8A - Thursday, March 15, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 8A - Thursday, March 15, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wolverines have done their job Three-hundred and sixty one days ago when Mich- igan got bounced by Duke in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, fans were alright with that. Sure, it would've been nice to knock off a top seed, but it was understood that there was progressNEAL made in the ROTHSCHILD program. The team had bounced back from a year in which stars Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims couldn't bring the team to the Big Dance, and Michigan had outperformed expectations. The 2010-11 Wolverines were expected to lurk in the depths of the Big Ten standings, but they instead got hot in the second half and tied for fourth. This got them into the NCAA Tourna- ment, where they defiled Tennes- see before the Blue Devils got by them. So, naturally, in the name of progress, Michigan would take it a step further and make the Sweet 16 this year, right? Well, maybe right. But it's not so simple. The NCAA Tourna- ment is a strange beast. March Madness is fun and all, but it's not the best way to find out who the best team is. So much about the tournament comes down to matchups and officiating and lucky breaks that it takes more than just a good team to survive and advance. Virginia Commonwealth made the Final Four last year as an 11-seed. And not only were the Rams an 11-seed, but they had to win a play-in game to even earn the right to take on the six-seed in the second round. Which do you trust more to tell you which teams are good, a 30-plus game schedule or a six- game tournament? I say these things not to slam SOFTBALL Michigan heads to California to end tournament season Michigan coach John Beilein has led Michigan toa second-consecutive berth in the NCAA Tournament. the NCAA Tournament - it's the best thing going in sports - but because Michigan will get wrongly criticized if it fails to make the Sweet 16, and espe- cially if it fails to make the third round. Michigan coach John Beilein has already done his job this year. He did more than bring Michi- gan back to the tournament. He won a Big Ten Championship and brought the team to its highest (non-vacated) NCAA Tourna- ment seed since Trey Burke was an infant. But beyond any of these 2011-12 accomplishments, he brought an air of permanence to Michigan basketball. By land- ing then-No. 2 recruit Mitch McGary, Beilein established that this was a school whose success wasn't going to ebb and flow. It would remain constant, year after year. No coach in today's college basketball climate can enter a season with the sole intent of winning a national champion- ship. The best that they can do is be in the mix every year, so when things break right, that team will be in position to take advantage. The only way to win the lot- tery is to have a ticket. And the more lottery tickets you have, the more likely you are to get lucky. This year, Beilein made strides in building Michigan into a machine that can eventually pro- duce its own lottery tickets. Once a school gets to that point, it's only a matter of time before the lottery bell chimes. I'll pretend that's a real thing. Take Kansas, who hadn't won a championship since 1988 despite consistently being a top seed in the NCAA Tournament. No one doubted that this was a top program and things eventually turned out right when Bill Self took the Jay- hawks to a title in 2008. Michigan may not get to the point where it's a perennial top seed, but even if it's in the three- to-ten seed range for enough years, things tend to work out. One year, the Wolverines will make the Elite Eight, and maybe the Final Four. Maybe even the National Championship. On Friday, Michigan will face Ohio and the pressure will be on. The Wolverines are favored to win, and there will be backlash if they don't. There will be back- lash if they don't win the game after. But the truth is, the NCAA Tournament doesn't care. Michigan may lose to Ohio, but it doesn't mean that the Wolverines weren't good enough to make the Elite Eight if they were put on a different side of the bracket. So much is left up to chance. The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective determined that the Bobcats had a 55-per- cent chance of knocking off the Wolverines. How does that make sense when it's Michigan seeded nine spots higher? It doesn't, and so it shouldn't make sense that the NCAA Tour- nament would decide the best team. And so it also makes no sense to judge Michigan based on its March performance - no matter how big the stage is. Beilein has handled what is con- trollable, and that's been to bring Michigan to a position where it can contend in March for years to come. - Rothschild can be reached at nealroth@umich.edu By DANIEL FELDMAN Daily Sports Writer After playing in Louisiana, Kentucky and Florida during the early regular season this year, the Michigan softball team will travel to California for one last tournament before Big Ten play begins. The 19th-ranked Wolverines will be competing in their sixth tournament of the season on Thursday. The team will travel to Ful- lerton, Calif. to play in the Judi Garman Classic for the seventh- straight year. Michigan (16-7) has posted a 4-1 record in each of the last four years at this tournament and a 21-9 mark all-time. Coming off of a disappointing 1-2 performance at the Red and Black Tournament in Louisville, Kent., the Wolverines are look- ing to bounce back. Just as it has in other tour- naments, Michigan will play at least one top-25 team. After los- ing 2-1 last week to then-No. 16 Louisville, the Wolverines will play No. 7 Oklahoma, No. 5 Ari- zona State, and No. 24 DePaul, in addition to unranked Notre Dame and Virginia. Arizona State (25-2) stands as the highest-ranked foe Michi- gan will have played this season. A reason for the Sun Devils' suc- cess has been senior shortshop Katelyn Boyd, who is the reign- ing Pac-12 Player of the Week, in part because of her current 16-game hitting streak. This weekend's tournament marks the first time this season that the Wolverines will play a top-10 opponent and more than two ranked teams in one tour- nament. The Wolverines will start off against Notre Dame and senior infielder Dani Miller during their first game on Thursday. The last time Michigan played the Fighting Irish was in the 2011 NCAA Regional, when the Wolverines scored six runs in the last two innings to defeat Notre Dame, 9-8. Such an offensive outburst would bode well for Michigan, as they haven't had as many "quality at-bats" recently as Michigan coach Carol Hutchins would like. The Wolverines are 13-0 in games where they have record- ed more hits than their opposi- tion and 3-7 when they haven't. An additional means of moti- vation for the Wolverines comes with Virginia. They will play the Cavaliers for the second time this season, having defeated them 7-i at the Citrus Classic in Kissimmee, Fla. Michigan freshman pitcher Haylie Wagner led the way with a one-hitter during that match- up. Wagner will aim to have such a performance again, after suf- fering her second loss of the sea- son last week against Louisville. After Michigan completes this tournament, it will return to Ann Arbor for its first home games, taking on Penn State in a three-game series on March 24-25. This will also mark the Wol- verines' first action in Big Ten play. Though this is Michigan's last regular-season tournament, it still has four non-conference games left against Mid-Amer- ican Conference opponents scattered throughout the end of March and beginning of May. 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