10 - Friday, February 1, 2013 o r ts a The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com ADAM GLANZMAN/Daly Sophomore point guardTrey Burke is averaging almost 18 points and seven assists a game and is a strong candidate for National Player of the Year. Prizefight for Saturday Behind Enemy Lines: Tom Crean By COLLEEN THOMAS especially on defense? Daily Sports Editor TC: (Teams in the conference) don't play that fast (on offense), For a program that was facing and pace is really important in NCAA sanctions just a few years this league. Pace is important ago, the Indiana men's basket- to us, too. If you're going to be a ball team has seen a quick turn- great team, you're going to have around under head coach Tom to win a lot of different ways. Crean. You're going to have to win your Crean tooka 6-25 team in 2008 way, you're going to have to win and has created a national-title the opponent's way. If you have a contender. The Hoosiers entered deep team that's consistent, then 'the season ranked No. 1, led by you've got a chance to play the preseason player ofthe year Cody way you want to play. You're not Zeller, but are currently ranked goingto spend alot of time in this third with a19-2 record. . league turning people over. The Daily got the chance to sit TMD: Michigan, Ohio State down with the Indiana coach at and Michigan State all tied for Big Ten Media Day in October. the Big Ten Championship last The Michigan Daily: This is year and it came down to the last the first time since your stint game of the season to decide the at Marquette that you've had champion. How tough do you depth on your team. Assuming think the conference will be this everybody's healthy so you're full season? and ready to go, have you ever TC: I don't think it'll ever come had this kind of challenge about down to one game. Those are rotating players? the champions, and people have Tom Crean: I'm really not to unseat them. It's really easy concerned about that. That's an to throw accolades to other pro- on-paper challenge. Is there a grams and make projections, but certain understanding that the those were the championship- quality of (the players') minutes level teams. To me, that speaks is going to be more important volumes about the league. If we than the quantity? Absolutely. want to do some great things, To me, if you're going to try to those are the teams we have to get up and down the court, try beat on a consistentbasis. to do more things defensively, TMD: Cody (Zeller) is one of try to bring fatigue to the game, those exceptional players in col-. then you've got to have numerous lege right now. How do you feel players that are going to play. You about his decision to come back don't have depth just because you to play his sophomore season? have numbers, you have depth TC: My greatest example (of a because you have consistency. player like him) is Andrew Luck. If that consistency stays intact, He's got anAndrew Luck-type of then you have a chance to have a future, I think, especially when it deep team. comes to decision-making. When TMD: The teams at the top of the decision is right for him, then the conference usually have great it'llbe right for him. I don't think assist-to-turnover ratios, and anybody will dictate that. I think in the past, defense has been an he enjoys college, he's doing a issue for your team. How are you great job academically, he loves going to prepare and adjust for his teammates, and we're fortu- the better teams in the Big Ten. nate to have him. By DANIEL WASSERMAN Daily Sports Editor All week, Michigan play- AICk* ers and coaches i a insisted that at Indiana they were tak- Matchup: log one game Michigan 20-1; at a time, not Indiana 19-2 looking past When: Sat- Wednesday's urday 9 p.m. Northwestern game and ahead Where: to the looming Assembly Hall matchup at Indi- TV/Radio: ana on Saturday. ESPN Michigan coach John Beilein even said on Tuesday that the only reason he knew the Hoosiers game was approaching was because he had to approve the flight schedule. But after the top-ranked Wol- verines blew past the Wildcats, 68-46, and Indiana rolled through Purdue hours later, the prize- fight between two of the nation's top-three teams is set for Satur- day night, where Bloomington's esteemed Assembly Hall will serve as center stage. "It's going to be crazy," said sophomore point guard Trey Burke. "A lot of guys have us as underdogs in this game. Indiana being No. 1 coming into the sea- son, it's kind of like we're playing the No.1 team in our minds." The game, full of both NCAA Tournament seeding and Big Ten championship implications, is likely the biggest regular-season matchup in any Michigan sport since the second-ranked Wolver- ine football team fell to No. 1 Ohio State in 2006. It's perhaps Michi- gan's most momentous regular- season basketball contest since the fourth-ranked Wolverines lost, 93-92, at No. 1 Indiana on Feb. 14, 1993. This year's meeting will replace that one as the high- est-ranked matchup in Assembly Hall's 42-year existence. And if No. 1 vs. No. 3 wasn't big enough, ESPN's College GameDay crew will be broadcasting live from Assembly Hall on Saturday morning and in the hour leading up to the 9 p.m. tip-off. Unlike football's version of GameDay, where show producers select the biggest game of the weekend just a week in advance, this game was picked months ago, but obviously turned out to be the right selec- tion. Since GameDay visited Ann Arbor last year, a new analyst - Fab Five member Jalen Rose - has been added to the set, adding yet another storyline to the build-up for the game. Three of Michigan's freshmen - point guard Spike Albrecht and forwards Glenn Robinson III and Mitch McGary - hail from the Hoosier state, making the game all the more meaningful. "I just can't wait to play in there," Robinson said. "I can't even imagine what it's going to be like." But with all the build-up sur- rounding the game, the Wolver- ines (7-1 Big Ten, 20-1 overall) need to be wary of duplicating the result of their only loss of the season, which came on the road in Columbus. Inthat game, Michigan fell behind by 21 before its come- back effort fell short. The deficit was largely due, as Beilein likes to say, to the Wolverines' attempts to hit home runs, or in other words, trying to do too much. "That's something we've got- ten better at over the last cou- ple weeks," Burke said. "Coach says, 'There's no such thing as a The biggest question mark with the Wolverines on the glass. 20-point shot.' We just have to leading up to Saturday's game will Morgan's absence could turn into continue to hit singles, make the revolve around the status of red- a major issue, given the size and right play (and) hit the open man. shirt junior forward Jordan Mor- talent of Indiana (7-1, 19.2). Pre- I think that's the biggest thing for gan's right ankle. Morgan - who season All-American Cody Zeller, us." injured the ankle while landing a 7-foot forward, leads the Hoo- While no team ever wants to awkwardly in Michigan's win at siers in both points per game (16) lose, players Illinois on Sun- and reboundsper game (8.1), while and coaches day - has yet to reigning Big Ten Player of the have insist- O TT llbe" I ead practice since Week Victor Oladipo is averaging ed that los- W e 1 be reauy and missed 13.9 points, six rebounds and 2.5 ing provides . Wednes- steals per game - vaulting him- more growth On Saturday. day's game. self into the National Player of the. and teaching It's uncertain Year discussion alongside Burke. opportunities whether he'll But regardless of which team than a 20-point be available on winds up beingthe favorite before win. Because of the loss to Ohio Saturday. the ball tips off, Burke insists that State, Burke believes the team Though the Wolverines got his team will show up focused and may be better equipped to handle steady contributions from Mor- with somethingto prove. the hostile environment headed gan's replacement in the start- "It's very important to keep a its way. ing lineup, redshirt sophomore chip on our shoulders, justbecause "We picked up a lot," he said forward Jon Horford, Michi- the target (of being the No.1 team) of the Jan. 13 loss. "Just being a gan would miss the experience is so big," Burke said. "Like (assis- young team on the road, we know Morgan provides both with the tant) coach LaVall (Jordan) says, that it's really critical to just come ball screen and as the last line of 'Once you get off the bus, you're out very strongly and respond to defense. down 10 on the road.' We're just the first punch, try to keep the Northwestern, not a team trying to do what we can to keep crowd as neutral as possible, try known for its interior presence, the crowd out of the game, keep to keep the runs as limited as pos- was able to capitalize on several their runs limited. We'll be ready sible." low-post breakdowns. and hung on Saturday." 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