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By STEPHEN J. NESBITT
Daily Sports Editor
A kid named Pee-Wee is the
next big thing on the Michigan
defensive line.
Ondre "Pee-Wee" Pipkins, a
defensive tackle from St. Louis,
joined Willie Henry to form
Michigan's two-man interior
lineman haul on National Sign-
ing Day. The additions were
crucial for a defensive line that
graduated three senior starters
this month.
But the nickname is quite the
misnomer. Pee-Wee Pipkins is
a monster - a Scout.com five-
star who stands at 6-foot-3, 325
pounds.
The nickname came from
"Bdbd's Kids," a 1992 animated
comedy film.
"That baby reminds me of
Ondre," Pipkins' father joked,
referencing the wide-eyed,
diaper-wearing Pee-Wee on the
screen.
It fit. Back then, rooted in
Saginaw, Mich., Pipkins was the
little brother with a big heart.
And just like the kid on the
screen, he had a bigger strut and
swagger.
"I thought that was really
neat, I thought they made a
movie about me," Pipkins admit-
ted on Thursday. "They really
didn't. I misunderstood a couple
things."
After moving to Atlanta from
Saginaw, Pipkins returned to
Rochester Hills, Mich. to play
his freshman season of football.
The next year, he moved to Kan-
sas City for his final three years
of high school.
Pipkins always wanted to get
back to Michigan.
A year ago, Michigan recruit-
ing coordinator Jeff Hecklin-
ski took a trip to Park Hill High
School to meet Pipkins. It didn't
take much work to get Pipkins
on board.
"From that point on, I felt like
Michigan was where I was going
to end up," Pipkins said.
Defensive coordinator Greg
Mattison called Pipkins a gentle
giant with a "bubbly personal-
ity." But onlytff the field,
"He's a very happy person,"

accelerating into Big
U aTen Championships

Lo
sever
of t

hman takes her
nth Big Ten Diver
the Week honor
By ALEX LEVINE
For the Daily

Mattison said. weren't straight, and
He paused and grinned. a verbal whooping," I
"And then you see the film with a laugh. "(He t
and, well, he's not a happy per- you want to be suc
son on the film." have to learn how t
Pipkins and Michigan defen- tent.'"
sive line coach Jerry Montgom-
ery met for the first time at the Three-star surprise
BBQ at the Big House recruiting
event in late July. Montgom- While the Pipkin
ery sat with the recruit and his relationship has bee
father all afternoon at Michigan and grown for over
Stadium. commitment of
Both sides came away three-star Henry w
impressed, perhaps more than short of a surprise.,
impressed - it was like a look in radar recruit from
the mirror. High School in Cl
"Great personality, I love an Ohio State pipe
(Pipkins)," Montgomery said - Henry took a vi
laughing. "He reminds me of Arbor last weekenda
myself - always smiling, always Michigan offer to his
got jokes, always keeps the room primarily consisted o
up. He seems like he's going to grams.
be a leader-type kid." The lack of interes
"We're kind of like the same big-time programs
person in different scenarios," the Wolverines, wh
Pipkins added. "(Montgomery) his commitment on.
moved around a lot as a kid, I accepted his Letter o
moved around a lot. He came following morning.
from a similar home to what I "(Henry's) film j
did." the screen to us," Ma
Later in the fall, Montgom- "We said, 'Hey, this:
ery travelled to Kansas City to want.'"
pay Pipkins an in-home visit. "You put the film
The reason for the visit: Pipkins' does not lie - the k
grades were slipping. Senioritis the game," Montgom
had caught up to him. Mattison didn't
"He came in when my grades three-star ranking. A

lit was like
Pipkins said
old me,) 'If
cessful, you
o be consis-

was Henry's reputation - what
Henry's coach said, what his
math teacher said, what his par-
ents said.
"I don't care about stars,"
Mattison said. "I really don't.
There are some five stars
out there that I hope we play
against."

s-Michigan
n nurtured Immediate impact
a year, the
consensus The coaches ma
'as nothing the Pipkins-Henr
An off-the- make an immedia
Glenville defense. With the
leveland - seniors Ryan Van
line school Martin and Will H
isit to Ann defensive trenches
and added a bare.
S list, which Pipkins was qu
of MAC pro- Henry and himself
center of the solut
t from other be the successors t
didn't faze Campbell and rec
to received more Quinton Was
Jan. 31 and will plug the de
f Intent the next season.
"We can be unstt
umped off kins said. "We can
attison said. Martin and Ryan
is a guy we We can be like Qi
ington and Big Wil
on, the film Montgomery a
id can play both emphasized t
ery added. rotate up to eight o
notice the across the defensi'
All he heard players per position

de it clear that
y duo could
te impact on
departure of
Bergen, Mike
Heininger, the
are relatively
ick to insert
right into the
ion. They can
to junior Will
dshirt sopho-
hington, who
fensive front
oppable," Pip-
be like Mike
Van Bergen.
uinton Wash-
1 Campbell."
nd Mattison
heir desire to
r nine players
line --two
n - in 2012.

Three out of four. That's the
number of Big Ten Diver of the
Week Awards senior Amanda
Lohman won in January.
After winning the award four
other times in her career, Lohm-
an nearly doubled that in just a
month.
Lohman's season started slow-
ly, but she's altered its course
since the Michigan women's
swimming and diving team won
on Jan. 7 against No. 8 Indiana.
With first-place finishes in
both the one- and three-meter
diving events, her dominating
performances were just begin-
ning.
Even with these awards in
hand, Lohman has not let the
accolades go to her head.
"It gives me alot of motivation
to keep doing what I'm doing,"
Lohman said. "(I can't) get com-
placent and just (have to) keep
working harder."
With the Big Ten Champion-
ships around the corner - Feb.
15-18 in Iowa City - it's a good
time for things to start clicking.
"I've kind of been on an
upward trend," Lohman said.
"It's all starting to come together
at the end, which I hope it will
still continue to do in the next
few weeks."
Interestingly enough, she
wasn't originally planning to
become a Wolverine. When look-
ing at colleges Michigan wasn't
Lohman's first choice.
But that all changed when
Lohman attended a Michigan
women's swimming and diving
meet and received a diving team
T-shirt.

"I always wore that to prac-
tice," Lohman said. "I don't
know if that was foreshadowing
to where I'd be coming. Michi-
gan was my first recruiting trip
and I just loved it."
As a senior, Lohman has a
chance to finish her divingcareer
strong - just as her team has
done, winning four of its last five
meets heading into Iowa City.
And if the team's past perfor-
mance in Iowa City is any indica-
tion, Big Tens could go well.
Lohman finished second in
one-meter diving and third in
both the three-meter and plat-
form diving events at the Hawk-
eye Invitational earlier this
season.
"It gives me a
lot of motivation
to keep doing
what I'm doing."
Her dives helped the Wolver-
ines take first place in the com-
petition.
Could history repeat itself for
Lohman and Michigan in the Big
Ten Championships?
Perhaps, but you won't find
Lohman or her teammates wor-
rying much about it, as Michigan
coach Jim Richardson stresses
the importance of taking each
meet as it comes.
That's exactly what the Wol-
verines plan to do, as they hope
Iowa City can be the site of
another special performance.
When asked how Richardson
tells the team to view the upcom-
ing challenge, Lohman respond-
ed that they'll have the same
mentality as anyothee-.meet
"One dive ata time.


Bernstein, King
. lead young team
By THEO DUBIN "It's an absolute honor to be a
For the Daily co-captain of the team, but I don't
think I am doing anything too dif-

Michigan defense tries to slow Smith

The University of Michigan
boasts some of the top academic
programs in the world, but for the
Michigan men's tennis team, one
of the most important lessons was
reinforced last weekend on the
hard court - revenge is sweet.
Last April, the Wolverines
were bounced in the first round
of the NCAA Tournament by the
University of Maryland. But last
weekend, Michigan (3-2 overall)
got its revenge in a dominant 4-0
victory against the Terrapins at
the ITA Kick-Off Weekend in
Austin, Texas.
"It felt great to beat Maryland
after they beat us in the NCAA
Tournament last year," said soph-
omore Barrett Franks. "I thought
we worked hard to get to where
we were at the end of last season,
and then to lose the way we did, in
the first round, it was demoraliz-
ing. But I think it made everyone
hungry this year."
The Wolverines followed
up with a 5-2 win on Thursday
against Louisville.
This team is drastically differ-
ent from last year's edition. They
added three promising fresh-
men - including standout Alex
Petrone - to an already young
roster, which also features four
sophomores, one junior and no
seniors.
Having such a young team
has made the leadership of the
captains, junior Evan King and
sophomore Shaun Bernstein, all
the more important. Entering the
season everybody knew that King
was primed to be one of the top
players in the country, and he's
lived up to those expectations.
The uncertainty lay in the youth
and relative inexperience of the
rest of the roster.
Luckily for the Wolverines,
Bernstein stepped up and filled
the void.

ferent or too radical," Bernstein
said. "It's just the same stuff we
have been doing all along. We
have alot of freshmen, so it is very
important to lead by example."
Added Franks: "We're a young
team, and we started off slowly
at the beginning, but the fresh-
men have all meshed well into
(Michigan coach Bruce) Berque's
system."
"He leads by
example and
does a great job
of motivating."
Undoubtedly, the experience
and stability of King, combined
with the newfound leadership
from Bernstein, have helped enor-
mously in turning this young
squad into a team on the rise in
the Big Ten.
"The freshmen look up to
Shaun, they believe in what he
says," Franks said. "He leads by
example and does a great job of
motivatingthe team to win."
The Wolverines will try and
use the confidence they gained
in their shutout of Maryland, as
well as their win over Louisville,
against a solid LSU team (2-1)
on Saturday. Michigan will once
again lean on its captains to set
an example and lead the team to
victory.
"I think this team is great,"
Bernstein said. "We all have a lot
of fun with each other; we're a
really close group. There are no
dead spots: It's a good environ-
ment that stays light and fun. That
definitely helps us on the court."

By ZACH HELFAND
Daily Sports Editor
The most feared man in the
CCHA stood under the banners
at Yost Ice Arena on Thursday.
He wore a gray
No. 18 sweaterM.i.
and swatted Miami (OH)
pucks into the at Michigan
net with all the
effort of a man Matihu5
Mim 5-11-
swatting at flies. 2; Michigan
Slapshot ... 15-9-4
corner of the When: Friday,
net. Slapshot ... Saturday
corner of the 7:35 P.M.
net. One after Where: Yosl
another. Ice Arena
He hit just
one crossbar TV/Radio:
befoe moing-FSD+, CBS
before moving Sports Nelwnrk
onto penalty S
shots. Again,
he skated down the ice almost
lethargically, and again, the pucks
went in at will.
One-for-2, 2-for-4 ... 3-for-5 in
all.
In Miami (Ohio) forward Reilly
Smith, the No. 7 Michigan hockey
team will run into the confer-
ence's most prolific goal-scorer
in the middle of his tear through
the conference schedule. The two
teams will square off at Yost this
weekend.
"You just have to be aware of
a player like that," said Michigan
coach Red Berenson. "You know
he's a little extra gifted and a lit-
tle extra skilled. ... You've got to
respect what he can do on the ice."
Smith represents the piece
missing from the Michigan hock-
ey team this year.
The Wolverines are a more
complete team than the 18th-
ranked RedHawks. They have
better goaltending, more depth
and a better all-around offense.
So why does Miami keep beat-
ing Michigan?
This year, the RedHawks' only
advantage is Smith. Unlike Michi-
gan, Miami knows it has a go-to
scorer.
Whether Michigan will snap its
recent five-game winless streak
against Miami will hinge on its
ability to shut down the nation's

ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Mac Bennett and the Michigan defensive corps will be tasked with slowing Reilly Smith.

third leading goal-scorer. The
first time the two teams met this
season, Smith scored twice in the
finale to help the RedHawks come
back from a two-goal deficit and
win ina shootout.
Just don't mention to Beren-
son that Michigan's last win over
Miami came two years ago, or that
the Wolverines have taken just
one out of the past eight match-
ups.
"Do you know what their
record is in Yost since (Miami
coach Enrico Blasi has) been
there?" Berenson asked. "3-and-
13. So wait until the weekend's
over, and then we'll talk about
who played well and who didn't."
No, there's no love lostbetween
the two CCHA rivals. Berenson
doesn't relish answering ques-
tions about Miami, and at the
end of his interview on Thursday,
he reiterated that the series isn't
about Miami, it's about whether
Michigan can play its game.
Smith and Blasi spoke highly
of Michigan, but that didn't stop
Smith from slipping in a little dig.
"You really just have to sti-
fle their offense," Smith said.
"They're definitely a run-and-
gun team, so the more you slow
them down, the more they'll get
frustrated and get down on their

teammates."
In the first game in Oxford,
Smith didn't need to contribute
anything. The Redhawks battered
Michigan in the game's opening
minutes, and before the shell-
shocked Wolverines could react,
Miami already held a 2-0 lead.
"It almost seemed like we were
afraid to play them," said sopho-
more defenseman Mac Bennett.
"They came out, and they played
physical."
Berenson said this series' open-
ing minutes will be just as critical,
but playing at home should give
Michigan an advantage. Dictat-
ing the tone and pace of the game
early on, according to Berenson,
has more to do with Michigan
playing its own game than any-
thing Miami does. It's a lot like
playing against Smith.
"You can respect players, but
you can't respect them too much,"
Bennett said, holding his hands
inches apart to demonstrate.
Much like Michigan, Miami
struggled earlier in the season,
losing five games in a row at one
point before rebounding during
CCHA play. The RedHawks have
won six of their past eight and sit
in second place in the conference,
four points ahead of the seventh-
place Wolverines.

Miami's biggest surprise of the
season has been the play of fresh-
man forward Austin Czarnik,
who has anchored Smith's line at
the center position, replacing last
year's Hobey Baker Award-win-
ner, Andy Miele. With Miele gone,
Smith has handled the puck more
often, and Czarnik has become an
effective distributor.
"His speed really gravitatesthe
defense toward him," Smith said.
"Czarnik has actually stepped
into (Miele's) role really well, and
it's amazing how well he's actu-
ally filled in Andy's spot."
Though Miami overwhelmed
Michigan early in the first match-
up this season, Smith said the
Redhawks will try to slow the
game down, especially at a place
like Yost, where Blasi said the
game can get away from you, and
quickly.
For many in the crowd and on
the Michigan bench, this series
will be about revenge. The Wol-
verines' underclassmen - over
half of the roster - have never
beaten Miami.
"I think we're taking this
weekend the same as the week-
end we took Ohio State the second
time around," Bennett said. "They
swept us the first time, and they
gotta pay for that."