8 - Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

9

Hardaway Jr. coming of age in recent run

By BEN ESTES The Miami, Fla. native was
Daily Sports Writer rewarded by being named Big
Ten Freshman of the Week for
The pedigree has always been the second time this season. It
there. So, too, has the talent. marked the first time that a non-
And for freshman guard Tim Ohio State player won the award
Hardaway Jr., in recent games, outright. Buckeye freshman'
the all-around game has begun Jared Sullinger won or shared
to match his prodigious ability. 11 of the first 13 distinctions,
The son of the former NBA and teammates Aaron Craft and
All-Star of the same name had DeShaun Thomas had a part in
the best week of his short career the other two.
in wins over Indiana and North- "Tim's light (to shoot) is get-
western. Hardaway Jr. notched ting really green right now,"
the first double-double of his Michigan coach John Beilein
career with 17 points and 10 said after the Indiana game.
rebounds against the Wildcats "He's just learning. Maybe it was
on Wednesday and followed that after the Northwestern game or
by exploding for a career-best 27 the Minnesota game, (we talked)
points against the Hoosiers on about, 'Alright, you're a tremen-
Saturday. dous shooter. Your numbers will

go up' ... But I love the way we're
finding him too."
It's not like Hardaway Jr.
wasn't putting up big scoring
numbers at various times ear-
lier in the season - in fact, the
swingman scored 19 in his col-
legiate debut against South Car-
olina-Upstate, and even lit up
then-No. 3 Kansas for the same
point total on Jan. 9.
But his production slipped
early in the Big Ten season
against the tougher competition.
And even when Hardaway Jr.
was producing, he wasn't always
the most efficientplayer -he often
made some very freshman-like
shot selections and didn't neces-
sarily operate in Beilein's offense
the way he was supposed to.

Hardaway also fell victim to
the same foul troubles that have
plagued redshirt freshman for-
ward Jordan Morgan and fresh-
man forward Evan Smotrycz.
Then came the game in Happy
Valley. Michigan's 65-62 win over
Penn State on Feb. 6 was a turn-
ing point for the team, as it kicked
off the Wolverines' current three-
game winning streak - their lon-
gest of conference play.
And it was also a turning
point for Hardaway Jr. After he
played just three minutes in the
first half due to foul trouble, the
guard scored all of his 13 points
in the last seven-and-a-half min-
utes of the game, helping Michi-
gan erase a 10-point second-half
deficit.
"I think (Hardaway Jr.) gets
so upset when he gets the quick
fouls, and it limits, obviously,
the time he can help us win a
game," Beilein said after the
Penn State game.
"I knew he was going to take
advantage of the time that he
had. We're trying to find new
ways to get him more involved,
and he certainly took advan-
tage of that today."
Hardaway Jr. hasn't looked
back since - a scary develop-
ment for opposing Big Ten
coaches.
"He punked our guys," Indi-
ana coach Tom Crean said
after falling to Michigan. "He's
a really good player ... He's
become a shot maker, where
earlier in the season he was a
shot taker.
"Out of a timeout, I said to

0

)TheRide

Freshman guard Tim Hardaway Jr. recorded his first career doable-doable last
Wednesday and scored a career-high 27 points on Sunday.

It's your future.
It's your plan.

(Hoosier guard Victor Oladipo),
'They just ran a play that they
don't run, and they just ran it at
you, and (Hardaway Jr.) got it.'
That's an embarrassment."
During the Wolverines' six-
game losing streak in January,
the team's offense often stag-
nated when sophomore point
guard Darius Morris struggled
to shoulder the load by himself.
Hardaway Jr.'s ascendance
means Morris now has a highly
skilled running mate - one that

can hit corner 3-pointers with
regularity, and one that can now
also create his own offense when
needed.
"The NCAA (Tournament) is
in the back of everybody's mind,"
Hardaway Jr. said. "That's what
everybody's dreaming, and we're
going to do everything we can to
get there."
With five games to go, those
dreams suddenly aren't so far-
fetched - and Hardaway's play
is a big reason why.


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ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Freshman forward Luke Moffatt has tallied four goals in his rookie campaign for the Wolverines.
Freshman Moffatt blazes
trail from Arizona to'M'

By STEPHEN J. NESBITT
Daily SportsEditor
It didn't take Luke Moffatt
long to decide that Ann Arbor
was the place for him. And it
didn't take Michigan coach Red
Berenson any longer to discover
Moffatt's passion.
When Moffatt, now a fresh-
man on the No. 11 Michigan
hockey team, lifted a back-hand
high over the shoulder of Ohio
State goaltender Cal Heeter
midway through the first peri-
od on Saturday, he spun with a
relieved smile to greet his team-
mates. It was Moffatt's first goal
at home this season - but it cer-
tainly wasn't his first style point
at Yost Ice Arena.
Three years ago, the then-
15-year-old from Paradise Val-
ley, Ariz. strode into Berenson's
office in the bowels of Yost's old
barn with one goal in mind - to
become a Wolverine, and to do it
in true Clark Kent fashion. As the
meeting came to a close, Beren-
son told the high school sopho-
more that he could have as much
time as he needed to make a deci-
sion regarding the scholarship
Michigan was offering him.
But Moffatt didn't need
another second. He-stood up and
pulled off his sweater to expose
a maize Michigan shirt under-
neath.
"I had it all planned out ... I
just said, 'Coach, I want to be a

Wolverine,' " Moffatt said Mon-
day. "(Berenson) was pretty
happy.".
Hailing from the Southwest,
the seventh-round pick of the
Colorado Avalanche knew all
along that his next step in hock-
ey would be far from Arizona.
Moffatt moved to Ann Arbor
to join the U.S. National Devel-
opment Program the following
year - Michigan was that next
step.
"You've really got to go to
hockey places if you want to suc-
ceed in hockey," Moffatt said.
"Arizona is great hockey, noth-
ing against it, but I had to move
on at some point."
After turning down Notre
Dame, Minnesota, Wisconsin
and other hockey powerhouses
for a chance with the Wolver-
ines, Moffatt still had something
left to prove'- hockey players
are at a premium in Arizona,
but they're a dime a dozen in the
American hockey heartland.
"I was one of the top dogs in
Arizona, but now I was coming
out to the Midwest and out East
where it's more of a hockey hot-
bed," Moffatt said. "There are a
lot of good players out here, and
I was really wondering how I
compared with them, and I was
pleasantly surprised that I was
able to hold my own with them."
In Moffatt's first sixth months
at Michigan, it's been the coach-
ing staff who has been pleasant-

ly surprised.
To Berenson and his assis-
tants, Moffatt has turned from
just a highly-touted recruit into
the Wolverines' leading fresh-
man forward. He's 11th on the
team in points, with four goals
and eight assists in 26 games.
"He's in the mix," Berenson
said Monday. "He battles hard
on loose pucks. He's strong on
the puck and it was good to see
him show alittle skill around the
net, because he is a goal scorer,
we just haven't seen that side of
him yet."
After alternating starts with
freshman wingers Derek DeB- a
lois and Jacob Fallon, who was 1
dismissed from the team in
January, Moffatt earned a regu-
lar spot in the starting lineup by
asserting himself on both ends
of the ice.
"The thing I liked about Mof- N
fatt was his work ethic," Beren-
son said. "He's learning every
day, he's competing hard and
he's showing strength beyond a
freshman. When he gets on the
puck he's able to ward off some
of these ... stronger defensemen.
Moffatt was one forward who
handled that well.
"We've got other guys getting
knocked on their can, but not
Luke Moffatt"
The freshman is a regular
Superman - he doesn't have to
hide his Michigan t-shirt any-
more.

bTheRide
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