*The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com S ()rtSNiQtl{V 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.) THE DAILY IS TAKING ON THE LANTERN IN A FACEBOOK WAR. Support us on Facebook. *^! 'LIKE' THE MICHIGAN DAILY 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.