2B - February 20, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com A GameDay to remember, on and off the court February 18 is a day you'll remember. There wasn't a singular moment - an announcement, a shot or an overtime winner - that defined Saturday, though each played a role in the day. But at some point, a chilly day in Ann Arbor took a turn for the legendary. It was a 24-hour-long rage bri- gade, a fury of Michigan fervor. The day started early. A handful of Maize Ragers were huddled out-. side Gate D at Crisler Center before the clock struck STEPHEN J. midnight. NESBITT They were responding to a challenge by ESPN GameDay analyst Rece Davis: "I think the one thing that Michigan can do in the morning is show itself to be a football and basketball school," Davis said on Friday. Camped outside the arena, the Maize Rage made an early state- ment. Within hours, Michigan proved the rest in an emphatic manner: Michigan is a football, basketball and hockey school. For a quick summation, Michigansjchmoozed with ESPN GameDay all day in a packed Crisler Center, toppled No. 6 Ohio State on the hardwood, swept Northern Michigan at Yost Ice Arena, then picked up six four-star football recruits on field (5). Six four-star commitments in a day. Series sweep. Beat Ohio (past tense). Michigan hockey never left. But the football and basketball programs are different stories. Hoke and Co. brought Michi- gan back with one season - a 10-2 record punctuated by a Sugar Bowl squeaker. Michigan basketball coach John Beilein brought NCAA Tournament expectations back to Crisler. "The best part is both pro- grams (basketball and football) are back to where they're sup- posed to be," said senior guard Zack Novak on Saturday. For the seniors, the ones who knew nothing but heartbreak on the hardwood and disaster at the Big House, this is the just reward. The basketball and football teams are now unblem- ished at home - a combined 23-0 home record in the 2011-12 seasons. You can't ask for more than that. Saturday finally came to a close. But it wasn't forgotten. I got a text from a colleague at 1:34 a.m. I was recuperating, watching an episode of "How I Met Your Mother." He was just packing up at Crisler Center. His Saturday started with GameDay and went long into the night. "It was memorable," he wrote. No. It was legen - wait for it - dary. - Nesbitt can be reached at stnesbit@umich.edu. ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily Members of the Maize Rage showed up the night before the GameDay set went live to guarentee a spot in attendance on Michigan's historic Saturday. the side. What did you do with your Saturday? When the gates at Crisler opened at 9:00 a.m., the Maize Rage and hundreds of others filed in. ESPN showed a clip of Denard Robinson heading into the bowels of the arena to give the GameDay crew a pep talk. One shirtless fan stood up to show off his sign: Kate Upton hates Ohio. Others joined in. OSU has Casey Anthony, UM has Kate Upton. You decide. Jeremy Lin hates the Buckeyes. I (heart) Denard. Clearly pop culture wasn't lost on Michigan, and ESPN cap- tured it all. The Wolverines' bas- ketball program was on the main stage for the first time since the 'Fab Five' in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, Michigan coach Brady Hoke and the football staff - just three weeks after final- izing the 2012 recruiting class - were collecting stars like they were playing Super Mario. The four-star names rifled out by the hour: 12:15p.m.: offensive lineman Jake Butt. 12:50 p.m.: running back Wyatt Shallman. 2:45 p.m.: cornerback Jourdan Lewis. 2:45 p.m.: lineman David Dawson. A few hours later at Yost, junior forward A.J. Treais took a feed from captain Luke Glenden- ing and buried his shot to give the Michigan hockey team an overtime victory on senior night and a series sweep over North- ern Michigan. The win kept the Wolverines in the hunt for their second consecutive CCHA title. A few blocks away and a few more hours later at Crisler Cen- ter, freshman guard Trey Burke led the Wolverines to a 56-51 vic- tory over the Buckeyes. It was the basketball pro- gram's first victory over Ohio State in seven tries, dating back to Jan. 3, 2010. And this one was in front of a packed house and a nationwide TV audience. Saturday couldn't get any bet- ter. Then it did. 10:45 p.m.: four-star lineman Chris Fox.I11:20 p.m.: four-star defensive end Taco Charlton. Cha-ching. Charlton had spent the basketball game beside Michigan football coach Brady Hoke and made his announce- ment in the 11th hour, com- pleting the Wolverines' most successful 24 hours of recruiting in documented history. Michigan scored more com- mits (6) on Saturday than three Ohio State starters - William Buford, Aaron Craft, Lenzelle Smith Jr. - made shots from the 0 Blue falls to No. 1 Utah Michigan tops Ohio State By GLENN MILLER JR. Daily Sports Writer Chances to upend a top-ranked team don't come around often. On Friday night, the No. 21 Michigan women's gymnastics team let that opportunity slip right throughtheir hands. "We can't afford to let oppor- tunities like this to keep passing us by," said Michigan head coach Bev Plocki. After a strong start to the meet, the Wolverines just couldn't hold on down the stretch. Utah (5-1), who came into Ann Arbor ranked first in the nation, proved too strong in their final two rotations and took the contest, 196.050- 194.850. The night looked promising from the start, as Michigan (6-2) continued it's season-long profi- ciency on vault. Junior Brittnee Martinez and sophomore Stepha- nie Colbert started the event for Wolverines with decent scores, but it was the impressive perfor- mance of juniorKatie Zurales that energized the team. Sophomore Joanna Sampson followed with an electrifying vault of her own, only to be topped by freshman Sachi Sugiyama's event-best 9.900 at the tail end of the lineup. Not only was Michigan's vault perfor- mance their third-best of the sea- son, but the team also continued its streak of scoring above 49.000 on the event in every meet this season.As the two teams swapped events, the Wolverines held a slight lead going into their second rotation on bars. A pair of 9.700 scores from the duo of Sugiyama and freshman Annette Miele led the way for Michigan. The Wol- verines finished the event strong, as the trio of Sampson, Zurales, and Martinez all scored 9.775. The Utes held a narrow lead at the halfway point, 98.050-97.825. "We came out of vault really confident, ready to hit bars, and we didn't get exactly the scores we wanted to on bars, but we were still on a high," said sophomore Shelby Gies. Michigan looked to regain the lead heading into the third rota- tion, but knew it would need a stel- lar performance on beam. Gies, who competed in three events for the first time in her collegiate career, gave the Wolverines hope with a 9.800 to start. Zurales' 9.850 tied for the event title, but it wouldn't be enough, as Michigan struggled towards the end of its lineup. After the final two Wol- verines fell and recorded 9.200, the team was forced to count one of the falls in their overall score. With little hope of toppling Utah remaining, Michigan would need more of its previous magic on the floor. Miele, who has continued to improve her score throughout the last three meets, scored a season-high 9.800 early in the lineup. Sampson attempted to give the Wolverines a spark with her own season-best, 9.925, but it wouldn't be enough to make up for the low scores of her other teammates. "We've been working on keep- ing the energy high even if we don't get the scores we wanted, or it works out the way we wanted to," Sampson said. Sampson would go on to win the meet's all-around perfor- mance. Nonetheless, the con- sistency of the Utes was simply too much for the Wolverines to handle. By ALEX BONDY Daily Sports Writer After losing to Ohio State - the first time in four years - the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 14, the No.7 Michiganmen'sgym- nastics team got its revenge. Fueled by sophomore Sam Mikulak claiming five of the six events, the Wolverines posted a score of 345.700 to the Buckeyes' 334.200. The Wolverines also handily beat the SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles - a club team - which tallied 275.700. The Wolverines (6-4 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) entered the matchup with high hopes. They hadn't competed as a team since Janu- ary and were ridingthe success of freshman Adrian de los Angeles, freshman Stacey Ervin and Miku- lak at the Winter Cup. "I expected to win," said Mich- igan coach Kevin Golder. "But we knew Ohio State is a pretty good team. We beat them by a pretty good margin, but I was more focused on our team tonight. Any time we can beat Ohio State is great." Ohio State (5-2 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) entered the season ranked nationally as the No. 2 team and was undefeated in conference play before the weekend. Michigan started off strong in the first rotation on floor. Miku- lak placed first with a 14.90, and junior Rohan Sebastian placed third with a 14.50. Suffering from a strained tricep, Sebastian was only able to compete in the floor and va Inju Wolver two-tin been o with a players team's success injured lineup. sophor has be way ba first on career- lak to horseu he didr "A I StE "Aft wasn't coming it up," over ou mel ho next le Dur Michig the sti first w lowedY with a Gaaren ult events. a career-best of 14.70. The three riesseemtobeplaguingthe combined to give Michigan a sea- 'ines as of late. Senior and son-high 56.50. me captain Syque Cesar has While the Wolverines' great ut with a torn bicep, along performance on the rings gave handful of other injured them the lead, their sweep on . According to Golder, the the vault truly secured the win. depth allows it to still be Mikulak described it as "vaulting sful, despite having many the lights out," and Golder said I players forced out of the the team "vaulted up a storm." In the second rotation, Mikulak took home top honors sore Michael Myler, who with a 15.30. De los Angeles and en continuing to work his freshman Stacey Ervin each tal- ack into the lineup, placed lied 15.10 and Michigan finished the pommel horse with a with a total of 60.10 - only the -best score of 14.90. Miku- second time this season the team ok third on the pommel has scored in the 60s. with a 14.00, the only event The Wolverines continued to not place first in. perform strongly, with Mikulak taking the title on the parallel bars with a 15.30 and freshman Mark Panhorst finishing second fter pommel with a 13.70. In the final rotation on high bar, Michigan suffered horse ... We several falls, but still claimed . the top two places in the event, epped it up." as Mikulak placed first (15.40) and de los Angeles placed second (14.50). The last round would mir- ror the first- and second-place- er pommel horse - which ment Mikulak and de los Angeles our best event - and then would receive in the all-around, g back on rings, we stepped with Mikulak placing first with Mikulak said. "(We) got a 90.00 and de los Angeles after ur issues of falling off pom- him with an 85.50. rse and really took it to the "Ohio State hadbeaten us at the vel." Windy City," Mikulak said. "We ing the third rotation definitely drew some fire from tan took all three places on that. I think everybody pulled ll rings. Mikulak finished it together. I was ready to go the ith a career-high 15.00, fol- whole time, and I was fueled the by de los Angeles in second entire night with my team behind t 14.80. Sophomore Jordan me. Cominginwewere confident, nstroom placed third with and it worked out well for us." 0 OurAirpornShu/tt/e is CHEAP, EASY, and RELIABLE GOING TO THE . 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