The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Monday, November 12, 2012 - 7A
'M' opens pre-season
NIT Regional at home
Junior guard Tim HardawayJr. led all scorers with 25 points against Slippery Rock, and he added 10 rebounds for a double-double in the season opener
Michigan smashes he Rock
By DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan gave Slippery Rock
a friendly welcome to Ann Arbor.
The fans at Crisler Center -
accustomed to cheering for The
Rock at each home football game
- didn't boo the visiting team
during its
pregame SLIPPERY ROCK 62
introduc- MICHIGAN 100
tions. Once
play started, Michigan even let
Slippery Rock take-a lead into the
first official timeout, when the
The Rock led 9-8.
The teams traded leads for
most of the first seven minutes of
the game, but with 13:10 remain-
ing, sophomore point guard Trey
Burke's 3-pointer from the cor-
ner put Michigan ahead 17-15.
And the Wolverines never looked
back.
Though Michigan didn't look
quite like a top-five team for most
of the game, the Wolverines' tal-
ent was too much for Slippery
Rock, willing Michigan to a 100-
62 victory - the first time the
program has reached the century
mark since 2007.
Burke and the Wolverines
were never able to fully grasp
control of the opening stanza.
Though Burke scored eight first-
half points, he shot just 3-for-10
and had four turnovers, as Mich-
igan entered the locker room
with a 44-30 lead.
Junior guard Tim Hardaway
Jr., who led all players in both
first-half points and rebounds
with 12 and seven, finished with
his fourth career double-double.
Hardaway missed just two shots
and connected on all five of his
3-pointers, finishing with 25
points and 10 rebounds.
Hardaway said he had "no
idea" when the last time he shot
as well as he did Friday night.
"I don't even think one of his
threes hit the rim," Burke said.
"It was good to see, and it wasn't
even just his 3-point shooting.
"He did everything we need-
ed him to do tonight... You just
see that fire that he comes with.
When I see that, when we see
that as a team, that's when we
try to feed him."
Slippery Rock appeared to
begin the second half with
momentum, scoring on its first
two possessions to cut its defi-
cit to 10. But Hardaway lit a fire
under the Wolverines, soaring
through traffic and throwing
down a monstrous one-hand
jam. After freshman forward
Glenn Robinson III hit a jump-
er, Hardaway followed with
3-pointers on back-to-back pos-
sessions to propel Michigan to a
20-point lead.
Burke recovered from his
sluggish start, flashing his talent
that garnered pre-season All-
American accolades. The guard
finished with 21 points and eight
assists, including a loft that
Hardaway hammered home for
an alley-hoop.
"What he was trying to do -
he was really so excited to be
back out there and playing with
his. teammates (that he was)
probably going too quick," said
Michigan coach John Beilein.
"He hurried some things (but) I
loved his pace in the second half.
I don't think you'll see his five
turnovers again, but he was just
trying a little too hard."
Four freshmen saw consider-
able minutes in their first official
college game. Robinson start-
ed and flirted with a double-
double, scoring 10 points and
pulling down eight rebounds.
Guard Nik Stauskas, who was
questionable prior to game time
with a back injury, finished with
seven points, connecting on one
of his two 3-pointers. Forward
Mitch McGary finished with
nine points thanks to a couple
thunderous dunks, while also
gathering nine rebounds. Point
guard Spike Albrecht scored just
two points, and at times played
the two-guard with Burke on
the floor.
Slippery Rock made just 36.9
percent of its shots. Guard Devin
Taylor led The Rock with 14
points, and only one other scorer
reached double digits.
Twelve different Wolverines
scored, as Michigan connected*
on 66.7 percent of its shots and
7-of-9 3-pointers in the second
half.
"We've got a lot of options,"
Burke said. "Sometimes, some-
body's not hitting, another guy's
going to step up. If he's not hit-
ting, another guy's going to step
up. I just think that, with the
type of options that we have, the
biggest thing with us is that we
trust each other.
"The sky's the limit with this
team."
By-DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Writer
In just the second week of
November, the Michigan bas-
ketball team already has its first
must-win game of the season.
OK, so maybe in the realm
of the regular season, Monday
and Tuesday nights aren't actu-
ally must-wins, but in order to
travel to New York City later
this month to play in the NIT
Season-Tipoff,
formerly the
Preseason IUPUI at
NIT, the Wol- Michigan
verines must
beat ."IUPUI Matchup:
and then the IUPUI1-0;
winner of Michigan 1-0
the Bowling When: Mon-
Green-Cleve- day 9:30 p.m.
land State Where: Crisler
matchup. Center
The region- TV/Radio:
al-site games ESPNU
this year are
the open-
ing two rounds of the Madi-
son Square Garden-based
tournament, unlike last year
when Crisler Center played host
to the "Maui on the Mainland"
games, but Michigan was guar-
anteed a spot in Hawaii regard-
less of the games' outcomes.
Monday, the Wolverines (1-0)
face-off with the Jaguars fol-
lowing the completion of the
Falcons-Vikings game. IUPUI
(1-0) returns just two starters
from a team that finished 14-18
last year, good for seventh in
the Summit League. This year's
team was -recently tabbed to fin-
ish fifth.
The Jaguars will rely on their
backcourtcif they hope to keep up
with Michigan's potent offense.
Guard Ian Chiles, a second-team
all-conference preseason selec-
tion and guard John Hart - who
transferred from Purdue last
year after playing sparse min-
utes - will need to replace the
void left by thee-time All-Sum-
mit League guard Alex Young,
who averaged more than 20
points per game last year.
Playing at home, where the
Wolverines have won 20 of their
last 22 games dating back to
the 2010-11 season, Michigan is
expected to breeze through both
matchups as it did in Friday's
100-62 win over Slippery Rock.
Assuming the fifth-ranked
Wolverines make it out of Ann
Arbor, they'd be the favorites
heading into New York, where
Pittsburgh, Virginia and Kansas
State are expected to appear.
"We've got to go into (the
games) with a mindset (that)
everybody is ranked number
one," said junior guard Tim
Hardaway Jr. "We've got to be
on our cues because everybody's
going to give us their best game."
The games will allow the
Wolverine freshmen to get in
two final tune-ups before head-
ing into the bright lights of the
Big Apple. The lone freshman
starter, forward Glenn Robin-
son III, registered 10 points and
eight rebounds in the opener.
He has continued to impress the
Michigan coaches and his team-
mates.
"He's doing everything:
defending, getting rebounds,
boxingout," Hardaway said. "He
gets in the gym everyday. Me
and him are in the gym all the
time working on our game, get-
ting in extra reps after practice,
before practice and we do a great
job of just having fun and just
competing against one another."
Perhaps the biggest storyline
to follow is how redshirt soph-
omore forward Jon Horford
responds to increased playing
time as he's workedback into the
rotation.
Horford scored four points
and made his presence known
last Friday with a block and a
drawn charge in eight minutes -
his first game action since Dec.
10.
Though Burke said that Hor-
ford "looks one step slower than
he was before he got hurt," the
forward still gives Michigan one
more body in the front court to
provide a spark off the bench.
"He brings us energy," Hard-
away said. "We missed him out
there."
Seniors lead Blue to first win of Barnes Arico era
By DANIEL FELDMAN
Daily Sports Writer
Kim Barnes Arico finally
relaxed.
"Woo!" the first-year Michi-
gan women's basketball head
coach said at thestartofher press
conference following Michigan's
70-62 victory over Detroit at
Crisler Center in Barnes Arico's
debut. After an exhausting back-
and-forth
seod DETROIT 62
second MICHIGAN 70
half, she
took a deep
breath.
The Wolverines got off to a hot
start against the Titans thanks
to senior guards Jenny Ryan and
Kate Thompson and senior for-
ward Rachel Sheffer. The trio
combined for 52 points, with 18
apiece from Thompson and Ryan
- both career highs - and 16 by
Sheffer to go along with a career-
high 13 rebounds for her third
career double-double.
"You never know who's going
to produce on a given night,"
Ryan said. "Sometimes your
starters are going to have to
carry you. Tonight, our scorers
stepped up big."
The senior trio scored Michi-
gan's first 12 points before soph-
omore guard Nicole Elmblad
added a basket of her own at the
15:48 mark to make the score
14-6 and cause the Titans to call
their first timeout. While the
Wolverines have had a balanced
scoring attack, getting easy short
shots from underneath the bas-
ket, Detroit relied on 3-pointers
in the first half. The Titans kept
themselves in the game due to
four three-pointers by sopho-
more guard Audrey Matteson,
the last of which cut the lead
to seven. That was the closest
Detroit would make the game in
the half.
Following the basket, Michi-
gan went on a 13-2 run to lead by
18, its biggest lead of the game.
All 13 of the points in that stretch
were scored by the same trio of
seniors, including six points by
Ryan on two 3-pointers.
After being silenced in the
first half with only two points,
Detroit sophomore forward
Shareta Brown opened up the
second half with five points -
including a 3-point play to cut
the Wolverines' lead to 38-30.
Brown led the Titans with 19
"nitc n~iA;rr 7 n + -^^^-A
half, along with eight rebounds.
"I knew tonight would be a
tough task for us, just because
they are athletic and are a really
strong rebounding team," Barnes
Arico said. "So it was interesting
to see howwe wouldhandle their
pressure, and how we would
match their rebounding as well
as their inside presence with
Shareta Brown and Yar Shayov."
Barnes Arico saw how ardu-
ous that task was after Brown's
second basket in consecutive
possessions to start the second
half. After another basket by
Detroit to cut the lead six, Jenny
Ryan got the Wolverines on the
second half scoreboard with a
basket to halt the 7-0 spurt by
the Titans.
From that point forward, the
two squads traded baskets, with
the Titans continuously crashing
the boards, piling up 21 defen-
sive and 15 offensive rebounds.
In comparison, the Wolverines
managed 33 rebounds, but only
five on offense.
"Our No.1 concern on the year
is our rebounding," Barnes Arico
said. "That's something we focus
on all the time in practice. I think
we did it well in the first half. I
think when we ran out of gas, a
lot of their second chances in the
second half were off of (Brown's)
misses."
Yet, with no run bigger than
five points in the second half,,
Michigan was able to limit the
damage from Detroit out-shoot-
ing them and managed to not let
the Titans get within five points
of the lead.
The last time the Titans got
within that margin was with
34 seconds remaining to make
the score 66-61, but sophomore
guard Brenae Harris and fresh-
man guard Madison Ristovski
each made a pair of free throws
to put the game away and earn
Barnes Arico her first win at
Michigan.
"I was proud of the way we
finished up. I mean, we could
have fallen apart," Barnes Arico
said. "We kept making big plays
or free throws down the stretch.
I'm pleased, and I'm excited
to have victory number one at
home."
Refinance & lower your interest rate by 2% A
Senior guard Jenny Ryan scored 18 points in Michigan's victory over Detroit at
Crisler Center on Friday.