's effort.
ted his first foul before a But with his team's offense
had elapsed in the game, falling off late, Beilein recognized
Beilein to take him out. the Wolverines aren't where they
orris fouled for the second need to be to finish games.
soon as he reentered the "(Our poise) is going to come
- he played just five mm- and go at different times," Beilein
the first half. said. "I'm talking about a poise
reshman guard Tim Hard- that's got to be at a very high level
*r. had 10 points in the and (understanding) what stacks
consistently finding space up against other things ... it's a
the free-throw line for lot of freshman things that will
s. evolve as they play."
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Hunwick answers call
with Hogan sidelined
Michigan looks to carry
on successful Big Ten start
GLI performance
evokes memories.
from last season's
CCHA tourney
By CASANDRA PAGNI
Daily Sports Writer
Members of a football team's
secondary are often said to be 'on
an island.' Left all alone to face the
opposing team's leading receivers,
they are single-handedly respon-
sible for preventing the big play
downfield.
According to Michigan coach
Red Berenson, hockey goaltenders
have a similar, somewhat peculiar
desire for that kind of isolation.
But in a matter ofseconds, when
that solitude breaks down and the
other teams' forwards come skat-
ing at a furious pace towards the
net, a goalie's next desire is also
intriguing.
"You want to be hit by the puck,"
Berenson said. "I mean, there's
something weird about that. The
best part of your day is when
you're getting hit by the puck, not
when it's missing you. The aver-
age forward is trying to get out of
the way of the puck, but the goalie
wants to get hit."
Regardless of how you inter-
pret the quirks of the position, the
netminder has to be a rock on any
hockey team in order for it to find
continued success - and Michigan
is counting on senior goalie Shawn
Hunwick to stand on his head and
fill that role.
After losing senior goalie Bryan
Hogan to a groin injury during the
warm-ups before The Big Chill
at the Big House, No. 7 Michigan
called upon Hunwick to man the
pipes during Hogan's absence.
Prior to The Big Chill, the Wol-
verines had been starting each
goalie in one game of a series, with
Hogan boasting a 7-2-0 record to
Hunwick's 2-3-4.
With Hogan's-return still weeks
away, Hunwick needs to be that
rock for Michigan (12-5-4).
Embracingtheopportunitypre-
sented before him, Hunwick start-
ed - and won - both games at the
Great Lakes Invitational and will
start both games in this weekend's
upcoming home-and-home series
with CCHA rival Michigan State.
To followers of Michigan hock-
ey, Hunwick's name being broad-
casted over the sound system at
Joe Louis Arena revived a sense of
ddji vu of last season, when Hogan
was injured in February and Hun-
wick took the Wolverines on a
Cinderella run to win the CCHA
Tournament and to within one
win of the Frozen Four.
"He's never nervous at all,"
senior forward Scooter Vaughan
said. "He's been playing well. He's
going to come in and make the
saves he needr to and if we play
good in front of him, we should get
a win.
"He's coming in knowing he's
got to make all the easy saves, and
if he makes a few big ones, then he
gives us a chance to win."
Hunwick earned the 5-0 shut-
out over Michigan State in The Big
Chill, but gave up seven goals over
Michigan's two games in the GLI.
While he was the first to admit
that his GLI performance was less
than lights-out, a win is a win -
and he found a way to notch two
in the GLI and earned all tourna-
ment-team honors.
"I thought there were goals
they shouldn't have scored, but
then there were some that maybe
he shouldn't have saved, but he
saved," Berenson said. "But he
battled. The one thing about Hun-
wick, is he's a competitor. He bat-
tled and he found a way to help us
win. I can't tell you we were the
best team in the tournament, we
were just ... we were lucky."
A combination of luck and hard
work has proven to be the recipe
for success for the former walk-on.
And with a few quirky goalie traits
of his own, Hunwick is Michigan's
guy in net for the time being.
"He's going to die of supersti-
tion one day because he has so
many rituals and stuff that he does
before the game," Vaughan said.
I know in this second half of the
season he said he's going to get rid
of that, but I see him do all those
little rituals, all those little knick
knacks.
"But it's working, so if he keeps
doing it and we keep winning, I
have no problem with it."
By CAITLIN SMITH
Daily Sports Writer
Two weeks ago, the Michigan
women's basketball team suf-
fered a 67-48 loss to the Univer-
sity of Detroit. But that home-court
embarrassment - against a team
that hadn't beaten
the Wolverines in Michigan
16 years - became
a turning point at Purdue
for Michigan. Matchup:
"That was Purdue 9-5;
probably one of Michigan 9-6
our worst losses When: Thurs-
this year," senior day 6:30 P.M.
guard Veronica Where
Hicks said after Mackey Arena
the game againstT
Detroit. "It's hard TV/Radio:
to swallow, but
you kind of have
to go through the trenches before
you can get to the top."
And that is exactly what the Wol-
verines have done.
Since the loss to Detroit, Michi-
gan (2-0 Big Ten, 9-5 overall) has
won three straight games - all
against ranked opponents. The
Wolverines have taken down No.
24 Boston College, No. 14 Iowa and
the Big Ten frontrunner No.12 Ohio
State. Michigan has also gone 2-0 in
Big Ten matchups, which puts it at
the top of its-conference.
The Wolverines will look to
continue their momentum on the
road against Purdue (0-2, 9-5) on
Thursday. The Boilermakers are
coming off two consecutive losses
to conference rivals - Northwest-
ern and Wisconsin - but have the
home-court edge over Michigan.
The Boilermakers are 7-2 at home
this season and hold a 23-4 series
record against the Wolverines in
West Lafayette.
Purdue is led by junior guard
Brittany Rayburn, who averages
16 points per game. Rayburn is an
offensive powerhouse who recently
scored her 1,000th career point and
is the seventh highest scorer in the
Big Ten.
She led her team with a game-
high 26 points in Purdue's loss to
Wisconsin, marking the fourth
time this season that Rayburn has
tallied more than 20 points in a
game.
Freshman guard Courtney
Moses complements Rayburn on
the court, averaging 12.6 points
and three assists per game.
Moses earned her third con-
secutive and fourth overall Big Ten
Freshman of the Week award after
her 22-point performance against
Northwestern.
Michigan coach Kevin Borseth
has two main goals against Pur-
due: to hit shots down the stretch
and to grab the key rebounds.
Michigan struggled with these two
components of its game early on
in the season but has since shown
improvement, which paid off in
the Wolverines' three wins against
ranked opponents.
The Wolverines have grabbed 34
or more rebounds in each of those
three games.
Michigan could also continue to
rely on the strength of its bench.
Sophomore forward Sam Arnold
has been a key bench player all
season, tallying seven points and
two rebounds per game, while only
averaging 15 minutes of play.
Junior guard Courtney Boylan,
who has seen little playing time
"You go through
the trenches
before you can
get to the top."
this season, also made a prominent
appearance on the court in Michi7
gan's most recent game against
Iowa. Boylan tied her career-
high with 18 points and had five
rebounds and three steals in th4
game.
Having beaten two of the top
three projected leaders in the Big
Ten, the Wolverines have an oppor-
tunity to establish themselves itk
conference play with a win against
Purdue. But Michigan is not allow-
ing its recent success to hinder its
main goals.
Instead,theWolverinesarekeep
ing a modest mindset and focusing
on one game at a time.
"Right now, we are looking at
Purdue and only Purdue," sopho-
more guard Jenny Ryan said on
Sunday. "But after that we will see
what's ahead of us."