8 - Tuesday, November 13, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 8- Tuesday, November13, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom I Michigan blitzes JUPUL MEN'S BASKETBALL 'M' advances to 2nd round of NIT Tip-Off By COLLEEN THOMAS Daily Sports Writer For the first 20 minutes of Monday night's game, the Michi- gan men'sbasketball team looked like it was still basking in its sea- son-opening victory over Slip- pery Rock on Friday. The Wolverines looked lead-- footed on defense IUPUi 54 and they MICHIGAN 91 settled for the outside shot on offense, let- ting Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis stay within four points for the major- ity of the first half. At times, IUPUI was simply playing hard- er than the Wolverines, especial- ly on defense. But with three seconds remaining before halftime, soph- omore guard Trey Burke stole the ball and took it to the rim, getting fouled in the process - a defensive effort that was a rare occurrence in the first half. He sank the two free throws and gave the fifth-ranked Wolverines some momentum going into half- time. And it showed. Freshman for- ward Glenn Robinson III nailed a 3-pointer on Michigan's first pos- session of the second half, sopho- more guard Trey Burke made a layup in transition 30 seconds later, and the Wolverines defeat- ed IUPUI in the first round of the NIT Season Tip-off, 91-54. "The first half, there were some moments (where) I thought we were goingto be ina long bat- tle," said Michigan coach John Beilein. "They were shooting the ball well and guarding us well - putting pressure on us that we hadn't seen yet. Once we got accustomed to it, we were fine. Early, we had some adjustments we had to make, just personally, to get ready for that type of pres- sure." Though the game looked like a routine victory, Michigan had issues on defense for most of the game. The Jaguars broke the Wolverines'man-to-man defense By EVERETT COOK Daily Sports Writer With a 91-54 victory over IUPUI on Monday night, the Michigan basketball team moved on to the second round of the 2012 NIT Season Tip-Off, matching up against Cleveland State on Tues- day. The winner of Tuesday's game will earn a coveted spot in the semifinal round of the tournament, which takes place in New CleVeland York's Madison Stat Square Garden next week. Michigan In the early Matchup: game Mon- CSU 2-0; day at Crisler Michigan 2-0 Arena, the When: Tues- Vikings needed day 8 p.m. overtime to beat Where: Crisler Bowling Green, Center 79-73. Cleve- land State was TV: led by forward ESPN2 Tim Kamczyc, who scored 21 points to go along with seven rebounds. The Vikings also got a big game from forward Mason Marlin, who notched a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Even with the performances of the Cleveland State forwards on Monday, Tuesday figures to have a heavy emphasis on the back- courts of each team. Cleveland State's leadingscorer is 5-foot-9 sophomore pointguard Charlie Lee, who plays along- side sophomore guard Sebastian Douglas. Together, the duo has, averaged 30 points per game so far this season, which is more than a third of the team's total points. And it's not just points - as a team, the Vikings have 37 assists on the season, 17 of which, belongto Lee. It's hard to make a straight- up backcourt comparison with the Wolverines (2-0) since they technically start four guards, but the main positional battles will be with whatever two of the four guards are tasked with guarding Lee and Douglas. Those two guards could be sophomore Trey Burke and fresh- man Glenn Robinson III, who could both have stopped playing at halftime on Monday and had big games. When the first half ended, Burke and Robinson had a combined 29 of Michigan's 454 points, and Burke had seven of Michigan's nine assists. Burke ended up setting a career-high with nine assists to go along with his 22 points, while Robinson scored 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 shooting from beyond the arc. Tuesday still presents the pos- sibility of a trap game for several reasons for Michigan, the biggest of which being that the Wolver- ines will play back-to-back games for the first time this season. Michigan won't have its usual rest days, which means fatigue could be a factor, but perhaps more importantly, it means Mich- igan won't have its usual prepara- tion days. "You've been practicing hard and you have two teams going, but the carrot of New York City wait- ing for the winner will hopefully get enough people through it," said Michigan coach John Beilein. "Both Michigan and Cleveland State have to be very careful tomorrow about how long people play because two games back-to- back, nobody is used to that." For a team that has played sharper and with more energy in the second half than in the first half for every exhibition and game this season, losing that prepara- tion day could be big tomorrow. "Just trying to finish strong as hard as we can, and I think we just need to do a better job of having that intensity the whole game," said junior guard Tim Hardaway Jr. "It's kind of hard for both teams to get going in the first half, the anxieties are there, so just trying to do a good job of having that momentum going the whole game." Freshman forward Glenn Robinson II scored 21 points in the Wolverines victory on Monday early in the game with screens and beatcits zone by making extra passes to open shooters. And at one point in the second half, the Wolverines were caught on their back foot as IUPUI broke into a three-on-one fast break. "Credit to IUPUI, they did a great job of getting us uncom- fortable at the beginning of the game," said junior guard Tim Hardaway, Jr. "They did a great job of breaking us down. That's one thing that we really need to focus on on the defensive end - once the team is breaking us down, we have to do a great job of just staying mature and mov- ing on to the next play. Justbeing able to adapt to their offense and get a little more reps throughout the game, we really caught on to what they're doing. "I think we just did a great job of making plays down the stretch and throughout the game to get better looks - that's just the maturity of this team." Michigan also struggled to control the ball, coughing it up 13 times, but it allowed just seven points off of turnovers. IUPUI played tenacious defense in the first half, and the Wolverines just didn't have energy. But the offense stole the show. Shots were falling for the Wol- verines all game as they have been all season - Michigan hit 60 percent of its field goals and went 13-for-21 from beyond the arc in Monday's game. Burke led the Wolverines, scoring 22 points and dishing nine assists, and Robinson tal- lied 21 points on 8-for-9 shooting - he was perfect from the field until the six-minute mark of the second half. With a slew of terrific shoot- ers, the Wolverines saw five players in double digits - fresh- man guard Nik Stauskas had 11, and redshirt junior forward Jor- dan Morgan and Hardaway, Jr. tossed in 10 - and had plenty of contribution off the bench. The reserves had 28 points, and the bench was almost cleared, except for freshman guard Caris LeVert, with three minutes left in the game. "I don't think this year our problem will be scoring," Burke said. "That's just the reality ofthe situation. (But) the defensive side is something that we're work- ing towards ... I think that's one thing we need to mature on." WOMEN'S SOCCER Depth plays key role in NCAAs 4 4 By STEVEN BRAID Daily Sports Writer Entering the 2012 season, it was no secret that one of the most valuable- assets the Michigan women's soccer team possessed was its depth. Michigan coach Greg Ryan frequently said he was looking . forward to playing17or 18 players every game, trying to take advan- tage of his deep bench as much as possible. "I think we are going to be able to run teams off the park because we've got so much talent and so much depth," Ryan said in early September. "We're talented and fast and skillfulatceveryposition." And against Central Michigan on Saturday, the importance of the bench to the Wolverines' suc- cess could not have been more clear. Though pewa reserves, who contributed just one shot in109 minutes. And in the extra period, it was play from the reserves that cre- ated scoring opportunities and set up the victory. Just minutes into overtime, Jaffe dribbled deep into Central Michigan territory to, set up Ezurike for an easy game- winning score. "I've got to give credit to our players that came off the bench," Ryan said. "Our depth tonight was huge." SCARY MOMENT: Early in the second half, junior midfielder Tori McCombs went up for aheader on the Wolverines' side of the pitch in what turned out to be a scary moment for Michigan. Contest- ing a header, the do-everything midfielder collided with Central Michigan defender Emily Baston in mid-air, causing both players to hit the ground. Senior quarterback Denard Robinson has missed the last two starts and is still day-to-day entering Michigan's home finale on Saturday againstI owa Robinson resilient despite injury A Ryan didn't play 18 players - he played just 14 - the depth enabled Michi- gan to control the tempo of the game. The reserves offered F tunity to play fr times withoutccor team's ability on t "I think we (Michigan)outwii the players comini Ryan said after victory against t "Corinne Harris, a fantastic game bench and (so did Shelby (Chamber ing off the bench.' The bench attacked Central match. Chambers- senior midfielder1 freshman defens Raguse combined and an assist in, the bench, oppos( Though McCombs lay Our depth motionless , for a moment, tonight was huge. she was able to walk off the field under her own power. Ryan an oppor- "If you review the film, it was esh legs at all a horrific play, where she headed mpromising the the ball past and a player hit her in he field. the head," Ryan said. wore Central *McCombs, who made her ninth th the depth and start of the season and first since g off the bench," a 3-0 victory against Indiana on Michigan's 2-1 Sept. 15, played just 27 minutes he Chippewas. before exiting the contest. The I thought, had injury sidelined her for the rest of coming off the the match, and her health will be junior forward) monitored on a day-to-day basis s-Garcia) com- before the team's second-round matchup against Portland. aggressively "She wasn't able to go back in Michigan all the game which means the train- -Garcia, Harris, er was concerned that she has a Emily Jaffe and concussion because you can't risk seman Sydney taking two concussions one after I for six shots another," Ryan said. "So, we had 181 minutes off to leave Tori off and we just got to ed to the Chip- play it by ear." By STEPHEN J. NESBITT Daily Sports Editor Perhaps the final chapter of Denard Robinson's Michigan career has already come to a close. The storybook narrative began four years ago at Michi- gan Stadium, in front of a sea of 109,910 in the most storied build- ing in college football, And it began with a rookie mistake, one that birthed the legend of No. 16 as one of college football's most electric quarterbacks. Robinson muffed his first snap in a winged helmet. He hurriedly picked the ball off the turf, sped right and weaved through the Western Michigan defense for a 43-yard touchdown. You might remember his last appearance at the Big House. It, too, saw the ball on the turf. But that was only because Rob- inson's emphatic spike put the Wolverines in position to topple Michigan State on a chilly Octo- ber night for the first time in four years. It may have been Robinson's last appearance as quarterback at Michigan Stadium. Robin- son's nagging ulnar-nerve injury has kept him out of consecutive games and the coaching staff remains mum as to Robinson's .status or whether he is practic- ing, saying only that he is "day- to-day." Meanwhile, the Michigan offense hasn't slowed, guided by the steady hands of junior back- up quarterback Devin Gardner. Robinsonhas participated lightly in warm-ups, but has traded in his helmet for a trucker cap and headset on the sideline. "(Robinson has) been a great leader," said Michigan coach Brady Hoke. "I mean, he's been a terrific leader." With the senior class of Michi- gan's 'Team 133' facing its final home game on Saturday against Iowa, it's becoming increasingly apparent that Robinson may not get another snap in the stadium that made him famous. "Everybody wants to go out the way they dreamed coming into Michigan," said fifth-year senior offensive guard Patrick Omameh. "But however things unfold, it's out of our hands. We just have to play the hand we've been dealt and keep moving for- ward.", Robinson is Michigan's all- time leader in total offensive yardage and one of just eight players in college football his- tory to compile 40 rushing and 40 passing touchdowns in their career. Hoke recognized that while Robinson has "made a mark" at Michigan, missing the tail end of his senior season would be devastating. "I think anytime a guy can't finish, because of injury or what- ever, you're disappointed," Hoke said. Hoke has not ruled out the possibility of using Robinson at a different position if his injury should continue to keep him out of action at quarterback. He was on the field for one kick return earlier in the fall, but, for now, he's Michigan's biggest cheer- leader from the sideline - and that's a title he's held for some time now. "He's a source of encourage- ment," Omameh said. "He's the kind of guy who whatever he can do for the team, no matter what capacity it is, he'll tryto do it" Robinson has indisputably been the face of Michigan foot- ball for the past three .seasons since he took over for Tate Forci- er at quarterback. That attentidn was unnatural for the soft-spo- ken Robinson, a native of Deer- field Beach, Fla., but he's grown into the role. "Denard's a guy that has thrust himself into the talk of some of the greats at the Uni- versity of Michigan," said senior defensive end Craig Roh. "He's been a guy since day one that's been a huge factor in everything that we've done. Just the day-to- day energy that he brings - I've almost never seen him in a bad mood." Roh joked that while Rob- inson's energy is contagious, "sometimes it's annoying." Even in the last two weeks since Robinson was injured against Nebraskahis moodhasn'tdamp- ened. "(His attitude) really hasn't changed," Roh said. "He really hasn'tchanged at all. The guy is a team player, when you really get down to it. "It's great to see that someone is always able to keep coming back again and again with that great positive attitude he has." /F p