*The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
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March 7, 2011 - 3B
MEN'S BASKETBALL MSU
BIG TEN ROUNDUP From Page 1B
Here's what's happened
in Big Ten basketball this
past week.
SUNDAY MARCH 6
Penn State 66 at Minnesota 63
No.10 Wisconsin 65 at No.1 Ohio State 93
SATURDAY MARCH 5
Indiana 48 at Illinois 72
Michigan State 63 at Michigan 70
No. 6 Purdue 65 at Iowa 67
THURSDAY MARCH 3
No.10 Wisconsin 77 at Indiana 67
WEDNESDAY MARCH 2
Iowa 66 at Michigan State 85
Minnesota 57 at Northwestern 68
TUESDAY MARCH 1
Illinois 67 at No.6 Purdue 75
No.1 Ohio State 82 at Penn State 61
FINAL REGULAR SEASON
BIG TEN STANDINGS
1) No.1 Ohio State (16-2)
2) No. 6 Purdue (14-4)
3) No.10 Wisconsin (13-5)
4) Michigan (9-9)
5) Illinois (9-9)
6) Penn State (9-9)
7) Michigan State (5-5)
8) Northwestern (7-11)
9) Minnesota (6-12)
10) Iowa (4-14)
11) Indiana (3-15)
ICE HOCKEY
CCHA ROUNDUP
Here's what's happened
in CCHA hockey this
past week.
SUNDAY MARCH 6
Bowling Green 2 at Northern Michigan 1
(2 OT)
SATURDAY MARCH 5
Bowling Green 2 at Northern Michigan 0
Michigan State 3 at Alaska 4 (2 OT)
Ohio State 2 at Lake Superior State 3
FRIDAY MARCH 4
Bowling Green 3 at Northern Michigan 6
Michigan State 2 at Alaska 3 (OT)
Ohio State 0 at Lake Superior State 4
FINAL REGULAR SEASON
CCHA STANDINGS
1) No. 5 Michigan (61 pts.)
2) No. 9 Notre Dame (59 pts.)
3) No. 10 Miami (55 pts.)
4) Western Michigan (44 pts.)
5) Ferris State (43 pts.)
6) Northern Michigan (39 pts.)
7) Alaska (38 pts.)
8) Ohio State (37 pts.)
* 9) Lake Superior State (36 pts.)
10) Michigan State (35 pts.)
11) Bowling Green (15 pts.)
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With Hardaway Jr. and
junior guard Stu Douglass,
who played despite beingsick,
scoreless in the first half, the
Wolverines had to rely on a
few other sources, includ-
ing freshman forward Evan
Smotrycz, who scored nine
first-half points coming off
the bench.
After redshirt freshman
Jordan Morgan got into foul
trouble midway through the
second half, Michigan coach
John Beilein moved Smotrycz
into the five spot to face up
against Michigan State's
6-foot-8 junior forward Del-
von Roe.
But on the defensive end, it
was Michigan's weakside help
defense that forced the Spar-
tans to take low-percentage
shots and helped the Wolver-
ines force 10 Michigan State
turnovers.
Even with the size dispar-
ity in the post throughout the
game, the Wolverines out-
scored the Spartans 26-20 in
the paint. But Michigan State
hit the glass harder, out-
rebounding Michigan by 16.
With the Wolverines' win,
Michigan is in a four-way tie
for fourth place in the confer-
ence, but due to tiebreakers, it
will play as the No. 5 seed in
the Big Ten Tournament. It
was, arguably,theWolverines'
most pressure-driven game of
the year.But Michigan held its
composure in front of a sold-
out Crisler Arena.
"We knew what was on the
line with sweeping Michigan
State and the Big Ten implica-
tions - rankings and the Big
Ten Tournament and stuff,"
Douglass said. "You can't deny
that you knew that as a player,
but we tried to approach it the
same as every game."
And while the team has
proved it was able to move
on from its continual close
losses, the No. 5 seed in the
Big Ten Tournament and the
hype of a rivalry - one that
had seemed stale for so long
- proves the resilience of
Beilein's squad.
"At the beginning of the
year we had good success, in
the Big Ten (season) we hit a
rough patch but we all knew
what we were capable of,"
Douglass said. "When we got
a win we weren't getting on
our knees and thanking the
heavens, we knew what we
were capable of, competing
with anybody."
But after Michigan lost
to then-No. 12 Wisconsin on
Feb. 23, many assumed the
Wolverines' tournament bub-
ble hopes had finally popped,
predicting that the young
team had finally hit its final
straw.
"It's the coach's job to get
them to move on," Beilein
said after the game. "We've
had so many close games just
like this one this year that we
didn't get. We've won a lot of
games that were just like this,
so we're .500, but the one's
you remember are the Kan-
sas game and the game with
Wisconsin. You can't let them
hang in there - you have 30
games.
"You have to move on."
PYZIK
From Page 1B
ALTERCATION
From Page 1B
gan coach John Beilein said
he didn't see the incident, as
he was already heading to the
handshake line, and that he
would look into it. The two
players also later downplayed
the confrontation.
Most will probably just
remember the altercation
going forward, but Lucas's
second-half performance
can't be overlooked. The
senior went 3-for-5 from
deep and was a perfect 8-for-
8 from the free throw line in
the half.
And it seemed like every
shot he hit was big, either
stopping a Wolverine run
before it could take off, or
building momentum for his
own team.
Lucas scored nine straight
points for Michigan State
shortly after the bregk to keep
his team in the game, and his
two free throws with 5:48
remaining cut the deficit to
just two points at 56-54 - the
closestthe Spartans would get
the rest of the game.
"He's got his quickness
back now," sophomore guard
Matt Vogrich said. "He's real-
ly quick, and he's playing at
the rate he played at (in2008-
09) when he was Player of the
Year in the conference. He's
tough to stop."
Lucas's final campaign has
been somewhat of a disap-
pointment. Picked as Pre-
season Big Ten Player of the
Year, he won't even be First
Team All-Big Ten in a season
marked by his return from a
torn Achilles tendon.
But Lucas still came into
Saturday's game averaging
16.7 points per game, and
as freshman forward Evan
Smotrycz pointed out after
the contest, Lucas spearhead-
ed Michigan State's charge in
the teams' initial meeting on
Jan. 27, also leading all scor-
ers then with 27 points.
And Lucas has a his-
tory of making clutch shots,
including the game-winning
jumper at Crisler Arena last
season.
So it was no surprise that
Izzo put the ball in his point
guard's hands to lead the
comeback effort. In the sec-
ond half, the Spartan offense
consisted mostly of weave
action at the top of the key fol-
lowed by a ball screen, lead-
ing to Lucas penetrating or,
sometimes, him getting open
by running off a screen away
from the ball.
"Coach Izzo started calling
a lot of plays just for him, try-
ing to get everybody involved
to get him open shots," Morris
said. "With a player like that...
he's just a great player, and he
made shots."
Lucas's shots were usually
challenged, too, but fell any-
way. Earlier in the season,
the Wolverines may have got-
ten rattled in the face of such
an onslaught, but ultimately,
they kept their composure
and held on to win.
Saturday may have rep-
resented a changing of the
guard in the Big Ten point
guard hierarchy, with Lucas
exiting and Morris only ris-
ing. But it was also proof of
Michigan's new maturity. The
veteran Lucas - playing with
teammates with Final Four
experience - had been there
before, but still couldn't pull
off the win.
"At this point in the sea-
son, there's no freshmen any-
more," junior guard/forward
Zack Novak said. "Every-
body's got experience. The
guys handled it great."
days later was blown out by Big
Ten basement dweller Indiana
- at times, things are becoming
clearer to me.
It's those pain staking,
rip-your-eyes-out-of-the-
sockets-and-then-step-on-them
moments, which make the Wol-
verines that much more beauti-
ful to watch now:
Yes, and I do mean beauti-
ful (even more beautiful than
Evan Smotrycz's gelled hair on
Saturday). Beilein's offense has
taken a year, a six-game losing
streak, and a few buzzer beat-
ers to morph into the beautiful
butterfly it has become (Tim
Doyle would love that analogy).
But the wait is so worth it for
any Michigan fan. It all came in
the Wolverines 70-63 win over
Michigan State on Saturday.
It was Michigan's first sweep
of the Spartans in more than a
decade. The Wolverines did it in
their last regular season game of
the year. They did it at home and
they did it in a game which fea-
tured two teams both fightingto
stay alive in the NCAA Tourna-
ment hunt.
Beilein's offense finally looked
crisp. The Wolverines out-
smarted the Spartans, used their
intelligence to top a team that
is arguably more athletic and
forced a program that has too
many times dominated Michi-
gan to beat itself.
Indiana coach Tom Crean said
at the beginning ofthe season
that there's nothing more diffi-
cult than preparing for a Beilein-
coached team. Well, Crean's
assumption looked pretty silly
when his Hoosiers obliterated
the Wolverines, 80-61 on Jan. 15
and Michigan cruised to a 1-6
start to its Big Ten schedule.
But things started to change.
Jordan Morgan finally figured
out that after he sets his back
screens for Darius Morris he
has to roll, Morris learned that
when he drives there are three
open guards on the perimeter
and everyone watched as Matt
Vogrich started getting open
backdoor looks because teams
play the perimeter too aggres-
sively in the zone, attempting to
stop Michigan's shooters.
The Wolverines, and everyone
who watches them, finally wit-
nessed Beilein's clever offensive
tricks pay off.
Against Michigan State on
Saturday, Michigan was fouled
three times from 3-point range.
That's because when play-
ers like Morris or Hardaway Jr.
drive off Morgan's screen, two
players are left open in 3-point
land. So Michigan State players
like forward Draymond Green
have to lunge over to the arc just
to get a hand in Zack Novak's
face. Then Green can't control
his momentum and he finds
himself fouling outof the game
with two minutes remaining.
Michigan is a team that prides
itself on its 3-point shooting.
Teams are completely aware of
that. What they aren't aware
of is how to stop a team that is
shooting wide open 3-pointers
- a product of the way Beilein
runs his offense.
Even at times when the Wol-
verines' shots are just off, Michi-
gan's offense can get it done. The
roster essentially puts the Wol-
verines' opponents in complete
mismatches on all five guards.
You've got Morris who is the
tallest point guard in the league,
Novak who is being defended by
players like Green, who are big-
ger and-slower than he is, and
Morgan who's being covered by
guys who may statistically be
larger, but can't keep up with his
allusiveness and quickness.
When the players don't fully
know and understand Beilein's
blueprint, a pass to an open
Novak atthe wing will instead
bounce off Blake McLiman's
forehead and roll out of bounds
(as it did on Saturday).
But when the players do
understand Beilein's system,
a freshman like Hardaway Jr.
will notch all 20 of his points in
a second half against a rival in
front of a sell-out crowd.
That's not disgusting. That's
beautiful.
- Pyzik can be reached
at zakpyzik@umich.edu
U-M Computer Showcase
Michigan Union . Pierpont Commons i
http://showcase.itcs.umich.edu - www.apple.com/education
fl-H,, i
MARISSA MCCLAIN/Daily
Sophomore point guard Darius Morris scored 13 points, five rebounds and six assists on Saturday.
ILLINI
From Page lB
took them too lightly," sopho-
more guard Jenny Ryan said.
"I just think we couldn't hit
shots. When it comes down to
it, they hit their shots and we
didn't, and that was the differ-
ence in the first half. We got
the looks we wanted."
And for Michigan, whose
turnover-to-assist ratio was
second in the nation before
Friday's game, it looked like
the ball was covered in bacon
grease for much of the first
half, as it ended the frame
with 16 turnovers and 12
assists.
But even after facing the
teams' largest first-half deficit
of the year, Borseth remained
positive in the locker room.
"No goal was too deep,"
Michigan forward Kate
Thompson said about Bors-
eth's halftime message. "We
can always come back from
this."
And in the second half, they
came out looking like it.
The Wolverines came out
on a9-2 run to start the frame,
cutting the lead to 14.
"Just take it at them, chip
away atthat lead, and our goal
was to get within 10 points
and never give up and keep
fighting," sophomore guard
Jenny Ryan said. "We all just
kind of bought into that."
Even after the lead bal-
looned back up to 24 after a
jumper byIllinois guard Adri-
enne GodBold with nine min-
utes to go, Michigan refused
to give up.
And after a layup by sopho-
more forward Sam Arnold
with just over three minutes
to play, the Wolverine's finally
cut the lead to single digits.
"I definitely thought
we had a chance (to win),"
Thompson said. "We just had
to get a couple big threes and
get some more stops. They
couldn't really handle our
zone at the end."
But it was all too little, too
late. A seven-point deficit
with a minute to go was the
closest Michigan got.
And with no other chances
to prove themselves to the
NCAA Tournament com-
mittee, all the Wolverines
can do is-hope that they've
done enough to get to the Big
Dance.